Goodbye Venice

When we returned from Ravenna my lecture schedule was waiting for me.  The schedule was set by the Cruise Director.  She never consulted me, which I thought a bit strange, but not my call.   We were scheduled to sail away from Venice at 4:00 p.m. and my first lecture was scheduled for 5:30…a good time since people would be on board and “into” things Venetian—the first lecture is Venice and the Fourth Crusade.  The second lecture will be tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.  All-in-all I’m happy with that schedule.  People will also be on the ship in the morning since we’re not scheduled to dock at Dubrovnik until noon.  We stayed on board all morning trying to do laundry.  Yesterday was debarkation/embarkation day; the Rome-Venice crowd would be debarking by 9:00 a.m. and the new group was to be on board by 6:00 p.m.  I thought it was a reasonable assumption that the new crowd would be busy in Venice today. WRONG!  They had all come to Venice early and were spending the day doing laundry.  Met some nice people in the laundry room

Evening came with laundry finally done.  After a reasonably sunny day, a slow drizzle settled in just in time for the sail-away from Venice.  What a disappointment that must’ve been for the new people, but it didn’t bother me since I watched from the room resting up for the evening “performance.” 

Showtime!  I actually had a good crowd.  It was thrilling to talk in front of people for the first time since we left Rome, and it was a good feeling to be prepared for the cruise.  There were more than 100 people in the auditorium.  Problem was, I was tired from a long drive yesterday and a long morning fighting the laundry-room crowd.  Oh well, so I was a little flat.  The lecture was well received and I’m finished in time to get a good night’s sleep for tomorrow’s show.