Grand Tour Venice - Day 3

Sarah convinced me to split the islands to two days, so we did.

We went to Mazzorbo, Burano, Torcello and Lido.

I was hoping to see the Suspended animals by Stefano Bombardieri, but exhibition ended in November, gutted.



Whilst at Burano - the fisherman island, I saw a fisherman handing over bags of mantis prawns to a guy. Then I remember seeing mantis prawn (alive) in the fish market, so I thought I would get some of them. We stopped for a coffee and some Essi. The lace museum was interesting.



We had a walk around in Torcello and had some lunch. They also do a Burano seafood risotto, so we shared one with another fritto misto. It had full of all sort of seafood.
Lido was quite boring, it is interesting, As it has cars and bicycles are allowed! We managed to catch a sunsets; Sun sets really quickly in Venice! Lido has a large Conrad City to entertain us. We got a big box of oyster mushrooms, and decided to make mushroom risotto. We ended up eating risotto twice a day.

Making the most out of the ferry tickets, I insisted on taking a night circular ferry line, and on the way back, we took in some night Venice night view.
Rialto Bridge

Bridge of Sighs.

Grand Tour Venice - Day 2

Originally I thought we would go to the islands but with the change of plans, we visited most of the things in the most touristy bits.


Doge Palace

San Marco

Rialto Bridge

For lunch, we had some fritto misto, mixed fried fish/veg with white polenta, some cicchetti-sized salad and some fresh ragu pasta.

We were hoping to get on a Traghetto, gondola with standing spaces only to cross the water, but it only operates middle of the day, we had a long way home!

And most importantly, fish market. I kept reading about seppia, cuttlefish, so I bought one for dinner. Must to Sarah's shock, I had to gut it, skin it, as well as cooking it.

Grand Tour Venice - Day 1

The first day is always the traveling day.  On our way to Manchester Airport, we managed to stop at Tim Horton's.  Timmy here is much worse than the Timmy in Canada.

Manchester Airport security was painful as always.

We flew in, our flight landed just before an Albanian flight, the non-EU queue was unbelievably long!  It took me 45 minutes to get past the immigration.  We took the shuttle to Venice, walked 30 minutes to check in, and we were finally there!



Our flat was very centrally located and there was a supermarket in the block.  Being in Northern Italy, risotto is the order of the day, the risotto rice were so cheap! We cooked dinner and rested up.

Stainless Moka Pot

Sarah has been reading weird research papers.   This time,  she freaked out when I put a moka pot in the dishwater.   Then I assured her it was a stainless moka pot.

Boxing Day Cantonese Food

I have been meaning to try this Cantonese restaurant for a while,  and they were open on boxing day, so we went for it.

Long story short,  I should not have any expectation them. 

On the plus side,  we had our Christmas crackers and wore a hat. 

Christmas Spin

With the weather so nice, I took Flint out for a Christmas spin.  I only saw 1 bike the whole ride until I got to Sutton Bank, there was a small group stopped there.  It was a little cold, but I enjoyed it.

Christmas Eve Shopping

Christmas Eve shopping was a bit of a damp squib.  The marked down were not suitable attractive.  Sainsbury's team already started removing the decoration,  how sad.