We’re headed to Italy where we will be hosting a Distinctive Voyages sailing!
Our trip starts with a drive to Detroit. The drive was uneventful and Brian reserved parking ahead of time at a private lot. The lot was fine, but not nearly as nice as the one we use in Cleveland. Our normal lot has a shuttle pull-up to your car within five minutes of parking and the driver is quick to take the luggage and load it. It’s not like that here. We had to walk to the little bus stop with our luggage. I recently bought a new rolling suitcase for my cpap and this is the first trip testing out my new packing strategy. I had my large rolling suitcase with my new smaller suitcase on top. I also had a backpack. I’m wheeling along thinking how much nicer it is for the shuttle to come to me. Then, my wheel catches in a crack. I’m still walking forward and then trip on my bag. This causes my two suitcases to topple over and then I bellyflop on top of them. To make it even more hysterical, I was moving fast enough that the momentum of my fall has catapulted my backpack to fly off my back and crash into me. Brian doesn’t see it happen, but he hears the crash and witnesses the end result which is pretty entertaining. We’re both dying with laughter. The new setup is off to a great start.
We take the shuttle and arrive to the terminal. We use the kiosk to print our luggage tags and it says we can’t and to see an agent. We attempt to get in line and a Delta employee stops us and says to use the machine. We tell her we tried and I’m pretty sure she thinks we’re just technically challenged. Surprise, she gets the same message as us. She’s baffled, but sends us to the opposite end of the terminal for help.
Detroit is fancy. They have a check in for domestic flights and a separate check-in for international flights. We had just gone to the domestic check-in which was the source of the issue. It doesn’t actually say domestic it just says Delta, but the other side says international. Things were easy once we were in the right place.
There was hardly anyone at the airport and the security line was short. As usual, I was stopped for my “random” check. This time they swiped down my phone and placed the wipes in the machine. I was clean and we were free to move on. We have 3 hours until our flight so we grab breakfast.
We eventually go to our gate and when it's time to board they announce that we’re missing a pilot. They locate a new one who is on his way. They board us without the second pilot. Once everyone is onboard, we find out that the new pilot isn’t coming. They need another one. The over two hour delay means that even if they found a third pilot that minute, we’d still miss our connection so we go to customer service for new flights.
It’s relatively easy to switch our flights, but we have three more hours until our new flight. Our original flight was going to Chicago and the new flight goes to Paris. We see our flight takeoff to Chicago and then we go for lunch with the food voucher we received.
Our new flights have some issues. Issue one is we don’t have seats, but can’t get them until the gate agent is there. We can see the seat map which only has one seat available. It’s not looking good for us sitting together. To our surprise, we are together when we check-in. We’re seated right behind a wall which ended up being really nice. Those seats have way more legroom than standard ones. Our second issue is that we have a very tight connection in Paris. Luckily, we land 15 minutes early. We have enough time to go through customs and immediately board the plane, but not time for bathroom breaks. Our third issue is that our bags were already loaded on our Chicago flight. Furthermore, we were at the airport early and I’m pretty sure ours were among the first to be loaded.
We land in Venice and because I put an AirTag in my luggage, I can see my bag is sitting in Terminal 5 in Chicago. We file our claim and we are given too little baggies from AirFrance. The bags include a white t-shirt, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant wipe, comb, q-tips, cream, shaving gel, and a shaver. I’d rather have my bag, but I do appreciate this little bag of necessities.
We booked tickets to take the bus from the airport to the island and it’s pretty easy. It’s an express bus and even easier without our luggage. Piazzale Roma is our drop off point and it’s very close to our hotel. When I bought the tickets, there was an option to hire a porter for our bags. I didn’t buy the service since our hotel is so close. Since, we didn’t have bags it was fine, but knowing what I know now that would have been worth it. Venice has a lot of canals which means there are tons of bridges to walk up and down. They all have stairs and carrying a 50lb suitcase up and down is not my idea of fun.
Our hotel is absolutely gorgeous and we have a beautiful view of canals. Once we check-in we head out to shop. We need clothes to wear for tomorrow. We find most of our clothes at the Nike store and we’re going to be a walking Nike Ad tomorrow. I barely slept on the plane and can’t believe how late I’ve made it! On the plane, I sat next to a man from Venice and he gave me some restaurant options. We go to one of the options, but they’re only open for Italian dinner hours and we’re too early. We decide to eat dinner at our hotel instead. It was amazing! I had lasagne and wine which were both incredible. Tomorrow our day begins early.
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