Transitioning to Italy

The trip from L.A. to zurich took about 11 hours but actually seemed to go pretty quickly... which must  mean that I did sleep.  There were a couple of meals to break up the monotony.

The airport in zurich is very modern and spread out; we took a fairly lengthy tram ride to move from one terminal to the other.  There was about a half hour delay in flying out of zurich.  I amused myself  by taking pictures of a storm moving into the area and watching the sophisticates of Europe move their Dolce and Cabana through the airport.

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The rain provided some great cloud pictures during the short flight to Venice:

And peeks of the still snow-covered Alps:

And finally, the lagoons around Venice begin to appear:

And then we were down, and actually in Italy!

Once the (excessive) baggage had been collected, I walked the 5+ minutes it takes to get to the Alilaguna boats that go into the city, and neighboring islands.   After a twenty minute wait, we all herded our luggage aboard for the last leg of the trip.  The ride takes perhaps 45 min.s and is exhilerating to be out in the open air speeding towards Venice.

Looking back at the airport and another Alilaguna boat identical to the one I was on.

Many little boats were spread across the waterway.  Fishermen using nets on poles sometimes bent to scoop up fish, perhaps sardines., but for the most part just sat, or joked with their neighbors.

After a few stops, we made our way to Lido, my final destination for the evening.  The hotel I chose was situated directly across from the boat dock, so it was fairly easy to haul the luggage that last bit. 

The Hotel Riviera is like stepping back in time.  It appears to have been built in the 20's and has a kind of elegance that is  buried beneath what seemed like a century of accumulated goods.  The overall effect is a bit overwhelming at first, but ended up feeling like the front parlor of a favorite old Aunt.

After dumping my things in the room, I went off to find my friend Ulrika whom I hadn't seen since last Fall (when she and her niece Fredrika stayed with me for three days "couchsurfing", but that's another story).

She accompanied me on the quest for dinner, and we had a good time catching up over a plate of seasoned mussels, clam spagghetti and some house red wine.

We didn't get back to the hotel until around midnight (I had arrived much later than anticipated), but I apparently still had enough energy left to trounce four flights down from my room to the front desk in order to purchase some internet time...  an attempt to keep the blog at least somewhat updated.  Given the password, etc., I trod back upstairs and thus began my lack of enchantment with the Italian offering they carelessly call an internet connection.  It generally goes like this:  you may get on for a few seconds after multiple tries, but surely will be bounced off shortly.  At this point I thought it was just the hotel, but now I think it's more like there are far too few electrons in the air to satisfy the Italian need for Internet.  The best bet you might have is to get up at 3:30AM if you might, say, want to write a blog.  So anyway, I worked and worked to stay on long enough to do a blog entry for the day... but never could get in. 

In the morning, this is the scene to which I awoke outside the windows of my room:

Those are the water buses bound for Venice, and a distant view of San Marco across the water.  And from the other window:

What elation to see such views!!

After a  really great buffet  breakfast provided by the hotel, we checked out and headed to the boat dock to begin the next part of our adventure.

Carryon

Well, the trip has actually begun. It's difficult to believe, after all the anticipation, that the whole thing is real.

I had been determined for months that I would only have one carryon. This involved a lot of plotting and planning. And here is how it evolved:

Here's the carryon, just as anticipated. But, oh wait... there is not an inch of room available in which to tuck even one bottle of Tuscan wine. Well, we can't have that. Maybe I'll just add one duffel bag with the capacity to hold four bottles (in styrofoam and cardboard, perfect for checked baggage).

And then the Crazy Voice piped up: "Well, you know, the box which would hold 6 bottles is only about 15 lbs. fully loaded... how can you pass up this opportunity to bring back Vino Nobile from Montepulciano"?? And that, my dear friends, is how I ended up carrying this:

So much for travelling light.

My friend Aliki drove me to the Airbus stop in Santa Barbara. I wish that I had a picture to share, because she was so happy and excited... and also had made the most delicous heart-shaped raw muffins (with oats, coconut, blueberries and coconut nector mainly) for me to take along! It was a wonderful beginning to the trip.

The bus actually got us to LAX in record time, a whole half hour early. The check-in counter was dark and unmanned, and so I worked on switching over to the "GMS" phone and deactivating my iPhone. (It was a process not unlike choking your beloved pet). Anyway, that kept me occupied for the hour or so that it took for the counter people to show up. And after the luggage was off-loaded (a relief), I went up to the something Grill to sit at a table overlooking the massive check-in operation to have a bottle of sparkling water and a salad.

That's blackened salmon on a bed of Ceasar salad, for the curious. And it would have been a delight at one third the price

I had a fine time people-watching.

The Security Gauntlet was not as bad as I had imagined, though it did include a pat-down because I was wearing a skirt, and who knows what evils could be hiding beneath it. Hopefully they weren't too chagrined to discover that it was largely cellulite.

And then I hiked to the gate for some more waiting, and spent the time continuing my attempt to tame the new phone.

Here's the plane that will be "home" for the next 12 hours or so.

We actually took off right on the dot of 7:30pm. This type of efficiency is seldom seen in the States, but is apparently common for the Swiss.

Since takeoff, I've had a little bag of pretzels, a small bottle of pretty terrible white wine, two bottles of water and vegetarian tortellini for dinner (with salad, a roll, cheese, and a brownie too sweet to eat, believe it or not).

And now I am ready for the long night of sleep (I hope), with visions of what's to come in Venice!