Art’s Travel Adventures

I started getting really homesick last night. Miss my husband and the dog. But I woke up this morning so grateful to have gotten to spend time in Venice and to have this lovely room in Pesaro Palace.

I spent most of my morning running from window to window taking pictures and video of the Grand Canal.

Here’s some video out my windows.

Great morning.

I splurged on a Water Taxi to the airport. Here’s the one I thought I’d get.

One just like it came and got me. To get to the airport you wander through some back canals and then zip across the lagoon to the airport. It’s a really fun ride and the boat is luxurious.

I spent some time in the Marco Polo Lounge having a snack and watching the planes take off. Before too long it was time to board the plane for London.

I forgot my coat on the plane and by the time I realized it I’d already gone through passport control. Drat. I took the Heathrow Express a Paddington Station checked into the Hilton Paddington Station Hotel. I’ve stayed here before. It’s a great place to stay before flying out of London Heathrow since it is connected to a Paddington Station. I used my Hilton points to book and it was perfect. After going out to get another coat (it’s just too damn cold to not have one here!) I managed a short nap before heading to the West End. A few months ago Mike told me Reeve Carney and Eva Noblezada were co-stating in Cabaret. Not my favorite show but I love Eva and Reeve (they were in Hadestown and were brilliant) so I booked a ticket. They were great and the show was…Cabaret. I was really taken by Ruthie Henshall’s portrayal of Fraulein Schneider. She stole the show for me. I only realized after the show that she was the lead in the Billy Elliott Musical I watched on the flight over. I would watch her in anything!

The production really tried to make it an immersive experience. You enter through the basement making it feel a bit like a speakeasy. Performers are all over the theater before the show performing with instruments and dancing. Fun.

They were very insistent that no pictures be taken preshow or post so they gave us stickers to cover our phone lenses.

I made it back to the hotel and slept for around 4 hours. I had a delicious breakfast at the Hilton and then took the Heathrow Express to LHR.

Since I booked “Upper Class” with points I got to use a Private Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Security Screening.

This alone was worth the points. No line. No security chaos. No TSA people shouting at you. Brilliant.

The lounge was lovely but it was soon time to board my flight.

Since I got 4 hours of sleep last night I hope I’ll get to sleep a lot on the 10 hour flight home. I’ll be spending most of Thanksgiving on the plane. And I’m just fine with that. I’ll miss spending time with the families but it’s just not my favorite holiday.

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I slept for nearly 8 hours of the 11 hour flight…an all time record for me! The staff on my Virgin Atlantic flight were all so kind and took great care of me.

After searching for my car for a while I hit the road and beefed up wailing in the door around 5:15pm. The dog was very happy to see me and Mike was over at my mother-in-law’s house to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Thanks for following along on this trip. I hope you enjoyed following along as much as I enjoyed the travel.

The air is just different in Venice. I woke up to a beautiful misty morning and watched the traffic on the Grand Canal before heading down to breakfast.

I had no plans for today. Nothing I really wanted to see or do other than explore. I headed out to a part of Venice I hadn’t been to before and got to take a 2 euro gondola ride. I had thought I might want to try this at some point but it wasn’t something I was going out of my way to do. I had typed a walking destination in Google Maps and it took me to a Traghetto stand to get to the other side of the Grand Canal.

Please forgive the camera work. I started the trip standing but quickly decided to sit. Probably best.

With all of the bigger boats around us it felt sketchy to be on a little gondola, but it was neat! Worth every bit of the 2 Euro.

I strolled through the back streets just wandering around. It’s weird to be walking through some seriously isolated areas and dark alleys and yet not having any sense of danger. I’ve always felt safe in Venice.

After walking around for a while I consulted Google Maps to see where I was. And I was just 5 minutes away from the Dosodoro area. Yesterday I looked for a shop I’d bought a bracelet at when Mikey and I were here several years ago. The bracelet broke a month or so ago and it was my favorite. I really wanted to get a replacement but I didn’t have any luck yesterday finding the shop. I figured I’d give it one more try. I got lucky.

On the phone Mike reminded me of a weird fast food pasta place we’d eaten at so I wanted to see if it was still there. It was not but I was so close to the Indiana Jones Library I figured I’d grab one more picture.

I took the Vaporetto back to the Pesaro Palace.

I’d yet to get on a boat that had the dock directly outside my hotel as a stop. Not every Vaporetto stops at every stop. The one I hopped on did this time so…here’s the palace from the water.

If you’ve made it this far you deserve to see the most Venetian thing I’ve seen all day. See if you can spot it.

I am so glad I am here but I miss my dog. I miss my husband. It’s that part of the trip where I feel home calling me.

Tomorrow I fly to London and then I fly home the next day.

Thanks for following along.

Not a bad view to wake up to.

I could have stayed in my room all day long and just enjoyed watching the “traffic” on the Grand Canal. One of the coolest things about Venice is there are no cars, just boats. I don’t know anywhere else in the world like this.

I make it down to breakfast by 7:45am.

I headed out to explore the neighborhood around my hotel. I’d never been to this part of Venice so it was all new to me.

I’m a sucker for old churches so when I saw this door open I decided to explore. I couldn’t tell it was a church from the outside but I’m glad I checked it out. The sculptures around the altar were pretty cool.

I stopped at a Coop Grocery Store and picked up an umbrella and made good use of it all day long. I also got a bag of Rosemary Chips that I dropped off at the room before heading back out. This was happening outside my hotel window.

This picture below is a dead end.

Venice is full of dead ends since there are so many canals. I ran into my fair share today in my explorations. I count each as a successful execution of my willingness to explore.

Having explored a new-to/me neighborhood I was ready to head over to the Dosodoro area which is where Mike and I stayed the last time we were in here. The draw for me is the Indiana Jones Library from the third movie.

I stopped by my favorite little cafe from my last visit and had cicchitti and coffee and watched the world go by for a bit.

This part of Venice feels more like a local neighborhood than anywhere else I’ve been.

I took the Vaporetto (water bus) back to my neighborhood and grabbed a sandwich to take back to the room. Vegetarians may want to skip this next section.

It was delicious and nap inducing. I slept for a few hours and woke to discover the rain stopped so I headed to St. Mark’s Square to take some night pictures.

This place is tourist central during the day but this evening it was comparatively empty and a joy to walk around. I decided to skip the touristy side streets surrounding the square and headed via Vaporetto to the Rialto Bridge.

See the temporary walkways in the last photo above? Venice regularly floods due to the tides and I saw these beginning to go up in a few places. I asked my hotel clerk if we were going to see some high water tomorrow. He said not tomorrow but Wednesday. Fortunately for me, I head out Wednesday morning.

By this time I couldn’t feel my fingers despite my gloves but I hadn’t had a gelato yet so I stopped and got a single scoop of Nutella Gelato despite the cold.

Delicious way to end the day.

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Charming. The village of Buxton is just charming. I’ve been struggling with not liking Edinburgh as much as I expected. I’ve been thinking, “am I just not in the mood for travel? A little grumpy?” The answer is no. I just didn’t care for Edinburgh. How do I know? I am charmed by Buxton. Everywhere I look I love what I see. Lovely architecture, charming cafes, a lovely park with a stream running through it. Charming. And it’s cold and rainy and I don’t care! Happy to walk around in less than ideal weather to experience this little place.

A little aside: 20 years ago I was in London for six weeks studying Shakespeare and the Renaissance during grad school. I snuck away one weekend to attend a puppet festival here in Buxton where I saw my favorite marionette artist Stephen Mottram perform. The festival was fun and Stephen’s show was wonderful. I saw him perform here.

Today I’m here to go to another toy faire.

I had a great time looking at everything and had some great toy nerd conversations.

Still raining on and off, still loving the little town of Buxton I grabbed some pastries and headed back to the hotel to enjoy my breakfast. after I ate it was time to head to the train station so I could catch my train to Manchester.

The train station is the end of the Northern Train line. So there’s only one train to catch. Even the tiny little train station is charming.

Manchester Piccadilly station was a glorious cluster-f***. Confusion and delayed trains made the place chaos. Despite the chaos I managed to find my way to a crowded platform and get to the airport in plenty of time.

I hung out at Cafe Nero until I could check my bag (the only time I’ll be checking a bag on this trip…stupid Ryan Airlines) and then headed to the Escape Lounge to relax before my flight to Venice.

I’m still a little jet laggy so I managed to sleep a bit on the 2 hour flight. (I usually can’t sleep on a plane so this was remarkable!)

I took this water bus to the Rialto Bridge and had a lovely walk to my hotel arriving around 11:30pm.

I shared a chip with this bird in the video (which I think is illegal in Venice…? I am a rebel.) It then began shouting that it wanted more. Way to rat me out, bird.

I found a really good off season deal on this room and while the room is wonderful the view is what it’s all about for me.

Venus is one of my favorite places on the planet and I couldn’t be happier to get to spend some time here.

Spent some time on the phone with Mikey and then headed to bed.

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My overnight train got it around 7:30am. I took a taxi to my hotel and had fingers crossed they’d have my room ready so I could sneak in a nap. The train was comfortable but jet lag made sleep a bit fitful so I’m running on 48 hours of not enough sleep. No luck with my room being ready so I headed out to find a coffee shop for a bite of breakfast.

It is very cold here. VERY cold. I decided to walk around a bit so I set a destination of Old Town and headed out.

I had a nice stroll but it was just too cold to be out for too much longer so I tried the hotel again and still no room.

I stayed in the lobby a bit to warm up and then headed back out, this time to walk the Royal Mile. This road connects Edinburgh Castle to the Palace of Hollyroodhouse.

I made it to the end of the Royal Mile and decided to tour through Hollyroodhouse Palace.

The Palace isn’t open to the public when the Royals are in residence but fortunately King Charles III wasn’t in town. The audioguide was instructional but I’ll be damned if I can remember much of what I learned. Mary Queen of Scots, something something… I need some sleep.

Ruined Hollyrood Abbey was part of the tour and was pretty neat. Rood=cross, so Holy Cross Abbey.

I hiked back up the Royal Mile back to the hotel. Still no room. I went out to grab a bite and had a delicious burger at Bread Meat Bread.

At 2:30pm I was freezing and exhausted. Fortunately my room was finally ready. I hopped in the shower to warm up and then crashed for 9 hours. I feel like I caught up on the sleep I’ve missed for the last 48 hours.

It’s 2am and I’ve been watching some UK TV like “Man About the House”. It’s a sitcom from the early 70’s that seemed really familiar. Turns out it was the sitcom that “Three’s Company” was based on. It even had Larry and the Ropers.

After chatting with Mikey for a bit I wrote this up and now I’m going to see if I can sleep for a while longer.

Good night!

I love international travel and I love Europe. I subscribe to an email list that notifies me when good miles deals on business class seats become available. Nine months ago a deal for a one way flight from London to San Francisco came in my email. It was such a good deal so I booked it right away expecting that I would be able to find a flight to Europe, anywhere in Europe, from the west coast. A few months later another great deal from San Francisco to London arrived in my inbox and I hopped on it. I don’t have much interest in spending too much time in London having been there many times. But it’s a great gateway city.

Half the fun of travel for me is the planning. And it’s been fun planning what to do and where to go in between the two bookends of these flights. I thought about returning to Switzerland, going to the South of France, and several other ideas. I finally settled on some time in Edinburgh, Scotland (my first time!), Buxton England and Venice.

Planes, Trains and no Automobiles

I am flying “Upper Class” on Virgin Atlantic direct from SFO to LHR on their 787-900. I’ve never flown this airline so I’m excited to experience their business class product. I get into London late morning and get to spend the day there before hopping on the Caledonian Express Night Train to Edinburgh.

A cheap flight on Ryan Air (think Europe’s version of Spirit Air) from Manchester to Venice. Then British Air (an Airbus 321) back to London and Virgin back home.

Travel Day

After a smooth drive to the airport (Sacramento to San Francisco , SFO) I parked and only had to wait for a few minutes to check in for my flight. I breezed through security and was sitting in the Virgin Atlantic lounge by 1pm. My flight departs at 4:30pm so I have plenty of time to enjoy the lounge food and comfortable seats. The Venison Burger and chocolate lava cake were delicious.

The upper class seats were a little coffin-like. Very narrow. And I’ve never been on a plane where the seat actually flips down to turn into a bed. Usually it just reclines into the lie flat position. Weird, but comfortable enough.

Dinner on the plane was fine and I enjoyed a great video of the Billy Elliot Musical which I saw in London in 2005. I managed to doze in and out for maybe a total of an hour or so before it was time to have breakfast and get ready to land. We sat next to the terminal for 30 minutes waiting for a plane to move out of our gate. Funny how that 30 minutes can feel longer than the 10 hour flight.

London

I breezed through customs and found the Virgin Atlantic Arrivals lounge by around 11:45am where I was able to take a shower and have a cup of coffee. My night train to Edinburgh doesn’t board until 10:30pm so I had 8 or 9 hours to kill in London.

I took the Underground from the airport to Euston Station and dropped off my luggage at the luggage hold place. I then took a journey out to a Hertfordshire.

As some know, I’ve been collecting and restoring old Star Wars toys from the 70’s and 80’s and that is influencing parts of this trip. Hertfordshire has a little brand new vintage toy shop that I’ve been following on Instagram and I thought it would be fun to drop in and check it out. The owner was really fun to chat with and has an extensive knowledge of vintage toys. I ended up getting a tiny Mighty Max playset which is really neat! (I know, not Star Wars, but neat!)

By the time I was done at the shop and made my way back into central London it was around 4:30pm. I was getting really sleepy on the way to Hertfordshire but I caught my second wind coming back so I walked around Kings Cross Station and got some cheese at a little food stand outside the station and took a few pictures here and there.

A quick tube trip back to Euston station so I could look for a place to eat. A pizza joint fit the bill nicely. Their crust is better than mine and mine is pretty good.

I’m now sitting in the Caledonian Sleeper Lounge trying to keep my eyes open long enough to board the train and sleep. This has been a great start to the trip.

A hour and a half later and I am tucked in my little bed on the train. It’s a cute tiny room!

I am so ready to sleep. I imagine I’ll wake up around 3 or 4 in the morning due to jet lag but in the mean time…good night.

Thanks for following along!

The nice thing about traveling west is the 3 hour time change. Getting up at 5 or 6am is really 8 or 9am for us so it’s been easy to catch the sunrises. Today’s wasn’t the best we’ve seen but it was nice to watch. Plus I really love sitting next to my husband and watching sunrises and sunsets. It’s a special time.

This is our last morning on Moorea. We had a delicious breakfast (again, the French toast, yum!) and our kitty friend visited.

We spent the morning packing up and the afternoon waiting for and then boarding the ferry for a wavy rough ride across the channel to Tahiti. I know I’ve titled this blog “Tahiti, Day 1” etc., but we’ve been on Moorea the majority of the time.

We got off the ferry and headed over to the Hilton, Tahiti. It’s a gorgeous hotel and we only have a single night here because of our early flight tomorrow morning.

We ate at a Japanese restaurant on site. The food was delicious and the company was lovely. We had a great time traveling with Vicki and Darryl. So glad they joined us on this trip!

We didn’t sleep particularly well or long as we had to get us at 4am to head to the airport. Dropping off the rental car and getting through security took an hour. We used credit card points to book our flight home on Air France, my favorite airline. We got access to the Air Tahiti Lounge so we grabbed a little bite and enjoyed the air conditioned relaxing space until it was time for departure.

What a plane! Their business class seats are the most comfortable I’ve ever gotten to experience. Wide footwell, tons of storage and just super comfortable.

The service was really nice and the food was good. I looked at the flight path after watching a couple of movies and was actually disappointed we only get another 3 hours on this plane.

We stay in LA overnight due to a flight cancelation then we’re home early tomorrow.

Final Thoughts

The Coriolis Effect was neat!

Over water bungalow was spectacular. So nice to hop right in the ocean at anytime. ✅ Bucket list but I don’t feel like I need to do it again. Ocean views though? Yes!

The food was good but not as great as I was hoping. And it was pricey!

I got to experience one of the best dives ever. Sharks!!

Sitting with Mike and watching sunrises and sunsets was so nice. And the Hilton Moorea was situated perfectly so we could watch both. That resort was a perfect place to stay and experience Moorea.

It was our first time traveling with Vicki and Darryl. Loved it.

I don’t know if we need to go back to French Polynesia. I’m glad we experienced it. It was lovely, but we get the same relaxation in Maui.

Can’t wait to see the dog in the morning.

Thanks for following along!

We’ve both fallen into a pretty nice morning routine. Get up, watch the sunrise. Go to our deck and watch the birds fish. Head over for breakfast. Come back to the bungalow. Today’s sunrise wasn’t great but the company was.

We opted for the hot breakfast this morning and the French toast made it completely worth the extra $9. Delish!

It seems like on our last few trips the universe has been kind enough to recognize that we’ve started to miss our dog and, so, send us animals to pet.

Today we got a sweet dog, three cats and a bird that came and chatted with me while I sat in a Zoom fight club meeting.

We went to a couple of shops and found a few fun things to pick up. If you’re looking for any shops just go past the tropical part of the road and you’ll find them.

Mike and I decided to get in the water for a bit despite the wind and current. We saw a few fish here and there.

Mike spotted a weird sea creature through the glass floor of the bungalow.

We had dinner at the grill on the resort. A tasty pizza and dessert. Here’s a goofy picture of us in the hammock by the grill.

Sunset was nice enough but brief due to the clouds rolling through.

It’s been a beautiful and relaxing day. Tomorrow we hop the ferry from Moorea to Tahiti.

Thanks for following along!