Doges Palace

Woke up at 7 and had breakfast of cereal and tea provided by Gill and Nick. Had a nice morning then we went to the fish markets with Gill and Nick to look for tonights dinner. The markets were amazing, the highlight being the big sword fish head and the huge amount of fresh fruit and vegetables. 

Before and after the fish markets we went over rialto bridge. Didn't get any pictures because we forgot. Might have to go again over the next couple of days. Here we left Gill and Nick after they had pointed us towards a lunch spot where we had a tramezzino each. Also bought and aranchini ball for bini and a mozorello in a carrage for me, which is two peices of bread with mozzarella inside then deap fired. It was interesting although not my kind of thing. 

From here we walked to St Marks Square and enjoyed Venice along the way. I was surprised about how commercialised Venice is. Saw many shops including a big luxury store. At St Marks Square we walked around a bit and then joined the que for the Doges palace. 

Stood in the line for the doges palace for 45 minutes and finally got in. Bought one audio guide to share between us. We attached our  head phones and had one headphone each. In the palace we saw some amazing paintings and also heaps of secret entrances into the secret room in the middle. We also saw the prison and went over the bridge of sighs. All in all a good time. 

Throughout today bini has been sneezing and sniffling due to what we now know is hay fever. It was getting really bad so we headed home and gave her a zertec. Then she slept for a couple of hours. 

Gill and Nick got home about 6 and we then went out onto the balcony and had cherrys, home made hummus and peanuts which were still in their shells which made for a good challange. Then Nick served us some wondeful octopus with oil and ox heart tomato. 

After we polished this up we had Gills Mediterranean cooked fish with potatos. An amazing dinner and I feel very lucky to be here. After dinner we had a great chat about bini's childhood and how we first met. Gill had lived in Cochin/ kochi for a bit a long time ago so there was lots to talk about for that which also caused bini to tell some stories about abu Dhabi which I hadn't heard before. Went to bed at 11 and had a great sleep.