A very enjoyable journey.

We started our day, at 7:15am going to Cardiff Airport and spending a couple of hours in the lounge with our son (who’s its GM) enjoying a breakfast of sausage & cheese muffins plus trimmings before our on time flight to Amsterdam. Operated by German Airways, it was a slight improvement on the standard KLM Cityhopper experience with a choice of snacks and quicker service.

Schipol is still Schipol. Long queues at passport control and long walks between gates, but with plenty of stopover time and a flight delayed by 50 minutes, it didn’t matter at all.

The flight to Venice was uneventful, standard KLM; our luggage arrived with us 👏👏; Viking were there in force to meet and greet. There was a bit of a delay waiting for other flights to arrive and somewhat congested traffic on the 1¼ hour trip from Venice to Chioggia. Nonetheless, we were checked-in and in our room by 19:45. We found a very large, very cream filled chocolate cake and bubbly waiting for us, with a “Happy Anniversary” card. Dessert! So we headed off for an above average meal in World Café giving plenty of time for our luggage to arrive.

Apart from the rain, a perfect start to our trip.