City on Water -Venice

I had heard a lot about the city Venice, from my friends and also my mother-in-law who happened to visit it last year when she was in Germany. The simplest and most economical way of getting there was with a travel company called IKARUS Reisen. They took care of the bus journey till Venice and after one day of sight-seeing there, brought people back to Stuttgart. I checked out with my colleagues and after a lot of speculation, four of us decided to go to Venice on the long weekend of 2-3-4^th May.

Booking was done by me and I had the tickets in my hand for all of us. We were picked up at about 9 pm from the Echterdingen railway station on 2^nd May. It was a double decker bus, very huge and we had seats on the upper deck. There were people who had come from other cities too. They were already inside and after we all settled down, we started the journey. We stopped at 2-3 places for different pick-ups and breaks and finally reached a station called Mira Mirano at about 9 am. From there we had to travel by train and the journey was for about 20 minutes. Then after reaching the St. Lucia train station, our bus guide told us the time and spot to be back in the evening and then we all dispersed in different directions. Finally, we were in Venice. There was just water wherever we saw and the daily business was carried on usually using boats, sorry water-bus. We bought a day pass for travelling in the water-bus there and I was highly amused to the hustle and bustle in the city, the parts of which was either linked by water-buses or could be reached by foot. We first went to an area called Sankt Marco. It is that very place, where the famous song 'Do lafzon ki hai dil ki kahani', picturized on Zeenat Aman and Amitabh Bachchan riding on Gondola.

It was the typical city center with 1000’s of tourists. The main attractions there were the Gondola rides, St. Basilica church, Dulce Palace and the Bell tower. We just saw the palace and church from outside as there was a heavy rush and people were standing in queues for a long time. We had some snacks there and then went inside the small lanes to explore the interiors. There were many branded shops inside and a plethora of Italian restaurants serving pasta, pizza and other Italian delicacies. We went around window shopping; my friend bought a few things. I was interested in picking up only the fridge magnets depicting the Canals and water and Gondolas, typical of Venice. We then went to a place called Murano. It was an island, little away from the St. Marco area.

Murano is famous for its glass making, particularly lampworking. I was amazed to see the different articles made out of colored glass and wished to pick up something to take back home, but then it would have been very cumbersome to take such delicate items back to India. So, I was just satisfied watching them in the showroom and we also went to a glass factory where we actually saw how items are made out of colorful glass. It was very hot in there and in no time, the person made a delicate, colorful and beautiful horse out of the molten glass and we all cheered him and clapped in glee. He had an experience of 20 years in this field and it showed in his confidence and ease in literally playing with the molten glass. I couldn’t resist the temptation to buy at least a memento of such lovely craft. I bought 3 sets of pendant and ear rings for my friends. And I bought a ring for myself. Then after a nice lunch, we headed to our last destination, the Lido beach.

Beaches and waters generally have a therapeutic effect on me. The sleepless night in the bus, the whole day sight-seeing, walking for long distances had tired us out completely. But as soon as I saw the waters and the white sand, the little child in me peeped out and I sat in the sand looking at the waters and the cloudy sky. Silence prevailed, there were not many people around, maybe it was already 5 pm and the sun was not shining. We clicked some pictures there, the others had a little walk along the beachside and I sat there exhaling fresh and pure and salty breeze of the water. It was time to head back as we had to reach the spot on time and we had to again take water-bus to reach there. Got back to the train station and met everybody there and headed back to Mira Mirano and then got into the bus at about 7:30. The bus was relatively empty while coming back, hence all of us got window seats and we tried to catch on some sleep. We reached Echterdingen about 7:00 in the morning and I reached home by 8:15 am.

The trip was overall good, I had good company of friends. Found Italy very similar to India, when it came to crowds and people. People were friendly, cheerful and they all spoke and understood good English. The water-buses were extremely crowded at times and my colleague Deepu felt that we would topple in the water and die, because there was no amount of check kept on number of people and they just took everybody who wanted to get into the water-bus of that particular route. Life jackets were there, but for 300 people, how would a few jackets suffice? But, with god’s grace, nothing happened and we returned safe and sound. I was also surprised to see that literally the whole city resides in and on water and still the buildings are the construction has not decayed or dilapidated due to water. Every building was unique and different and well maintained. We also saw a huge number of ice-cream parlors in every place we went and I tried out 2 completely different flavors of the same. And yes, I bought the fridge magnets, after a lot of searching. I somehow had not liked the finishing of the magnets I saw in other places and liked them at one place and immediately bought them. 

But, everything said and done, the trip was hectic and I realized that I am not comfortable traveling in an over-night journey. This would be probably the first and last time that I travelled like this with 2 sleepless nights, back to back! 

But Venice was worth it!