Somehow, the trip we'd planned for September was fast approaching and having spent a while thinking of it on the far horizon, suddenly here we were packing up again.

It was quite a complicated pack. Ever since the days of the luggage mountains in airports, we've thought more carefully about how we pack up for a trip. No longer do we each take suitcases packed solely with our own things, but pack half and half. We heard too many stories of one person's bag going astray leaving them with nothing to wear. Now, if one of our bags doesn't appear, both of us lose a few things each and the pain is shared! This time, as well, we had two overnights en route, which meant a little more thought was required.

With an early morning flight to Venice to look forward to on Friday morning, we'd booked ourselves into the Sofitel at LHR overnight and set off for a leisurely afternoon drive there.

Our flight was absolutely full and once on board, we heard several conversations about a ship. It appeared a large proportion of the plane had been chartered by a cruise company which created an unusual problem. There was more than average luggage to be stowed in the hold and it was proving tricky to balance. The Captain announced that we'd need to be patient whilst something was worked out and we hoped the solution wasn't going to be to leave some bags behind!

So we waited. Then waited some more. Our flight eventually took off about an hour late, the luggage having been satisfactorily stowed.

It was a beautiful morning for flying and the Alps were looking lovely.

I was peering out of the window trying to recognise landmarks, like this lake which may or may not be Vierwaldstaettersee?

But really, it was not easy without a map. I really like following our route whilst flying and always intend to bring a map with me - but never do.

One minute, we were flying over mountains and the next, the Captain was putting on the seatbelt sign and we were coming in to land in Venice. Just over an hour late, of course.

There followed a series of unfortunate events, none of which directly affected us, I'm glad to say, but suffice to add that it was more than another two hours before we left the airport.

Tonight, we are comfortably settled in the Hilton Molino Stucky in Venice. Sadly, we arrived too late to go out exploring, so we savoured our immediate surroundings and made our dinner plans.

The wardrobe in our room is pretty amazing, with a wonderful drawing of the hotel inside what looks like an ordinary cupboard. But opening the doors reveals the magic!

Yes, there's even a gondola there at the waterside. I love it!

This evening, we wandered a little further along the waterside to il Cacciatori for dinner with a splendid view. We'd hoped to dine at Harry's Dolci on the recommendation of Edward and Amy, who'd honeymooned here a few years ago. But it's the Biennale this weekend and there was a private party there, not for the likes of us. But we had a lovely dinner a deux and staggered back in the fading light.

Venice is lovely.

Tomorrow, we'll join a cruise ship ourselves. It will be quite special, though, for we'll take over where we left off last April and embark Voyager again. Not only that, but we have the same suite and we understand it's the same crew rotation, so there could well be quite a few familiar faces. For the next two weeks we'll make our way towards Lisbon, calling in at mostly unfamiliar ports, though one or two of them hold one or two memories 🤭

First step tomorrow: Trieste here we come!