A Week in Venice - Day 1
We’ve had a group of six Danes here in Venice for a week’s paddling. They came to Venice Kayak through our partnership with Kajakhotellet in Copenhagen, and they were followed by Jes, an experienced coach at Kajakhotellet, who also spend two weeks in Venice last year.
The group soon coalesced into three pairs. The first was a couple in their mid-fifties, who had paddled for a few years but with little formal training. Two girls had signed up together, both in their late twenties and beginners, having just taken their first kayaking course at Kajakhotellet this summer. The last two had signed up separately but soon became friends. Both work as nurses, and are in their mid-forties. He had paddled for a couple of years, while she had just started.
On the first day we almost always do the same thing. It is not a predetermined route, but it does contain some fixed elements, which allows us to gauge the skill level of each participant and their reactions to difficulties and stress factors we are likely to encounter later.
This time was no different. We took the group from our base at San Nicolò on the Lido di Venezia to the Arsenale, where we did a few exercises before we entered the smaller canals. This is also a recurring element. We spent half an hour in front of San Pietro in Castello doing bow rudders for sharp turns in narrow spaces, and sideways movement with the sculling draw and the hanging draw, so we can get out of the way if we meet something larger and faster in the canals.
We then did a tour through the Sestieri Castello and Cannaregio, with a stop in Campo Arsenale for lunch. Its a labyrinth of small winding canals, with the occasional encounter with a gondola or taxi. We had to make a short 50m excursion into the St. Mark’s basin, so our guests got a first taste of the traffic and waves we’d encounter there later.
After a leisurely paddle down the canals, dodging the random gondola on the way, we emerged in Canal Grande close to the Rialto Bridge. Naturally, we hung around for a while, taking photos from every possible and impossible angle, fooling around as much as the conditions allowed. Jes, being the playful type, felt an irresistible urge to do a roll under the Rialto Bridge. It was high tide and the water was clean enough, so Jes is still with us 
We continued down the Canal Grande, admiring the beautiful palaces and the many gondolas. We did a few detours into the Sestiere Dorsoduro, and had a break for ice cream on the Campo San Trovaso. I’m always amused about how you can paddle right in the middle of a major European city and still find a green lawn to place the kayaks on for a break.
We then returned up the Canal Grande, passed Rialto again before we left the Canal Grande at San Marcuola. We paddled through some of the canals of the Sestiere Cannaregio before we left the city at Sacca della Misericordia.
The paddle back to the camping was eventful in quite another way. As we paddled past San Michele which is home to the cemetery of Venice, towards the Vignole islands, small fish, about the size of a hand, started to jump in the water around us. First people were amazed, then amused, until one of the girls uttered a yell of pain. One of the jumping fish had hit her shoulder, followed by another one to the head. Apparently fish are rather hard
We all returned safe and sound to the camping at San Nicolò, in spite of nature’s little surprises, and after a nice shower the whole group went off for dinner in one of the many little restaurants and trattorie on the Lido di Venezia.
