Tag: Venice
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Terra di San Marco
I’m back in Venice now, in the camping getting the last things ready before a group of Danes arrives on Sunday for a week of magic Venetian paddling. I was lucky enough to find myself a vacant window seat on the right side of the plane. The airport of Venice is built on the edge…
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Beagle Paddling
We took our beagle Jamil paddling one day in Venice, just to try it. He sat in the rear hatch of my Rockpool Menai 18, with his own little canine PFD on. There are a few photos below. Beagles aren’t usually fond of water, but he was calm enough for a short paddle. After about…
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The Redentore
We went to see the fireworks in Venice on Saturday evening, for the Redentore Feast. I have never seen the city so crowded, and Venice is often crowded, but the fireworks were simply spectacular. It was absolutely the greatest firework display I have ever seen, and it went on for well over half an hour.…
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The Redentore Feast
Tonight is the night of the Redentore feast here in Venice. We’ll take the bus to the city, where we’ll meet my friend Marco and some of his friends on a sail boat to watch the fireworks. We’ve never seen the Redentore feast before, so its probably going to be quite interesting. It is one…
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Bibione Weekend
It has been a busy weekend here at the Bibione Kayak Symposium, as it should be. Expecting a rush on Saturday, I signed up for classes on Friday, so I was out of the way of the way for the weekend. Morning class was with Jen Kleck, for rolling exercises. Jen is an absolutely marvellous…
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Bibione Kayak Symposium
A bit delayed, as is normal and indeed expected here in Italy, I’ve arrived here at the Capalonga Camping for the first Bibione Kayak Symposium. It was a 90km drive from Venice, with side bags on the motorcycle, the tent and a split paddle on the back seat. The only noteworthy event of the drive…
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Vogalonga 2008
The Vogalonga is a celebration of Venice and its rowing traditions, and in part also a protest against the invasion of the city by motorised vessels.
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Tour of Venice
Tomorrow is Vogalonga day, and we’re on our way to bed so we can get up in time for the start at 9 in the St. Mark’s basin. Today we’ve had a group of Vogalonga participants on a tour on Venice in kayak. We were three Sardinians, three from Puglia, one from Bologna, four Frenchmen…
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Vogalonga weekend
My blogging is way behind schedule. My last post is one week and 2000 km old. Right now I’m sitting on the ferry boat from Venice to the Lido, as part of the weekends move from Mestre to the Lido. Tomorrow we’re organising a tour of the city for the guests we have for the…
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Venice by bicycle
I have bought a bicycle here in Mestre, and the other day I went to Venice by bicycle, and from there to the Lido. While it can be done, I’m not so sure it is advisable. Driving a bicycle here in Mestre is great. There are bike lanes all over and it is easy to…
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Mestre
It’s time to get some of the nitty-gritty details of the Venice Kayak project done, so I’m now in Mestre where my business partner Marco Ballarin lives. It is our plan to get some of the basic formalities and agreements in order in the next week or two. Hopefully we can get going in May.…
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On the road again
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I’m on the train from Genoa to Venice via Milan right now. I have a bunch of posts to prepare and loads of photos to upload from the week Valentina and I spent in Sardinia with Francesco Muntoni and his family and friends. Francesco kept us on such a breathtaking schedule that I haven’t had…
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Venice Dried Out
An extraordinary low tide left parts of the old town almost blocked yesterday, with canals dried out, gondolas stuck in the mud, and public transportation in difficulties. An ordinary low tide in Venice is between -40cm and -30cm but this one reached -72cm when it was at its lowest. At -60cm transportation in the city…
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Busy Busy
It’ll be a busy day in Venice today. The day did, however, have a less auspicious start. As I was having breakfast at the camping at little thing dropped on the table just beside me. It was … … the severed head of a bee! There must have been some really nasty business going on…
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Just another day in the lagoon
Today I went paddling in the lagoon with my Venetian friend Marco and his friend Damien from Padova. We didn’t have any particular plans, just paddle and have fun. Here’s Damien in his rusty old kayak And here’s Marco in the Current Design Solstice that Wendy is going to paddle around Sardinia (Marco has a…
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Change of plans
Any adventure involves coping with the unexpected and the unforeseen. Unfortunately, I have had a solid dose of unexpected and unforeseen even before the start of our journey, as I lost all my personal and vehicle documents on the way to Italy two weeks ago. I left Denmark early to guide a group of Danish…
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The Giudecca
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Today’s paddle me took to the Giudecca of Venice. It used to be an industrial area with housing for working class families, there’s quite a bit of run down houses and abandoned factories and shipyards. New houses on the south side of the Giudecca. Older, but nice looking houses in the Giudecca. Abandonded shipyard buildings…
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Little surprises in the lagoon
Today’s paddle became rather special, for a number of reasons. I started in the afternoon after a morning’s hard work at the internet café. Their coffee is appallingly good, but paddling need to be done. First thing, I encountered the first paddler ever in the lagoon, except of course Marco who always complains that nobody…