The majority of today end up being taken up with travel and getting between airports. Unfortunately, some of the planning for this end of the trip did not consider practicalities or being conscious of time.
Nice To Brussels
The journey today is from Nice, France to Brussels, Belgium. The flight is just around 1 hour and 40 minutes, which is not too bad. However, instead of booking and early or late flight, I had to book right in the middle of the day. The result was a lack of time in the morning to do much in Nice.
A friend was at the airport to meet me in the afternoon. While we did head out and take a little look around some area’s we also did a lot of catching up. Enjoyed a meal together and a lot of talking. As such I don’t have any photos from today and will share a little more from my time in Venice. I do hope to see and share some of Brussels over the next couple of days.
Exploring Venice
Venice is a very picturesque city, in just two days I captured over 300 photos in the city. So even though I have shared a couple of posts already, there is still more to share.
The thing that makes Venice, so Picturesque is the way that it developed over the years. Everything has been built with a purpose and at different stages of evolution of the city. But when you put it all together it just forms some amazing scenes.
Architecture
A part of this comes from Venice extending over 117 small islands. Each separated by canals and connected by over 400 bridges (source). When you combine this with the number and variety of boats that travel the canals. The scenes present themselves almost at every turn you take.
Venice is a city that has been growing and changing for hundreds of years. The variety and styles of architecture from many different periods that is all mixed. Some of it is deteriorating, with some still resembling what it may have been when first built. The deterioration though is what creates much of the character of the buildings.
Things don’t always have to be original to be unique. At times it is the way they have extended that makes the scene. You can see that over time this building has been adapted to take advantage of extra space. Adapting to the circumstances sometimes to fit in and sometimes just whatever works.
Space
There is also a big difference in parts of Venice. Most of the city seems to lack space, in the narrow alleyways and the canals leave little space to walk at times. But then you have areas such as Piazza San Marco (St Mark’s Square) that is a huge open area. There are some other squares throughout Venice but not quite as large.
Arriving By Cruise Ship
The arrival into Venice is a unique one for a cruise ship. Cruising through the Lagoon between the different area’s that make up Venice is something special. You get a bird’s eye view of a large number of tourists everywhere.
The spectacle is almost as good when you are in Venice watching the cruise ships either. Seeing the massive vessels navigating the narrow channel between islands.
Disembarking
One the evening before I was due to disembark from the cruise I took a walk around the ship. It was not long before sunset, and I found myself on the upper decks to see the sunset. Looking out over the Venetian Lagoon, toward the mainland, the combination of clouds and sun made for a magical sunset.
My time in Venice was very much an enjoyable experience and one that I would love to repeat. Navigating the city can be something of a challenge at times, and there are far too many tourists. But it is a city that you can fall in love with and enjoy beyond these shortcomings.
