What do you do when you wake up to pouring rain and wind blowing a gale?  You put on your weatherproof clothing and go exploring of course.

Pete had a bright idea, why don’t we go to Burano and Murano?  Why not.  Grab the cameras, bus tickets and some cash, and head for Fondamente Nuove to catch the water bus.  We almost got blown off our feet the wind was so incredibly strong on the Fondamente, and the rain had turned into furious sleet which battered our faces.  But intrepid explorers aren’t put off by a bit of rain and wind.  As I write this, Venice is littered with broken umbrellas.  They are stuffed into rubbish bins, left lying on the footpaths, and even floating in the canals. The umbrella and plastic poncho sales people are doing a roaring trade.

Burano was almost deserted, surprise, surprise!!  We walked around and looked in some shop windows, took some video and photos, and decided to see what Murano had to offer.  Murano was indeed a better idea.  More soggy windswept people, but more shops open.  We had a wonderful lunch looking out onto a choppy canal, and did some souvenir shopping before heading back to our apartment.

We are very grateful that this disgusting weather didn’t happen yesterday, for the street races. While on the subject of orienteering in Venice, I have to confess that I failed to heed my own advice to Pete, which was concentrate, concentrate, concentrate.  I lost the plot during the model event, being one canal short of where I was supposed to be.  After stuffing around for ages the penny finally dropped and the aha moment happened, and after that things went better.  I didn’t break any land speed records, but had fun.  Pete came across a man on his knees at control 8 (on the bank of the Grand Canal), with a girl standing beside him, crying.  Pete thought that there had  been a terrible accident,  but no.  He was proposing marriage! In the middle of the race.  How very romantic.  She said YES.  He had even asked the race organisers where was the nicest spot on the map, to pop the question.

The night race was a different matter.  We were sent from the start straight into gardens which were pitch black.  There were autumn leaves on the ground obliterating the tracks, so trying to suss where the heck you were wasn’t easy.  All you could see were head-lights bobbing around everywhere.  And bells ringing.  Not church bells; the Swedish elite team had tied bells into their shoelaces so people could hear them coming (and get the heck out of the way!) Added to all this, there was a huge man-made feature, which wasn’t mapped!!  People were standing around peering at their maps trying to figure out what was going on, me included.  After the garden fiasco things went smoothly, I took my own advice, concentrated, and fun was had.  I finished last of course, but someone has to make the other competitors look good!

Deb, I had a groundhog day, trying to get the laundry done.  It took almost 3 hours for the load to finish.  The Italian instructions didn’t help a bit! Pete had left money and his bus ticket in his trouser pocket, so we had laundered money and a very unhappy looking bus ticket, which surprisingly still worked.

Tomorrow we head to Norway via the Netherlands.  Ciao from Venice.   Ilze