OFF WE GO........

We left home at 16.15 Tuesday and headed to the airport.  Our flight was delayed but only by half hour or so.  A nice glass of wine was very welcome as we waited and started to relax.  Onto the plane and we arrived in Melbourne to a very cold gloomy wet night.  We were met by our transfer bus to our Motel and arrived there only half an hour before their dining room stopped serving meals for the day.  We both had lovely meals, Seafood Paella for me and Spaghetti   Marinara for Den.  Delicious and even better with another glass of wine.

We organised for a late checkout and so headed off to Tullamarine Airport just after noon.  Ten and a half hours to fill in.  We had lunch and a lovely glass of Guinness at an Irish pub.  The rest of the afternoon was filled in with cryptic crosswords, reading, I did a bit of drawing and we both read and of course we 'people watched'.  Before we knew it, it was once again time to eat.

Julee and Lindsay arrived at 7pm and at the same time ‘Emirates’ opened their counters and so we were soon on our way through to customs etc. and out into the departure lounge.  More sitting and waiting……

It didn’t seem to take long and we were off.  It was a quite spacious plane and so we were all fairly comfortable.  Just as well 13.5 hours later we landed in Dubai.  This time 4 hours to wait and then another 6 hour flight.  Half an hour before we landed in Venice it was 24 hours since we had left Tullamarine.  We had travelled 11,832k Melb. to Dubai and then 4,667 to Venice.  No wonder we were feeling a bit weary.

We were met at Venice airport and arrived here 3.30pm Venice time (about 1.30am Melbourne time).  What an enchanting place it is.  After a very welcome shower and a bit of a rest we were off wandering around this beautiful city.  We met up for dinner.  I had spaghetti with cuttlefish in black sauce – yum.  The black sauce is of course made of squid ink and so I looked like I had been eating licorice. An ice cream and then a bit more of a wander around the shops and we were all ready for bed.