Venezia

Or as we Americans call it: VENICE! We decided that we just had to go to Venice since we are so close and who knows if we will ever make it out here again. Steve talked to our car rental company and they said that we could rent another car for the weekend that was allowed into Italy. We looked at flying and taking a train, but the car rental was the cheapest price. So on Friday, we picked up a new rental car and drove the 7 hour drive to Venice. Of course, there were staus and we had to make a few stops and an unintentional detour (thanks to a not so good GPS). We finally got there at 12:30 AM. The boys got us up at 7:30 and we were off to Venice. After a 7 minute train ride, we headed off to explore Venice. Since you go to Venice to see Venice, there aren't any big attractions. We just wondered around looking at all the beautiful thing, the shops and the amazing views all over. We did notice a certain molding smell every once in a while. But hey, that is what you get when you are surrounded by water.

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Here are 3 words we would use to describe Venice:

HOT: It was so hot and humid. We have been living in the 70s. So the upper 90 degree temps with humidity really got to use. The sun was blazing down on us. We were sweating from every pore! We were glad we had deodorant, but not glad that Europeans don't have deodorant. Smelly! At one point we were walking around found a little water fountain where people were filling up water bottles with cold water. We got so excited! It was like a pond in the middle of the dessert. I wouldn't be surprised if we actually ran to it. Zack also loved the cold water. He followed the other people and put his arms and legs in it to cool him down. Josh also liked the cool water on him. We also noticed that if Josh gets hot and sweaty, his hair in the back curls. It was pretty cute! Another problem was that we didn't have any sunblock. We didn't bring any over here and haven't found any here. We looked in the shop to find something to shield our boys from the sun and we found the most expensive bottle of sunblock we have ever seen. I'm not kidding. It was about $25 for a regular size of sunblock! But we didn't want our baby waking up with blisters on his cheeks and his cheeks so swollen he could barely open his eyes. So we bought it. Which leads me to the next word...

EXPENSIVE: Everything in Venice is expensive. Well, besides ice cream and Italian Ice, which made us very happy and helped us cool down. But it was still more than we pay in Germany. We were told we had to ride a gondola. It's Venice-that is what you do. But when we heard the price we were a little weary. Then we were told to barter with the gondola driver. At first he offered us a 40 minute ride for 100 euros. We said too much. He said 30 minutes for 80 euros. We countered back with 40 minutes for 80 euros. He said no way. So we started walking away. Soon we hear someone yelling at us, “Yes, we do it for 80 euros!” It is always funny. Whenever you start to walk away, these people start running after you. It is like they have to make sure that you are serious and that they can't get more money out of you. We did enjoy the gondola ride. It was awesome and very relaxing. But the guy didn't sing to use. In fact, we didn't hear one sing the whole time we were there. Zack loved to be on the boat and wanted to go back on it. He really liked the gold horses that were on our boat. It was interesting to see the boats parked behind back doors. Of course that is how you would get around in Venice. It was just interesting to see that instead of getting in a car, you get in a boat. It was really fun to go under the bridges, instead of over.

STAIRS: The only way to get over the canals is by going over bridges. The only way to get over the bridges is to go up a set of stairs and then down. This wouldn't be a problem, unless you were hauling 2 boys around in a double stroller. We either had to left the whole thing up to go up and down the stairs. Or when the stairs were wide enough, we could go on step at a time. And it wasn't just a couple stairs. It was like 20+ stairs going up and 20+ stairs going down. This made for a great work out for Steve! But really, on top of those bridges were amazing views.

On Saturday, we just wondered around the main island and of course took a gondola ride. On Sunday, we took a waterbus to a little island that is part of Venice called Murrano. This is where they do the glass blowing. We were able to go inside a furnace. Okay, not literally inside, just in the room as the furnace. We saw a man make a vase and a fish out of glass. It was really, really cool to see. The glass would be on the end of a pipe. It was orange because of how hot it was. Then he would spin the pipe and blow air down the pipe and make whatever he wanted to. There was a shop connected to the furnace that had everything they make out of glass. They pretty much can make anything! It was a very cool store. But, of course, expensive. One plate was 100 euros!

Venice really was breathtaking! We loved that it was a little more relaxed than our last couple of weekends. We could just stroll along, enjoying ourselves. Zack really loved chasing the birds. He was able to walk more since we weren't in a hurry. He also loved the ice cream. It was a very nice weekend.