The gorgeous canals of Venice

They are everywhere and the views are just amazing. Here are only a few of those I took during the trip. Enjoy!

 We decided not to do a gondola ride. We had done a little research in advance and were warned that they were very expensive and that they weren't the romantic, glide through the canals with the gondolier singing in the background that you see in the movies. And after having a look, they were right. The canals were crowded with boats, we didn't hear a single note from any of the gondoliers and those of us on the bridges and streets are constantly gawking and taking photos. Not too romantic at all.

St Mark's and the Doge's Palace

Our first tourist activity was a 'secret places' tour of the Doge's Palace. The Doge was the ruler of Venice and lived and worked out of the palace. Our secret tour was with a cranky old women who was very knowledgeable and very strict. Stay with the group, don't touch anything, don't lean against the doors or windows and 'no jokes'. Little did she realise she was the biggest joke of all. Still, an interesting and informative tour.

The ground floor and the top floor held prisoners and this is one of the cells. When the prison wasn't crowded, this would hold up to 4 people, but when crowded, it would hold 10.

This is one of the large halls where documents were processed. Imagine this filled with about 20 desks of men copying documents by hand. They were all stored in the cupboards around the room. This room held all the most secret documents of the Venetian governments like treaties, contracts and land and property deeds. They still have all this paper, but I doubt there's much you can do with it now. Too fragile to even scan it for online storage, I would imagine.

You can't really see this very well, but she took us up into the attic area and showed us the massive support beams that run along the ceiling of one of the great halls you'll see below in a later photo.

This cell belonged to Casanova - yep, he was real and incarcerated right here for seducing other men's wives. He was sentences to 5 years in prison, but escaped after 1.5 with the help of a metal bar stashed in a plate of pasta and a fellow prisoner.

One of the more ornate rooms of the palace and used by the Doge. You can see two cabinets in the back corners of the room. There are four of these in each corner and one leads to the prison cells. The room next to this is where they would hold torture sessions of the prisoners.

This is one of the great halls of the Palace and the one whose beams were in the photograph above. Very ornate walls and ceilings.

And within the same area is St Mark's Basilica - a beautiful church with a line at least a mile long. We decided to skip going inside, but here are a few pics of the courtyard and basilica.

Tales of Venice

There are two public holidays aligned with Easter in the UK - Good Friday and Easter Monday, and the University where I work has a third closure day on the Tuesday. That means it's a good time for the Stolls to travel. And this trip was to Venice and Croatia.

Venice is an amazing city - no cars, narrow streets and canals everywhere. I have so many photos of bridges over canals . . . The city was pretty crowded for Easter weekend, but we managed okay, got lost a few times (which is actually listed as a tourist must-do in many of the guidebooks) and enjoyed the views. Food not so much - not like Rome where I thought the food was fantastic. Venetian food was just okay.

We stayed at an Airbnb instead of a hotel, which we typically prefer as you get a lot more space and feel a bit more like a local. Ours was in a narrow alleyway, which we never would have found without someone to guide us. We even did a few practice rounds around the block the first morning to make sure we could find our way back! :)

And I couldn't help but wonder how people get things like beds and couches and appliances through those narrow streets and up all those narrow staircases?? Yes, everything is much smaller and compact, but still.

First bridge view when we arrived. Don't worry, there will be many many more before I'm done with these posts.

This is the door to our apartment. Can you see why we'd be worried about getting lost and never finding it again?

First morning's breakfast. Like much of Italy, the coffee was great and you pay one price to drink at the counter and a higher price to sit in the cafe. We opted for little croissants sandwiches and coffee at the counter. We felt so Venetian!

And of course there was gelato almost every afternoon. I'd still take Wisconsin frozen custard any day, but gelato will certainly do in a pinch.

Veg Cooking Class at the City Farm

Brian had to work one Saturday so I decided to find something to do and ran across this opportunity for a vegetable cooking class sponsored by Riverford Farms. It was an hour or so of cooking and then lunch and the price included a cookbook and a box of vegetables (veg in British speak). There were 7 of us total and it was a great afternoon.

The location was the Windmill Hill City Farm. This is a small 'farm' right in the heart of Bristol - you'd never even know it was there walking down the neighboring streets, but once you step through the gates, you're in this cute little farm complex complete with geese, ducks, two cows and a few goats. They also have a garden of veg and lots of herbs, a little cafe and a few meeting rooms for classes and lectures. A really cute little place.

Our prep area and yes, that's a glass of wine before noon!

The first dish was a Romesco  sauce/dip of tomato, garlic, cilantro, almonds, ginger ... you can serve it on veg or bread or sandwiches. Pretty versatile.

Our instructor, Polly putting some finishing touches on the food.

This was a chopped salad of peppers (capiscum), grapefruit, broccoli (shredded!), onion, spring greens, zucchini (corgette) and an Asian dressing. It was amazing - super fresh.

And our main dish was a vegetable curry with cauliflower, ginger, cilatro, tomato, onion, chick peas, coconut milk ... Yum.

After lunch, I strolled around the city farm.

 I know, an odd piece of metal art for a city farm, but hey.

Two of the goats sunning themselves and probably trying to hide from all the kids trying to pet them. It was a gorgeous sunny day so there were quite a few families at the farm, which is open to the public.

Apparently, the female goose in here is 22 years old and blind. The two males with her protect her and lead her around when needed. We were told she falls in the little pond a lot!

A Visit to the Vet School

I had the opportunity this week to visit the University's Vet School, which is about 30 minutes out of city centre in Langford. The complex houses the University buildings, a small animal vet practice, an equine vet surgery and a working farm. Even though I was there to learn more about the administrative processes, I took a few minutes to look around and snap some photos.

Like most of UK there are some gorgeous old buildings and this campus is no exception.

This isn't a working barn, but the study center for the Vet school students. It's got couches, desks, computers. showers and a game room.

Not a real cow - those are across the street at the farm that's owned by the University.

 Unfortunately, this is a poor quality photo, but the daffodils were amazing.

This is the administration building where I spent the day with the school administrators. Oh, and Gerti. Gerti is one of the administrator's dog and she comes in from time to time to help with classes. On this day, she was with the vet nurses helping them practice bandaging! Any staff member can have their dog assessed to see if he/she has the right temperament to help out with classes. And no, they don't take any cats!

This lawn is where they hold the graduation ceremony for the vet students each July.

The grounds are beautiful - what a lovely place to go to school.

 There are 7 Vet schools in the UK and still students are turned away each year. Here they get roughly 1000 applicants each year for 150 places. Makes things very competitive. If you haven't had some experience either on a farm or in a clinic before you even apply, you won't even get considered.

 It's lambing season and the field on the grounds was full of sheep and frolicking lambs! All first year vet students spend spring break helping with lambing. They are placed at farms all over the UK and spend two weeks with the farmers learning and helping.

Vets attend 5 years of school, which is a combination of classroom and practical experience. They are rigorously assessed on skills and knowledge throughout the 5 years and spend almost every break doing their practical experience. They don't even get a break between years 4 and 5. At the end, they earn their degree in Veterinary Science and are registered with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and can then practice.