Venice is a no go

It's bad when you're watching the news wondering if you will see yourself in the evening... at least it is when you have had the day we had.

After our flight was cancelled on Saturday, we decided to try again today (Monday) to catch a flight to Paris. We went with a different carrier this time. Air France is just more reliable overall... and we booked an early flight so we would have plenty of daylight to find our hotel once we arrived in Venice, since the streets there can be hopelessly confusing.

At the check-out counter, we met 2 men from Germany who were trying to get to the train in a hurry, but there was NOTHING hurried about our check out process... or theirs. By the time we got a taxi, it was snowing steadily.

First bad omen: the taxi driver. He was a piece of work... possibly terrified of driving in the snow, possibly his first time driving to Charles de Gualle (not MY first time)... I don't know... but after the SLOWEST trip to the airport yet (cars passing us on all sides), he dropped us off on the complete opposite side of the airport from the one we needed.

But no worries, we were EARLY! It was 7 a.m. and our flight was not scheduled to leave until 9:45. So we hoofed it to the correct terminal where we encountered "The Line". We printed our boarding passes... and took up residence in the line in front of the check-in counter waiting to drop off our bags. We waited there for 8 hours...

along with thousands of other people. News crews were there all day to capture the expressions of distraught passengers as flights were cancelled all around us... and yet ours somehow remained on the board, with Air France officials telling us to just hold tight... around 3 p.m., they decided to try to board us. I was already worried, because we had a connecting flight in Rome that had left over an hour earlier... I didn't want to get to Rome and have to stay in the airport all night trying to get a flight from there to Venice.

We got up to the ticket counter to drop off our bags and the attendant kindly offered to book us on a flight to Venice tomorrow... and we could hear them cancelling our current flight even while they were checking people in for it... and something inside me just said no. We have spent 2 days in airports already this vacation (not including the flight from New York to Paris)... and the point of this trip was to spend time enjoying one place instead of running to and fro, never staying in the same hotel room more than one night.

So we're going to collect our refunds on the missed flights... and we cancelled the hotel in Venice and booked a hotel here in Paris for the duration of the trip (that is, until we stay with Marc and Sherris after Christmas).

I can't pretend I'm not disappointed. I was looking forward to sharing Venice with Noah. I was excited to take photos and visit Murano and eat fantastic Italian food.

But... we will enjoy Paris as well. There are a few different things I had left on the agenda to do here, and really, Paris has so much more to offer than we even know of! I know we'll have a good time. We found a funky and super hotel in the 14th Arrondissement... and we ate some yummy Indian food at a restaurant down the street.

 

Now for a bubble bath to take the stress away... and then some sleep. It's a new day tomorrow! So much to do, so much to see, so much French to learn!