Saturday, November 1, 2008

I May Not Know Much About Art,,,,

The tide was high when we checked out yesterday, so we couldn't get the water taxi to take our bags to the cruise ship terminal for a few hours. Even though it was raining pretty hard at the time, I swear I could hear Linda singing her own version of that old Blondie song, "The tide is high, so I'm going to buy."

To divert our own personal economic meltdown, I suggested we use our newly acquired knowledge of the water bus system and hop aboard for rainy day cruise.

We ended up at l'Accademia, which had lots of old art works. Linda is an art buff, and I enjoy some of it. She ended up loving the museum. I ended up liking some paintings, but really after you've seen your first 50 Madonna with Child pictures, why would you want more? It started to feel to me like I was looking at all the entries for this year's Christmas Card contest. If I had to vote which collection I like the most, I would choose the hotel with all the naked women on the walls to this, but what do I know about art?

One thing that did interest me was when I noticed that St Sebastien showed up in lots of the paintings, wearing his underpants and with an arrow or two sticking out of him. He was never the center of attention, but these old Venetian masters must have really enjoyed painting him standing off to the side. I was curious that the arrows were never in the same place. In one picture, there would be one in his abdomen on the left side; in another there would be one in his shoulder and a second in his leg, and so on. I found it interesting that these painters couldn't agree on where the arrows hit him, but they were absolutely unanimous that it happened while he was wearing only his underpants.

When I pointed this out to Linda, I got the kind of sniff that she only uses once in a while and only in public. It means something like, "I don't want to hurt your feelings so I will sniff to acknowledge you've said something, but what you said was so (A. Stupid B. Unfunny or C. Both of the above) that I don't want you to think I share your sense of humor or views of the world, especially when it comes to art which is something I know a bit about."

I love her anyway.

After the museum it was time to get back to the hotel and order up the water taxi. The tour books were full of warnings that water taxis in Venice cost an arm and a leg. It didn't turn out to be as bad as the books made us think it would be. In part, I think the driver saw how bad my leg is right now and figured he would only charge an arm. Also, when I think how much we spent in the taxi driving from Milan Airport, this seemed a bargain.

We also got to see a little more of Venice that we hadn't passed before. It was very pleasant, except when" Linda nearly capsized the boat rushing to the other side when I mistakenly thought I saw the boat her heartthrob had been in when we first arrived.

We are now aboard the ship, which looks like it will be fun. They tried their best to have a Halloween Party last night as you can see by the picture at the top of this post. Most people were too jetlagged - or too sober - to get into it, but at least there was an effort.

The other cruisers seem quite friendly. We've met Andy and Sandy (LK: "Hey, that's my sister's name!") from California, Larry and Linda (LK: Hey, that's my name!) from Long Island and several others who probably told us their names but since they aren't the same as our family's names we have forgotten. Today Linda also met a guy who went to Hudson Elementary School in La Puente - the same school Linda's mom, Peg, once taught in. He was too old to have been one of her pupils, but it really does show what a small world it is. It also shows how Linda can have a conversation starting at just about any point and find out something interesting by the end of it.

We are leaving tonight for Dubrovnik in Croatia. LK promises it will be interesting.

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