Sunday, May 04, 2008

Arrivederci, Venice...

It's the final countdown.

We'll be checking out of our hotel in about a half hour. Then, we'll grab one last gelato before taking a water taxi back to the train station. I think our train leaves Venice at 2:50 (..better double check!); 2.5 hours to Milan, switch, then about a zillion hours to Basel. Our arrival time in Basel? Something like 10:30 p.m. Aaargh! I'm sure I'll be roped into at least a couple of games of Travel Scrabble.

Venice was good; not great. I'm glad we came, but I wouldn't return. Been there...done that!

We were here for four nights, and I'm thinking that three would have been enough - maybe even two. Perhaps it's just me, but I prefer to leave a place wishing I had more time left rather than thinking I'd stayed too long. We did all of the major things that tourists do and ate some decent food. Our hotel was slightly disappointing (which we'll note on our comment card), and I found the city a bit claustrophobic, but...I guess that's part of the charm.

Although I've enjoyed being by the (stinky) water, I've had my fill of the crumbling buildings and infrastructure. I think I'm ready to get back to clean and safe Switzerland.

Oh...my...God! Did I just say that???

4 comments:

Jul said...

I have a similar impression of Venice - it's a good place to spend an afternoon, but not much more than that at a time. And we tend to eat much better in other parts of Italy.

Unknown said...

clean and safe Switzerland.. haha.. Great report really... I'm sure I'd feel much the same about 2 days being enough.

Gretchen said...

I'll be interested to hear more about what you didn't like about the Bauer. We were really happy there. Actually, we loved our entire Venice experience! But that might have been because it was one of our last trips before moving back to the States... so we were loving every minute of it no matter where we went...

The Big Finn said...

Gretchen - We thought the housekeeping was terrible. Soap scum in the shower upon arrival at a 5-star hotel? Shouldn't happen...
The public areas were really nice, but the room was "tired". We're all for period furniture, but it shouldn't be warn and/or stained. Also, the service was inconsistent. We great service in the bar, bad service at breakfast a couple of the mornings, and then really good service at breakfast the last morning.
If we ever go back to Venice (which I doubt we will), we'll stay at a different hotel.