Athens and Venice

The second but last day in Athens was another good day where we walked around and eventually found ourselves in the New Acropolos Museum where most of the good stuff from the Parthenon is now kept. Must confess that we got really angry again that the Elgin Marbles have still not been given back to where they should be.

As all you jetsetters know some of the time is usually spent doing touristy things like looking at old monuments, old pictures, old buildings and other old things. Most of the time of course is spent eating and drinking local produce and enjoying yourself. I would just like to know that WHY IS IT I’M THE ONE WHO ALWAYS SITS BESIDE PEOPLE EATING OCTOPUS AND OTHER NASTY THINGS? Lunch at the Museum was spent by me being closest to a woman eating a couple of huge tentacles. In the evening I managed to get another one right next to me munching on the body of a massive squid. You Brendon Matthews are going to get one right in the chops as you started all this “covering Iain in sea tentacles“.
Good to get away from Greece though as it really is spoilt by there being far too many sour faced Greeks who obviously hate the world and tourists. Funny that because Crete was completely different (apart from that horrible travel agent woman).

It’s nice to be back in Italy where the people are always smiling and happy and talking….. Oh boy do they ever talk.



VENICE
Venice is a city a lot smaller than Athens….it has lots of water….everywhere….Wherever you go you see one of the most popular tourist attractions which is pigeon feeding. We were standing in front of a large building in San Marco called Dog Palace (Italians like animals) and were surrounded by heaps of people completely ignoring the monuments and taking lots of pictures of flying rats. Odd!
This morning we had the first breakfast in our hotel Palazzo Bembi. Yum yum said I looking forward to our first savoury breakfast for days…STOP PRESS: don’t eat Venetians sausage rolls folks…. They’re full of chocolate. They hotel is excellent and is right beside the Rialto Bridge (Rialto obviously means graffitti) with a view of the Canal Grande and the bridge.
Here’s a picture of a sausage roll

The striped one on the left isn’t a sausage roll…. It's a minced beefburger!



The place we’re staying in is the first pink building on the right at the very top on the left hand side. You have to be fit to stay in these hotels as the floors are at an angle of something like 10 degrees. Getting out of bed in the morning is like a mountaineering expedition without the crampons.
Tomorrow we’re leaving Venice and going somewhere else but not sure where. We’ve got 4 days before we meet up with Liz’s cousins Beatrice and Charles in Paris and she’s really quite excited about that for some reason! We may go there via Switzerland or by France (leave it to me and we‘d get there via Finland). A lot of time in Paris will be taken with all the cousin’s nattering on about “old times” (or “old old old old old times” as you lot think of them). The husbands (Ian and Iain) will probably go to a pub so we can compare the size of each others noses and talk about Impressionist art (or carburettors)! (If you’re reading this Ian then I should win on number of kinks and broken bits).
Here’s the latest picture of Mum/Liz’s interesting bits.

Steph: I have now used yourexpensive face moisturiser present for the second time this month…it doesn’t work….my skin still looks like a Jayden or Jacob used nappy.

Are we going out for a pizza tonight?
You bet your bottom we are!