I am trying to decide what is worse – flying in coach to Europe or being given such a horrible routing with an award ticket for business class that your layovers are longer than the flights. Hard to say.
Our flight for Seattle leaves at 6 AM (United also has flights to Seattle that are at 7, 8, and 10 but none of those are available to us) which means we have to get up at 2:30AM to get to the airport. After hassling with the agent about a misspelling on my ticket, we board and arrive early in Seattle at 7:45AM. Our next flight leaves at 3:05PM for Frankfurt. We wander around the airport. We eat lunch. We play on our iPads. I put my head on a table and go to sleep.
At last it is time for the flight to Frankfurt. The seats are fairly Teutonic in their comfort. We have dinner and fall asleep briefly. Then we watch movies until breakfast. It is all fairly uneventful.
After landing in Frankfurt we have a three hour layover. We are so tired. I wish there were rent-a-beds.
It is time for the last flight from Frankfurt to Venice. We get some lunch. It is probably the best airline food so far. Out the window I see the Alps.
Once in the Marco Polo Airport we buy our tickets for the water bus (Alilaguna) to our stop, Zattere. Marvels of marvels our telephone works and we call Truly Venice who is arranging our stay. They will meet us at our stop. Venice airport is so cool with the ferries docking right at the airport.
Although the water taxi is faster we are taking the Alilaguna (water bus) over to Venice. Depending on the tide it can be difficult to get into the water taxis as there are no ramps just a box to step on as you descend into the boat. I am concerned that between my knee and John’s hip, boarding might be a misadventure.
Our boat is so slow and I am so tired. I keep falling asleep although I am sitting straight up in my hard seat. There’s no fighting it. I am only aware that I’ve fallen asleep when I wake up. There’s some stuff to look at. It appears that some islands in the lagoon are privately owned. We also pass the island of Murano where there are many tourist excursions in the hopes that you will buy some Venetian glass.
After about an hour on the boat we see Venice. John snaps a picture of gondolier with his payload of Japanese tourists. They are about the only ones you see in the gondolas. Also the doge’s pink palace glows in the setting sun.
Our trip is almost over! After an hour and 45 minutes on the boat and over 30 hours traveling since we got up on Thursday we have arrived! Our host from Truly Venice meets us at the dock and we walk to our apartment. Last order of business is to find a grocery store and buy some supplies for breakfast. That done, we unpack and fall asleep.