We arrived at Venezia le Mestre station about 16.30 and had to catch another train to Venezia San Luzia (Venice proper). This ticket was only €1.25 each and the train took about 12 minutes. The hotel was really close to the station and the room was large, the shower was hot and strong, and the bed was great. BUT it was incredibly noisy even though we were on the second floor (no lift!) - there was no double glazing and the pane of glass rattled when we walked around. Breakfast was just croissant, rolls, yoghurt, juice, coffee - all fair enough at €107 plus city tax of €4. After all, this was Venice.

Tuesday morning we headed for San Marco - saw a lot of backstreets as we kept making wrong turns . Very pleasant - air was fresh, the streets had been cleaned and not too many people. There were a lot of rubbish bags out, more on that later. The crowds built up by the time we got to the Rialto bridge, and the queues to get into the Basilica etc at San Marco square were long. We decided to fork out the €20 each for unlimited vaporetto travel and headed for the island of Murano. Non stop on the way out took just over 20 minutes. 

 Had a walk around Murano and returned on a boat that called at every stop. We carried on past San Marco out to the island starting with Giudecca - long and narrow. Walked all along this island; tried to cross over to the other side, but chose the wrong alley! It must've been the widest part of the island and it was a dead end. Saw some interesting houses as we tried to get through. Later on we came across a boat builders and repair yard. They had some very old gondolas there. It was great watching all the boats zipping around - how do they lnow who has right of way etc? They didn't appear to stick to the right or use indicators! This is where I took the photo of the garbos . Plastic bags are left out on the street; these are picked up in trolleys - large cages - and wheeled to the collection point on the side of a canal. The garbage boat has a crane to tip its contents into the boat. So many people involved, but they seem to ke it clean. A pity the tourists drop food and wrappers all over the place. 

Then we had the trip along the Grand Canal. This vaporetto was very crowded and we were lucky to have a seat. After this, we took another vap around the north end, Cannaregio, and then walked back through the old Jewish area. We then headed to the station at Venezia le Mestre as we were very tired. Thought we'd sit in a waiting room and read til the overnight train to Vienna left about 21.00. Wrong call on two counts! No waiting room. We'd bought rolls, cheese, mortadello etc to eat on the train so we didn't want to buy food. We bought a beer but apparently we weren't supposed to sit at the tables to drink it - "Macdonalds" the lady kept saying . Secondly - I'd booked the sleeper from San Luzia! We could have just stayed in Venice proper and taken another boat trip. I was disappointed that I forgot to make it to the Lido.

The overnight train to Vienna was fine. I bought this on the OBB website and the 2 berth cabin with basin cost €178. There weren't any with shower and toilet on this train. Our wecome pack included water, snack, Prosecco, little towel, slippers etc. Plus a little chocolate dessert. We also got breakfast!

1 June, Wednesday - Arrived at Wien hbf at 7.55 and managed to make the 8.09 train to Katowice in Poland. I was really worried we'd miss that connection. It's the first train of our Eurail Pass. I had to reserve the Czech and Polish sectors - for the princely sum of €6 using cd.cz/eshop.