Farewell Venice, I'll miss you

Preparing to leave Venice, I realized I had booked us flights to Geneva instead of Zurich!   Not sure what I'd been thinking, but so glad I figured it out before we got to the airport! Still,  made for a rough morning all around, trying to figure out how to get around that and into Zurich.  After checking trains, buses and anything else I could think of, we ended up booking an alternative flight with Alitalia, another 600 Euro, but at least we're getting from here to there! Big booboo for someone who usually is more cautious when doing these things. Good lesson moving forward, and will have to get home to work to pay it off when this is over. C'est la Vie! Lesson learned.

Adding to the challenge of of sorting out the flights was limited connectivity.  I gave up struggling with the internet and getting things set up at noon, and headed out for something to eat so that Cec could at least do something while I fight with the internet on a restaurant's wifi. Luckily for me, most cafes and restaurants do offer wifi free to customers, and many signals are better than the hotels offer. 


About two blocks from the hotel as we made our way through the busy streets, a woman slammed into my shoulder, pushing her way forward in the opposite direction. I really do not get these people, with their shoulders and their elbows. What frustrating, angry lives they must lead to feel that that is the way to get from point A to point B. We have experienced that so much over the past few weeks, that it really makes me long for the quiet, peacefulness of my small rural existence at home. Gratefully there have been lots of good people who's attitude and thoughtfulness have offset the likes of the young woman on the street morning, but my heart goes out to her, to have to bully her way through her days like that.

We managed to lose ourselves for several hours, and then found ourselves again. The quieter streets that we wandered onto were a welcome change to the busyness that has been life on the main tourist strip. The shops and cafes were all similar, but the pace is slower and more manageable, and I'm ready for that. 

After we found our way back to the hotel, and had a bit of a rest, we wandered off the other direction. Cecil had seen a restaurant selling 'spiney lobster' yesterday, and was quite interested to try it. We found the place, and he had that with spaghetti while I had cannelloni. It was one of the most expensive meals we've had here, the lobster alone being 40Euro, while not even all that good compared to what he's used to at home. The waiters were very solemn, and there seemed to be a lot of frustrated customers. A quick update on TripAdvisor showed that there seem to be a lot of disgruntled customers at that restaurant, and we'd wished we'd checked that out before we ate, but we found what we'd been looking for, and can leave feeling that we've missed nothing.

We continued the search for a purse and although I didn't find the perfect purse for me, but I found a lovely leather one that will do the job just fine. We then found a sweater to take home to Emerald to thank her for taking care of things at home, and are officially all done shopping. I tried to count up the number of wine corks we've managed to accumulate, but really don't have much of a clue....I just know we have lots, most likely more than enough.

As the evening ended, we went down to have one last toast to the streets of Venice. The bags packed and ready to go...and truth is, so am I.   I am looking forward to Zurich, but am  looking forward to just getting home. It's been long enough, my king size bed, and comfortable existence is calling. My work is calling, and I have to admit that some of my greatest moments have come when sharing my passion for what i do with people I have met, and it's a message to me that I need to keep doing the work I do for now. I've gained a lot of clarity for myself on this time away. Clarifying my passions, my purpose, my markers to get there. Taking time to wander, and take pictures, and document it from day to day. My trip advisors. It's all to move things in the direction of my desires, and I have not doubts that each little step is moving me closer to that. Bigger steps will happen when I get home week, and the journey will continue forward!