Venice, Italy

At work I am spending all of my time working on the motorcycle test bench, performing photogrammetry tests, analyzing the results, discussing findings with my supervisor, and then making more improvements. Right now I am still measuring on our first motorcycle, our “pilot” or “test dummy” so to say, because we are trying to understand the results we are getting and sort out some problems. The plan is to start with applying push and pull cross forces to the front wheel rim with the back rim firmly clamped and then move the force application to the rear wheel rim with the front rim clamped. Then eventually applying torsion with cross forces in opposite directions on the front and back rims, and then bending forces in the perpendicular direction to the cross forces (towards the center of the bike) on each wheel rim. But it is moving pretty slow because I have to do a lot of measurements at many force intervals and redo a lot of measurements when we change something in the setup. It’s all to be expected though since this is the first time in BMW’s history these measurements are happening at a high level of quality, and there’s already a lot of money, interest, and discussion being poured into this.


Outside of work, on Wednesday of this week I went with my new roommate Heiko and with Corey to Sommerfest in Olympia park. We walked by the tents of various handmade crafts and clothing and then by some rides and a giant Ferris wheel on our way to the food stands. We ended up getting beers and I got a meter-long sausage nestled in a baguette and we sat down at some tables overlooking the lake in the middle of Olympia park. From there we could see people wakeboarding on the lake inside a course they set up with a pulled handle from overhead and ramps to do crazy tricks on. When we finished eating we went to a nearby stage along the lake where they had a free open-air concert with 3 electronica-rock type bands. We watched until the third band and then it got really cold so we decided to leave the festival and go home.

The next night, on Thursday, Corey and I were invited to go to visit the hometown of our boss’s boss named Helmut. He picked us up from work in a groovy shag van that looked like it was from the 70’s and took us to his hometown about an hour south of Munich in a small village called Preisenberg. When we got there, we stopped by his house to pick up his wife and then went to a nearby beer garden in Polling for dinner where we met his son too. From there he took us to a sweet privately owned restoration shop for old Mercedes with gull-wing doors. People apparently come from all over the world to this workshop to have these very valuable classic cars restored. The coolest part was we just simply walked in there like we owned the place. Helmut just gave the guys a head nod when we walked in and then he showed us around in the shop and then saw some of the finished cars. There were really rare, pretty looking Mercedes in there as well as some classic Porsches that you would never see except for at a collector’s auto show. It was sweet. After that Helmut took us in his shag wagon up to the top of a nearby hill where there is a church and one of the first weather stations in the world. From here we had one of the most spectacular views of the Alps I’ve seen. Looking directly south, we could see the village below which was on pretty much flat ground and then looking out we could literally see the edge of the Alps from left to right where the flat land suddenly jutted up into the huge mountain range. From there we could even see a mountaintop in Italy. At the same time, the sun was setting on the west side and we could see the moon on the east side hovering over the mountain peaks. It was spectacular. Unfortunately, neither Corey nor I had cameras on us at the time, so we don’t have pictures. It won’t be leaving my memory any time soon though.

On Friday after work I packed my backpack and boarded a night train to Venice, Italy. I reserved a normal seat thinking that I would have no problems sleeping since I normally can sleep through anything, but I wasn’t ready for sitting in the middle seat of a small cabin with 5 other people with nothing to lay my head against and almost no leg room because of the seats across facing us, causing a tangle of legs that kick each other throughout the night. I got only fleeting moments of sleep, but at least I made it there.

I arrived in Venice at 6:30am on Saturday just as the sun was rising. The streets were totally empty except for some Venetian merchants heaving carts of produce or seafood and driving boats filled with supplies through the canals to their shops getting ready for a day’s work. It felt like I had all of Venice to myself. I walked through the maze of cobbled streets lined with beautifully aged buildings with exposed brick walls, weather-worn pastel facades, and flower-lined balconies with clothes draped over cords stretching across the alleyway overhead. I crossed countless canals over beautiful bridges that connect the one hundred plus islands that make up Venice. Like I said it is like a maze and after failing miserably to use my map, I just put it away and allowed myself to get lost in this beautiful city.

I couldn’t check into my hostel until late in the afternoon, so I followed some signs to the picturesque Rialto bridge that crosses the Grand Canal, which is the biggest canal and winds through the center of Venice. Walking along the canal I could see gondolas and small boats covered up waiting for the day to begin. I then followed signs for Saint Mark’s square which is the center of life in Venice and home of the gorgeous Saint Mark’s basilica, the Doge’s palace that housed the ruler of Venice, the gigantic bell tower of Saint Mark, the clock tower with astronomical clock, and big open square that opens up to the water’s edge of the Venetian Lagoon. When I got there it was still early morning and I was one of the only persons there which was really surreal to see the grandness of the square in the quietness and fog. When I passed through to the water’s edge I could see across the lagoon another island with a grand cathedral on it and then as I looked to my right, I saw an even grander cathedral with a big dome and knew that it was connected to the main cluster of Venice by crossing the Grand Canal over the wooden Accademia bridge, so I decided to set out for it. As I walked along the water’s edge, I saw in the distance a gigantic cruise ship coming in from Greece and decided to watch it go by. It was monstrous and I could see thousands of tourists leaning on the railings as their ship sailed in. I eventually made it to the bridge and crossed over onto the other side of the Grand Canal and began walking in the direction of the giant cathedral, which took me to another edge of the main cluster of Venice and from the water’s edge on this side I could see another island in the distance and the same cruise ship pushing onwards and since I was amazed by the giant cruise ship, I decided that I would later try and find out where they are docked. Anyway I walked along the water and made it to the cathedral and from there I could see a very nice view of Saint Mark’s square and the big bell tower where I was before.

After that I decided to walk back the way I came toward Saint Mark’s square again, but take a different route. On the way I stepped into a church that had an exhibition for the famous composer Antonio Vivaldi, who was born and lived in Venice. There was a classical concert that night by a local orchestral group featuring Vivaldi’s compositions and it wasn’t very expensive, but unfortunately I couldn’t do it because I didn’t have proper clothing with me. But in there I got to see some very old violins and basses from as old as the 16th century and a display on the craft of violin making. It was pretty cool. Then as I kept walking I walked across some artists painting who had absolutely incredible pieces of art on display. After a while I started seeing them everywhere and they were all brilliant artists. Still on my way, I found the narrow street where all of the expensive fashion stores like Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuitton were. It was just starting to get crowded and by the time I got back to Saint Mark’s square it was filled with people. It was wonderful weather and the sun was overhead by now, so I decided to go up to the top of the bell tower and see Venice from overhead. It was stunningly beautiful. I could all the nearby islands in the lagoon and further out into the Adriatic Sea and then on one side I could even see mountains. Looking over Saint Mark’s basilica was really cool and seeing Venice from above was sweet.

 

By this time, boats were cruising the canals and gondolas were everywhere paddled by Venetian men wearing blue or red striped shirts. It would have been really cool and romantic to ride one, but seeing as I was there solo and they’re very expensive, it didn’t happen. I found myself a pizzeria and got myself a pizza for lunch, which was really delicious. Since they are very thin, it is typical for Italians to order a whole pizza for themselves to eat, so that’s what I did. I used to prefer American pizza because of its heavy toppings and thick crust and heartiness, but after having a real Italian pizza, I realize now that simple is better. Italian pizza may be very thin, but it’s so delicious because they believe that a good pizza is not loaded with toppings, but instead has lots of ingredients that go into making the tomato sauce and the cheese just right. Then cooking it on a brick or stone stove finishes it off with crispy breading. Delicioso!

After that I got extremely lost trying to find my hostel and once I did, there were no signs or anything for it. I knew the address, so I just walked in and up the steps one floor and the very nice owner greeted me with a thick Italian accent and showed me to my room. I was finally able to drop my stuff and since my camera battery died, I had to charge it and leave my camera behind. From the top of the bell tower, I found the docking area where all the massive cruise ships were, so I decided to make that my goal to find them and get a closer look. That ended up taking me until sundown after getting lost the whole way, but once I got there, there were probably 10 or so cruise ships and I was just amazed at their size. Then I came back, picked up my camera, and went out to watch the sunset with a scoop of Gelato ice cream. Once I got back at sundown, I met my roommates at the hostel who were a German couple from Frankfurt, but then they were gone early the next morning. By the end of the day, I had walked so much that my left knee began hurting. In the past, I have had pain there after soccer games in high school, but it was never bad enough that I had trouble walking. After walking so much with about 20 pounds on my back on not much sleep, and crossing so many stepped bridges, it started hurting, but I thought it would be better by the morning.

My knee wasn’t better by morning, but I didn’t think it was a big deal so I kept walking on it which turned out to be a bad idea. I’ll talk more about that later though. At the beginning of day two, I first met my new roommates who were two old ladies from Kazakstan haha. They spoke barely any English though and they invited me to go to breakfast with them, which I did, but conversation did not come easy haha lots of hand waving. After that I decided to go back to the beautiful Saint Mark’s basilica and go inside it this time. It turned out to be amazingly gorgeous inside. The ceilings and domes where covered in gold mosaic tiles and mosaic artwork. I was also able to go out onto the balcony and get a great view of Saint Mark’s square. After that I walked in the other direction that I did yesterday along the lagoon’s edge. On the way I passed by the famous Bridge of Sighs that you see on postcards, but it was undergoing construction and was almost totally covered up. As went on, I saw for the first time ever a real wooden ship with masts and sails on the water sailing into through the lagoon. I was really excited. As I kept walking, I saw that I was approaching a big park and a quiet community. I had completely escaped the tourists and had found where the residents of Venice go to relax. I explored this area, which was really nice and quiet and found a little island off the main part of Venice that was connected by bridges and on this island there was a church and a tower that was actually leaning. Actually now that I think of it, there was at least two other leaning towers that I had seen in Venice too. The leaning tower of Pisa is the world famous one, but apparently leaning towers are pretty common in Italy. I know there’s one in Bologna for example. I ended up getting lunch in this area, which was yet another delicious pizza that I got to go and took to the water’s edge to relax and eat.

In this park area was La Biennale. La Biennale is a world renowned modern art exhibition held in Venice one summer every two years. I first learned about this from my cousin Heike who we met for the first time here in Germany when my parents came to visit. She’s really artistic and told me that it was a big deal and that I should go, so I did. I found out later that La Biennale also contains the world renowned Venice Film Festival where many of the greatest films in history rose to acclaim. I wish I could have been there for that, but it wasn’t for another 4 weekends. That would have been really cool. But anyway, La Biennale actually has exhibitions spread out all over Venice in random buildings for artists that come from all around the world. Where I was in this park, called Giardini, is where the concentration of all of the national exhibits are. There are buildings for every country participating, like the United States, Great Britain, France, Spain, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, and so on. There were lots of countries there and each country represents itself with a particular artist or artists work. Since this was modern art, a lot of it was really weird, but some of it was actually pretty cool. I like art and enjoyed the experience. That lasted most of the day, and I came back to the hostel having walked all day and completely exhausted with my knee hurting enough that I started limping. I was just so stubborn that I wasn’t going to let my knee get in the way of me doing what I wanted.

The third and last day there, I planned to visit some museums. The first one I went to is an art museum called Galleria dell’Accademia, which is actually Venice’s most significant art museum and one of Itay’s best. I really enjoyed going there and the artwork was incredible. The artists featured there were part of the Venetian School, which isn’t a school really, but simply a name given to the group of incredibly talented artists in Venice at the time, I think maybe around the end of the 17th century. One of them was Titian, whom you might recognize the name of, and he had several pieces there. Actually, the most famous painting there is one everyone knows by Leonardo Da Vinci called the Vitruvian Man, which has been used as a symbol in the health field for centuries. Only thing is, I asked the information desk where it was after I couldn’t find it, and they said that it’s never on display. I wasn’t heartbroken though because all of the artwork was incredible. I haven’t been to many art museums in my life and after going to this one, I was so amazed by it that who knows, maybe I would have aspired to be an artist.

After that I headed to St. Mark’s square to the Correr Museum where they have a collection of globes from the 16th century, roman antiques, library hall with Venetian glass chandeliers, and artwork gallery. It was really interesting, but unfortunately I don’t have pictures of the really cool stuff because picture taking was not allowed. Included in the ticket was the Doge’s Palace, which was where the ruler of Venice lived. It’s connected to Saint Mark’s basilica and on the inner part of the palace is a really neat courtyard. Inside the palace was really really cool though because first of all the rooms were incredibly designed for royalty on the inside and there was also an armory inside where there were all kinds of suits of armor, horse armor, swords, bows, and cannons. There was also a dungeon there that connected to the palace through the Bridge of Sighs. I learned that they call it the Bridge of Sighs because when prisoners would be taken to the dungeons, they could see through tiny windows in the covered bridge their last glimpse of the beautiful Venetian lagoon and sigh as they are taken down into the darkness. I got to walk through the Bridge of Sighs and explore the dungeon and it was really cool. Unfortunately, again I don’t have photos of some of the coolest things at the Doge’s Palace because photography was limited.

After I left the museum I looked around in some nearby shops and found lots of shops where they sell ornate masks. It is traditional celebratory clothing in Venice and are featured in festivals year round, and of course are a big hit with tourists. There were also glass shops with glass artwork and chandeliers containing the world-renowned authentic Venetian glass from the nearby island of Murano. There were amazing chandeliers and vases and glass figurines of all kinds and they were gorgeous, like more amazing than I have ever seen. I went into a shop and started taking pictures and ended up getting kicked out of the shop for it, but it was totally worth it so I can show you some of the glass artwork.

At the end of the day, I followed the setting sun to the far west corner of Venice where I watched boats sail by underneath an amazing sunset. It was a great end to an amazing weekend in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I ended up getting to the train station two hours before my night train left and was in the middle of reading my Bible when a very old man sat down next to me and we started talking. His life is pretty interesting, so I’ll share some of it. He is a 75 year old retired doctor from Vienna, Austria who at one time had the Prince of Spain as a patient. He was born into the royal family of the Austria-Hungarian Empire and inherited gold and jewels handed down in the family that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He speaks around 10 languages including German, English, French, Italian, and Spanish fluently and is currently learning Japanese. Right now he lives in a mansion on a small island off the mainland of Spain, but also has a mansion in his hometown near Vienna, Austria. Though he is retired, he is a guest lecturer at various medical schools in Europe. He was in Venice at the time because he had inherited a property in Venice that was worth over a million dollars that he didn’t want anymore and was meeting with someone who was interested in buying it. During his stay in Venice, he was jumped by several African men and in the process was punched and kicked and broke several ribs and had all of his money and all of his identification stolen. He was in the process of getting new ID’s, a new credit card, new passport, etc. and the hospital paid for him to stay in the most expensive hotel in Venice, which normally costs 800 euros (over $1000) per night. He was at the train station when I was because he was waiting for his son to arrive from Rome to visit him. Since he was a doctor, I figured I’d go ahead and ask about my knee which was in a lot of pain and I couldn’t walk without limping. He asked where it was and I pointed to the spot on my knee, then he pulls up the leg on his shorts and shows me a big scar in the exact spot I showed him. My heart sank and I said “Noooooooo way….will I have to get surgery?” and he said, “probably yes, it’s your Meniscus”. He told me it is a cartilage in my knee and that eventually when I’m older I will have to get surgery on it because it will get weaker. Not the news I was hoping for, but at least I don’t have to get surgery now. As I’m writing this, it is 4 days after my trip and it feels already much better, only a little bit of pain but I’m walking normal. Just not looking forward to going under the knife in the future. I almost forgot, at the end as I was leaving to board my train, he actually invited me to come to visit him next weekend at his mansion on the Spanish island and bring friends with me and offered to pay for the plane ticket, but I politely declined because I need to let my knee rest and I’m pretty exhausted from traveling and I don’t really know him anyway, so he left me with his contact information and address if I want to visit in the future.