A full day in Venice. There’s just no way to do the day justice in less than a gazillion pictures, brace yourselves.

Everyone knows Venice is the city of canals. But the corollary of that is that Venice is fully car-free. There is a bus terminal and a giant parking garage at the end of the bridge between the mainland and the island, and beyond that, it’s either walking or boating. Which makes the city incredibly pedestrian-friendly.

So we spent most of the day simply walking. There were a few spots we wanted to check out, and as those happened to be spread out across the island, just going from one to the next let us see a lot of the city.

Ingrid’s research led us to a nice brunch place with courtyard seating and generous yoghurt, fruit and granola bowls.

Fortified by our brunch, we walked more. Every channel was picturesque enough for photos; every bridge invited us to stop and admire the views. I wonder how long you’d have to stay here to get inured to the prettiness of everything.

We ran across a gallery with hyperrealistic life-sized sculptures of swimmers by Carol Feuerman.

More walking. And sometimes resting, because it was a bit hot.

Gradually we made our way to Piazza San Marco. I had expected crowds and was pleasantly surprised to not find any. Not just here, but everywhere in the city. There’s people, of course, but not ridiculous amounts of them.

We did book our trip as early as possible after the end of the school year, to avoid both the crowds and the heat, and it looks like we succeeded. Verona was perhaps even more crowded than Venice.

The basilica of San Marco is a stunning piece of architecture. Had we been in town for a week, I’d have spent a few hours just looking at it, inside and out. And just admiring all the different kinds of marble.

It’s a bit jarring to see two huge squares, lined with giant straight buildings, in a city where real estate is so scarce and and all other buildings are relatively small.

The campanile was open and barely even had a queue, so we paid our 10 EUR each and took the lifts up. I had hoped to climb the stairs to get the full tower experience and feel the height, but that was not an option.

The views from the tower were stunning, as expected.

The view from up here makes it obvious just how small and flat the island is. And how uniformly red all the roofs are.

You can also see the shipping lanes between the islands, marked with wooden poles.

Onwards.

After that we needed a bit of a break from walking along more alleys to more bridges to cross more canals. We decided to take the waterbus to Lido, a neighbouring island, both to rest our legs and to see the city from new angles.

On our way to Lido we passed a super yacht, larger than most buildings in the city. Google Image Search identified it as the Italian-built Lady A, completed this year. Apparently it’s only the 360th largest yacht in the world.

Lido is a long and narrow island. The waterbus stop is at one of its widest points, but even there the walk across the island was no more than a few city blocks. Unlike the main island, this one has streets and cars and space between buildings.

On the other side of the island we found a sandy beach.

The boat trip back gave us a chance to see the “back side” of Venice. Fewer scenic historical buildings; more boat garages and loading docks.

Of course the city hospital’s emergency department is also accessible by boat.

We got off the boat at a stop that was somewhat outside the most well-beaten paths to see some new corners of the city.

We ended up having a pretty lousy dinner at restaurant (Due Fratelli) that a 4.7 average rating on Google Reviews but managed to botch just about everything. The servers mixed up tables, some of the items we got were only vaguely similar to what the menu said, the salads were crap, the pasta was overcooked, and when it was time to pay, card payment was suddenly and mysteriously not available due to “internet troubles” so the only payment option was cash with no receipt for a 10% discount. Clearly a tourist trap, and I guess the Google Reviews were all paid for. It was so bad that it was funny. At least the food was not too bad.

And then the bus took us back to Mestre to our apartment.

Bonus photos by Ingrid:

Postdated. I knew I took more photos this day! And in the mess of my camera stopping working, I somehow misplaced them, but now (three weeks later) I found them again.

Airport car rental. Waiting. No matter how short the queue, it always takes half an hour at least to get through the process.

Our giant Jeep Compass. On the one hand – giant. On the other hand – spacious and modern. I could connect my Android phone to the car’s infotainment system and get Google Maps up on a big screen, and get Spotify to play without fiddling around with a separate Bluetooth speaker.

The main sight in Verona was the Roman-era Arena. I wish we had the time to visit it properly.

When in Italy, gelato is a must. The ice cream parlors here were leaning in hard on the Romeo and Juliet theme, so Eric got a “Coppa Julieta”.

The main square was very crowded. I wonder if this is what we can expect to see Venice as well.

I take photos; Ingrid saves her memories by scrapbooking.

We’re on vacation in northern Italy. Today was mostly a transportation day – flying to Milan and driving to Venice, stopping in Verona on the way to stretch our legs and buy ice cream.

I discovered that my camera lens had stopped working when I unpacked it. I didn’t bring my small camera for the trip so I only have my phone. I feel handicapped and confused and lost.

Anyway, here’s a random street scene from Verona. Verona was prettier and more full of tourists than I had expected.

By the evening we were in Mestre, in mainland Venice. We’re staying in apartments for the whole trip. Hotels in Venice were eye-wateringly expensive – three nights in Venice would have cost as much as return flights from Stockholm to Milan. And apartments suit us better, anyway. We appreciate having access to a kitchen, if for nothing more than the ability to make tea, and a living room with actual sitting furniture. In hotels quite often the bed is the only place where you can sit, and after a week of that my back is always complaining.

My go-to camera lens stopped working. And the camera itself has also been showing symptoms of wear – the rear LCD screen only works if I fold it out to a specific angle. I’ve been ignoring the screen issues because flipping out the screen wasn’t that much of a bother, but without the wide angle zoom lens, the camera isn’t that useful for daily use.

I sent them both in for repairs but forgot to take out the memory card first, so my photos for recent days are somewhere between here and the Olympus service centre in Portugal. If they’re still there when I get back the camera, I’ll fill in the gap later.

Of course my clothing drawer is a cat bed.

The traditional end-of-year visit to RiCora.

(Us and a few dozen other groups of families with teens.)

There’s more and more dinnertime conversation and much less kid-wrangling when they are so grown.

A very heavily pregnant deer stopped to rest in our lilac hedge. I was wondering if she would stay here to give birth, and we’d get a deer nursery again, but a few hours later she was gone.

Went to a nature photo club meetup.

I joined a nature photo club some while ago. I’ve been paying membership fees for a couple of years, and skimming the members’ magazine, but never actually joined in any of the activities. Each issue of the magazine felt less and less relevant and I was in the process of cancelling my membership. Someone wrote back and asked why, and reminded me of their upcoming event, and I thought, why not give it another, proper try. So I attended the next event – an outing to Sandemar nature reserve.

The group consisted of 90% men of mature age, and one woman roughly my age. (And one guy’s wife, but since she wasn’t there to photograph, she doesn’t really count.) Everyone came equipped with big telephoto lenses, aiming to photograph birds. And then there was me, with my micro 4/3 SLR and a macro lens.

Sandemar nature reserve is on the coast, and is a popular nesting area for water birds. The day was very windy and the birds weren’t co-operating much, so in the end I think I came home with more photos I was happy with than most of the rest of them. I photographed tiny flowers (because the smaller and lower they were, the less they blew around in the wind) and lichens, because those were very good at staying still.

After the meetup was officially over, three of us continued to the other end of the nature reserve, where there are bogs. There was some interesting flora there, but I was a tired by that time so the photos of those didn’t come out very well.

Voting in the EU election. Election day is tomorrow, but I see no point in waiting another day just to queue more.

The participation rate in these tends to be lower than in the national ones. The media do their best to improve turnout. If it’s sounds like too much work to figure out who to vote for, they say, it’s not a bad idea to just choose the same party you’d vote for nationally.

I’m not going down that route. The national questions I prioritize are not the same as one the EU level. In this vote, it doesn’t matter to me what their opinion is on education, healthcare, crime, or most social questions. I only really care what they will do about climate change, because that’s the area where national decisions matter little, and continental or global action is needed to make a real difference.

The various online guides tell me my opinions match up most closely with the Environmental party, the Left party, and the Centre party. No matter how much we agree on the environment, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to vote for the Left party. They no longer describe themselves as communists, but their communist past still permeates their ideology, and I just cannot.

We have a hiking vacation coming up, and needs new gear. Unlike Adrian, she definitely wears adult sizes now. Not that that makes things much easier. She’s got my genes, in that she has curvy hips and a slim waist. Sounds normal for a woman, right? The classical hourglass figure? But somehow most trousers sold in Sweden don’t fit that body type. When they’re right in the thighs and hips, there’s a massive gap in the waist, enough to fit an entire fist. It’s not just Swedish fashion, either – I remember having the exact same problem in the UK, many years ago.

With a rain suit the fit doesn’t matter much, but hiking trousers need to actually fit reasonably well to be wearable. Ingrid tried on about 15 pairs, I think – when she was done, the rack by the fitting rooms it looked like someone had just brought everything they found there. We were close to giving up, but a helpful sales attendant found some more for her to try. And of course the only pair that fit was by far the most expensive one she tried.

Oh well. At least she’s hopefully finished with her growing, so these could last her the next ten years or so.