The 007 Adventure on to Monoco

This morning we are leaving Venice and headed to Monaco. We meet up with Larry and Margo. We met them on the train to get to Venice from Interlaken. We had a ticket that was called a speedy pass. Not as stuffy as the priority pass of American. The most amusing thing on the boarding pass. It said

"If your late,We don't wait!"

This was our last view of Venice. It is nothing but buildings,stones path ways and canals.

Well, except for the trees at the south end where the arsenal is.

After a curvy trip to our hotel Columbus Monte Carlo, we settled into our room. This is the view 

from our balcony

It's late in the afternoon so we go with Larry and Margo to a small Resturant the concierge suggested.

Outside our hotel is the Rose Garden of Princess Grace. The roses below are named after her.

The fragrance in the gardens were wonderful.

We are up early and  catch some breakfast at the hotel. Across the way the hotels/apartments on the tops have trees and beautiful landscapes.

On our way to the palace and the aquarium, we pass this statue of Prince Rainier.

This is one of the palace guards. He isn't as stiff as the ones at Buckingham Palace.

All the way up to the palace the views were awesome. It was difficult to choose on to put here.

  Outside the Aquarium was this little two person sub. It was first launched in 1966.

The stairway down to the Aquairum really got you in the mood. This Aquarium was managed by Jauques Cousteau. 

Cool Shovel Nose Ray kept scooting around in this one tank

This guy was our favorite! He seemed to take as much interest in looking at us as we enjoyed him 

Moving about his tank. It seemed he had different expressions.he took great delight in making them for us.

All through the museum there were beautiful sculptures. This one changed in the light as you walked by.

A Wooden Diving Bell which allowed you to. hand crank the paddles to move about in the water.

Above us were all kinds of skeletons of different species. The largest one they started assembling in

1999. They finished at the end of 2004. Raising it to it's current location.

On the way back we had to stop and just enjoy the different views offered along the pathway.

The cathedral has this drawing of Prince Rainier when he wed Princess Grace.

While headed back to the hotel we found the bicycle system "IBike" along the way.

Finally we are almost down the side of the mountain. In the harbor the largest of the yachts, is called Lady Moura. Built in 1990 it was one of the largest. Now it's number 28. Oh well, so much for big fish, little fish

This morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise with a cruise  ship heading into port.

Just down the walk way from our hotel a heliport. We would watch them come and go all day. We inquired to the concierge how much for a ride in a helicopter. 250 euro's or about $330. US.

For ten minutes. He said "Hey, Monaco was a small country. Needless to say we didn't jump on that.

We went back up to see the palace which we didn't go through the day before. Here if you look closely you can see the guards and they were going through a ceremony to change. All we saw were cameras.

Getting ready for lunch.  The meals here are wonderful.

After lunch I suggested we find a nice place to relax and read our books. We found a wonderful bench which offered the view below.

.

Here is Jim reading where we decided to sit a while.

They have a small zoo on Monaco and the hippo was quite entertaining. He gave us a great big yawn once he surface from the water.

He moseyed around his area then on into his little den to settle in for the afternoon.

There were lots of birds. The Macaws were beautiful and played around quite a bit.

We met up with Margo and Larry. They were going to the casino tonight tomorrow they fly home.

Jim and are taking a more quiet route. Go out to dinner. Come back and read and relax.

Tomorrow we will be picked up by our good friends David and Anne Marie, who live outside of Nice. We will spend 2 days with them and then catch a flight back home to Dalllas. 

Below is the name of the yacht across from the Resturant we ate at. Made us smile. 

At the top of the photo is the palace all lit up.

The 007 Adventure on to Venice Italy

Today started early. Off to the train station, 1 train to Speize- 20 minutes that would take us to Milano. From Milano to Venice it would take 2 hours 20 minutes.  We ran into this couple, Margo and Larry who actually got the same trip at a different fund raiser. We found out we were staying at different places, but our travel time was the same

We walked a bit when we got to Venice, our clocks were off so was our breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We were in a hotel right on the Grand Canal. This made it easyto get our bearings and scoot around the city. This was our second time to visit Venice. The first time was quick we were on our way to Treviso to ride the Pinarello Gran Fondo.

After a great nights sleep we have breakfast right outside our hotel.

This is Francesca. She and her husband own the hotel. The rooms are small and we found out because it is in a building built in the 15 th century so they were limited in space.

There are 6 districts in Venice, the Cannaregio, San Polo, San Marco, Santa Croce, Dorsoduro and Castllo. By the end of the day we walked through all of them.

This is typical of the canals..

This bakery was very inviting. You could taste the aromas as you walked by.

So we wandered about till we got ourselves lost. Honestly you would follow signs and the next thing you know are all catty wampus.This fellow was trying to help us. He was funny he would ask us what language then start talking, then all of a sudden he would ask us again "what language." 

We left the fellow above and walked by a place that had a exposition on Leonardo de Venci.

We sat down to listen to a program in English and then to walk the exhibit.  2 hours later we were so pleased we stopped there. We learned so much about Leonardo and the times he lived in. It was most enjoyable. Below is a chain drive bicycle. The interesting thing about this is he drew it on two separate pages in his journal, 3 hundred years later the pages were put together to reveal the bicycle that you see Jim standing behind. It was a chain drive pedal bicycle.

Themirrored room below,Leonardo built to study and see things from every possible angle at one time.

Crossing over this bridge we spotted this huge sculpture made of bicycles.

All through the city there are artist and street vendors. This little guy was on a platform behind his owner. Opened his eyes for us,then promptly went back to snooze.

What better way to see a piazza, pigeon on top of a pondering philosopher.

Those who have been to Venice know that this is the Bridge of Sighs. It sounds romantic, however it is the bridge between the courts and the dungeons where prisoners would walk. Those windows were often the last time they would see the sky and the light of day

This guy was quite the poser and was hitting up anyone who might give him a snack

This was actually our last stop till we finally made it back to the hotel. At the end of the day we had walked all of the districts of Venice. We ventured to guess it was about 10 miles. With a lot of up and down stairs and bridges.

This morning we are off and walking around. We happened by this street entertainer that was pretty talented. He had a tambourine and moracha strapped to his legs, played the guitar and harmonica.

Whew that was one busy guy.

This was in another Da Vinci exhibit. It was his design for an underwater breathing apparatus.

This graffiti caught my eye while Jim was shopping some scetches. 

The logo for this Resturant was interesting. Not many cats on the street. Thank goodness we never saw a mouse or rat. Lots of dogs however. Many without leashes walking close by their owners. Ever mindful of where they were.

The color in this small canal caught my eye. 

Eating lunch along the canal with my best friend and love in the whole world.

We hired a water taxie and encouraged him to take us on a longer cruise around the islands of Venice.

Franco is his name. As he got more comfortable with us, he  enjoyed showing us interesting islands and sharing information about the area.

This island has the cemetery on it.

The island of Burano is the island to shop for lace. He dropped us off and we shopped around for about a half hour. Beautiful creations there. Notice the bell tower. It really is as titled as it appears.

The island below, Franco tells us is a privately owned island. It was well hidden by tall trees and bushes.

Headed back to the Grand Canal you enter at this beautiful church, St. George 

Making our way into the Grand Canal the architecture of the buildings are all very unique.

This was a good day. We so enjoyed it,

This huge building is the hotel where George Clooney married. There are only 24 apartments in it.

Compared to our room, I'm sure ours was the size of one of the closets

Next to our hotel is this church. We actually look out out window at it. This is the first time we see it from the water.

And this is the front of our little hotel. Very comfy and warm. Tomorrow we fly to Monoco for the third leg of our 007 adventure. There we will stay at the Monte Carlo and visit the Casino Royal.

Fortunately we don't leave terribly early this time.