The Gondolas of Venice

We've nipped in and out of Venice a few times either whilst staying at nearby Lake Garda, or on cruises up the Adriatic Sea.

So as part of the series featuring ships, boats and any other watercraft (not enough photos of rafts yet - sorry!) this article will take a pictorial look at Venice's unique form of transport: the gondola.

They can be found at boarding stations around the main island, but the most famous one is probably this one that sits facing the lagoon just close to St Marks Square.

I'm not sure of the current cost, but the cost is normally for the gondola and gondolier, rather than per passenger. They seat six people, so going as a group works out cheaper, though less romantically perhaps, than for a couple.

From here you can take a number of routes. Although they are a slender and somewhat fragile-looking craft, they do venture out into the lagoon.

But first we'll head up the side of the Doge's Palace and sail under the famous Bridge of Sighs.

This is looking over the stern of the gondola. The gondolier stands on a platform, usually with a bit of carpet to protect the craft. There are lots of different types of wood involved in the making of a gondola and they cost a significant amount of money. This was during our first trip to Venice and our fellow travellers, Kell and his wife Denise, were from New Zealand.

Alternatively, from this same station you can head out into the swell of the Venetian lagoon.

I suspect this is reserved for relatively calm days. I'm not sure I'd like to be tossed about in one of these things, with some quite large boats, water buses, and (at that time) cruise ships whizzing up and down, creating ridges of waves from their bows.

And so, whilst this looks impressive, in reality we have turned to head for the Bridge of Sighs and what you see in the background is one of the other islands opposite St Marks Square!

And so into the canals of Venice. Narrow, crowded sometimes, with some low bridges most of which are themselves crowded with people watching your every move...

Every now and then you come across a pile of gondolas, heading to their designated boarding points to drop off one set of passengers and take on another.

Not all gondoliers can speak English - I say this only because we met up with some fellow travellers who were most indignant that their gondolier could not speak with them. Needless to say these same passengers were not feeling in the slightest bit guilty because they couldn't speak Italian...

Most gondolas have quite a bit of artwork from wooden raised fretwork on the boat's panels to miniature paintings like this one.

It follows that gondoliers are quite proud and protective of their craft. We were on this one during our second visit and a young girl put her feet up on the exquisitely embroidered seat cushion, bringing a sharp rebuke from the gondolier. I couldn't blame him - well maybe for the glare he gave me because he thought I was her father, but she was travelling with her mother alone...

A gondola about to disappear under one of the many bridges. Some of these are a bit strange - you expect a bridge to lead from a street on one side of a canal to a continuation of the street on the other side, but some just go into the entrance of a shop and you have to turn back!

As you can tell from this one, space on the canals is at a premium and not all canal users are in a craft as narrow as a gondola!

Traffic jams can be common and it is amazing how easily the gondoliers steer their long craft around and between each other with just a single long oar.

The other tool in their trade is to scoot against the wall of the canal with a spare foot. By which I mean the one they are not resting their weight on... they don't literally have a spare foot.

Whilst on the canals there are some lovely little architectural features to look out for. Iron grill work on windows, doorways and private moorings, bridges and all sorts of things.

"Duck!!!" How they manage to avoid banging their heads day in and day out is a mystery. Don't look backwards when approaching a bridge is a good maxim!

Whoops! Traffic jam! You do get them. It's not only gondolas or motor boats using the canals, all manner of goods have to be delivered this way as well so there are the occasional large barges and sometimes it can take several minutes to get around the next corner.

Coming around one corner, the canal joins a wider thoroughfare and we have reached the Grand Canal.

Ahead we can see the Rialto Bridge. This is the second most popular tourist spot after St Marks Square and the narrow streets between the two are furnished with plenty of direction signs pointing one way to Rialto and the other to San Marco.

There is another large gondola station here where you can pick up a ride in the shadow of the bridge.

In between trips the gondoliers can chat to friends and grab a coffee from one of the many cafes along the stretch of the canal.

The view from the Rialto Bridge looking further up the Grand Canal.

Ships and Boats Index

Last Walk to Bruges

Sunday 11 August 2019. Having returned from our trip to Ghent we walk from the hotel back into Bruges for food and a last look round.

So let me see; what have I not told you yet about this Belgian city? Well it was temporary home to three of our kings when they found themselves in exile. Edward IV, his brother Richard III and Charles II each took refuge here as their fortunes dipped and nipping away smartly became the thing to do to keep a head on their shoulders.

Whilst most of us can just about remember that it was Englishman William Caxton that produced the first book in the English language from a printing press, perhaps fewer of us know that he did it here in Bruges, not in England (although he was soon to cart his press over to Westminster to start producing books there in 1476). Apparently people wanted him to translate all sorts of foreign books but he was a better printer than translator. In fact his version of the language (many French words just bunged in amongst the English) came to be an early form of standardised English. The British Library has an account of his where a woman in Kent failed to understand a man from Sheffield asking to buy eggs because she called them "eyren" and he called them "egges". She thought he was speaking French... "What on oeuf are you saying?" she demanded...

It was a mixed afternoon for us with spots of rain at times. We had light jackets with us and it was cool enough that they stayed on most of the time.

This rather plain little bridge was described as "one of Bruges' most photographed spots" in the margins of my map, so here it is in all it's er… glory...

Perhaps they meant the view from it? The carilloneur was bashing away at his peg-keys again, they get their money's worth out of him or her for sure.

The cafes were all crowded, but it was still a bit early for an evening meal. I contemplated sketching from here, but it was very crowded and still trying to rain every now and then so I put the thought away and we carried on walking until my feet were screaming and Miss Franny decided we could stop for a sit down and something to eat.

That won't be for a bit yet... Here we could admire the fortitude of those who had queued for half an hour for a boat and weren't about to give up their place just because it chose this minute to throw it down.

Just look at the joy on their faces as they set off... The lady in the sunglasses has spotted me and is thinking "Surely that's John Burke, the guitarist from Creeping Bentgrass over there?"

Eventually it stops raining. We have a sit for a bit on a block of concrete in the Market Square and then walk back towards the hotel, eating in a restaurant along the front of that other square seen in a previous post. The restaurant we chose was called the Golden Monkey (Le Singe d'Or). We both had a steak which was large and cooked to perfection. I had mine with a sauce béarnaise, chips and mushrooms and it was wonderful. And because for a change I wasn't driving, we polished off a glass or two of good red wine with it!

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Bruges, Capital of West Flanders

Saturday 10 August 2019. We wake in the Belgian city of Bruges, having decided at fairly last minute to take a coach trip - something we haven't done since 2002. Our trip is with our old favourite firm, Leger and the tour is called Beautiful Bruges and Ghent.

Our hotel is the Hotel Olympia on Magdalenastraat. It takes a walk of around 20 minutes to get into the town centre and the walk takes us through pleasant mainly shopping streets until we come to the city centre itself by crossing the River Vesten, seen here.

We cross on a footbridge passing next to the Smedenpoort, one of the original city gateways which was rebuilt in 1368.

We had gone into the town in search of food on the Friday night, but I hadn't taken my camera then. A shame as it was the best visit weather-wise. So some of these shots will be in sunshine and some won't! And a few... will be in rain...

Bruges is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It has kept the majority of its medieval buildings and many other old buildings. Many of them have these stepped gables. The white building just left of centre was founded as a hospice for widows in 1456 by J. De Blieck and enlarged in 1631 by O. Reylof. It is one of some 40 charitable hospices surviving in Bruges from that time.

The canals of Bruges have led to it being called The Venice of the North, but it has a quite different character to that Italian city. However what it does have in common with Venice is the lift to your feelings as you come to a bridge and spy the water, perhaps a boat travelling along, or picking up or unloading passengers. There are several points at which you can take to the water.

Another way to get about for the sightseer is the horse-drawn carriage. As far as I could make out these started at the Market Square. On the left is Godshuis St Jozef, another hospice founded in the late 17th century but in another location. It moved to these premises in 1905. In fact, we had taken it to be a nunnery. Not sure why, other than some vague memory that Audrey Hepburn's film The Nun's Story was set here, or filmed here, or something... I'm rambling...

There is little chance of going hungry in Bruges. Restaurants of all types can be found. There is also a McDonalds and a Burger King, but sadly not a Wimpy… We did in fact eat in McDonalds on the Friday night, but only because we were way past our time for eating and being diabetic, need to keep to a fairly rigid timetable for taking tablets etc. We arrived in time to hear an incredulous customer ranting at the poor girl serving him. Apparently he was astounded at having to pay more to eat inside than he would for a take-away. Never eaten before in a restaurant or café perhaps...

There are several types of shop that you will see lots of. We'll come to some of the others but Belgian Lace is a case in point. We found lots of tapestry and cross-stitch shops too, though not necessarily at bargain basement prices. Fran was fancying a cross-stitch pattern of Bruges at night. About 10x8 inches (25x20.5cm) it turned out to be £76 euros. Admittedly it had the silks provided, but so do Hobbycraft at about half the price.

We passed over the Dijver Canal onto this narrow street-cum-alley resplendent with the name of Blinde-Ezelstraat. Halfway along it we pass under a room that joins the City Hall (left) to a rather splendid building of 1534-1537, seen in greater detail below.

This building was a castellanry, the office of a castellan or appointed governor of a court or castle. In this case it was a court of law - castellan being the root of our English term of governor in the context of a prison.

Passing through the archway to Burg Square you can see the court house on the left. Centre and right behind the stage is the City Hall. Building work took 45 years and was completed in 1421. The stage was one of several we saw. There seemed to be a few festivals going on that weekend all of which we managed to miss. Status Quo, Wet Wet Wet, and Marc Almond, amongst others, were competing against some sort of DJ invasion of (dare I say) more modern music (I use the term loosely).

The Belfry of Bruges is a 272 feet high affair which leans a little to the east. Eighty seven centimetres in fact - almost 3 feet... It was built around the year 1240, rebuilt in 1280 after it burned down and the octagonal top stage was added 1483-87 with a spire which burned down after a lightning strike only six years later. It was rebuilt but burned down once again in 1741 upon which the city burghers thought "burgher it..." and added a small parapet instead to stop people falling off. It has a carillon of 47 bells. The carillon of bells was first added in the 1500s and after the city folk held their hands over their ears for a while, a professional carilloneur was employed to play them in 1604. A carillon is played by striking, with the bottom of the fists, pegs arranged like the keys of a piano.

The Market Square is called Markt. It is here you can catch a horse-drawn carriage ride or a little open-topped minibus if that's your thing. On one side is the impressive West Flanders Provincial Court, on another side the Belfry flanked by the old market hall. On the other two sides are businesses and shops with a large selection of restaurants with outdoor and indoor seating. An obelisk and statue stand on a plinth and the whole space was covered with staging, lighting (in the process of being blown over by the wind) and a large beer tent.

The ornate roof of the Provincial Court building.

Just some of the restaurants ranged along the perimeter of the Markt.

Whilst in Belgium, you have to try a Belgian waffle. Made with the same sort of batter as a pancake but moulded by a waffle iron into a slab with a series of square indentations which once cooked can hold jam, cream, ice cream, you name it... We went into this place and after studying the menu ordered a waffle Mikado each. That had two scoops of vanilla ice cream and hot Belgian chocolate sauce. It was so scrummy I forgot myself and ate it before I could take a picture. Study a menu - we had the same thing the day after in Ghent and it had only one scoop but added fresh cream. A chap next to me was coveting mine and ordered what he thought was the same but mis-ordered and got no chocolate sauce. He looked most discomforted...

We went down one street, cut off to another and then yet again swerved under Miss Franny's instruction to find ourselves once again heading for the Belfry... We turned round. It was time to return to the hotel as we were to go out in the coach again that afternoon to visit Ypres, where we will attend the daily Last Post Ceremony to the lost and fallen of World War One at the Menin Gate.

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