Well, we arrived at the railway station (from hell let me tell you). Not a coffee to be had and not feeling overly safe in the 'waiting area' but as this was the station the overnighter left from, then we had to suck it up. Finally our carriage arrived and we were met by our steward. Lovely young man who escorted us to our 'cabin'. Now he seemed impressed that on our 'coffee table' there was a complimentary pack filled with a washer, soap, ear plugs and a container of Sangria - all the essentials for a good night . Now the cabin was small. Picture a metre wide with 2 seats facing the same direction on one side. There were 2 cupboards. At this stage I was wondering how clever they were to fit a toilet and shower into such a small space. Well it seems either they or John weren't that clever. We had a basin with a large warning above it saying 'do not drink'. Slightly off putting when cleaning your teeth, and that was it! The toilet was half a km down the carriage and the shower, as I should have twigged, was non existent. Oh dear - a long, and rather pongy night lay ahead. Poor Johno was devastated. He desperately searched for the paperwork to confirm the shower guarantee, but it seems he may have looked at the incorrect cabin category in this case! Our lovely steward came to our cabin to 'unlock' our beds for the night. I chose the upper bunk, and Johno was on the lower. We both decided that emptying the bladder completely was a must before retiring as there was no way we wanted to take the long journey in the middle of the night, and besides, I couldn't get down from the top bunk without major assistance. Johno unfortunately did feel the call of nature a couple if times during the night, possibly owing to that 8th glass of wine he had to 'help him sleep';) now without going into too much detail, let's just say that the hand basin may have been used in a way it was not necessarily meant to be, and let me tell you I don't think he was the first, looking at the staining around the plug hole:) without being too dramatic, it was a loooooooong night, but we were welcomed early by our steward who delivered brekky to us. It was served on a table the size of a hanky and not sure what I ate but it tasted ok. Arrived in Venice around 9ish and caught a water taxi to our hotel. We got the. 'All stations' but a great way to see the city. Can't describe how amazing this place is. Our hotel the Paginelli is on the Grand Canal and right at the Taxi station. Dropped our bags and started to explore. Wandered into St Marcs square and decided to take one of the hundreds of little side streets for a look. Who do we run into - none other than Lucia and Tony! Incredible with thousands of tourists and a city which is a maze, that we would run into each other. We caught up on each other's adventures, then farewelled looking forward to catching up on the cruise. An amazing day filled with surprises around every corner. Early night, for reasons that are obvious from the earlier train tale, ready for a big day tomoz. X