Venice 1965

And now we are in Venice. More from eight-year-old Heidi's journal. It's still September 1965. As before, the black-and-white pictures are photos that Heidi took with her little box camera; the coloured pictures are postcards that are included in the journal. (Dad, to enlarge any photo on the blog, just click on the photo.)

I absolutely LOVE the photos of Heidi, me, Mom and Bop (her father) in St Mark's Square, with the pigeons.

VENICE
On the 30.9.65 we flew to Venice and had a very nice lunch on the plane. I sat next to an American lady who helped to cut my chicken.

We went by ferry to the Island and saw many gondolas and taxi boats. 

We stayed at a very nice little Hotel called Flora. Two men who looked like burglars carried our luggage because there are no motor cars or taxis on the Island not even a road but, there are many bridges over little canals and narrow little passages between buildings.

In St Marco's Square there are thousands of pigeons. We bought some crushed mielies and fed them to the pigeons. My sister Julie held some mielies in her hand and the pigeons came and sat on her hand, arms and head.

My daddy and mommy went for a ride and daddy fell down the steps and just about fell into the canal.

On the 1.10.'65 we spent the whole morning going to different places by a motor boat. The first Place was the glass works where we saw them making all kinds of glass things and from there we went to their showrooms where we saw such a lot of beautiful glass things such as figures, fish, birds, lovely vases, some with gold on them. We also saw beautiful tea and coffee sets and fruit dishes. We also saw beautiful earrings, brooches and necklaces. There were many rooms of such beautiful things that I was sorry to leave them.

From there we went to a lace school were there we went to see ladys and girls making venetian lace a nun was in charge of them.  At the next place I had a ride in a gondola ...

...then we came back for lunch. 

 In the afternoon we went shopping by boat because there are no roads or motor cars, not even a bicycle on the Island.

Postscript
Heidi doesn't mention it, but there is a photo of Bop and Ganan (Mom's parents) as they went their own way, by train, to meet us in Switzerland.

And a second postscript. This Christmas card from the Flora Hotel was popped into the back of the journal, probably by Mom. It must have been sent to the Etter family from the hotel proprietor in December 1965.