I spent four days in Venice after my cruise, mainly to recover enough to face the thirty hours of travel home to Melbourne (from when I got out of bed).

I spent my time walking about, not looking for museums or special places. I could have taken a picture every step, and while I took quite a few, I discovered I had curious gaps. The focus of Venice is on St Mark's Square, or Piazza San Marco, and nearly every time I was there it was absolutely full of people. But I tended to take my pictures on the rare occasions it was fairly empty. It was relatively empty when (a) there were no ships in, and (b) it was so hot that everyone was clustered in the shadows.

I never tried to enter the church or tower because when they were open there were long queues.

When you finish a cruise you suddenly change from honoured guests to cattle. You are mustered off the ship at set times, after a very early morning. I presume this has to be, because they have to get 2000 people off , clean all the rooms, and get another 2000 aboard by noon! Your luggage has to be out at 2am, and on this occasion I simply walked around to the customs area, picked up my suitcase and walked to the water bus.

My travel agent had found a hotel for me, and it turned out to be a very good choice. When you go to Venice you travel by water bus or water taxi, and you land on the outside of the island. Then you walk. There were always people trundling suitcases around the streets. I was in the Savoia & Jolanda, a three-star hotel less than 100 metres from Piazza San Marco. As it happened the water bus from the ship went to one place - Piazza San Marco.

Getting around Venice is tricky, as its map is like a maze, but I found it not so bad because there were always crowds. If a street had nobody in it, it probably went to a dead end. And there were signs everywhere pointing per S Marco, or per Rialto, or per Ferrovia (railway). But never go out without your street map! On one occasion while walking for some time I worked out where I was. I was at a bridge, but I had just crossed it from the opposite direction to what I thought!

A few scenes.

This is just a typical street. Occasionally you will see a sign that a famous person lived here, in a tiny street. Size is no indication. Some tiny tunnels are the main thoroughfare.

This picture (if you squint) shows three bridges, all crammed with tourists, with (I think) the famous Bridge of Sighs in the background. It was photographed thousands of times while I was there. The gondolas went down the smaller canals, and also into the large Grand Canal.

This is a small canal off the Grand Canal, where some home owner can ride to his or her "garage".

And someone has to keep those waterways clear. Here workers clear silt from the bottoms of two canals.

My hotel was on the edge of the main canal, so I walked up and down there a lot.

And how about a few more canal shots to finish?

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