Dan
Today has certainly been memorable, made special from start to finish with my girls showering me with presents, my friends and other family members sending me birthday messages and of course our location, location, location! I can’t say orange hair and ‘Elton John esque’ glasses would be my first fashion choices; the little Swiss apron on the other hand….? Well, it did make a lovely cape for the Moet that Jac and I drank to complement the savoury and sweet party nibbles on offer from Daisy & Stella.
We took our time this morning before mixing it with the May Day Public Holiday crowds – it seemed every overloaded bus was heading towards Venice! However, we quickly blew off the masses, by taking a few swift right and left turns into vacant alleys.
As we began our meandering approach from Academica to St Mark’s Square, we realised that we needed to get euros to pay cash for the must-have gondola ride, which we all had decided was our ‘big ticket item’ here in Venice. Foolishly, we decided to change Australian dollars at a money changer rather than use an ATM, and of course I felt less than happy with the 85 euros we received in exchange for the $200 we handed over. But, as I told the girls, Bresnehans and Triffitts bounce back, and we will be better off for the experience! And I must say that the Gondola ride was worth it! We think that we chose a great time to get out on the canals; the driver was ‘fresh’ and the waterways less crowded than we saw after lunch (described by Stella as gondola jams)
My birthday lunch was a real treat, and, as I couldn’t decide between the Seafood risotto and pizza, I ordered both! Traditionally-prepared, our pasta, risotto and pizza were just devine and, to top off the experience, as I walked out of the restaurant I exited underneath a couple of fully-loaded washing lines which, as regular blog readers would know, ‘fills my bucket’!
The sightseeing was completed after our visit to St Mark’s Square and the meandering walk back to the bus terminal. Of course, the kids were anxious to get home and begin the “real party”…
Jac
A lot of people turned out for Dan’s birthday in Venice today- it was packed from St Marks Square to the Hard Rock Cafe. We gave Dan a bevy of presents that shifted her from the girl who says she doesn’t need anything, to the girl who loved the presents that she didn’t know she was missing: a portable mini table tennis set, a very small Swiss apron and a door stopper in the shape of a small foot- seems to be a downsizing theme happening. Then tonight we upsized to a bottle of Moët to toast the birthday girl! I’ll leave it with Dan and the girls to give you a run down of today’s special birthday events.
On the nose front, Dan has been battling a sniffly cold, and I got her some effervescent cold and flu tablets that need to be dissolved in water. I prepared one this morning about 7.00 am and upon seeing the amber fluid on the bedside table, Stella remarked “Is that Mum’s first beer of the day”? She also tried on Dan’s “18th birthday” glasses and looking at herself in the mirror, realised that these glasses had longevity because Dan could use them again when she turned 81- as long as Dan still wants to look in the mirror at 81!
Tomorrow we’re off to the beautiful city of Florence!
Stella
Day 18 – Hurray today is mum’s 49th birthday Let’s Party
🥳woohoo! Cool.
We went back to the watery part of Venice. Awesome. We explored the different paths and tracks, oh and if my class is reading this, when I come back I will ask Mrs McConnon who has been showing the school values as I bought a present
for those people!
We were even on a gondola ride but something happened before we got on. Mum went to change the Australian money for Euros but they didn’t give us enough, but we still had enough for the gondola ride. Phew!
Then we went home and we started partying. Today was definitely fun
,
PS here is the joke of the day. Why couldn’t we go on the Gondala ride? Because he’d Gondala-lunch.
Daisy
Mum’s birthday today hurray! We woke up and gave mum millions of presents Maybe not even millions… maybe trillions! We went to Venice the Island
and we went on a gondola. I was a little scared at first but then I got used to the rocking. We went on the gondola for 30 minutes – Stella set her timer ⏱
When we got off we started to go to this lion square that mum wanted to go to. The architecture was amazing
and beautiful at the same time. Then we went home to enjoy a lovely
birthday
tea.
Bresnehan Family Travels 