The Final Touchups

Now that we're exported (YAY) and have the boat, we had a few touchups to do ..... As part of our compensation we asked for the boat to be polished -- a dreadful job where you use rubbing compound, a grinder-like device with a foam pad on it, and lots of elbow grease. It takes about a day and a half to do .... an excellent thing to contract out. Then we re-painted the stripe, applied a couple of coats of wax, repainted parts of the keel and rudder, and generally did maintenance.
Another thing we negotiated for was a MAXProp -- a very cool piece of technology made in Italy. While the guys in Croatia would pay for it, I needed to go pick it up -- so Ross and I took a road-trip to Milano. Starting in Sibenik, we got on the A1 and headed north into Slovenia, then on local roads to Trieste, and onto the A4, a toll motorway that cuts Italy in half. Speed limit was 130kms, though it appears more of a guideline than a hard and fast limit. We averaged about 140-150 for most of the way to Italy.

Driving in Europe is the exact opposite of North America. It is a real pleasure to drive on the highway, everyone follows the rules, traffic moves very well. Inside the city it's anarchy. Drive slow, you'll be passed on the left and the right. In North America, driving in the city is civilized, but on the highway it's anarchy with people passing left and right, left lane hogging, going slow, being a blocker .... if we could mix the best of both -- that would be a great place to drive a car.

Ross and I stayed at a Best Western Hotel in downtown Milan for 65 Euros including breakfast, with an additional 20 to park the car. It turns out we were only a few minutes from the MaxProp factory that's in a very non-descript building that could be a condo for what it looks like outside. They make 2, 3, and 4 blade propellers -- the cool thing is that they rotate on the shaft so the prop is always facing the right way -- making reversing easier and also giving you better performance in forward gear. The best part is that when you shut off the engine the propeller feathers -- giving you about a 1/2 knot speed advantage when you're sailing and the propeller shaft doesn't spin -- dramatically reducing the noise in the boat.

On the trip home we spotted a Porsche 911 doing about 150km/h and we were gaining on him. Then in the rear-view mirror I saw a Dodge Caravan Minivan, like my friend Mike Fedak's, and they passed us and then the Porsche at about 165 or so .... how often do you see a Minivan pass a Porsche on the highway.

There are many long tunnels through the mountains -- the longest one was more than 6 kilometers long. The countryside was very scenic -- though we picked up the pace in Croatia, finding the top speed of our car to be 169 with the air-conditioning on, 175 with it off. Regardless of our top speed, we were regularly passed. I remember nudging Ross a number of times -- Ross, look at our speed -- 165, and a car zooms by 30+ Km/h faster than we were going. What a great way to travel -- you don't drink coffee, eat, talk on the phone, watch a movie -- you're too busy concentrating on driving.... and you cover some serious ground at 90-100 miles per hour!
Once back in Kremik we had to struggle with some engine problems. Rather than fill up in Milna, we used our auxiliary tank and the engine ran like crap since. We had all the diesel fuel pumped out of the tanks (unfortunately wasting about $500 of fuel) and it didn't improve. Turns out when they installed the Webasto furnace, they drilled into the fuel tank and the shavings plugged the fuel hose for the tank, and then the old fuel lines had a crack, and then with the powerful suction at higher revs there was air in the system ..... what a gong show. Anyway, a few hours of mechanic time and we were fixed up, installed the new prop, got the new Spinnaker (more liquidated damages for being late) and we are ready to go to Split to pick up our new dinghy and outboard motor.

Where's the Beef ???

Where’s the BEEF???
After several weeks without a visit to McDonalds, Matt and I on a whim decided to hit Rotten Ronnies while heading out shopping one day – kids were still sleeping and left to hang out on the boat. We hadn’t had breakfast and ohhhhhh an Egg McMuffin was sounding gooood! There they were…the golden arches we’d seen the day before. It’s Sunday…around 10:15 am…breakfast is for sure still being served. Hash browns…?? Well…not so healthy being deep fried and all but they ARE so crispy and with a little salt and pepper (who cares about cholesterol this morning!)...we’ll go for it! The full meal…with OJ for me and coffee for Matt…just like at home.
We park and walk in (don’t want to take a chance on the drive through with the language barrier) and search…searching the menu boards….still searching….where’s breakfast? It’s like, 10:21 am…shouldn’t there be eggs somewhere? Of any kind? (Imagine the faces slowly falling into recognition). They don’t do breakfast here? What’s with that??!!! No way I feel like a burger or fries right now. Sadly, off we go to see if we can get what we came shopping for, grumbling away. We’re at a remote mall that is half open and half closed (most things are closed on Sundays here…and close early on Fridays and Saturdays…and sometimes randomly too). We wandered around and picked up a few things – then back to Micky-D’s. We’re starving now and it’s past 11:30 am so I guess we’ll do lunch.
They don’t have even close to all the things we see on a menu in Canada, but there’s a Big Mac, fries and a bunch of menu items we haven’t seen before that look pretty good. The Country Burger…that looks good – 2 patties, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes…and you can get a meal with fries OR a salad (we both went for the salad) and a drink. Excellent customer service for a change – the nice lady gave us our salads with choice of dressing and drinks and said she’d bring the burgers. Salads were excellent! Lovely fresh burgers get delivered with a smile (and something in Croatian that we smiled and nodded our heads to) and we dive in… and then…hey, this tastes different. Must be the sauce…it’s a kind of mustard/horseradish/mayo sauce – pretty potent. But wait…the patties look odd…lighter in colour…and look, they’re seasoned. That’s weird... “Matt…do you think these are pork patties?” – (lots of pork around here, not so much beef). “Hmmmm...” says Matt as he looks at the little cardboard box the burgers come in. The grin…he turns the box to me…oh look! A picture of a pig!! We laugh and begin pretty much at the same time to chant… “Two seasoned pork patties, mustard sauce, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, onions all on a sesame seed bun”… In the end we agreed it was not bad – but we’d likely go for beef next time. The question is…is the Big Mac made with pork too????

Our First Days using "Dry Butt"

As of the 13th of August we have moved back onto the Beneteau we bought and are still waiting for to be officially exported. We are going to rename her 'Tara' -- the first boat I owned and met Marina on was Scarlet(t) -- when we sold Scarlet for the powerboat we named it Rhett. We had always talked that if we bought a cruising boat we'd need to name it "Tara". Until we own the boat its name is Eridanus -- a constellation and also the river Po formed when Phaeton took his father's sky chariot out for a ride ... unfortunately he crashed it and Zeus killed him with a lightning bolt .... creating the constellation and the river at the same time. Anyway .... we prefer to call it "Dry Butt" which is our nickname for Erid (arid) anus (do I need to explain that one?) instead of Tara until we can officially rename her ... a ceremony that will be documented on the blogsite.

We’re trying to be the squeaky wheel and get the boat exported. So far we’ve had a great summer but the time is coming that we need to move on. We’ve become friends with Marcel and Yalena – who bought a 47 footer and experienced the exact same difficulties. They’ve been providing encouragement and advice to us and that’s been really valuable. Marcel is a recently retired oil-man from Holland who has lived all over the world including Calgary. He has a couple of kids and he his 14 year old boy Joost (rhymes with Toast as he says) was with him for the last couple of weeks.

We went out on a couple of day-sails and took Joost with us. He tried the swim behind the boat on the rope trick and we ended up going too fast and he fell off. Ross jumped in to keep him company and we circled the boat and picked them up. It is ridiculous how much pressure 3-4 knots of boat speed has in terms of trying to drown you. It’s a lot like being towed by a waterski boat – if you hold on you become a ‘bubble-head’ – it looks cool but difficult to breathe.

We decided to take Eridanus / Tara out for some overnights and thought we’d meet up with Marcel, Yalena and Joost on the island of Solta. We didn’t get out of Kremik until 4pm on Thursday night and we powered hard to get there right at dusk. We found them, dropped our anchor beside them and then rafted the boats together. This was the first time we had anchored with Tara and the size of the anchor tackle on the boat is impressive. The chain links are 12.5 mm wide – and we have 70meters of chain. We were wondering why the boat is so bow down – might be because we have a Volkswagen in the anchor locker!

The next day we tried to fill up with diesel fuel in Milna --- and got involved in one of the European queues. What a freaking gong-show. 4 boats ahead of us then another 5 join in, everyone jockeying for position, people cutting in … and all this for a few litres of fuel. We decided to bag it, pulled into the dock and sent a runner (me) with a jerry can and got 20 litres of diesel fuel and left. Life could be so much easier and faster if people followed the rules from time-to-time (though I myself am a notorious rule breaker with the exception of queuing).

Jessie went ashore and took a picture of Marina and me on Eridanus (Tara) that is the first portrait that we have.

The next several hours we beat up the Solta coast in 15-20 knots of breeze and had a great time. Racing other boats all the way -- they all withdrew and put their motors on once they realized they didn’t have a chance (hahahahahah)– finally arriving in a small harbour at the western tip of Solta. While most of Croatia could use a dose of Service training, this was the exception. The guy came out and said “free mooring if you come to the restaurant tonight” – he pulled up some laid moorings (our boat was too big for the mooring ball – ha ha ha, never had that happen before) and we tied up on the shore. Jessie was really excited because we were meeting up with some people from Britain that had two girls 11 and 9. Marcel came in beside us and the party was on. Richard, Fiona, Rose and Lottie (Charlotte) and Marcel, Yalena, Jost and our motley crew went out to a great dinner. After copious beer, great stories by Richard who was a fighter pilot in the RAF and taking on the lead for the acceptance testing of the Eurofighter – followed by Grappa (aka rocket-fuel) the night was over. Jessie had clicked with the girls and went for a sleepover (are we being good parents ?!? .. we barely know them ….) but Jessie returned safe and sound the next day and we had their two girls for the entire day and night … so new friends made.


Late that day (1300) we decided to head to the Island of Brac – and find an anchorage. We had all the kids and sailed downwind most of the way. At the end the kids wanted to do the “rope game” so we slowed down and went in the last of the 3 boats. We anchored between Tomskii Kastan and Head First in this anchorage …. And the rest of the night we were in the ‘washing machine’ and had a very fitful night as the boats were rocking and rolling in the waves.


On Sunday morning we all parted ways – Tomskii was heading for Split, the Head First group were off to Korcula and we decided to go back to Kremik – and finish some unfinished business. We left early (8am) because we had to get back to Kremik and ask our contact what’s up because he had some ‘splainin’ to do. We had a great sail downwind – the clouds were nuts – why are they so strangely coloured??? Turns out that there was a huge fire in Split, burned up and over the top of the mountain and there were water bombers doing about 5 minute circuits filling up with water and dumping them on the wild fire. We sailed as much as we could, did some powering had a really relaxing 25 mile journey and arrived at Kremik in the late afternoon on Sunday.

School Started August 1st

School started in early August and from my perspective it’s going really well. I try to choose days we don’t have much else going on and we are averaging 3 – 4 days per week so far. I’d like to get ahead to have flexibility to not do school when we don’t feel like it (what luxury!) or we’re in cool places. It’s not arduous, I select usually two subjects, Social Studies, Science, Math, LA or languages (French for Jessie and Spanish for Ross), for each day and we work for 2 – 2.5 hours. I do prep before the kids wake up (I’m up by 8 am and I roust them by 9:15 – we sleep in because we can!). I love the fact that I am re-learning all this cool stuff again (ecosystems, electricity, math, tides etc.). We’ve read The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society over many evenings of reading out loud and did a “Book Study” that included both written and presented reports – the kids (and Matt and I) really enjoyed the book and did very well with their reports. We are now onto The Life of Pi. Matt it taking a teaching role as well (Electives) – he is teaching the kids about engines. I think they’ve liked that best because it’s practical with lots of diagrams and getting their heads and hands into the engine compartment. Actually...I think they like "field trip days" the best...Venice, Delphi, the Acropolis...I guess that would be my favouite too!
They get a grade each day for "attitude"...most days it is a good mark but sometimes there are issues (grumpiness, tired and whiney, frustration). It’s natural, here they are on what feels like a holiday, getting up, hungry and tired and then having to learn from mum and dad – the easiest people in the world to show your worst “side” to – it’s our job. So, as with coaching soccer, I’ve had to reiterate several times that when we are in school I’m not “mum”, and they need to make efforts to “communicate respectfully”. Which is a good thing out of school too!

We've decided we all need exercise...hard to do on a 50 foot boat. So I've added a PE component recently. We had access to a gym in one place (Porto Montenegro...it was fabulous!) and we've been doing some running and/or exercises on the boat every couple of days. Good for the teacher too!
Below are their impressions of school so far, I told them to write honestly and that I would not edit it in the post. Make sure it’s Internet audience consumable is all I said. You can tell which one is the teenager....

Jessie's Thoughts

School is not an enlightenment but not a "oh no, not again". Having mom as a teacher is better than having a teacher from school because I can show an agrument about a question and can understand it better because she knows my learning capability. With my mom being my teacher I think that I can learn better and get through things faster because instead of going the speed of the slowest student in the class she goes at my speed. I can do things on my computer, listen to my iPod while doing work, etc. etc. etc. And we can have days off any time of the week. :-) I can also do school in my bed. I love my teacher!

Ross' Thoughts

School, oh God. Field trips are nice. But learning from your mother...yikes! It's like a teacher you can never get away from. And if you fail an assignment, you don't get dinner for a week. (joking!). It feels like summer school on a holiday vacation.

Time to Head North Again

Split was a great diversion, a big city, reliable internet, and we decided to bag on the $120€ marina and stay at the free quay. Apart from some rocking and rolling (literally a street band a 100 feet away played ‘till 11pm) and one drunk guy who kept telling us we had to move, all was well – turns out he used to work for the Harbourmaster, but perhaps his substance-abuse problem cost him his job. So today I’m going to spend the $120€ we saved in mooring on a new guitar (maybe a teeny bit more). This is a bit of a departure for us and I think that we will continue to do it. The ACI Marinas are all in big cities and they are EXPENSIVE  approaching $200 per night with power, water and moorage with the Catamaran. But the good news is that they’re in great harbours and the government doesn’t charge for use of these harbours ….. so maybe the new approach is to use the ACI locations, but anchor out …. Use their restaurants and other pay-for-use facilities, but keep the 1000 HRK in our own pockets.



Off to get the guitar, Jessie wants some new shoes, we need some food, wine and beer and I want to get our order in at the Marina store for the equipment we need to buy.


Split to Kremik

Marina is very keen on getting to Venice so we need to head north again. Our time in Split was fun and we definitely liked not spending the $200, but had had enough of big city life. We set off and the weather started getting rougher and rougher. We were running ahead of a rainstorm with the wind building the whole way. We motored for a great part of it, with the waves becoming more and more difficult. Once we made it half way we decided that we should either put into port or put the sails up. The kids said they wanted to put the sails up and continue. They also wanted to go all the way to Kremik because our moorage is free there. So we put some 35 miles behind us.


Kremik to Dugi Otok

Like before, Kremik was great but we also know that we need to get out of there right away before we get mired. We sailed and motored all day and made to the National Park at Dugi Otok arriving at at 8pm. The cool part was that we got there later than the fee collectors work and then we got up and left earlier than the fee collectors start work. Woo hoo – four days in a row without paying for moorage or anchorage. Marina was really stoked and said her father would be proud of us. We did 49.92 Miles today and that set a good pace. We wanted to be this far so that we could get to Sakarin beach at the top of Dugi Otok.

Dugi Otok to Veli Rat

We left early in order to get into Sakarin beach and the wind was B-L-O-W-I-N-G. We had a reefed mainsail and in 24+ knots of wind we made the 30 or so miles north in 3 ½ hours. Along with the 20-25 knots of wind came 4-6 foot rolling waves. Though when you’re in 20 knots going downwind at 8 it only feels like you’re in 12 knots, plus if the waves are moving at 10 knots you only go through a wave every 20 seconds. Contrast this to going upwind when the wind over the deck feels like 27 knots and the waves are hitting every 5 seconds. It’s good to go downwind in a blow.

We went around the corner and anchored in a hurricane hole and walked to the beach and played in the waves. Ross & Jessie were the lead troupe, and Marina and I had a great time too. We walked back to the boat and got back to the Gemini just as the weather hit. Rain and more rain.


Later that night I woke up (Marina was already up) to lightning and we were in the middle of the worst thunderstorm I have seen on a boat (or on land for that matter). At times the rain was so heavy we couldn’t see the boat beside us (next mooring ball) and I was concerned about 1) getting hit by lightning and 2) having another boat drag its anchor and crash into us. So I got the lifejackets out, put one on, and due to my preparation, staved off any chance of bad things happening. I did have to suffer a fair amount of abuse from Marina and Ross for a day or two about overreacting to the lightning storm.

I can think of very few other places I would have rather been during this storm. The water is super shallow there – like 1.5 meters, we had a big block of concrete holding us, and the biggest fetch was maybe 500 meters. Talk about a perfect hurricane hole. It has taught us that our cautious nature is a good thing.


We love this place because the beach – and also the security of the mooring. Another good thing, the weather was so crappy at night the fee collectors stayed away and we got off before 8am and beat them to the punch – ha …5 days free …. Somewhere Granddad Ray must be smiling!


Veli Rat to Losinj

Early the next morning we headed off again, this time with the objective of Losinj (Lo-schin). We hit Losinj and tried to tie up at the ACI marina or the mole but were shut out at each one. We then dropped a hook and settled in for a nice day, walking and exploring. Losinj has a vibrant city core but there are tons of abandoned buildings on the waterfront. What an opportunity if someone wanted to build a business there … assuming that Croatia joins the EU and standardizes its business practices with the Rest of the World there are amazing opportunities for development everywhere – and you don’t even need to develop wilderness areas …. You can develop underutilized areas in existing cities – total win-win.

We left Losinj for Pula and encountered building winds. Forecast for 12-24 they were more line 24-30+ and we were double reefed on the main and had a small-ish jib up. After making it part-way we decided discretion was the better part of valour and we tucked into a small bay and dropped the anchor. That was our backup plan all along but it was cinched when we got close to the island in the shallower waters the waves got big and steep. We went through a set of three where I was pretty sure that the propellers would come out of the water. Ross was loving it but shipping green water over the bows was enough to get us to turn the corner into an anchorage.

It turns out we were trend setters. We got there and one powerboat was anchored, by the time we left there were more than 20 boats anchored. By 3 in the afternoon, we needed to make a call on whether we went back to Losinj or forward to Pula. The wind had abated as predicted and we hated the idea of giving up the 15 hard-fought miles so we decided to press on. A reefed main and jib and we were headed out … then it seemed to be getting lighter – shook out the reef in the jib, still lighter, shook out the reef in the main, still lighter … eventually we were powering into Pula.

We had hoped to moor at this large marina in Pula called Marina Veruda … but they had no room – soo we anchored around the corner in Soline – deep in the bay there are fees due but at the head of the bay there weren’t – so we anchored in 5 meters of water at the head of the bay and went swimming, thoroughly enjoying the 100 Euros that remained in my pocket. The next day we got up and left Soline and powered into Pula proper, anchored out in about 15-20 knots of wind in 5 meters of water. Pula is an ancient Roman city and we wanted to see the ruins of an ancient fort, coliseum and Roman gates. I was just reading the Emperor Series by Conn Iggulden and seeing some of the Roman buildings helped bring the books alive for me. Ross, of course, understood what every piece of architecture was and what it was used for, about when it was built and who would have built it. For a kid who doesn’t think History is all that important he sure seems to sock away a lot of information.

After hoofing around Pula for the day we went back to Gemini and headed up coast to find a place to stay. We decided to go into Rovinj and anchor out by a beach just before the entrance. It appears that all of Italy holidays in August. At this point after Rovinj we thought it would be a good idea to stay at a marina – we needed water and probably a couple of showers at minimum. There is a luxury marina at Novi Grad that looked like it would fit our needs. Sure it was 100 Euro but hey, we’d been a full 7 days since we paid a fee so we could afford a splurge. We went up to the marina but they were anything but hospitable, putting us as far away from the action as possible – and while they had a pool, it was another 30 Euro’s to use it. The kids didn’t want to stay so we got our stuff and headed out, picked up a mooring ball for 15 Euros and went out to dinner.

The next day we headed for Isola in Slovenia. When the former Yugoslavia broke apart, the first to go was Slovenia. They negotiated the narrowest of coastlines so they’d have a sea-port. The Slovenian coast is a whopping 10 miles long with three cities on it. We chose to stay in Isola because we had heard the marina was excellent and the town was interesting. We came in and were immediately put into a nice large slip beside other catamarans and had a great couple of days. We were still trying to get to Venice and then hatched a ‘Plan B’ where we took a fast-catamaran (this one actually worked) to Venice and toured for the day. Everyone loved Venice but it became apparent that taking a cat there would not be practical. We went by the place we were supposed to stay arranged by Carmen Derricott from Royal Vancouver Yacht Club and the moorings are all just a boat-width apart using pilings driven into the bottom. There is no way a catamaran would fit in them.

Before our day in Venice, we had several in Isola. One of the places we ate at had a statue that as soon as I saw it I said – “that’s Cam Landell” – a friend of ours that lives in North Vancouver; so we wondered how Cam had come to model for a statue in a restaurant in Slovenia. Perhaps one of his ancestors was a chef from Isola that immigrated to Canada a number of years ago.

After Venice, I paid the bill (grrrr…. Indeed there was a 50% premium for catamarans) and we decided to head south. We checked into customs in Rovinj and I had the most helpful customs agent I have ever encountered. A few minutes later we were cleared back into Croatia and on our way. It was only 2pm and when we’re in ‘travel mode’ we can cover a number of miles pretty quickly. The kids are usually great too when we’re on the move – they can go a little further. After back-to-back 60 and 50 mile days we were out of Istria (northern Croatia) and into Dugi-Otok once more. This is the place where we experienced the violent thunderstorm, yet this time it was nice and calm and we spent a day and a half at the beach hanging out. We wanted to be in Kremik by the middle of the month so we put in after being away for two weeks to check in on the progress of exporting Tara.

Canadians – the place is Lousy with Them

After going the entire month of July without seeing any fellow Canadians, we ran into 4 sets of them all in one day. First at the mooring in Lucice, then leaving Lucice there was a Jeanneau 50 with about a dozen people from Vancouver of all places. We said our hellos and goodbyes in a few minutes powering beside each other. Then coming into Split anchored in the harbour was a Canadian boat and when we docked at the Quay two fellows Dave and Eric helped us … turns out Dave is from Victoria and Eric from Brantford – they’re brothers here waiting for the arrival of Dave’s Nordhavn 47 trawler being shipped from Southampton to Split. It will be offloaded from the ship and then they’re off to Turkey. They’ve been doing this for a number of years – and it turns out Dave bought former Royal Van Commodore Tony Liebert’s Norseman 447 from him and named it Segue …. So the Nordhavn is Segue II. They’re off to south Turkey flying back home in mid-September. We had a nice chat and they warned us about spending too much time in Greece, as the Greeks have a rather arbitrary way of assessing taxes on yachts that spend more than a short period of time (e.g., 30-60 days) in their territorial waters. The last thing we need after springing the boat from Croatia is to have it impounded in Greece while we litigate over 25% of its value being taxed in Greece as we try to pass through.

Is Venice as Good as They Say?

In a word…yes! What a unique city – not a car nor scooter to be seen and boats everywhere! Colour, activity, history, art, culture, people…everywhere you look. We gave up on taking the boat ourselves, we just could not find a marina to take the catamaran, it’s too wide. So, we booked a tour ferry, The Prince of Venice and left Izola, Slovenia at 8 am, arriving dockside at the port in Venice at 11 am. There was a tour to take with the guides…but we preferred to go it alone. First stop, a large (for Croatia and Slovenia, but not for Vancouver) grocery store and picked up large bottles of drink to keep us hydrated. It was a lovely, hot and sunny day. Contrary to what we’d been told, Venice smelled like any sea city we’ve been to, just fine and even wonderful as we passed by some of the restaurants and bakeries. The water I would not swim in, there is just too much boat exhaust, but it was “clean” other than that. We heard every language imaginable; even saw a woman in full burkah.

The sights were amazing, especially when you got to detail. Piazza San Marco, Piazzetta San Marco, the Doge’s Palace (sometimes referred to as the cake because it looks like a wedding cake), the Bridge of Sighs where convicted criminals crossed from the court in the Doge’s Palace to their prison cells on the other side, the many winged lions (a personal favourite), pigeons, a peek in a few magnificent churches, the facades of the Grand Canal, the hundreds of gondolas, the beautiful streets and alleyways (we never really got lost, how can you, you’re on an island, but we did try) and we loved many of local scenes, like flowers in window-boxes, “garages” off the canals, ornate front doors and very old and run down front doors. If you ever go, take a recording of Rick Stokes podcasts, it was recommended by some friends and was just excellent to use to get around and notice many things you may not have (like the 7th Pillar on the Doge’s Palace depicting a love story with a tragic ending), and the dialogue is rather funny too.

We took a half hour taxi/sight seeing ride back to the port, a part of the tour we decided to join in on (and pay extra for) and it was well worth it! We cruised part of the Grand Canal and also through many smaller ones, had to hold up while a procession of gondolas passed us by, everyone patient and friendly, ending at the Port Customs for a quick check through and back on the ferry. 3 hours later, back in Izola for a nice dinner, sitting harbourside reveling in the sights, sounds and “feeling” of Venice.

Jessie’s Thoughts
Venice was a really fascinating experience, with all of the culture that originated there. Some of my favorite spots were the 7th pillar because of the story, it starts out like this man loves this woman (and as Rick says) the man said “Babe, I want you!” so she says “Oh why little old me” so they get married and had a kid, and later the baby dies, and all of these pillars tell all different stories. I also love all of the little winding streets, if 2 people tried to walk beside one another there would be a traffic block. The last and most memorable thing for me from Venice was the taxi ride, because there’s no cars in Venice it’s all by boats, we did a 30min boat ride. They showed you all of the sites on the Grand Canal; the houses are beautiful, with all of the colourful flowers, and vines on the house and in the flower boxes. I think that Venice is one of the must sees before you die. :-)

Ross’ Thoughts
If you are going to Venice bring a very large wallet. If you decide to eat in any of the squares, you will spend 12 Euro for a drink. If you are smart, walk away from the main drag and the prices will become more reasonable. If you go I suggest you arrive in the winter months because in the summer the crowds are huge and everything doubles in price. The best way to see the city is from a water taxi. It will take you through the various canals and back “streets” in Venice and give you a much better view than you would see from the streets. Even though Venice is expensive, the sights are definitely worth it. If you have time, I recommend you go inside some of the cathedrals, they will blow your mind.