But we did it! Unseasonably hot (low 90s) and humid weather. Karin, Dan, and Cathy arrived at our house on Sunday afternoon. We actually parked Cathy’s car and Dan’s truck in our newly cleaned out garage! Then we headed off to Dulles Airport in two cars. We didn’t try to stay together (impossible on the crowded Beltway anyway), but we rather thought that Karin and Dan were probably a bit ahead of us. We knew that we’d meet back up on the plane if not sooner.
The parking lot at Dulles is absolutely huge. It seems to go on for miles, and it was absolutely stuffed. Finally we spotted one vacant space. Had to loop around once to get to it. Unloaded our stuff and started down toward the shuttle stop. No more than two or three cars down the row we spotted a familiar license plate, familiar bumper stickers, and then taking in the whole scene, a familiar car. Karin and Dan’s. What were the odds of our being so close? Then we noticed that their back door was open, but they were indeed nowhere to be seen. We shut it.
Everything went well after that. We bought some Euros from an ATM machine--$165 per 100. Got used to aircrew announcements in Spanish followed immediately by English so heavily accented that it took a few moments to actually tune in and start comprehending. Nice chicken curry dinner on the plane. We’ve been traveling so often recently in North America where you no longer get meals that it was almost a novel experience. Slept reasonably well, but the seats weren’t very comfortable. Got an occasional GPS reading out the window of 630 MPH at 39,000 feet. Good breakfast with wonderful coffee and tea.
Arrived Madrid just before dawn. Huge, huge airport. Lovely architecture, though didn’t have time to take more than a couple of pictures of it. Massive crowd waiting to get through immigration. Reminded us of Shanghai a year ago Saturday, though just a bit less on the warm side and more in the organized structure of the lines. But just a bit. Officially we had a two hour layover, but most of that time got frittered away in the line at immigration. The big surprise was Karin’s finding out by reading a luggage tag that the two people in front of us worked for one of her clients, and probably at a pretty senior level. It’s the client whose Web site she had worked on just before leaving on this trip! That was followed by a dash through terminals and elevators and escalators to the subway. We don’t know how far it went, but it was really fast and it took quite a long time. Easily longer than the ride from Harvard Square to Park Street. Then another line for another security check. No sterile concourse here. I guess we left the security zone after we cleared immigration.
Plane was boarding when we got to the gate, but it we weren’t really really late. It wasn’t like one of those experiences where they greet you by name and everybody glares at you.
Two hour flight to Venice. Slept most of the time. No immigration formalities there because of the EU.
Found out then that the unlocked cell phone Bruce bought on eBay was apparently still locked to T-Mobile and doesn’t work here.
Bus to the water taxi stop. Water taxi to our local stop, where a woman from the apartment company was awaiting us. Five minute walk through narrow alleys and other urban canyons and we were here. Wonderfully nice apartment occupying parts of two floors in an old building. Nicely furnished and updated inside. Living room and one bedroom face directly onto a major canal.
Naps all around. Then a walk over toward the Campo (square) St. Agostino and Campo St. Polo. A few shops along the way and in the squares, but generally pretty residential. Neighborhood kids riding bikes and playing in the squares. Restaurants open at 6. Wonderful meal of pizza and salad at a sidewalk café. Walk back to apartment following Dan's amazingly accurate guidance, though we had GPS as a backup. Gelati for all.
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