“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.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Shop till you drop in Burano!
Since we have our priorities right, the first thing we do when we get from the shuttle boat is buy gelato. Yummy, there is something about Italian ice cream that makes it so much better than any other ice cream! Next thing is look for the vaporetto to Burano. I am in love with embroidered sheets and table cloths etc, so a must for me is to visit Burano. The boat ride to Burano is long and pleasant. I almost fell asleep sitting outside in the sun, being rocked by the boat, lol!
Once in Burano, we walk through the little streets, admire the coloured houses and the beautiful embroidered items. And yes, I can’t help it, I have to buy some sheets. Very beautiful old-fashioned hand-embroidered sheets and pillowcases. I love them! What we love less is that it turns out my mom’s credit card doesn’t work. She got a new one days before we left, had the pincode changed but didn’t try it out. So, now we are in Venice with this fancy-schmancy platinum MasterCard that doesn’t work. Good thing there is something called cash, and that I have a very basic normal not so fancy-schmancy regular Visa card. Of which I forgot to temporarily increase the limit of course. After some phone calls to dear old dad who on his turn called the bank and BCC, we decide that we’ll use my CC each time they require a pin, and use my mom’s when they don’t require a pin code but just a signature, like on the ship. For all the rest we’ll use cash and worst case we’ll get more cash out of ATMs with our Maestro card (how much does my mom intend to spend anyway??).
When we’re done shopping, we take the vaporetto again. Not back to where we came from (San Marco) but we continue the itinerary and end up on the other side than San Marco of the main island of Venice, which allowed/ forced us to walk through the city.
I knew Venice from movies and books and postcards, it always looked very beautiful and romantic and… well, a lot of things. In my opinion, in real life, it doesn’t look all that nice. Almost every house/ palazzo looks very moldy, it’s all dirty, a lot looks abandoned (I don’t think it was but it looked that way). The water smells not so nice. Yes, I was rather disappointed in Venice. It looks nice when you see it from far away, but in my opinion it looks far from nice when you look from close by.
After finding our way through small streets, the Rialto Bridge, the Grand Canal, and so much more, we arrive at the very famous Piazza San Marco. Where there are no doves. Which makes me glad because I hate doves but also disappointed because according to the movies, there are always gazillions of doves! Lol.
By that time, we are tired and starving, so we walk back to the shuttle to the hotel, where we get our room keys, find our beautiful room and after dropping the luggage off, we have dinner at a small pizzeria near the hotel. Because we were too tired to go all the way back to the center and walk all around to find a decent (read: non-tourist trap) restaurant. After the pizza, which was good, we end the day in the most wonderful bed and it doesn’t take long before I ZZZZZzzzzz….
Once in Burano, we walk through the little streets, admire the coloured houses and the beautiful embroidered items. And yes, I can’t help it, I have to buy some sheets. Very beautiful old-fashioned hand-embroidered sheets and pillowcases. I love them! What we love less is that it turns out my mom’s credit card doesn’t work. She got a new one days before we left, had the pincode changed but didn’t try it out. So, now we are in Venice with this fancy-schmancy platinum MasterCard that doesn’t work. Good thing there is something called cash, and that I have a very basic normal not so fancy-schmancy regular Visa card. Of which I forgot to temporarily increase the limit of course. After some phone calls to dear old dad who on his turn called the bank and BCC, we decide that we’ll use my CC each time they require a pin, and use my mom’s when they don’t require a pin code but just a signature, like on the ship. For all the rest we’ll use cash and worst case we’ll get more cash out of ATMs with our Maestro card (how much does my mom intend to spend anyway??).
When we’re done shopping, we take the vaporetto again. Not back to where we came from (San Marco) but we continue the itinerary and end up on the other side than San Marco of the main island of Venice, which allowed/ forced us to walk through the city.
I knew Venice from movies and books and postcards, it always looked very beautiful and romantic and… well, a lot of things. In my opinion, in real life, it doesn’t look all that nice. Almost every house/ palazzo looks very moldy, it’s all dirty, a lot looks abandoned (I don’t think it was but it looked that way). The water smells not so nice. Yes, I was rather disappointed in Venice. It looks nice when you see it from far away, but in my opinion it looks far from nice when you look from close by.
After finding our way through small streets, the Rialto Bridge, the Grand Canal, and so much more, we arrive at the very famous Piazza San Marco. Where there are no doves. Which makes me glad because I hate doves but also disappointed because according to the movies, there are always gazillions of doves! Lol.
By that time, we are tired and starving, so we walk back to the shuttle to the hotel, where we get our room keys, find our beautiful room and after dropping the luggage off, we have dinner at a small pizzeria near the hotel. Because we were too tired to go all the way back to the center and walk all around to find a decent (read: non-tourist trap) restaurant. After the pizza, which was good, we end the day in the most wonderful bed and it doesn’t take long before I ZZZZZzzzzz….
Friday, November 13, 2009
Day 1 – We’re off to Venice!
This, we’re flying to Venice. That is: from Brussels South to Venice Treviso, knowing that Brussels South is nowhere near Brussels and Venice Treviso is quite a bit outside of Venice too. But seeing how Ryanair flights were so much cheaper than Brussels Airlines and because of the better schedule, we’ll fly out of Charleroi.
I told my mom I would pick her up at 6, which I do, we drive all the way to Charleroi and once arrived at the airport, I look for the budget parking. After quite a while, I find it and guess what? Of course it’s full. GRRRRR. So, we have to go back to the regular parking (first bump of the budget, lol).
A good thing about a smaller airport like Charleroi is that you don’t have to walk so far, and thus not have to schlep your stuff too far. A good thing about flying Ruanair is that you are very limited in what you can take with you, so you don’t have to schlep heavy stuff either, lol.
Check-in is easy, we go through security, browse through the duty free and then we discuss our “action plan”. I am tall, you know. And have a very very bad knee, that shouldn’t be bent too much. Ryanair is a budget airline. Which means they stuff you in like sardines in a can. However, I paid extra for the priority boarding. Which means we have a better chance of getting one of the 12 exit row seats. Now, one problem: we’ll have to walk down stairs, walk out of the terminal, to the plane, climb up stairs to get on the plane and fight for our right to have an exit row seat (lol). Problem? I have to take stairs one by one. Action plan: Mom goes off, hurries up, throws herself on one seat and her bag on another until I’m there.
Once boarding begins, I am almost yelling “GO GO GO”. OK, maybe not. Or maybe yes I did. Who knows. Result of our action plan is that we have two great exit row seats with lots and lots of room to stretch out our legs. Aaaahhhh, flying budget airlines isn’t that bad ;-)
Only an hour and a half, no food nor drinks later, we arrive at Venice Treviso, once again a smaller airport, so not much walking or schlepping. Busses to Venice ‘”city” are scheduled around the departures and arrivals at the airport. After buying tickets for the bus, we wait a bit, get on the bus and an hour later we are at the Piazzale Roma in Venice, yihaa! There we quickly find out where the vaporettos (water busses) are, get a 24 hour ticket, get on the line to Piazza San Marco because I know our hotel has a free shuttle from there to the hotel. However, at some point I think I recognize the hotel, I ask the man from the boat if it’s the Hilton Stucky Molino and he says to get off the next stop. OK, now we have to walk and schlep a lot. You know how Venice has a lot of water? Well, all that water comes with a lot of bridges. And all those bridges come with a lot of steps. Don’t wear high heels in Venice ;-)
And then we arrive at the beautiful Hilton Stucky Molino. These buildings used to be the old grain mills of Venice and have been turned in a beautiful hotel. Check in was easy, but the rooms wasn’t ready yet. We drop our suitcases at concierge and take the free shuttle boat to piazza San Marco. That shuttle boat looks small from outside, is pretty big inside, and holy cow, makes me seasick! It’s a good thing I have cruised before and *know* cruising is not wobbly like that, or I would have canceled the cruise right there and then. No way could I survive a week being in such a wobbly boat, lol.
I told my mom I would pick her up at 6, which I do, we drive all the way to Charleroi and once arrived at the airport, I look for the budget parking. After quite a while, I find it and guess what? Of course it’s full. GRRRRR. So, we have to go back to the regular parking (first bump of the budget, lol).
A good thing about a smaller airport like Charleroi is that you don’t have to walk so far, and thus not have to schlep your stuff too far. A good thing about flying Ruanair is that you are very limited in what you can take with you, so you don’t have to schlep heavy stuff either, lol.
Check-in is easy, we go through security, browse through the duty free and then we discuss our “action plan”. I am tall, you know. And have a very very bad knee, that shouldn’t be bent too much. Ryanair is a budget airline. Which means they stuff you in like sardines in a can. However, I paid extra for the priority boarding. Which means we have a better chance of getting one of the 12 exit row seats. Now, one problem: we’ll have to walk down stairs, walk out of the terminal, to the plane, climb up stairs to get on the plane and fight for our right to have an exit row seat (lol). Problem? I have to take stairs one by one. Action plan: Mom goes off, hurries up, throws herself on one seat and her bag on another until I’m there.
Once boarding begins, I am almost yelling “GO GO GO”. OK, maybe not. Or maybe yes I did. Who knows. Result of our action plan is that we have two great exit row seats with lots and lots of room to stretch out our legs. Aaaahhhh, flying budget airlines isn’t that bad ;-)
Only an hour and a half, no food nor drinks later, we arrive at Venice Treviso, once again a smaller airport, so not much walking or schlepping. Busses to Venice ‘”city” are scheduled around the departures and arrivals at the airport. After buying tickets for the bus, we wait a bit, get on the bus and an hour later we are at the Piazzale Roma in Venice, yihaa! There we quickly find out where the vaporettos (water busses) are, get a 24 hour ticket, get on the line to Piazza San Marco because I know our hotel has a free shuttle from there to the hotel. However, at some point I think I recognize the hotel, I ask the man from the boat if it’s the Hilton Stucky Molino and he says to get off the next stop. OK, now we have to walk and schlep a lot. You know how Venice has a lot of water? Well, all that water comes with a lot of bridges. And all those bridges come with a lot of steps. Don’t wear high heels in Venice ;-)
And then we arrive at the beautiful Hilton Stucky Molino. These buildings used to be the old grain mills of Venice and have been turned in a beautiful hotel. Check in was easy, but the rooms wasn’t ready yet. We drop our suitcases at concierge and take the free shuttle boat to piazza San Marco. That shuttle boat looks small from outside, is pretty big inside, and holy cow, makes me seasick! It’s a good thing I have cruised before and *know* cruising is not wobbly like that, or I would have canceled the cruise right there and then. No way could I survive a week being in such a wobbly boat, lol.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
We’re going to the Venetian! And then to Disneyland to ride the Jungle cruise over and over again!
Every year, I try to go on a “long” vacation (at least 2 weeks), a “short” vacation (about 1 week), a few visits to Disneyland Paris (DLP, 2-5 days) and maybe a city trip (Or two. Or three.)
Our long vacation this year was a trip to NYC-Miami-Cruise in the Caribbean-WDW. We went to DLP in July, August and probably again in December, to Champagne in August, to Paris in October, so the only thing missing in the list is the “short” vacation.
Our first idea was to go back to the US again. With the dollar being so cheap, it’s a very affordable destination, as long as you can avoid costly items as rental cars (because of all the insurances that are added, it’s a very costly affair) and expensive theme park tickets. We wanted nice weather, shopping close by, … At some point, I found an American destination that covered all of that: Las Vegas. If you don’t want some fancy-schmancy huge suite in a specific hotel, there are a lot of good deals to be found around for deluxe hotels there. It seemed like a great plan. And then the plan started to grow. Let’s go visit the Grand Canyon while we are there! It’s close enough to California, let’s add a few days at Disneyland! Not only the plans started to grow, also the price tag started to grow. Until it reached the point of me saying “OK, I really want to go on this trip, but I can’t justify the price tag anymore, because it’s only a “short” vacation that is not supposed to cost a fortune.
Bye bye Venetian, bye bye Jungle cruise.
So, I started browsing the net again, to find a nice one-week vacation around the Med. Maybe back to Morocco like last year? Nope, haven’t forgotten yet us being sick the whole week. Or maybe back to Tunesia? Been there twice, but it were both great vacations, and not expensive. Or maybe Turkey? But which place to chose? I don’t want the only “entertainment” being night clubs. And I want nice weather. Malta, Cyprus, … all a little too expensive.
OK, I am bored at work, nothing to do, let’s see how much cheaper that 10-day Baltic cruise at the end of August is. Hey, wait a minute! They have Med cruises too! And holy cow, they are not expensive at all!!!!!!! So, some text messages to my mom later, the decision has been made: we’re going on a Med cruise! And that evening, the decision is made which one: a Royal Caribbean one leaving from Venice going to the Croatia and the Greek islands (nevermind I hate Greece, lol, but I loved the price!)
It took a while for my vacation request to be approved, but once I got the approval, 15 minutes later, everything was booked lol!
We were going to leave on October 2 to Venice from Charleroi (don’t be fooled, Brussels South airport is nowhere near Brussels) flying Ryanair. We would stay one night at the Hilton Stucky Molino in Venice, and on October 3 we were going to board the Splendour of the Seas to go to Split (Croatia), Cyprus, Athens, Mykonos and Katakolon (port for Olympia). On October 10, we’d fly back to Charleroi with Ryanair.
It’s a good thing I knew I was going to sleep/ eat on board, because otherwise, I might not have agreed going to Greece again, lol!
So, no Venetian and Jungle Cruise for us in October, but Venice and a Med cruise!!!!!
Our long vacation this year was a trip to NYC-Miami-Cruise in the Caribbean-WDW. We went to DLP in July, August and probably again in December, to Champagne in August, to Paris in October, so the only thing missing in the list is the “short” vacation.
Our first idea was to go back to the US again. With the dollar being so cheap, it’s a very affordable destination, as long as you can avoid costly items as rental cars (because of all the insurances that are added, it’s a very costly affair) and expensive theme park tickets. We wanted nice weather, shopping close by, … At some point, I found an American destination that covered all of that: Las Vegas. If you don’t want some fancy-schmancy huge suite in a specific hotel, there are a lot of good deals to be found around for deluxe hotels there. It seemed like a great plan. And then the plan started to grow. Let’s go visit the Grand Canyon while we are there! It’s close enough to California, let’s add a few days at Disneyland! Not only the plans started to grow, also the price tag started to grow. Until it reached the point of me saying “OK, I really want to go on this trip, but I can’t justify the price tag anymore, because it’s only a “short” vacation that is not supposed to cost a fortune.
Bye bye Venetian, bye bye Jungle cruise.
So, I started browsing the net again, to find a nice one-week vacation around the Med. Maybe back to Morocco like last year? Nope, haven’t forgotten yet us being sick the whole week. Or maybe back to Tunesia? Been there twice, but it were both great vacations, and not expensive. Or maybe Turkey? But which place to chose? I don’t want the only “entertainment” being night clubs. And I want nice weather. Malta, Cyprus, … all a little too expensive.
OK, I am bored at work, nothing to do, let’s see how much cheaper that 10-day Baltic cruise at the end of August is. Hey, wait a minute! They have Med cruises too! And holy cow, they are not expensive at all!!!!!!! So, some text messages to my mom later, the decision has been made: we’re going on a Med cruise! And that evening, the decision is made which one: a Royal Caribbean one leaving from Venice going to the Croatia and the Greek islands (nevermind I hate Greece, lol, but I loved the price!)
It took a while for my vacation request to be approved, but once I got the approval, 15 minutes later, everything was booked lol!
We were going to leave on October 2 to Venice from Charleroi (don’t be fooled, Brussels South airport is nowhere near Brussels) flying Ryanair. We would stay one night at the Hilton Stucky Molino in Venice, and on October 3 we were going to board the Splendour of the Seas to go to Split (Croatia), Cyprus, Athens, Mykonos and Katakolon (port for Olympia). On October 10, we’d fly back to Charleroi with Ryanair.
It’s a good thing I knew I was going to sleep/ eat on board, because otherwise, I might not have agreed going to Greece again, lol!
So, no Venetian and Jungle Cruise for us in October, but Venice and a Med cruise!!!!!
Friday, November 06, 2009
Apparently I don’t love my family. Or they don’t love me.
I have been thinking long about writing a trip report/ blog about my last vacations or not.
First of all, it takes a lot of time. The few times I tried writing one of a longer vacation (i.e. longer than 3 days), I started but never finished it.
Secondly, it seems that people feel like you’re bragging if you dare to write about your car, house, vacation, … On the other hand of course, everyone wants to know how your vacation went, what your house looks like, …
Thirdly, it seems I’m a pathetic loser who doesn’t love her family or who is not loved by her family. Why? Because I dare to travel by myself or with just my mom. Meaning my mom is a pathetic not-loved or not-loving loser too, because she dares to travel without my dad.
Have I been told this “in my face” (or straight to my screen name)? No, I admit that.
However: I have read a number of times reactions like “oh their marriage must be failing if she goes on vacation without her husband.” I usually reply then explaining the way my mother and I travel together, without my dad, that both of them are happy with that arrangement and that it doesn’t mean their marriage is falling apart.
You know what? I could bet money on it, that each and every time, I get a reply by someone saying “oh, well, different strokes for different folks, but *I* love/ value/ blablabla my family so much that I couldn’t vacation without them.” Well, it’s that last comment that implicitly says “you’re a loser who doesn’t love your family and/ or is not loved in return.”
Since I already know now that I am a non-loving loser who likes to brag, I will attempt to write a trip report/ blog about our latest vacation.
Who wants to bet money that I won’t finish it? Or maybe I will finish it? Only time will tell…
First of all, it takes a lot of time. The few times I tried writing one of a longer vacation (i.e. longer than 3 days), I started but never finished it.
Secondly, it seems that people feel like you’re bragging if you dare to write about your car, house, vacation, … On the other hand of course, everyone wants to know how your vacation went, what your house looks like, …
Thirdly, it seems I’m a pathetic loser who doesn’t love her family or who is not loved by her family. Why? Because I dare to travel by myself or with just my mom. Meaning my mom is a pathetic not-loved or not-loving loser too, because she dares to travel without my dad.
Have I been told this “in my face” (or straight to my screen name)? No, I admit that.
However: I have read a number of times reactions like “oh their marriage must be failing if she goes on vacation without her husband.” I usually reply then explaining the way my mother and I travel together, without my dad, that both of them are happy with that arrangement and that it doesn’t mean their marriage is falling apart.
You know what? I could bet money on it, that each and every time, I get a reply by someone saying “oh, well, different strokes for different folks, but *I* love/ value/ blablabla my family so much that I couldn’t vacation without them.” Well, it’s that last comment that implicitly says “you’re a loser who doesn’t love your family and/ or is not loved in return.”
Since I already know now that I am a non-loving loser who likes to brag, I will attempt to write a trip report/ blog about our latest vacation.
Who wants to bet money that I won’t finish it? Or maybe I will finish it? Only time will tell…
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
The weight loss challenge.
I started Weightwatchers a couple of days ago. No, I am not going to the meetings, I’m doing it on my own. I did it a couple of years ago, so I have all the “tools” and flyers and whatnot. The only thing lacking is the power to keep on doing it.
Monday was the first day. I did GREAT! I even bought this cool little notebook to write my points in every day. Tuesday I did GREAT!
Today, Wednesday… ehm… not so great. I don’t feel well, and what do I do when I don’t feel well? Right, I eat. I had this fancy sandwich for lunch, and I am pretty sure the mozzarella and Parma ham and pesto that was on it accounts for a gazillion WW points.
I’m an emotional eater. So, what I need is an alternative. Right now, I eat my emotions away. I need something else to handle my emotions. If you know something, feel free to email me. Sandra_vanbossuyt@yahoo.com
Monday was the first day. I did GREAT! I even bought this cool little notebook to write my points in every day. Tuesday I did GREAT!
Today, Wednesday… ehm… not so great. I don’t feel well, and what do I do when I don’t feel well? Right, I eat. I had this fancy sandwich for lunch, and I am pretty sure the mozzarella and Parma ham and pesto that was on it accounts for a gazillion WW points.
I’m an emotional eater. So, what I need is an alternative. Right now, I eat my emotions away. I need something else to handle my emotions. If you know something, feel free to email me. Sandra_vanbossuyt@yahoo.com
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