Venice

Here we are in Venice, to see 'La Biennale di Venezia', an event that occurs every two years and supposedly brings the best art in the world together.

Jilly has found us a great apartment on the fourth floor in the middle of San Polo about 10 minutes walk from the bus station. The apartment floors all slope to the front of the house and even the bed slopes.

with the smallest lift

after dropping our stuff off we went out for lunch to local restaurent Mouro, where I ordered the special of the day and had a whole Brim baked with vegies, which was great

Showed Bonnie a bit of Venice - Rialto bridge

and the Grand Canal, and bought 3 day passes for the Vaporetta, makes it easy to get around. Used it straught away to go to Plaza San Marco where top left of the Basilica is covered with scaffolding

and the tower is surrounded by barriers while they build protection from the waters, so the plaza isn't as nice as it could be
We walked around the area to find some gloves for Lana

then wandered back for a beer at the bar

before meat and cheese and bagette in the room

Wednesday.
We caught the vaporetto to Giardini to see the Biennale.

Note the pigeons in the picture above and below is a closer look. They are stuffed and there is hundreds spread throughout the building

Much of it was weird. The Aussie rep was an Egyptian bloke who make resin copies of common things - crap! To be honest see Bonnies blog for all the pictures.
A couple of standouts to me were in the American display where there was a working ATM that when you took money out if played the organ above it

and in the main hall there was a room where a guy put a load of clay and asked people to create and do what they wanted

and the girls left a special message for Lauren

We had an expensive lunch in the show cafe all on disposable plates and knifes and forks and beer in plastic cup - not even worth a photo!.
Wandered over the canal to Salute stop to walk around. I went into Chiese di Santa Maria della Salute which is pretty ordinary then next to it into the Punta Della Dogana which is a 17th century customs wharehouse at the end of the island which holds all the large art for some millionaire - includes horse jumping into the wall and huge heart, and some crap like lots of lights hanging in strands from the roof - like party light stands!. Here is the statue at the entrance

saw the Korean display - which was much better than the display across the canal

There was a guy fishing the canal

Wandered back and had dinner in Campo San Polo at Antica Bierreria la Corte, recommended by our land lord, and in the Lonely Planet book. Dogs and kids and people everywhere. Had good lamb chops, poor service and the pizza crap but the biere was great!

Thursday. We went to Arsenale - said arse-en-a-le - to see the rest of the Bienalle.
This area had much better art than Giardini area - again see Bonnies blog for more photos
from the Hong Kong building before you get in with Frog King (look on the internet for more info). They encourage you to dress up, take your photo , and send it to them

to inside the great ship yard wharehouses with lots of great art like a ship made from flotsam

a dragon made from sewn up tyre tubes

a whale you can go inside

and lots of other stuff - here are some of the better ones

We had a great lunch at a restaurent overlooking the water near the Giardini stop, with art on the waters edge

a vaporetto to Accademia to see the NZ display - a bit wierd - bulls on pianos, and this statue

I saw models of Leonardo's machines in this church - very interesting

I must admit once you are away from the tourism and the shopping Venice is much more interesting! Here is a couple of pictures.

Off early to Amsterdam tommorrow!