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Published: October 27th 2007
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View into Venice
My first views of Venice from the boat. Venezia- it's sinking!
On the drive from Munich to Venice we made a quick stop in the Austrian Tyrol for some whitewater rafting. It was so much fun! The only bad part about it was the fact that I had to put on a wetsuit, which is just a tramatizing thought! Being from Florida you never have to swim in a wetsuit since the water is always warm. But in the Alps the water tempurature was a chilly 44 degrees and I guess in the end I was happy to have it on. We were forced to jump in once or twice so we could practice pulling each back into the raft. After that, I made it my goal to NOT end up in the water. I did follow through on that goal, and instead of me ending up in the water after one particulary big rapid, my oar did. James, our guide, wasn't to happy about that, but being the single, good looking, 25 year old guy from England that he is, he managed to get it back for me. (Yeah, I found all of that out about him while we were rafting down the river.) By far one of
the funnest things I did all trip!
After rafting, we stopped for lunch in Innsbruck, Austria where we visited the crystal store, and I managed to buy 4 bottles of very good Austrian schnapps. The drive from Munich to Venice was beautiful since we were in the Alps for alot of it. Sunflower fields, vineyards, and then a few random castles on hills and cliffs for good measure.
We got ito our hotel right outside of Venice pretty late that night and had dinner at the hotel and went to bed pretty early since we were getting up very early to catch our boat into Venice. We had to take the motorboat in since no cars or bikes are allowed in the city. Even the fire and police travel by boat. First thing, we went to a lace making and glass blowing demonstration. The lace making was kinda boring, but good because you got to go into air conditioning and it was hot! The glass blowing was pretty cool though. After that we were on our own, so we walked around for a bit to find a good place for lunch. Venice was beautiful. We did all the touristy stuff:
Me on the Rialto
on the Rialto Bridge in Venice went in the Basilica de San Marco, climbed to the top of the bell tower for some amazing views, and walked across the Rialto Bridge and did some shopping. We definitely got lost, but were easily pointed back in the right direction since there are arrows on random buildings that will say "per san marco" or "pre rialto" so we always found our way back. After a long hot day of sightseeing, we sat around in the famous Piazza San Marco and drank bellinis (which originated in Venice and are much better than back home!). Don't know if you all knew this, but basically to sit down to eat in Italy you are charged a cover charge, and to sit down in St. mark's Square in Venice is a shitload- 4 people and we each ordered 2 drinks and after a 20 euro sitting charge it was about 135 euro! But, when else can you say you did that so I guess it was a priceless experience. That's what I kept telling myself anyway as I watched my bank account dwindle away. This trip was turing out to be way more expensive than I had originally thought, but who cares
since I was on holiday (as the Aussies say)...
Later that evening, we went on a gondola ride which was fun to do once, but the gondolier was a bit strange and he didn't sing either - even after we asked him. We were able to buy some wine though for the ride. Get this- a liter and a half of wine out of a vat in a plastic bottle for only 4.20 euros! Wine was cheaper than water, so I was in heaven... After the gondola ride, we walked back through the Piazza San Marco to go to the restaurant for dinner, to find that water was starting to seep through the holes in the ground. Chad told us that out of the 47 times he had been to Venice he had never seen that. Venice was literally sinking as we walked! Luckily, we didn't head back in that direction so I have no idea how deep the water got. Had a nice late dinner and around 10 p.m. motorboated back to the mainland to head to our hotel.
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Tracy
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Love your blogs-Italian memories!
Hey Kim- Your blogs are great! St. Mark's square didn't sink while we were there, either! I love your views of Venice from the top of the Bell tower, I never got up there (never knew we could walk up there) It was REALLY hot when we were there, too. Not sure, but felt like 100 degrees!