Our last day in London started with a quick breakfast, pack up and get into a cab for the hour long trip to Gatwick Airport. The check in at the airport was simple and we made our way to Jamie Oliver's for lunch, (that's his restaurant not to his house). After a nice meal of fresh pasta we headed to the gate and boarded on time.

The flight from London to Venice was smooth and very quick, (under two hours), and we breezed through immigration. Once out of the airport we caught a water private charter boat to the ship, it is a great way to view the way people live here.

We very quickly boarded the ship and dropped our hand luggage off to our rooms. We checked out the room and a real pleasant surprise in that the shower is bigger than the one in Paris, which would not have been hard, as in Paris they are the size of a telephone box.

Steve and I then caught another water taxi to St Marks Square and headed out to find a restaurant for dinner to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary. We are going to have to be very creative to beat this as a way to celebrate, we could not have asked for a nicer venue to be in. We checked out the Gondolas and did not have a ride as most of them had stopped working for the day, and it was very dark in the canals so we would not have seen much. We settled for exploring the back streets of Venice, and went to a little Italian cafe for dinner and it was really beautiful.

After dinner, we noticed puddles starting to form in St Marks Square. It was not raining and we realised the water was coming up from below as the tide hit its peak - quite a surreal experience. We made our way back to the water taxi heading back to the ship. Once back on board, we started to explore what will be our home for the next couple of weeks. The ship is large, very comfortable and clean. Many bars, restaurants, pools and viewing decks await us. So far have not noticed much movement, but maybe still being tied to the dock helps, I am sure I will find out soon enough.