The ibis was an Ibis no thrills but comfortable. The bathroom and toilet had the bare minimum of space. Very small but you get what you pay for. Quite an array of cafes and eateries in the complex though. I suspect it is used as a transit area. We checked out and headed to airport by air train from the hotel. The Charles De Gaul airport is huge with 4 separate terminals. Two minute walk from the Ibis and various other hotels to a comuter train 6 minutes later we are in the relevant terminal.
However despite its size (from our observation), it is very well run. We headed to terminal 4D, to find easyjet. The check in was relatively painless as was security. The French seem to have multiple checkpoints instead of one big security check. They are very efficient despite being less pushy than other airport we have passed through. We fly at 11am, so had 1 1/2 hour wait.
We bought speedy boarding tickets so we are first on plane and the leg room is good.
EasyJet was great for a budget airline, we will certainly use them again.
EasyJet was great for a budget airline, we will certainly use them again.
Marco Polo airport was easy to get out of today. Certainly on the water bus was only dozen people on board while a month ago it was packed. Venice today is lightly raining so hopefully we will not get too wet.
We arrived at our stop, a new stop (Ospedale) for us which worked out well, as it saved 1 hour on the bus and got us within 10 minutes of Palazzo Schiavoni (https://www.palazzoschiavoni.com/ the hotel). After some on fly navigation (down lanes and over bridges and through several squares), we arrived as advertised 10 minutes later.
At the Palazzo Schiavoni, we were greeted warmly as always. We signed in, to find that they had upgraded us to an large apartment ( 1 bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and sitting/ dining room) and given us a nice bottle of Prosecco with nibbles.
Knowing the value of both, we thanked them for their kindness. What was really exciting was our beautiful apartment comes with a washing machine. We had almost ran out of clothes that we could wear. Not good, so after putting on a load of clothes we headed out for an explore of magnificent Venice.
We love exploring, and just following our noses, with no hurry. It is amazing because you meet people, drink in the culture and partake in the life of the place. Wonderful.
While following our noses, we found the historic Arsenal of Venicehttps://www.venice-tourism.com/en/places/castello-district/arsenal-venice on our explore. The Arsenal was the key instrument of power for Venice during the 1400s and 1600s. The Arsenal was Venice’s main shipyard and THE bane of the Ottomans prior to 1798. We ventured in, but discovered it is Italian Naval base, so quickly beat a retreat before we were ejected or worse. You can visit the Arsenal in a tour, so if we have time, perhaps we will visit properly.
After the Arsenal, we wandered the waterfront and headed back into the back lanes to find coffee. Never eat or buy stuff near Piazza San Marco, you will pay inflated tourist prices (even in low season). The locals told us of the recent floods were just terrible. Flood was just short of 2m above sea level. They had approximately this twice
a day for over a week we believe. Not only was it high tide ( winter acqua alta) there were storms locally and surrounding areas causing flash flooding from the mountains. Our accomodation had approximately 1m inside the building causing damage in the electrics and other internal workings of the building. We were in a cafe which had similar levels in the shop causing similar damage but also writing of refrigerators etc as well. In the same area residents received damage as well now having to replace expensive heating just before winter.
After hanging out the washing, settled into our bottle of Prosecco which we enjoyed greatly.
Later we visited a restaurant behind our hotel and away from San Marco. Very nice seafood and fair price.
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