\n\t{google_map}46.048228, 14.499360{\/google_map}\n<\/p>\n
\n\tMore Observations:\n<\/p>\n
\n\tWe still get robo calls over here, but the problem is that they come in the middle of the night {Grrrrr}.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tTrying to use Google maps to navigate between locations in a town is a real challenge. If you zoom in on any of the Google Map links from Italy, you will see than none of the streets run in any “planned” scheme. For reference, a good map would be: (Google Map Link of apartment in Venice)<\/a> [BTW, you can zoom in and out on those maps]. Most streets are only a block or two long (some main streets are a bit better about lending themselves to navigation. In the photo below from Venice, you will see me standing in one of the hundreds of walkways that are in addition to what we would call streets (in Venice there are no streets, as there are no cars). Google “sees” the walkways, but there could be 3 or 4 in a USA block length and it is really hard to tell which one Google wants us to take and they dart in various direction. Worse yet, many of the walkways look like they are dead end, but simply take a jog.\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\tNow for some Venice highlights.\n<\/p>\n \n\tWe traveled from Florence to Venice via train on Tuesday (7\/16). The apartment was on the second floor so not so many steps to climb. It was a quaint apartment.\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n\tOur apartment in Venice\n<\/p>\n \n\tGetting to our apartment was quite an experience. There are no cars in the area of Venice we were in. Instead, we departed the train station and boarded a water taxi. The train station is right on the Grand Canal and the water taxi was perhaps 50 yards from the train station. The taxi we took to the apartment was much like a bus with lots of stops and tons of people on the boat. \n<\/p>\n \n\t \n\t \n\tOur water taxi leaving our stop (Ospedale)\n<\/p>\n \n\tOur apartment was very close to a great eating\/scenic area – perhaps three blocks away. We ate dinner on this plaza.\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n\tWednesday we walked a bit over a half mile (well sorta, we got lost a couple of times and probably increased that distance by 20-30% {grin}) to the two incredible locations shown below.\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\t \n\tDoges Palace in Venice. Notice bridge over the canal.\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\t \n\tBasilica di San Marco\n<\/p>\n \n\tAfter our walking tour, we went back to the same plaza restaurant we ate at the night before. Both nights I had some white wine rather than my typical great beer. The wine was great as well.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThursday was our travel day to Ljubljana. I will detail the train travel in the next post, but our trip to the train station was quite unique. We had our challenges on the public water taxi, mainly getting our luggage on and off the crowded boat. We decided to take a private taxi back to the train station. Our first challenge was that they were all full that morning. We worked with a great shop owner to call a taxi (neither of us could speak the other’s language), but we got the job done. I talked to what I thought was the taxi company and they said the fare would be 18 Euro – just slightly what we paid for the public taxi. Well, something broke down in the communication and the fee was 70 Euro! However it was a great ride and dealing with the luggage was not a problem.\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\t \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\t \n\tA picture of Pat in our rather fancy private taxi back to train station\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n\tApproaching the train station in our expensive water taxi\n<\/p>\n \n\tThat is all for this post.\n<\/p>\n \n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello from Ljubljana, Slovenia Friday afternoon – July 19, 2019 (Fifth post of this travelogue) We are in a great Airbnb in Ljubljana, Slovenia (Google Map link) {google_map}46.048228, 14.499360{\/google_map} More Observations: We still get robo calls over here, but the … Continue reading ![\"One](\"http:\/\/beltguy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/One-of-hundreds-of-tiny-walkways-in-Venice-Medium-225x300.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"Our](\"http:\/\/beltguy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Our-Apartment-in-Venice-Medium-225x300.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"View](\"http:\/\/beltguy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/View-from-our-water-taxi-on-the-grand-canal-Medium-300x225.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/address>\n\n\ton the way from the train station to our apartment
\n<\/address>\n![\"Our](\"http:\/\/beltguy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Our-water-taxi-leaving-Ospedale-stop-Medium-300x225.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"Basilica](\"http:\/\/beltguy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Basilica-dei-Santi-Giovanni-e-Paolo-in-Venice-Medium-300x225.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/address>\n\n\tWe ate dinner on the plaza with this view.
\n<\/address>\n![\"Doges](\"http:\/\/beltguy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Doges-Palace-in-Venice-Medium-300x300.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"Basilica](\"http:\/\/beltguy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Basilica-di-San-Marco-Medium-300x225.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"Trash](\"http:\/\/beltguy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Trash-collection-in-Venice-Medium-300x225.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/address>\n\n\tIt collected trash from all the businesses in the area and
\n<\/address>\n\n\tprivate folks brought their trash as well.
\n<\/address>\n![\"Inside](\"http:\/\/beltguy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Inside-our-water-taxi-on-way-back-to-train-station-Medium-300x225.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n![\"Tain](\"http:\/\/beltguy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Tain-station-in-Venice-Medium-300x225.jpg\")
\n<\/p>\n