A flower shop — in lieu of park.

For our final morning in Venice, we visited a park.  Several guides had mentioned that a third of Venice is devoted to parks when we passed a lovely gardened parks headquarters and replica of the original Ferris Wheel–invented for the Chicago World’s Fair.  Stadpark was nearest our tour bus stop and touted as an easy trolley ride–except that Steve was leery of getting misdirected and ending up in a nether region which might cause us to miss the boat.

By the time we reached the park on foot, our morning caffeine was lobbying for a pit stop.  The route to a restroom took us past a group of preschoolers playing on tot-height tree branches worn smooth by a multitude of apes-in-training.  We also got a glimpse of a composer statue which didn’t look accessible enough to be the one I’d heard that Japanese ladies love to hug for pictures.

Before we got more than a peek at a graceful pond, flowers and possibly a bridge, we turned back toward the street where the map had promised restrooms.  And such restrooms they were!  Imagine a giant silvery shoebox decorated à la wedding

Man the fortress!

cake.  Imagine what they must look like inside.  That’s all I can do because the door to the LADIES was locked.  I would have used the MEN’s, but Steve said it offered nothing but a urinal.  There would be no lingering in the park.

Finding a restroom in Europe is touchy since most require a 50 cent contribution.  We didn’t feel like we should go fumbling into just any building and ask to use the facilities.  Blocks and blocks later we found a McDonald’s and paid to enter.  I understand that water is scarcer in much of Europe, and no one likes to clean toilets, but men being men…

The half-turret in this picture was such a tempting photo-op that I waited for the man engaged there to finish his business before tiptoeing to another opening.