Visiting Venice

This morning we took our time to enjoy the nice buffet breakfast in our hotel. This was followed by a free visit to the glass factory. First they gave us a demonstration on how a glass vase or a glass horse is made. Then a guide showed us room by room all the beautiful glasswares and magnificent figurines. Of course, all along they tried very hard to talk you into buying something. Barbara ended up buying a necklace for herself. I looked around also for something to buy as birthday present for Na Na. We got one with a big sparkling round pendant, but I am not sure if Na Na would like it though. When we finished the visit, the water taxi took us at St. Marcos.

We walked leisurely through the streets of Vencie. Richard and Paul were busy taking pictures all the time, while we women did our window shopping. Daniel was successful in getting two glass turtles to add to his collection, while Richard started his collection on various glass candies. Paul and Christie bought a bottle of lemon liqour as requested for their son Gabriel. The day was damp and cold. By Noon time, we were getting a little cold and tired, Daniel was looking all over for a public toilet to no avail. So we asked around for the way to get to the nearest McDonald. It took us some time before we finally found one, because the streets all looked the same and we might not understand the people's direction. Well, we sure felt more at home in a MacDonald restaurant, where we could use their restaurant, get a cup of hot coffee to go with the cold sandwiches we got from our breakfast and rest a bit from the cold.

Feeling refreshed after lunch, we wandered into the famous San Marcos Square which was filled with people as well as doves. This was our second time to visit Venice, but when we were here the last time, the St. Mark Cathedral was closed down for repairs. So we were happy to be able to enter and see the magnificent inside this time. After visiting the Cathedral, we strolled over to the famous Grand Bridge. Along the way, both sides of the street were lined with little booths selling souveniers. We bought a little crystal ball for Becky, while Richard was hopping here and there taking pictures and Paul busy trying to find out how the unlimited day bus tickets work. It started raining harder by the time we reached the Grand Bridge. Most of us took shelter while waiting for Richard to finish taking pictures. On our way back from the other side of the Bridge, Richard suddenly realized he couldn't find his wallet. After a thorough search of his backpack and all his pockets, we came to the conclusion that someone had stolen his wallet. Unfortunately, this time he had a few blank checks together with two credit cards inside his wallet besides the three hundred US dollars. We therefore cut our visit short and decided to go back to the hotel right away in order to report the loss of the credit cards. We also asked the hotel manager to check with the glass factory to see if Richard had left his wallet there. However, by that time the factory was already closed, so we would have to wait for the next morning.

At around 7:00pm on our way to have dinner at that Chinese restaurant, we overheard a mother and daughter who just arrived at the hotel telling the front desk man that they had left a backpack on the bus. They were really worried because the backpack contained all their important documents as well as the medicines for the mother. So before getting to the Restaurant we went to report this to the Police. Unfortunately, they couldn't speak much English. They gave us a number to call to check with the loss and found.

When we got to the Chinese Restaurant we were surprised to see they had very few customers tonight. We could not help but wondered why it was fully packed last night. We found out later it was simply because yesterday was Valentine's Day. The price at this restaurant was very reasonable. The food was not bad. We loved the Kong Su Duck so much that we placed one more order for it. The owner came to chat with us. Dinner was so delightful, se promised to come back the next day.