We left Paris yesterday, riding the overnight train to Venice. This was NOT what we had expected. The train messed up our reservation though our tickets clearly stated SUPERIOR CLASS COUCHETTE – a private sleeper with meal service. It appears that they oversold this category and several of us got “bumped” to First Class. In other words, we had sleeping mates. It was a nice older couple from France but they spoke little English and we speak little French. We managed okay. The unit was designed to sleep six – thank God (literally) that there were only four of us!
We left our quarters around 9pm to find the restaurant car for dinner (it doesn’t begin to get dark until 10pm or later). We were seated with two guys – Dale and Tom – from Denver, Colorado. We enjoyed great conversation and an “okay” meal with these two. The food was interesting and, if you know me, you know I don’t eat many carbs. Here’s the menu:
Bread Sticks = CARBS
Pasta in Garlic Sauce = CARBS
Pasta in Tomato = CARBS
Veal in Tuna Sauce – Hmmm, not sure what this was.
Steamed Potatoes = CARBS
Cake = CARBS
I’m sure I was in “carb overload” by the time we made it to bed. And that’s a whole other story – bed time in the sleeper! I won’t go into details.
We arrived in Venice and our hostess was waiting for us at the end of the platform. She whisked us away immediately to our Water Taxi. After loading up the luggage, we were on our way through the Grand Canal to our hotel. The scenery was spectacular. I’ll be posting those pictures to our Flickr page later.
Our hotel is the Hotel Luna Baglioni (pictured below) – a spectacular palace that sits directly on the Canal. Unfortunately, it was early (10am) and our room was not quite ready. We left our luggage and wandered the streets of Venice finding our way to St. Mark’s Square. We did a little shopping, found food, and made it back to the hotel around 12:45pm with a room ready for our arrival. Time to get a shower!! And tonight, a Gondola ride on the Grand Canal!
