As those who follow this blog know, we have considerable experience planning these trips and we have pretty much honed our scheduling skills.  So, yesterday we knew had 2pm bus from Venice to Cortina and we decided to take a leisurely ride on a boat and see the famed Grand Canal.  Unfortunately, we took the boat in the wrong direction and then realized we didnt have nearly enough time to get for our bus.  Fortunately, Clay- with no experience at these sort of things, spotted a water taxi and we jumped aboard.  So, rather than a nice leisrurely boat ride, we had to hire a water taxi at significant expense and then he took a short cut back to the bus stop so missed most of the Grand Canal.  We then had to do our by now usual sprint for the bus with full pack where Clay took this selfie-

Of course, as this was only a 1/4 mile, we made it to the bus with 3 minutes to spare.  I dont what all the rush was about.  Today, we start hiking at the fame Tre Cimes where I hope Clay is able to keep up and does not get us lost.

more PE....

We got kicked out of  the place we rented- the so called Doggy (Doge?) Palace, which i guess is just for tourists with dogs and got another hotel.  Still, it had good views of the Rialto bridge and grand canal-

Eager to see as much of Venice as we could in our short stay, we left our hotel at 11m and went off to see more of the city.  The good is that this time of year is that the tourist season is past and we petty much had the  place to ourselves-

One thing Clay and I want to do is blend in and not look like tourists who dont know where they are  going-

 To save a little money on a boat ride, we took a ride on this barge which had some interesting aromatics.

 Turned out to be a septic barge.  But everyone is seeking the local authentic experience and it is hard to get more local than that  

After our trauma in Philly, we decided to splurge and  rent the nice place below with  a good view of the lagoon in Venice (Clay had the lower floor and I had the upper)-

 though lots of people kept shuffling through for some reason.  And our place had a nice view of the Italian navy-

The Venetians also  seemed quite proud of these stationary horses that did not seem to go anywhere-

But some canals are very pretty and unique-

Well, our Dolomite adventure got off to an unexpected start.   Apparently because of a printer error according to our pilot- addfing new meaning to aircraft mechanical problems-  our plane from Boston to Philly was delayed and we landed with only about 8 minutes to make our connection (the aircraft push off guys also got fed up with the printer delay and had to be recalled from their break after somone got the paper unstuck from the printer).  So, Clay and I grabbed our backbacks and ran for it (the elderly couple in front of us never had a chance). 

 The problem was that it turned out to be over 1 mile (several terminals) away.  Running in hiking boots with a 25lb pack through the airport as fast as we could with Clay yelling "On your left!" was not exactly what I had in mind as a peaaceeful vacation start.  I felt like I was in some nightmare where I had joined the Marines at age 60+ and had been shipped off to Paris Island for basic training.  I have never been so exhausted in my life when I finally saw the gate in sight ahead and heard Clay yelling "Venice!  Venice!" like he was hailing  a taxi.  If  Clay had not raced ahead, we likely wouldnt have made it.  We got there utterly breathless with chests heaving and the attendant said they were just about to close door and had given our seats away (so much for my hope that they were going to hold the plane for u ).  He told us, though that we could find seats somewhere and I said, "Yeah, we will get here earlier next time".   We were the last aboard, dripping sweat and a bit traumatized.  

Who knew that the most strenuous part of a hiking vacatiion would occur at the Philly apirport?  I am looking forward to climbing mountains to take it easy.