Windsor and Richmond

 Today we left our cozy hotel room heading to Windsor.  We were very excited to tour the castle.  We spent a couple hours exploring the state rooms and the chapel.  We couldn’t take pictures inside but did grab a few from outside

Do have to say the restoration work from the big fire in the 90’s was remarkable!

During our time in the chapel we were able to see Queen Elizabeth II resting place.

After our time here we did a little shopping and taking in the town.  We also had a nice lunch.

We wanted to go to Richmond on Tuesday but were second guessing that - but during lunch we found out the train in Windsor would take us there!  So off we go on the train and explore the area where “Ted Lasso” was filmed!!!

The other interesting tidbit that drew us to Richmond - is Richmond Palace.  There’s only a gate house that remains from Tudor times, but there are other structures from the 1700’s.  History lesson - this is where Queen Elizabeth I died.

We had a great Indian Uber driver for our trip back to the hotel - we chatted and chatted and he gave the best advice - if we go to little India - NEVER pay what they say - haggle like your life depends on it.  The example was if they say it costs £30 then offer them £3 and eventually settle for £10!  It was very funny!

Murano and Burano

 We are running a bit behind on keeping our blog up but that’s because we had a very busy day traveling to visit Murano and Burano islands. 

Murano island is known for the famous venetian, glass and mirrors. We were able to do a visit to one of the glass factories and received a demonstration from a master artisan who made three different items for us-  just to watch not to give us. Then we were able to browse their shops. I do have to say they were very eager for everyone to buy something and as much as I wanted to buy a stemmed venetian glass I didn’t see one that I liked enough to buy six of them so no glass for Missy. I do have to say the items were very beautiful, but some of the items were rather gaudy.

After the visit to this island, we went to a very quaint picturesque island of Burano.  We had some “boat drinks” on the way.

This island is known for making lace and for all of the brightly colored houses. Rumor has it that the fisherman wanted to be able to find their houses in the fog so every family painted their house a different bright color. 

After we finished the tour, we were also learning about the lagoon on the boat, which was lovely, it was really great to be out on the water. 

We made dinner plans at a restaurant about 15 minutes away from us. It was a steakhouse and it was very good but it was not as good as Do Forno but also we both were able to eat meals for less than what Do Forno cost us

After this, we returned to the hotel to start shoving our stuff in our luggage in preparation for our flight to London. Interesting we did check baggage going to London and I had a bag that was too light. I had to add items to it to make it meet the minimum weight requirement. That has never happened to me nor anyone that I know. 

Then we had a busy travel day flying from Venice to London. The flight to London was easy unremarkable and nice. We flew in to Gatwick so that meant we had to take a taxi to Heathrow which is like hour and 15 minutes away so we spent a lot of time in a taxi.

We got checked into the hotel. We chose a room on the second floor. The receptionist asked if we wanted a better floor because I guess the floor we chose sucks if you have a higher floor, you can view the runways from your rooms, but we opted not to.

So now it is Sunday and we are just relaxing in the room today. We did more laundry so we would have clean clothes when we make it home and we took a small walking tour of terminal two and terminal three here at Heathrow.

So you were all caught up on our excursions thus far and we will have more information for you on our activities tomorrow.

Random things

 Platforms used as walkways when high tide overflows the bank at San Marco square

Random garden

Our room key - which we have to turn in every time we leave the hotel

View from our balcony - yes that is technically a street. It’s only wide enough for 2 people

Gondola Day

 Today was our gondola ride - it was not cheesy like we thought it would be.  Our gondolier was a chatty fellow - only in Italian - would hum and sing. The other couple riding with us were Italian and they were kind enough to translate some things - like that’s the house Mozart lived in 

The gondoliers are like a bunch of gossipy old women - chatting, laughing, giving each other grief.  Was soo funny to listen to it!

We stopped for lunch and it turned out to be a place for locals. In come several locals and gondoliers to have their lunch. Must say it was very good pasta.

Ps - Missy is a messy eater -

Look at the size of the macarons!

We walked around a bit and stopped to see the Bridge of Sighs - look it up - has an interesting story

Here’s an edit for todays blog

DINNER!

We wanted steak - needed a break from pasta and pizza -  we also didn’t want to have to take a long walk so happily the restaurant next door had fillet.  So off we go to Do Forno - we didn’t get seated in the front part of the restaurant - we think because we didn’t have a reservation -  we were lead out the back door - yes the back door to an adjacent building where we were seated.

Beautiful place - “real” professional waiters, very attentive, and nice.  Neither of us were starving so we decided to share a fillet and fries BUT Shan saw the Grand Marnier soufflé and promptly ordered it - as it takes about 1/2 hour to cook 

Ok so back to ordering - we ordered and a gentleman was seated next to us and he ordered a fish - so he gets to go to the seafood display and select the exact fish he wanted. -  funny sidebar- there was a live lobster in there that keep moving about - 

Shan and I are loving the meal - everything perfectly cooked - meat, veggies and the fries.  We finally get the soufflé - and OMG it was soo good. 

Here is a pic of a huge gun - 

We shared the soufflé and it was split up for us

So we are in heaven and talking about coming back tomorrow for dinner - that is UNTIL WE GOT THE BILL - €102. For basically one meal - so we both decided to skip it tomorrow.  But maybe we can just share the meal again instead of each getting their own ..  HMMM decisions, decisions, decisions!

Venice!

 We arrived at the train station in Venice with no issues - well, other than the throw-up lady.

We snagged ourself a sleek water taxi that would take us close to our hotel.

Stopped and had pizza - we decided that southern Italy has the best pizza - Rome is second and Venice is a way distant third!

Will post pictures later!

It’s later - 

Our hotel was built in the 1600’s.  It has 1 electrical outlet - this we have the converted plugged in so we can charge all of our stuff

Here’s a picture of the chandelier in our room

Last day in Florence

 Today we saw The David!  It was beautiful. Thankfully we didn’t book a tour - so we could go as fast or slow as we wanted.  It was such a breeze getting in with skip the line tickets. It was only like 10 minutes from when we showed up to being inside. 

It was truly perfect - the proportions and all.  It is about 17 feet tall

After this we shopped a bit and checked out the Leonardo daVinci museum, then returned to the hotel just in time to beat the downpour!  We hung out until it was time to go to our pasta cooking lesson.

As luck would have it - it had stopped raining

The class was so much fun - even better than the pastry class we did in Paris.  We got to keep our cute aprons, had a wonderful meal with desert and lemoncello.

We made our dough - rolled it out to make fettuccine. We used a “pasta guitar” to cut it - really neat gizmo.  And you don’t wash it - you just shake the flour etc off of it

We then made 2 other pastas with fillings

The whole group - about 10 of us - had a great time chatting and learning about each other.  Shan and I chatted the most with this young couple from Australia who were on their honeymoon. And a young man from California

Our luck held as it poured the rain during class but cleared up for our walk back to the tram station

Currently we are on the train to Venice.  At the beginning it was just tunnel after tunnel but now an hour into it we are seeing the cities 

I’m watching a movie and Shan is reviewing the final draft of the new GHRA rule book.

Also on a disgusting front - someone several rows behind us has been throwing up off and on  - thankfully it doesn’t smell.