My, how time flies by! Yet I’m not going to say I’m sorry for being too busy with real life, so that I didn’t have time for my virtual presence. So there, enough with the apologies, moving on to life in the Green Forest this summer.

I am enjoying a rare cool weekend in Vienna. We’ve sure had a wonderful sunny, hot summer so far. Yes, it has been unbearably hot and humid at times, but after years of being sun-deprived, I’m going to bear that and not complain. Luckily Vienna has great places for cooling off, and I don’t mean air conditioned ones. There are lots and lots of wonderfuly clean and refreshing public swimming pools. Yes, in Austria you can not only hike and climb, but also swim. You can choose from indoor, outdoor, with sauna, with spa, waterparks, thermal, etc. Our favorites this season are: Gänsehäufel and Döblinger Bad (because it’s the closest to us).

Gänsehäufel is a wooded sand island in the Old Danube, a stretch of standing water separated from the river by regulation, in the 22^nd district of Vienna. It opened in 1909 as the 1^st family bathing establishment. The Viennese F. Berndl “discovered” the pool and was actively engaged in its development. After its destruction in World War II, it was rebuilt as the largest and most modern summer bathing establishment in Vienna (and as one of the largest in Europe) by M. Fellerer in 1950. Its name (”goose heap”) derives from the original accumulation of small islands, which were mainly used for goose breeding. It has everything, from fun water slides, to sandy beaches, green meadows, restaurant and snack bar, to nude sun bathing. It is by far the largest, with the most variety swimming pool in Vienna, and it makes you forget that you are still in the middle of Austria and not at the seaside.

So why leave Vienna in summer when everything you need for summer fun is right here? To go to Bibione in La Bella Italia of course! Bibione is one of the many tourist resorts in the so called Veneto region of Northern Italy. While there are other wonderful beaches at the Adriatic Sea, there is none cheaper. We were in the Lido del Sole part of Bibione. It’s more family friendly, less crowded, quieter (really), less Euros for the same services, than the rest of Bibione.

All we wanted for this, one week vacation, was a sandy shallow beach, clean lodgings near said beach, good grub, and peace and quiet, all that with the lowest budget possible. And we got all that, except for the peace and quiet part. For crying out loud, this is Italy! Well, it was largely my fault, after years and years of quiet Pacific NW beaches, I sort of associate peace and quiet with the beach. In Italy beach means sun, noisy Italian families (up to 3 generations under one beach umbrella), noisy Italian neighbors (up to 3 generations in the next door appartment), crowded Pizza places, cafes, gelaterias, in short: lots of tourists per square meter. Once you accept this fact of life, vacation in Italy is fun, you learn to adapt to the rythm down there: sleep in the afternoon and party till after midnight. Some highlights: best Pizza I ever had, best Cappuccino since I left Seattle, best ice cream and lots of it, best tan in years, best Lambrusco wine, really good shopping (leather things are still best value down there) in Lignano, only a 15 min. drive from Bibione.

Bibione is not only a classical tourist resort, with the classical tourist trap shops and other etablissements designed to extract all your spending money. If you look further, ancient Veneto is still there. So we discovered the lovely town of Caorle. Caorle sits by the estuary of the river Livenza. This natural port was used by the Romans and it became a refuge for the Venetians and Friulians of the time escaping Attila the Hun. One of the largest fishing fleets in this part of the Adriatic still works from the port. Porto Santa Margherita is a self contained summer resort with gelateria, boutiques, a marina enclosed by the beach and the canals of the lagoon. The lagoon supposedly also inspired Ernest Hemingway who featured it in his work.

Venice is only 50 miles away from Bibione, so we had to go see it. It was my first trip to Venice, and I was impressed, as expected. Much has been written and photographed about Venice, so I’m not going to write a trip report here. Even though there are always tourist crowds, and you can’t ignore them, since it’s such a small city, you can still put your tourist guide and maps away and just get lost in the maze of tiny alleys and channels. That was the part of Venice I enjoyed the most, finding hidden alleys with shops and cafes that seemed to be frozen in time, where regular locals chatted in the shade and probably wondered if we were lost. I also loved the tiny mask shops. Usually I’m not a gift shop sucker, but the shops in Venice have extraordinary good taste. We did not stand in any of the sight seeing lines, it was too hot for that. But if you go, Rick Steves has an excellent recommendation plan, to help you make the best of it.

And I would surely go back there next year. Except next year we’ll combine the beach vacation with an après Bibione Dolomites vacation (which we briefly saw on our way down), to recover from all the noisy fun.