Day 8 March at the carnival in Venice
Review of the tour "Carnival in Nice" - from TO "Accord"
01.03. 2011–11.03. 2011
And then there was Italy.
Our first stop was Sanremo. He conquered me with his flower beds with cyclamens, luxurious palm trees, a pedestrian promenade to the Ariston Hotel, which hosts an annual Italian song festival, and a beautiful casino building. And also the embankment, wide and very green, all in palm trees. It turns out that the Russian Empress Maria Alexandrovna Romanova donated 200 palm trees to the city, which were planted on the San Remo embankment, and still adorn it. There is a memorial plaque about this near the cathedral. The photos were taken in the most interesting places.
At the end of the tour, we were shown where the supermarket is located, and the purchase of souvenirs from Italy began. There I bought Italian coffee from Lavazza. The duration of the tour is 1.5 hours and the same amount of free time.
We had enough time to stock up on food and water, and we had a snack already on the bus, since it took another 2 hours to go from Sanremo to Genoa.
In Genoa, the bus stopped at a parking lot in the old port near the aquarium. They say that this is the best aquarium in Europe, but this time the aquarium in Monaco was enough for us. Therefore, we go on a sightseeing tour with a visit to the Cathedral of St. Lorenzo. There we learn that it was this council that gave the world seven popes to the Vatican throne. The cathedral is more like a museum. The tour ends near the Columbus house. Again we take photos of memorable places.
Then free time for about 1.5 hours. Again they show us where the supermarket is, and whoever wants to goes there, and I go in search of souvenirs. I find a book in Russian about Genoa and buy it without hesitation. In Nice, I bought the book "Cô te d'Azur", which contains a description of all the settlements on the Cote d'Azur, in Monaco I found the book "All the Principality of Monaco".
Here is another book about Genoa. To be honest, I didn’t “taste” Genoa, it didn’t open up to me the first time. And therefore, I cannot say that I am in awe of her.
After Genoa, we will move to the Verona area to the Montemezzi 4 * transit hotel in Vigazio. Tomorrow will be another carnival day, this time in Venice. The hotel is nice and has a good breakfast. It takes about 2 hours to get to Venice. So on the holiday of March 8, we left at 8-00 in the morning, at about 10 in the morning we were already at the bus stop in Venice. We sit on the boat and in half an hour we are already on the embankment of Venice.
In Venice, I'm already for the third time. But this is a special visit, since getting to the carnival in Venice on March 8 is an extraordinary event in itself. Again a sightseeing tour, but I didn’t like the guide, she didn’t even lead the group to the Rialto Bridge.
Despite the rather early time, the carnival has already begun, and elegant characters in carnival costumes and masks are walking around the streets, but they were also in costumes, but without masks. Let's start the costume photo session. Many tourists take pictures with these characters as a keepsake. We also took a couple of pictures next to them. Until the evening, there were a lot of pictures of costumes of carnival characters. Most of the costumes were unusually beautiful and original.
During the carnival, it was possible to take standard excursions around Venice: by gondolas, to the Doge's Palace, and by water taxi along the Grand Canal. My daughter goes to the Doge's Palace, and I go to the park near Piazza San Marco. Then again, after the tour, we meet and continue to walk around Venice together.
In Venice, the weather was sunny, but a very strong cold wind was blowing. I do not risk taking an elective on a boat along the Grand Canal, my daughter again goes to a water taxi herself.
As it turned out later, the tour did not take place, since the water taxi was not equipped with a microphone. They just took a walk along the Grand Canal at the expense of the tour operator, and Oksana then returned the money for the failed excursion to everyone who was there.
And we had a lot of time in Venice. We arrived at 10 o'clock, and the boat was supposed to pick us up at 20-00. In my opinion, this amount of time, and even in cool weather, is a bit much. After 6 pm, the carnival moved from the streets to the palaces, where entrance tickets alone cost at least 200 euros. And no one is allowed in without a suit. And on the streets of Venice in the evening, there is rather poor lighting, and there are practically no people left in carnival costumes.
We went to a cafe for dinner. The food was tasteless, but expensive, it's understandable, the carnival ...We ate twice that day in Venice, paid more than 60 euros for food, and remained half-starved.
I don't like pizza or pasta, and the chicken chop was tasteless.
My opinion: after 18 hours in the winter season, you can already leave Venice. But the program provides for a stay until 20-00, and we walk around St. Mark, trying to keep warm. Live music plays, tipsy tourists dance to keep warm. Here, even our hero Antoshka could not stand it and complained to his mother that he was cold. We go to souvenir shops, just to warm up a bit.
My plans included an independent visit to St. Mark's Cathedral, but on this day the Pope flew to Venice by helicopter, and the cathedral was closed at 13 o'clock. So my plan didn't work out. Now I'm looking forward to my next visit to Venice.
Quite chilled, we sail to the parking lot to the bus. It's good that the bus was very warm. Moreover, a pleasant surprise awaited all the women on the bus.
Having left Venice, at the next stop, the men of our bus, led by the drivers, took out a box of French champagne from the trunk, and we started celebrating the 8th of March together with the whole bus. It was so nice, after a day full of emotions, to drink fine champagne in honor of your holiday. This is how, extraordinary, we spent our holiday on March 8th. Now there is something to remember.
And Austria again
We arrived at the transit hotel in Villach at almost one in the morning. Departure in the morning was scheduled for 10-00 in the city of Graz.
In Graz, according to the program, a sightseeing tour and 3 hours of free time. After the survey, we still managed to take the elevator up the Schlossberg mountain, admire the panorama of the city, then we found a small restaurant, and there we had a great lunch of pumpkin soup and apple struden with cream, and ice cream. I had to give ice cream to my daughter. I also ordered green tea, but it was a regular bag.
Then we went to the K&O shopping center, and there, on the ground floor, there is a huge Eurospar supermarket. There I bought Mozart sweets at the lowest price of all subsequent Austrian stores. In Vienna, the same package of sweets 400 gr. cost 5 euros more. In addition, at the mall I bought some great T-shirts for the summer for future trips, at a promotional price of 5 euros. The city of Graz itself, like Genoa, I did not reveal for myself. In the summer, of course, it will be more beautiful and interesting here. And in winter, I didn’t see anything special for myself. Then there was a short drive to Sopron for an overnight stay at the Lover Hotel.
Breakfast in Sopron, as always, delicious and rich. In the morning departure at 8-00 to Vienna. In an hour and a half we are in Vienna. It's cold and raining in Vienna. This is my third time in Vienna, so I don’t go to the survey, especially in this weather. Antoshka doesn't want to walk in the rain either, and together with his mother we go to the Sisi Museum on our own. The ticket costs 9.90 euros.
And in general, I got the impression that half of the center of Vienna is closed for repairs. There were so many barriers in the streets. Not far from Rosenberger we find a fast food fish restaurant. My daughter takes a plate of fresh vegetables with seafood, and I take traditional potatoes and fish fillet for myself, plus a cup of melange. The pleasure cost us 30 euros. But they ate.
Then again we walk around the center of Vienna. The rain has already stopped, and the sun has even come out, it has become a little warmer. We have completed the plan for museums in Vienna, so we are just enjoying the beautiful city. In one of the souvenir shops we bought the famous Austrian coffee Sachers in packs of black and blue. The guy at the store said the coffee was stronger in a black bag. They took their word for it. At 17:00 we have a departure from Maria Theresa Square towards the border to a transit hotel in Hungary.
The distance is about 400 km, so we expect a long journey.
But until 11 p. m. we are already at the Balneo 4 * hotel in Mezokevege, so the next day in the morning we leave the hotel at 8-00. The hotel is beautiful, with thermal pools, white terry bathrobes and towels for the pool in the room, but we arrived late and leave early, so we didn’t get into the pools. The breakfast buffet was excellent. It was a pity to leave this hotel.
It takes 2 hours to get to the border from the hotel in Mezokevej, we pass the border without incident in 2 hours, a short stop at a gas station in Chop. Some tourists are taken by taxi to the station. And the bus is in a hurry to Lviv. According to the program, arrival in Lviv at 18:00. We are driving through the cold snowy Carpathians, and we do not believe ourselves that we have seen a spring festival with flowers and carnivals. We arrive at the train station in Lviv at exactly 18:00.
And so our carnival journey ended. We have a train at 19-48 to Odessa, and there is still time to eat.
Already on the train, we begin to realize that the holiday is over, and our reality has come. After sleeping the night on the train, in the morning from Odessa we go by minibus to our hometown. By 2 pm we are already at home. Now it remains to organize the captured photos on the trip, and share your impressions with family and friends.
I'll summarize:
For future tourists, I can say that the program is beautiful and interesting, but very rich in spectacles and excursions, and is not designed for relaxation. This was my fifth time on a bus tour, but those tours were regular, not special. This tour is a special offer, and I really wanted it to be more combined with relaxation.
I was disappointed with the local guides. Only Anatoly in Budapest was at his best. The rest were either without a microphone, or just messed around.
The guide in Nice Veronika spent all 3 days in Nice, Monaco and San Remo conducting excursions without a microphone, which is simply unacceptable with such a large group. The same was true in Genoa and Graz. Stories like: “the microphone broke” were perceived by me as an elementary excuse. No one requires them to have a microphone, so they do not bother themselves.
I expressed my opinion in the questionnaire so that the obligatory condition to work with a microphone, and even better with headphones, was negotiated in advance with local guides. I hope this will be taken into account in the future.
Overall, I gave the tour a score of 9 points. I took off one point based on the totality of my comments. But I do not regret that I decided to go on this tour. Despite my cold condition, I received so much positive that it more than blocked the negative from a cold.
Well, our drivers, and our leader Oksana Voloshin, we all applauded for a long time and together at the station in Lvov.
Thanks to them for providing us with comfort on the bus and when moving, for their attention, care and help.
Now I will choose the next tour, but only for the summer, or early autumn. And for those tourists who want to see spring and flowers in the middle of winter, and are not afraid of the cold, I can recommend this tour for next year. Happy travels everyone!
