Look there! And there! Did you see that???

“Mom? MOM! Get out of bed! Go look at the window, is that a cruise ship coming by?” Why I don’t get out of bed myself to go look? Because I forgot my glasses at home, which means I’m blind as long as I don’t wear my contacts. As far as I could tell from the pictures on the website, the cruise ships would have to pass right by the hotel coming in this Saturday morning, and I woke up from noise coming from a bigger boat, so I wondered. “MOM! Get out of bed! What do you see?” She saw cruise ships. But smaller ones (Silversea or something like that). Ha! Maybe I don’t see, but at least I hear!

After spending some more time snoozing in bed, we decide it’s time for breakfast in bed. No, not room service. Did you see the prices they ask for some rolls and coffee? Heck, the 0,5l bottle of water we took out of the mini bar was 6 eur! I do like to stay at deluxe hotels, but I admit, I can’t justify spending the huge prices they charge for breakfast. So we kind of brought Danish with us. We’re cheap that way. Hey, at least we didn’t roast a pig in the bath tub or cooked chuckwagon.

After taking a shower (oh, I love the soap we got!) and getting ready, we bring all our stuff down to concierge and … we order a taxi for 1pm. Yes, the original plan was to take the vaporetto back to Piazzale di Roma, and from there a shuttle to the cruise terminal. The new plan was to take a water taxi from the hotel straight to the cruise ship. My whole body hurts from carrying our suitcases (well, bags actually. No wheels. Remember all those bridges? Oh, and it was very warm in Venice!)
I had originally budgeted some money (ha, who am I fooling, a lot of money) to do a gondola ride. Once I smelled the water in Venice and saw the behaviour of the gondola-drivers, I decided a water taxi was a way better use for the money.

Before taking the hotel shuttle again to shop and sightsee some more, we decided to take a look at the rooftop pool. Oh! My! God! The Hilton is the tallest building in Venice, which means you have the most beautiful views! On one side, you could see all the cruise ships! On the other side, the whole city with all the towers. I would have been perfectly happy had we spent our whole morning up there, but alas, we needed postcards, so off we went!
Since we have our priorities straight and had only had a small breakfast, we got gelato as extended breakfast. I love vacation! And gelato!

After walking around a bit more and taking some more pictures and buying postcards and a gift for the grandmother, we decided to go back to the hotel, for the simple reason that San Marco was starting to get flooded! Yes indeed, water was coming out of the ground, and in no time, the whole piazza was filled with ankle-deep water. Nice… not so much.

After retrieving our suitcases, concierge made sure we as well as our stuff got safely on a water taxi, and 5 minutes later, we were at the cruise terminal. Yes, this is very convenient. However, be warned, this is also very expensive. Less than 5 minute water taxi ride costed me 60 eur. I kid you not. But my back and arms and hands told me I made a right decision, lol.