Venezia and l'ultima Apertivo

I filled the hire car with petrol and returned to the Mestre office of Avis, only to find it was closed for two weeks. I left the keys with the woman at the car wash, who rang the guy, who, in turn, informed me that he would come in the next day to sort it all out. Suffice to say I will be casting a keen eye over my credit card statement.

After an interesting breakfast (boiled egg, a croissant in a packet, a coffee that I did not ask for and a few other things) I set off to get a couple of errands complete. First was the ticket to Budapest, then sending a birthday present to my niece in the USA.

Next, the main activity for the day which was to go to Venice.

After I arrived, I immediately recognised how difficult it would have been to go there with my luggage instead of Mestre, with all the narrow alleyways and bridges.

I had a quick look over the first main bridge, and then decided I should acquaint myself with the lesser travelled back alleyways. I found a good place for lunch and then decided I would challenge myself to getting around to San Marco using only back alleyways. The first two turns I made took me directly to the tourist strip, however I had been past there before, so I got my bearings. Then I weaved a path through the alleyways, which was a lot like doing one of those puzzles. In fact, that is pretty much what it was.

I cheked out a few of the main sights and then for another challenge, returned to the station without using a map.

Back in Mestre, I thought I would go for a final apertivo or two, then return to the hotel and hopefully have a shower, change, and grab my luggage and set off to the station.

I found the only cool bar in Mestre and the two turned into eight and I had time only to grab my luggage and head for the station.

When the train arrived, one of the station masters was adamant that I could not take my bike box on board. Fortunately there were plenty of others lined up for questions, so when he turned his back I threw it all on there. He continued on and I think my response was something to the effect of "I have heard what you said, I respect it, and have taken your comments on board. However this stuff is coming with me."

Now for the fourteen hour train trip to Budapest. Three passport checks in Slovenia, you certainly know about it when you change from Western to Eastern Europe. I guess it made up for the border control near Chamonix!