September 21, 2021
Today was a short 56 kilometer group ride to Venice. I generally do not like to ride with a large group preferring to set my own pace and stop where I see something I like to explore. Still, it is nice to do something different once in awhile. It was a fast ride even at what our leader and professional bicyclist, Doug considered a relaxed pace. Fortunately, us mostly old folks were up to the task. We zipped through small villages and into the seaside communities of Lido where we stopped to load our bikes onto a boat and ourselves onto three boats for a long, watery tour of Venice on the way to our hotel in Lido.
Venice is much more than narrow canals, arched bridges and gondoliers. It is also a very large and working city with terminals for deep water ships and industrial activity. Of course this is not what we were here to see but itn was quite noticable in the distance as we cruised the many waterways around the islands that comprise the Venice / Lido metropolis.
Today was mainly a day for travel and while we saw a different side of Venice from our water taxis, we are looking forward to taking one of the bus/boats that form the vaporetto mass transit system. I understand that there was once talk of building a subway system but that idea was quickly torpedoed even though it was sunk before it could be considered.
Tomorrow the Venice you know and expect to see.