God is love. We are constantly awed by the diversity of His creation. The individuality, the freedom of choice, the beauty, the loveliness of some people. We are so thankful for the opportunity to travel and see more evidences of His great love.

We arrived in Venice on Monday afternoon. But back to Milan for a moment. We were only in Milan for one night. Debbie wanted to buy an electrical gadget to do something with her hair, curl it I think. She has one at home but we didn’t bring it. Anyway we checked in all the department stores in the city but none stocked them. We were referred to a supermarket about a kilometer out of town. After walking about three kms we found the store. The ground floor was a deli so we found some stairs at the back. Debbie didn’t think it looked right but I assured her that the gadget she was looking for would be upstairs in another section. She waited while I ascended to investigate. As I passed the tenth stair, a deafening alarm went off which made me jump down the entire ten steps in one mighty leap. It turned out that the supermarket was downstairs. They must have kept their gold upstairs. Anyway we escaped without too much trouble - just a few “sorry”s and a look of innocent embarrassment. We never got to buy the gadget.

Venice is the most amazing place we have ever been to. So much history. There are no roads or cars - just canals and boats. The whole city is built on small islands and water. Several months ago I checked the net to see if we could hire a self-drive boat in Venice. There was nothing. When we arrived I asked the hotel consierge. He explained that you need a special licence to drive a boat in Venice. He said that if tourists were allowed to hire boats the canals would be congested and dangerous. I kept pressing him to tell me if he knew anyone who owned a boat. Eventually he called a friend and arranged for me to rent a boat for two hours. The vessel was about 30 feet long, but fairly narrow. It had a nippy 4hp motor. The owner wanted to test me before letting me take his boat, so he put me at the helm and told me to head up a small canal and do a 360. Well the canal was only 20 feet wide, but somehow I managed to swing it around to the satisfaction of the owner. So we dropped him off and headed into the Grand Canal. This canal snakes right through the middle of Venice. Flanked on every side by ferries, taxi boats and gondolas, we navigated to the canal-heads, then out in the deep blue sea. It was awsome! We circumnavigated half of Venice till we arrived at the Doja’s palace and St. Mark’s Square. It looks amazing from out at sea. We got some great photos while dodging other vessels. Then we entered the Grand Canal at the other end of it and motored our way back to the owner’s jetty. On one occasion we were surrounded by three ferries and two taxi boats. It was cat and mouse. I figured that the most aggressive vessel would get right of way, so I accellerated into the thick of the action. Deafened by a ferry’s blow horn and Debbie’s scream I decided that submission might be the best course in this case, so I dropped the throttle and put the engine into reverse just in time to give the ferries a clear passage past us. Another time there were two gondolas, laden with tourists, heading toward us in a parallel formation. Should I turn to the left or the right? Our boat was so long that either way would result in a collision. Debbie closed her eyes while I prayed and advanced the throttle. Straight through the middle! No more than one millimeter on either side! I tried to shake hands with the tourists as we passed through the middle, but they didn’t seem very friendly. Maybe they had had a late night. Anyway we were going a bit too fast for formalities. The gondaliers didn’t seem too fussed. They screamed something in Italian. By their enthusiasm I could tell that they appreciated my navigational skills. Anyway, we returned the boat in one piece afted a very exciting maritime adventure. The best thing was that Debbie didn’t need that hair gadget anymore. After the boat trip her hair went naturally frizzy!

The first night in Venice Debbie went to bed while I went out to get a meal. I settled for a pizza in a small restaurant where I met two lovely young people from England - a brother and sister. We talked till 12:30am. The next night Debbie and I took them out to dinner. They are both coming to Australia next year so we will keep in touch. Today we took a ferry to Marano Island where they make all the famous Venetian glass. Then to Barano Island where they make beautiful crochet work. Tonight we listened to the classical quintets in St. Mark’s Square. We leave early in the morning to rail it to Anconna down the East coast of Italy, where we will take an all-night ferry across the Adriatic Sea to Montengnegro.

We miss you all. Special thanks to Jannie, Kupa and Joel for you encouraging emails. I would send photos but at this stage I can’t work out how to email them.
May God bless you all, Gary and Debbie