My first motorcycle trip in Europe (June 2009 - Part 1 Venice)

Not my first one abroad though (if undusting my unpublished trips goes far enough you may read this as "wait for it").

So, late June 2009, I plan to meet my partner in crime at Innsbruck as she'd be coming down from Czech by bus. Prior to this I drive from Athens to Patra's port to take the ferry to Venice, Italy. My trip is much longer but much more scenic as it involves a stop at the port of Igoumenitsa:

This is a nice moment when the deck is not crowded as some queue to disembark while others haven't embarked yet:

Calm waters, nice scenery, pictured behind the ferry's window hence that "watermark" on top:

A few hours later as we head North by the Albanian coast weather gets much more moody:

Fortunately not for that long and it allows me wonderful sea view late in the afternoon like this:

The sunset that follows is a masterpiece and I hope you can tell even though pictures are taken from my phone (let me remind you it's June 2009):

I rushed to use the word masterpiece cause I've never taken the ferry to Venice so I had no idea what my eyes were about to experience. I take the stairs up to the top deck and get my first view to Punta Sabbioni's lighthouse:

That's the local forest and beach pictured from the West as the ferry heads to the port on this hazy morning:

Sant' Erasmo island in the background looks promising:

However, Lido on the opposite side is the first to steal my heart:

You can see "Tempio Votivo" standing out mid (leftish) and also the tiny cute island of San Servolo on the right in the background:

Sant' Elena:

In this next one you can see two of the most emblematic towers of Venice, St. Mark's Campanile on the left and the one next to Convento dei Reverendi Padri Francescani monastery on the right:

And the canal party begins - Sant' Elena's church on the right:

Rio dei Giardini:

The emblematic towers I showed you before now in better view as we get closer to the port of Venice:

From now on the marine traffic gets crazy. And by crazy I mean cartoon level. Seriously, I have no idea how the myriads of all kinds of vessels manage to survive the madness while our 200m ferry crosses through, in crawling speed of course. Impressive as that looks to me during my first time here, I can't find words about how Venice looks to my wide open eyes:

Hard to find words for that and it's a shame that even after all these years I haven't managed to walk the city yet. I've seen it again from the deck of another ferry the following year though.

Take a rest and see you on part 2 as I'm making my way to Innsbruck.