And then there’s Venice

Packages
Narrow street
Workers
Empty square
Quiet canal
A little garden
Little church
Up side down wheelbarrow
Dusk approaching
Gondola for hire
Entrance
A gondola and an overpass
Three horses
The Piazza
On the main square
Got something to sell?
On the square
Betsy in Venice
Up on the balcony
Pillars on the square
Venice's main square
Insides of a church
Golden
Abstract hole
Waiting to get in
Feeding the pigeons
Curly wurly
Pigeons attacking
Gondolas in a row
Transport
To dredge
Where it all happens
A pigeon is here, sir
Gondolas passing by
On the water
Ride of the Valkyries
Passing by
Gondolas approaching
Open waters
Arches
Moving
Gondolas waiting
The race
Little blue boat
Casino di Venezia
Sideways
A simple house
But, which way?
Jumble
Stopping for lunch
Chugging past
Betsy contemplating
Red
A seagull on a stick
Garbage
Overlooking the canal grande
On the go
Taking it easy
Open doors
Sticks
Your transport is ready
Close to Venice
Smokin'
Steps
Babak and Betsy in Venice
Columns
Going under
Coming through
Through a crack
Kids
The drama!
Thinking of that lost love
Posing in Venice
Cornered
Bridging the gap
Overpass
Statuesque
Our robot overlords have arrived
Upside
Ladies
Get me out of here
Under construction
Pointy
Looking old
In the distance
Church
A house on the corner
Blocking off
Racing past
Next
Blue and white
The lonely boat
Dropoff
Contemplation
Facade
Sided
Full house
Striped pyjamas
Lonely man
The Chinese are coming
In unison
Take me to the bridge
The Rialto bridge
Watered down
Parked
Two boats
A push
Casino di Venezia
Flyby
Coming in
Canal
Darkness
Facade
Incoming
Luggage
Green zone
Venice train station
In transit
Luggage transport in Venice
Dusk
Cornered
Quay side
Chomp!
Through the doorway
Green boat
Looking up
The red hatter
Church on the water
Entering the market
C
Grilled
Staying decent
On the quay
Playing guitar
Overview
Covered up
A narrow canal
A wooden quay
Church

Namur is where the rivers Maas (Meuse) and Sambre meet. I love cities with big rivers flowing through it, and Namur is no exception. It has a lively night-life, a nice old town and a great citadel overlooking the city. Too bad we weren't allowed to explore the city to a satisfying extent. We arrived quite late and had to catch our plane at 6:30am on the next day.

Raynair doesn't really fly to Venice, just like they don't really fly to Brussels. From Treviso airport, even smaller then Charleroi, you have three options for getting to Venice: Taxi (expensive), public transport (slow and infrequent) or shuttle bus (expensive and slow and infrequent but the most convenient).

In the week prior to us leaving for Venice, I had tried to secure a place to stay. Almost impossible. Originally, we were going to arrive on a Saturday evening and, apparently, in October, that meant booked hotels for months in advance. Although we now arrived a day later, we still planned on staying at the same place I did find a week earlier: a camping 'just' outside Venice. Not that we were going to stay in a tent. The largest part of the camping featured small bungalows in odd shapes.

We took the shuttle bus from Treviso to the Venice train station. From there we took a bus to Marco Polo (Venice airport) and from there we had to take another bus to the camping. We managed all this but, as it turned out, the directions given to me by camping staff ware incomplete. We got the right bus leaving from Marco Polo airport, in the wrong direction. By the time we figured it out, we had no choice but to walk back all the way to the airport and on to the camping. A mere five kilometer walk. When we finally arrived, we put together some lunch from the camping store and enjoyed the bread, cheese and wine alongside a nearby canal, just before taking a very necessary midday nap. We had made it. Sort of.

Related:  Vino

On the Canal Grande

Gondolas in Venice cost a fortune. I'm serious. The few people that do rent one generally take the 50 minute trip with 5 or more people, to make the trip slightly more affordable. An alternative is to take a vaporetto. Vaporetti (the plural) are, basically boat services running along the Canal Grande. The vaporetto No 1 runs from the train (and bus station) on one end of the Canal Grande, all the way to the Lido, going through the complete Canal Grande and passing the Piazza San Marco (if ever you've seen anything of Venice, it's this Piazza (square). The No 1 is slow, the trip from the train station to the Piazza San Marco takes about an hour, but the cost (about 3 euros for a ticket) is nothing compared to euro-per-minute for the gondolas.

Most of the pictures I took in Venice this time (this was my second visit) I took on one of two trips we took with the vaporetti during our two days in Venice.