Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday SWMBO

Yep it is her ?special? birthday today (the reason for our trip to Venice) ??.. So I left her in bed and went out to take some pictures.
It was very FOGGY around THE SQUAREwhich was beginning to FLOOD due to the HIGH TIDE.
I got a few shots but not everything I was planning.
Even at 07.30 the place was crawling with photographers and their tripods. There was even a group being given LESSONS - all neatly lined up and being told exactly how high (or low) to place the camera. It turns out this group of muppets paid 59 euros per head (using their own camera) to be treated like idiot monkeys on a ?walking photographic tour? (about 400 yards as far as I could work out).
Heading back to the hotel I had to take to the RAISED DUCKBOARDS to avoid the water now flooding St Marks Square.

After breakfast SWMBO and I were taken with an American couple for a walk to the north of the island through alleys and courtyards (by a really good guide) to get a water taxi (much quicker and plusher than the vaparetto bus) and go over to the island of Murano to watch some GLASS BLOWING and have a walk round the factories showroom ?? some fantastic work (not cheap).
We then had a walk around the place for a while and did some shopping in the hundreds of GLASS shops (The island has loads of glass factories and virtually all income is produced through glass manufacturing in some form or other. All the factories were moved there in the 16th century because of the risk of fire).

SWMBO managed to find a bracelet with loads of fancy glass beads as her birthday present - before you all ask what I bought her.

By the time we got back to Venice the flooding had subsided and the duckboards had been removed and the fog was long gone but you still couldn?t see the Square - due to the number of tourists. And it is low season too and allegedly ?quiet?.

Another wander saw me buying another couple of masks - I could spend a fortune on them ? they are fantastic but most would be impossible to pack and get home safely.

This evening we are off to a concert of Vivaldi?s? music ?? how apt with him being a Venetian.