The last towers of Venice are disappearing behind the horizon while the salty sea wind is blowing around our noses. It brings the smell of something new as we are reflecting the first stage of our journey.
The way to Venice was quite easy going until we arrived in Mestre where we had to ask far more than once to finally find our way out of the industrial labyrinth direction ferry harbour. The last 10 kilometers until the camping turned out to be an exhausting slalom on a packed multi-lane expressway between racing cars and huge trucks. Obviously the Italian bus drivers have similar qualities as in Austria and understand an extended arm as a sign to accelerate to give a high five with their mirror to Martina.
The campground we reached is a really lovely place situated directly at the seaside, right between hundreds of industrial chimneys and the main boat canal on the way to Venice which obviously requires 24h maintenance by huge cran-ships that are digging out tons of mud around the clock. What a dream holiday destination! But at least the bungalows resembling henhouses where cheaper than the price for two persons and a tent and the paper wall protected us a little bit from the surrounding noise.
The good thing about this place was that it’s situated right next to the stop of a public boat transport line to Venice which we took the next day to pay a visit to this venerable city. After an unguided tour through the narrow alley labyrinth leaded by random direction changes and multiple visits to the same plaza (from different directions!) we found a tiny little photo shop. Its owner Marco didn’t have a hard job convincing Gui to get rid of 5kg of camera equipment by introducing him to our new amazing Fuji camera – without zoom. We tried it, we love it!
Next day – new challenge: boarding the ferry! Some things seem to never change for the Italian-Greek ferry companies. As usual the ticket office was crowded with people shouting at the ticket desk employees and it takes hours until they find your booking confirmation. But one thing changed dramatically and this is the security checkpoint for pedestrian or bike passengers.
Similar to the US security entry policy they wanted us to send every single little bag through the x-ray unit. That means taking of all the luggage, the trailer, the bike lamps and the repair kit pocket from our bikes just to afterwards put it on again for the last hundred meters for entering the ferry, where we took everything off again! What a waste of energy… but a really good training 🙂 Along this way, they really considered it necessary to control our passports five times- Eventually, with some friendly chatting even the angriest police officers took off his serious Venetian mask and encourages us for our way with a big smile.
Finally on the ferry it didn’t take long until we found two other open minded fellow travelers to share some funny stories, some cold beers in the sunshine and some card games with. That made the cruise passing by in a flash.
