"Matt, Take Me To Europe!"

You can afford to go to Europe. As a matter of fact, you can't afford not to.

You’ve landed in Venice… but how do you get to Venice?

Wed, 15 June 2016, 3:00 pm: When you land at Venice’s airport, you’re six miles away from the actual Venice. To get to the island city you’ve seen in your dreams, you’ve still got to take a bus or a boat. And you haven’t come all this way to get this close to Venice to choose asphalt over ocean, have you?

There are two boat options: private or public. From the airport’s dock (itself a half mile or so from the terminal, and that you have to walk) you’re going to board either a water taxi or an Alilaguna boat.

The water taxi starts at 110 E. for the approximately thirty minute ride directly to the closest dock to your hotel. That price is for you alone or for you and up to three other people in your party. Got a larger group? Price goes up.

The Alilaguna boats cost only 15 E. per person, but they’ll take between an hour and ninety minutes to go the same distance because they make multiple stops. It’s on you to disembark at the stop closest to your hotel, so have your walking plans mapped out. Or hire me to plan your Venice travels and I’ll make your vacation easier.

After a long cramped plane journey I’m thrilled to spend as much time on the water as possible, and since a water taxi is really just the same experience but takes a lot more money, I always say “alley oop” to Alilaguna.

Line up at a dock for the red, orange, or blue line (depends which stop you’re aiming for) and wait for the next boat. There’s usually one every half hour.

If you luck into perfect timing, the line will be short and the next boat will be just pulling in. If it’s midday and peak tourist season, though, you might find a super long line and the boat just pulling away. THAT means you and the entire back half of the line won’t fit on the next boat (thirty minutes from now), so you’ll be standing here until the boat after that (an hour from now). That’s the only scenario wherein I’d opt for the water taxi, to save that hour AND avoid the needless extra stops. But if it’s that crowded, there’s probably a queue to catch a water taxi as well. Venice does get mobbed by daytrippers during the summer. You have been advised.

For this Matt Take Me adventure, we want the blue line, which takes passengers in the direction of the San Marco stop. You can climb off at any stop along the way, but the ride terminates at the stop nearest St. Mark’s Square.

There’s room for you in a boat dock selfie! When are you letting Matt Take Me take YOU to Venice?

Matt October 19, 2016 Italy, Venice No Comments

bread brunch for boarding

Wed, 15 June 2016, 11:17 am: Three hours after breakfast here at Dusseldorf’s airport I’m buying lunch. It’s not for immediate consumption, though; the Matt Take Me contingent has a second flight soon and this food is for on the plane. By the time we arrive in Venice and have an opportunity to grab a bite it’ll be mid-afternoon. Unlike the meals on the transatlantic legs, you have to pay for food on the short-haul flights… if they offer food at all. Best to buy something now at the airport to eat on the way.

I inspect the full length of a glass counter at “Bistrot,” a cafeteria near our departure gate, and settle on this sandwich as my edible carry-on.

I am told I’m the only Matt Take Me member who’s thinking about lunch so soon after breakfast, but as a precautionary measure I fetch the below item as well. From tarmac to boarding to flight to landing to baggage claim to airport boat transport to hoof-it-to-hotel to finally able to grab a 3:30 meal is a long slog away. Somebody’ll eat it.

Matt October 19, 2016 at the airport, Germany, Neither Here Nor There No Comments

Nothing happens before coffee.

Wed, 15 June 2016, 8:32 am: The coffee served just before final approach this morning was the best airplane java I’ve ever tasted, but it was a fraction of the amount I need coming off an overnight flight. Caffeine mainlining shall now commence.Cafetiero C in Dusseldorf Airport offers a plentiful range of seating, from couches with runway views to lunchroom tables to chairs in more private nooks. With AM crowds already occupying the prime window seats, we settled in around a corner and against a wall.

At the bottom there is my large “strong, full-bodied” Guatemala coffee (3,20 E). It’s the first of two I’ll enjoy seated here during the first half of our layover. Above it is a caffe latte (3,70 E), the same size as my coffee but priced higher presumably because it’s got milk added.

And look what accompanied it (since AirBerlin’s on-board breakfast didn’t do it for me): “pancino salchichon mit cashew, chilli, butter, und salchichon-salami” (3,80 E). So, yes, a good-sized sub-style sandwich costs only ten Euro cents more than a caffe latte.

“Salchichon” is a Spanish summer sausage. Like every single other sausage found anywhere in Germany, it is the furthest thing from spicy that a food can be without actually being yogurt. “Pancino” is Italian for “tummy.” I guess it says something about the German sense of humour (proof that they have one?) that one of their for real menu items is called tummy sausage.

And before anyone squawks that a sandwich like that isn’t right at eight-thirty in the morning, you should know that I was tempted to wash it down with a mug of fresh German beer. Not only were the airport bars already serving, we walked past many full and half-full glasses of beer all around the terminal, as if travelers had been called for boarding in the middle of their fourth round. Some folks carried beers on their breakfast trays instead of coffee or juice. One liquor store mid-terminal had a range of free shots to sample, sitting right there on their counter at this hour. You can’t eat a spicy sausage in this country, but you sure can drink!

Matt October 18, 2016 at the airport, Germany, Neither Here Nor There No Comments