On the way back home …

We were up early again. Tom made some tea and we had a cup, then we went to have showers. Tom let me go first, as I still needed to wash my hair. I was pretty careful not to slip on the marble tiles and when I was done I realized that I had not put my towel by the door. I carefully opened the door, leaned out and my feet started to slide. There was no way to prevent it, I slid along the tiles until I reached the bottom. It must have been quite the noise as Tom came rushing to the door.

I could not even answer, as I was laughing that hard. And the whole accident left a nice black and blue souvenir on my thigh where I had scraped along the shower door. A few minutes later I was out of the bathroom still laughing and advising Tom to be extra careful in the shower. Once we were both ready we went down to the breakfast room. The hotel is fairly small and we were wondering where there was room enough for a breakfast room, so we asked at reception and were told to just walk over to the building next door and that was where we found the breakfast room. It was bigger than we had expected for that size of a hotel and there was more than enough to choose from. We both had two plates.

My first plate had salami, cheese and butter and a Panini, Tom’s first plate had the same, plus some extra spreadable cheese. Tom’s second plate had more salami and cheese, another spread and a hard boiled egg. I had chosed an old favourite, a Panini, butter and Nutella. We really enjoyed our breakfast a lot. We had until 11.30 to leave our room, so we went for another walk. This time we took a different route and soon found ourselves in empty little streets with Venetians who were on their way to work. It was a nice quiet walk and we were quite happy with it. And after so many turns and crossing little bridges we finally found ourselves at the Fish Market. Tom loves that kind of thing and we took our time to explore the market.

We walked further on and ended up on the Fruit and Vegetable Market. It was one colourful array of things and we could not help ourselves but buy a few things. Bags heavy we walked to one of the Vaporetto stops, but there was nowhere to buy a ticket, so we decided to just walk back to the hotel. It was a nice leisurely walk and when we passed one of the gelaterias, I got myself a small cup of Cassata ice-cream. We sat on a bench opposite a church and I enjoyed my ice-cream. But then it was time to really make a move on and head back to the hotel. We got all our carry-ons and went down to the garage, where our car was already parked at the exit. So we just loaded our stuff in, tipped the parking attendant, got in and off we went.

Soon we had left Venice and found ourselves on the motorway. We made great progress and when we got close to Latisana we decided that we had enough time to drive towards Lignano, as one of our favourite restaurants is on that street. Soon we stopped there and headed inside. Since it was a weekday there were just a few guests there so we were sure lunch would not take to long. But then after a glance at the menu we knew we were in for a longer break. They had some yummy things on the menu and so Tom ordered the Cozze alla Tarantina, mussels in hot tomato broth, while I ordered the Lasagna al Forno, the meat lasagna. They were both really good and quite large portions. But we still had ordered a fish for our main course. Tom had ordered a Branzino, which came with a side of Polenta and a Mixed Salad. The whole fish looked mighty big and even after it had been fileted there was more than enough of it on Tom’s plate. My choice had been the whole Sole, which was very yummy. We both worked hard, but neither of us was able to completely finish the fish. So, there was no way we would be able to fit in some dessert and we just paid the bill and headed back outside. On the way to the restaurant we had seen several farmers who had little booths next to their farms from where they sold some of their produce. We stopped at one and got a whole watermelon, some baby zucchini, tomatoes and some cheese.

Shopping done it was now really time to head home. Soon we were back on the motorway and driving towards the border to Austria. The motorway winds between the mountains and the views are really pretty and soon we had crossed the border and were back in our home country. It was a beautiful day for driving and the traffic was pretty light, so we made good progress. We stopped one more time to fill up the car and pick up a coffee drink for Tom and an ice-cream cone for myself. Then we drove for another four hours until we reached our home town and finally our home, where we unpacked the car and settled into every day life again.