Chioggia -> Paris

Captain and First Mate

We're up at 07:00 to pack our bags and tidy things up. We have to give the boat back between 08:00 and 09:00. I assume there will be an inspection first, and some papers to sign. Food is running low, so it's tea and nutella on bread for breakfast. Then squash everything into our suitcases, wash the dishes, take out the garbage, sweep the floor. Just before 09:00 I take the suitcases and put them out on the pontoon behind the boat. 

A few minutes later a man comes and says "don't worry, this won't take long". He takes a quick look over the boat, asks if we had any problems, and mentions that we're one towel short. Eileen tells him that we didn't need the fourth towel and it's in a locker in the aft cabin. Then we sign a paper and that's it. We had taken the "pack tranquilité" which includes fuel, insurance waiver, and boat cleaning so I think that also makes for a quicker return procedure. Also the fact that we didn't break anything, lose anything, run aground, crash the boat, or sink!

We say goodbye, pick up our suitcases, and start walking across the bridge towards Sottomarina and the bus station. Thankfully the rain has stopped, and we find the station easily. I go up to the desk and ask for 3 tickets to Padova. The lady says "ok, but hurry because the bus is there and it's about to leave!". We get our tickets and run for the bus. 

The bus takes us back through Sottomarina, past the long sandy beaches, and then winds around into Chioggia from the other side. Then back out and across a very long bridge over swampy lagoon and onto the mainland. From the bridge we can see the ship that passed us as we came into Chioggia! We motor along through the countryside and once again we see many fields covered in bright red poppies. Eileen tries to take a picture with her phone, but hits the shutter button just as we pass a tree. Later we'll be wondering why she took a picture of that tree? I don't bother taking out the iPad.

Soon we arrive in Padova, and first priority is to get train tickets for Bologna. There is a train leaving in 4 minutes and we'll never make that so we get the next one which gives us an hour to kill. As we're getting our tickets (from a machine) we hear what sounds like a marching band playing. We look around, trying to see where the music is coming from, inside the station? Outside? Eventually we trace it to a group of people wearing Bavarian hats and giving an impromptu concert of oom-pa-pa music on the quay. They all have suitcases and must be returning to Germany. They've attracted quite a crowd and get a big round of applause. 

There's a nice looking café there in the station so we stop for a coffee and buy some sandwiches to take with us on the train. Laura buys a small tin of Pringles. Why do kids love every horrible manufactured sickly-sweet salty artificially flavoured plastic wrapped imitation food product, and hate anything that's natural and good for you? Seems like a strange genealogical trait. Must be advertising. I have to admit they taste pretty good though...

The train is about to arrive so we take our bags and head for the quay. This time we're in the same car, but still not seated together. We arrive in Bologna Centrale and head straight for the BLQ coach to the airport. We're just in time, a coach is waiting at the stop. I must admit I was a bit stressed out about all the bus/train/coach connections that we have to make our flight, but everything seems to be going smoothly and we should be at the airport in good time.

We arrive at the airport and the bus stops, but it's not the usual stop. There is a bit of confusion as people start getting off (including Eileen!). There is a small sign that says "East Terminal" or something like that so I tell Eileen to get back on before the door closes! Several other people get back on the bus as well. A few minutes later we arrive at the usual stop in front of the airport. There is a lot of construction work going on here, so it's a bit difficult to figure out where to go. Finally we check in ourselves (with a machine) and check in our bags (with a human). 

Bosun hard at work, and well supervised!

We've got about an hour to kill before our flight, so we want to get through security and have a look around the duty-free shop. As usual there is a huge line to go through security, and while we are queuing I remind Eileen of the time we came through here with my mom on the way back from Riccione. It was the first time she had flown since they brought in the restrictions on taking liquids on board, and she wasn't aware of them. It hadn't even occurred to me to tell her, and of course she had loads of liquids and creams in her carry-on bag. These were expensive items and there was no way she was going to leave them behind. So we had to run back to the check-in desk and check through her carry-on bag after transferring some of the stuff to a plastic bag and my backpack. Then run back to security, get rushed through and onto the plane.

I'm chuckling about that when suddenly I freeze. It just hit me that I have a bottle of limoncello in my backpack! Oh no, how could I have been so stupid! Eileen picked up this bottle to take back with us in a supermarket, and the bottle has an unusual shape with a long thin neck. I was afraid it would break in the suitcase, so I packed it carefully into my backpack. Sh!t. What do I do now?

When we get to the x-ray scanner I tell the security guy that I have a bottle of limoncello in my backpack. I show it to him, explaining that it's still sealed so it should be no problem, right? "Impossible". But, but it... "Sorry". But... "No". He tells me to put the bottle on the tray with my backpack and put it all through the scanner.

"Is this your bag?". Yes. The scanner guy says to the security guy that he sees liquids. The security guy says "Yes, there is a bottle of limoncello". The scanner guy says "No, there is something else". What are you talking about? There isn't anything else! The security guy starts rifling through my backpack and suddenly pulls out a jar of lemon marmalade. NO! Not my marmellata di limoni?!!! 

The day we arrived we went shopping for some basic groceries, and I spotted this jar of "traditional made in Italy authentic lemon marmalade" so I thought it might be interesting to try it. I liked it so much that I bought another jar to take home with us. But surely a jar of marmalade is not considered a liquid? "Sorry, you can't take it". Carp. I can either go back and check them through in my backpack, or leave them behind. Knowing they will break in my backpack, I reluctantly leave them behind. 

We head for the boarding gates, and it's not looking good when we see lots of construction work and no duty-free. There is a café so we console ourselves with a coffee. When we finish the coffee we still have a bit of time so we stroll around and suddenly we see this huge duty-free around the other side of the security area. We head over there, and they have everything: limoncello made with Amalfi lemons, marmellata di limoni, squid-ink pasta, vin santo, biscotti, salami! Woohoo! 

We arrive back in Paris, and it's a bit hard to adjust to normal life again. It doesn't feel like we were only away for a week. Feels more like a month. Eileen comes back from the bakery with a lemon cake instead of usual pain au chocolat or chausson au pomme. "Just for a change", she says. The Eurovision song contest  is on, so we watch it while sampling our vin santo and biscotti. 

Post scriptum
I'm dying to see the video from Bacino San Marco, where Eileen was driving the boat through all that crazy traffic. I take out the iPad and go straight for the video, but it's not there. Thinking I must be looking in the wrong place, I start clicking around, but I can't find it anywhere. Back to the video section, and there is just a brief one second clip showing the dashboard of the boat. I remember at the time, it was the first time I had used the iPad as a video camera and I hit the start-stop button quickly to make sure it was working. Then I hit start and videoed for a good 5 minutes. But I guess I missed the start button because the boat was bouncing around, and the video wasn't actually recording. Aaarrrggghhh!!!! 

Another lesson learnt the hard way. Practice using your new stuff before you need it for real. At least the photos I took with the iPad came out, but in general the quality is really bad compared to my old Canon digital camera. Dirty lens, wrong settings? Not sure but I'm surprised how bad they look.

Rowing in the lagoon

Looking back on our holiday, one thing really strikes me. I don't think you can appreciate just how fragile Venice is without having visited the lagoon. People didn't come to live here by choice, they came to flee the invading barbarians after the fall of the Roman Empire. They left their fertile lands to live on tiny, water-logged islands in the middle of a lagoon. That they were able to prosper and leave us the incredible heritage that is Venice today is a magnificent tribute to their ingenuity and perseverance. A World Heritage Site if ever there was one. 

Paris -> Chioggia

We're up at 06:00 to finish packing. There's the usual last minute panic to get everything together, make sure everything is turned off, windows are shut, etc. Check bus times and we're off. It's going to be a long day of travelling. I would have preferred to take an overnight train to Venice, but they were sold out. A direct flight to Venice would have been easier, but any suitable time was terribly expensive. So we are flying to Bologna, taking the train to Padova, and then a bus to Chioggia. I found this TripAdvisor post to be very useful for planning this.

The Air France coach is supposed to go every half hour and there is one sitting there when we arrive, but for some reason the driver says he'll be going in 35 minutes. Much discussion follows and finally he announces that we'll be going in 15 minutes.

Everything is going fine until we approach CDG airport. Traffic is getting heavier, the driver is switching lanes trying to pick the one that moves fastest. The closer we get to the airport, the slower we go. When we finally arrive at Terminal 2, things are completely jammed up. Despite the driver's honking and lane-changing, we slow to a crawl. I've never seen it like this at the airport, ever. And check-in for our flight will be closing soon. Minutes go by like hours. I'm thinking about what we will do when we miss our flight. Could we get a later flight? If we did, where would we stay tonight? We have to be at the charter base before 18:00 for the handover. No boat, no bed.

Finally we arrive at Terminal 2F. We get off the coach and run for the shuttle bus to Terminal 2G. Luckily there is a bus just about to leave. We hop on, and after the short ride to 2G we rush in to find a ticket machine and print off our boarding passes. Then we queue to check in our bags. Air France staff are there looking for passengers to Cologne. Bologne? "No, Cologne". But check-in for Bologne closes in 2 minutes! "No problem, don't worry". Then a few minutes later: "Any passengers for Bologne?". Yes! "Please follow me". We rush through with a group of others who were probably also stuck in the traffic jam.

We arrive at the departure gate out of breath. Board plane and find our seats. Hurry to sit down and get strapped in. Five minutes later and they still haven't closed the doors. Crew mulling about. Pilot gets off plane and goes into the terminal. Comes back and announces that we are delayed due to late passengers and a computer problem. We wait. And wait some more. Finally the missing passengers arrive. We take off, and make up most of the lost time during the flight.

We land in Bologna, collect our luggage, and get the BLQ coach to Bologna Centrale train station. The coach passes through the centre of Bologna, and as usual the colonnades are covered with graffiti. Not one that doesn't have some graffiti on it. Interesting? Not. Artistic? Not. It's been like this for at least twenty years now, every time I've gone through Bologna. Please, do something about this. In Paris they have a number that you can call and they will come and remove the graffiti. Of course the real answer is to arrest the people who do this, or their parents. I hate graffiti. Especially on historic buildings.

We get a panini and bottled water at the train station. The water bottles have these squeeze/squirt valve things on the end where you spray water into your mouth. I must be getting old. We buy tickets on the Frecciargento to Padova from a machine. The ticket booths are gone, ticket agents unemployed or retired? We make the mistake of specifying which seats we want, and so we get the desired seats but they are not together. The machine doesn't have an option of "together" even though we are buying three tickets, two adults and one child.

The train takes about an hour to get to Padova. As we leave the station, we hear piano music, and see this guy playing a grand piano plopped in the middle of the square outside the station. We stop to listen for a minute, but then he finishes and we have a bus to catch. We aren't exactly sure where to get the bus from, and there are many buses in front of the station so I go to the booth and ask. The man tells me that the bus for Chioggia is behind, over there. We wander off behind (to the left of the station as you exit) and don't see any buses for Chioggia. Finally we realize that it is _way_ behind and _way_ over there. There is a little booth where we buy our tickets, and the bus comes a few minutes later. It takes about an hour to get to Chioggia, and we're not really sure where to get off to go to Isola dell'Unione where the boats are. I ask the bus driver and he says we can either get off in Chioggia or the last stop in Sottomarina. We get off in Sottomarina and find the bridge across to Isola dell'Unione. I had printed off some aerial photos from Google Maps prior to departure, and they turn out to be very useful.

Rendezvous Fantasia base, Chioggia

The RVF base is alongside the road bridge that leads between Sottomarina and Chioggia, and I'm a bit worried about the noise from the road, as we'll be spending the first night here on the boat. Chioggia is a buzzing, bustling place with a large fishing fleet. It's a working town rather than a tourist town. It has a mixture of canals and roads, so it makes a great transition from land to the sea.

As soon as we step onto the pontoon, we are greeted by a friendly young lady who takes us to our boat. She asks if we prefer to speak English or French and we leave the choice up to her. "Grado" is a Pénichette 1020 FB, a 33 foot fly bridge canal boat. Administrative details are quickly dealt with, then she shows us the boat and spends a lot of time discussing possible itineraries. She tells us about navigation marks in the lagoon. There are "Meda" - single piles that mark the edges of smaller channels. "Briccola" - three piles tied together at the top, they mark the edges of larger channels. "Dama" - three angled piles together with a fourth higher central one, they mark the entrance to a channel. Each briccola is numbered, and the black-on-white number faces into the channel. If you can't see the number, you're on the wrong side!

She also highlights some "go" and "no go" areas on our chart with green and red felt pens. Unfortunately she marks the Grand Canal in Venice in red. I start wondering about how much the fine might be for going up there... Murano also gets a big red X through it. She tells us that our planned itinerary should be quite easy to achieve, and just in case we have an extra day we could do a bit of the Sile river up towards Treviso. And here's me thinking I've already planned too much. But I can imagine that some people like to cover a lot of ground. We on the other hand don't want to be spending too much time on the boat when there is so much to see ashore! After this a young gentleman comes to explain the technical aspects of the boat. I'm sorry I didn't get their names, they were both very friendly and efficient.

These boats can be hired without any kind of boating licence or qualification, but it's clearly an advantage to have a bit of experience. Expecially since the lagoon has a tidal range of about one meter and strong currents. Not to mention the boat traffic. The young man takes us out for a quick spin and we return to the pontoon to tie up for the night. Tomorrow we'll be off on our own! We rush into town to get some food supplies before the shops close. I pick up a jar of marmelatta di limone that looks interesting, even though I'm not a big marmalade fan. Eileen finds a jar of pheasant pasta sauce. Back to the boat, then off to dinner. We had asked for restaurant recommendations and the young lady suggested a place called El Fontego. At last we can start to relax and enjoy our holiday!

We find the restaurant and after waiting a bit they prepare a table for us outside. It's obviously a popular place. We order pizzas and wine. There is a group of Italians with a large dog at the table to our left, and a group of French with a small poodle across from us. There are dog-introductions, sniffing, etc., then separation back to their respective tables. The large dog then barks whenever he sees another dog passing (which is quite often). And he has the loudest, meanest sounding, scariest bark I've ever heard. I nearly jump out of my seat every time. Laura thought he was cute and wanted to pet him. It's true that he wasn't mean or ugly looking. Maybe his bark was worse than his bite?

There are a few mosquitoes around so we try to cover as much skin as possible, Laura pulling her socks over her pant legs. The pizza is very good, we finish with gelato, then back to the boat and fall into bed. We didn't notice any road noise, and a good sleep was had by all.