Reconnaissance: the exploration outside an area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about natural features and enemy presence. (Wikipedia)

or… the process of obtaining information about the position, activities, resources, etc, of an enemy or potential enemy (thefreesdictonary.com)

To recce: to check out the scene (Dave Morley)

“Time spent on reconnaissance is seldom wasted” Major Arthur Rowley (British mate of Dave’s) (1987)

Over our 25 years of marriage the term ‘recce’ has become part of our family’s vernacular.

On Monday, we ‘recced’ the Avis car depot. We knew it was near the Venice railway station, so we took a short detour from one of our Vaporeto trips to locate the position of where we needed to pick our car up today (Tuesday).

It has helped us immensely over the years and it certainly takes the worry out of many aspects of travel. I think it has saved us a fair bit of time too, because we know how long things will take. We knew yesterday it would take less than an hour to go from our hotel, walk to the Vaporetto station, onto the correct number water bus (4.2) and then walk to the Avis pick up point. The Army has taught Dave a lot of things over the years. It has taught me a few too 😉

I accidentally stumbled across one of my favourite versions of a ‘simple’ food yesterday morning. Breakfast was again served in the pretty corridor outside our room. Again juice, bread and butter, croissant and fresh fruit. We were then offered a soft boiled egg and both took up the offer.

There is not a lot better than a softly boiled egg, plenty of pepper and toast ‘soldiers’.

No coffee with my breakfast though. I am sure many Italians would argue with me, but I think Australian coffee is the best in the world. Since ‘life is too short for bad coffee’ I went without over breakfast!

The decision was made that I would drive the car out of Venice. Dave’s been saying for years his license isn’t ‘endorsed’ for city driving. The railway station and port is on the outskirts of Venice island, and since no cars can go onto the island it was pretty simple to get the directions right!  There no doubt that driving on the wrong side of the road is stressful, but I took a deep breath, asked Google maps to direct us and off we set in a nice little silver Peugeot 303.

 

The drive to Trieste took around two hours. After a roadside station stop  for snacks and drinks Dave took over the driving. I tried to load a video here but I think the internet connection can’t cope.

Google maps was a big help, although in long underground tunnels it does struggle a little, hence we ended up having a short visit to Slovenia (well that’s my excuse as the directions giver anyway).  Slovenia was formally part of Yugoslavia. Much to Dave’s disappointment there was no border post with heavily armed Slavic guards.

We managed to get to the Hotel without too many people sounding their horns at us and after checking in, I took over driving to get us to the ‘easy to find’ parking station. I say that in inverted commas because it was nothing but easy! Trieste is the city of one-way streets. That is all I am going to say.

After unpacking in our beautiful room at the Victoria Hotel (no resemblance to the one in Wagga 😉 ) we hit the streets. We walked to the town square, along the foreshore, enjoyed an excellent hot chocolate (Chocollato caldo) and, of course, a good look around a supermarket! Good advice Steve Forbes-Taber, we followed a few people too ha ha. I’ll tell the story tomorrow of what we purchased. Thanks for all your feedback yesterday everyone, it seems our supermarket visiting is not so unusual!

Here are a few pics taken on the walk, including a shot of the ‘spoon stands up’ Chocollato caldo and the quaint place we enjoyed it in. Yes, it was freezing cold and windy hence Dave’s hoodie!

Dinner was a real treat.

We met one of Dave’s school friends, Mary (Arthur Phillip High, Parramatta, 1974)  who has Italian heritage and who has spent a lot of the past two years in Trieste and Milan. Her sister, Linda, was also here visiting from Australia. They took us to a local restaurant that specialized in Trieste ‘tipici’ food. Trieste has an interesting history and seems to be very influenced by the countries to its east. While people speak Italian, they seem, in my opinion, much more Slavic in their appearance and apparently the local dialect reflects that also.

The food is also influenced in the same way. My meal of braised ham, potato, blue cheese and vegetables was so delicious. The vegetables included an unusual combination of mushrooms, baby onions, capsicum and olives and fresh horseradish was grated over the top of the ham. A large dollop of German style mustard was there too. It was a huge plate of food but I polished it off!

The girls walked us back to the hotel after dinner. The city is even more stunning at night. The ‘Neo-classical’ architecture is so beautiful.

I was very pleased with myself that I stayed up past 730pm. Jet lag can be a terrible thing!

15,514 steps for the day was not bad going considering we spent three hours in the car, so we quickly fell asleep. Its now 8.15am and Dave is still asleep. Whilst he is doing very well, he’s a long way off being back to his normal fit self, so I will definitely let him sleep in for a bit longer. Breakfast closes at 10, so not too much longer though!!

Today – we will see more of the sights of Trieste. Pronounced, as I now know, triˈɛste.