This morning we got up before seven o'clock. "Venice is right outside, Bryan!" We ate a quick breakfast in the Horizon Court, and walked into town before it was too warm.

We wandered the little alleyways and zig-zagged our way across the canal . We took another photo on the Rialto bridge, from the other side. This one is where one of the pictures Bryan had used on eHarmony was taken. So now we have a picture that shows that he came back and brought his wife. :)

I loved Venice! Yesterday, we only seemed to walk down the streets crammed with tourist souvenir shops. Today, we meandered back alleyways where stucco crumbled away revealing brick walls. We passed beneath window boxes and awnings shaded by leafy vines. There were countless little footbridges across small parts of the canal, and laundry hanging above. We saw where the gondolas park on the Grand Canal, but we also watched the locals going about their business in motor boats. One shop owner shooed the pigeons out of his cafe, and they flew out almost into Bryan's face! We crossed paths with a woman whose off-leash dog (demonstrating that not all European dogs are well behaved) crossed a bridge, picked up something it thought smelled good, and darted off into an alley . I couldn't help but enjoy hearing her scold the dog in Italian as she chased after it.

The city isn't all pixie dust of course. There is a lamentable amount of graffiti. Also, it seemed to be garbage day, and there were plastic bags of yucky stuff hung near almost every building waiting for a handcart to pick them up. Also, none of the locals greeted us as they did in the smaller Austrian towns. But I couldn't care less. The city itself is enchanting, despite it's wrinkles.

The place is an absolute labyrinth, I will say that. I thought the hedge maze the other day was something, but it doesn't hold a candle to this. Fortunately, Bryan has an excellent sense of direction (though even he got out his iPhone to use the compass briefly) and led us safely to the sights and out again with little trouble.

Back on the ship, we lounged about in the air conditioning until it was time for lunch . Dining room lunch times conflicted with us being out on deck for the sail away, so I braved the buffet once again. The food is good, but nothing is marked with allergen info, nor do the waitstaff know what are in the various dishes, so you have to have the head chef come out if want to know if you can safely eat this that or the other. That is what happened the first time I cruised with Princess, and being followed around by the guy with the BIG white hat just felt too conspicuous and awkward to me. So I just make my best guess and go with it. They always have lots of fruit and green salad that works well. We both eat the meats, and Bryan enjoys the bread and desserts and tells me how they are. :)

Next we did our safety drill. We mustered to the theater and practiced putting on our life vests. Afterward there was the rather spectacular sail away, right past St. Mark's Square.

After waving goodbye to Venice, we got our swimsuits on and went for a dip in the pool . When we had dried off, it was time to do our laundry. I ironed Bryan's shirt for tonight's formal night while we waited for a machine. Then we went down to the Piazza for a little snack, and watched an acrobatics show while we waited to turn around the laundry. It was amusing, and the snack was tasty.

When laundry was dried and put away, we got as gussied up as we could, and headed to dinner. We met the other five people we will be dining with every night. There is a mother and her two grown daughters, and a mother and her college-aged son. They are all from the United States, and seem nice. Two of them are teachers, and one of them has a masters in Special Education. And all of us like to travel, so we had something to talk about tonight, at least.

I miss not being able to FaceTime. I'm not sure when we will be able to get Internet at a time that will work out for that.

After dinner, there were a bunch of things we wanted to do, but we were pretty tired and we want to get up early to see Dubrovnik before it hits its high of 97* tomorrow. So we opted to stay in our stateroom and watch some TV. We will have plenty of evenings over the course of our cruise to enjoy the entertainment.

Having only cruised with family before we were a bit apprehensive about sharing a table with strangers. Our tablemates ended up being a great match for us and we really enjoyed sharing our experiences around the table each day. We got to where we would spend time with them on the ship after dinner or when we would see them ashore, which was a pleasant surprise.