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Goodbye, Venice (Day 13, May 29)

First I want to post a picture I forgot to upload last time:

Venetian Door

The door itself isn't the interesting part (to me).  Look closely at the lintel above it--the Roman numerals read "IXXXX," or 41.  I was told this was from a time when the numbers were read right-to-left instead of left-to-right and before they started using subtracting numerals.  This would be written "XLI" later.

So, today we got up early--earlier than I even usually do--at 1:30 am to be ready to leave the hotel at 3:30.  What was cool about this is that the ride to the airport was via water taxi.  Not too many pictures of it (since it was dark) but it was quite the experience.

Fe and I on the water taxi

The taxi parked at the airport.

Venice airport is on the mainland.  I didn't time the ride, but it may have been 15 to20 minutes--we really hit some speed on the way, unlike the more sedate canals.  I noticed that our taxi driver stayed in a lane marked by wooden posts across the channel. 

Our guide saw us off and we said good-bye to everyone and then we were off on our first flight to Frankfurt.  It's Lufthansa all the way home but earlier we were notified that our flight home from Frankfurt had been cancelled and we would instead be flying to Munich and then Frankfurt.  It adds about three hours to the trip time.

It's not just Swissair that gives you chocolate--at least at Easter.

I would have preferred flying right home but in a way, I'm glad we stopped at Munich airport in between.  It's a nice airport--smaller than Frankfurt--but I liked it a lot and it may be an option as a connection when we fly to Europe in the future.

After an uncomfortable, mostly sleepless flight (I'm not as young as I used to be) we finally arrived and checked into the Hilton Newark Airport at 9:45 pm.  We'll drive home tomorrow morning.

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