Early in the morning we left Austria and caught our first cabin train ride to Venice. We had our own booth and nice seats as we took our two connections to Venice. On the last train we had a beautiful view of the ocean meeting the city as we arrived in Venice. The first thing we saw when we left the train station was the Grand Canal. The biggest canal in Venice.
After we took in a bit of the sights we started on our way to our hotel to drop off our bags. We twisted and turned crossing many bridges and canals on the way. In fact the way Venice was built was on top of wooden poles - tons and tons of them stuck into the water to make a secure place to build.
Once we reached our apartment we dropped off our bags and decided to take a stroll and got lost in the canals and buildings of Venice. We walked for awhile before we came across the Grand Canal in its thickest part so we took a few pictures with the sun setting in the back ground.
We walked for a long time and admired the lights and canals before we finally found a good restaurant to eat at. After we ate we headed back to the apartment for the night.
The next morning we woke up ready to go exploring. We headed out of the apartment and into the canals, gondolas, and boats of Venice. We walked and walked through the labyrinth of canals and bridges. We kept going until we finally arrived at St.Marks Square.
We admired the square and the statues and were heading towards St.Marks Cathedral when we were stopped by a huge flock of pigeons. There was a ton of them and they would fly up on your hands looking for food. At one point Zaddek had at least 10 pigeons on his hands and shoulders.
After the pigeons found out we didn't have any food we went over to St.Marks Cathedral. Inside everything looked like it was made of gold. The walls, roof and everything we walked through. Then we headed over to the Douge Palace. Once you enter the gates you come out to a beautiful courtyard with high arches and bright white paint. We walked around for a bit before we entered the museum part of the palace.
Inside there was a ton of artifacts like war helmets, swords, horse armor, knives, and weapons. They also had really old paintings and they even had a jewel room full of rare diamonds, emeralds and rubies. They had a swan carving that had over 30 separate diamonds, 50 rubies, and 20 emeralds and sapphires. We kept walking and when we took the corner we entered a room so big that you run and play and even throw long toss. (Which means throwing at least 150 feet to 200.) Another thing is that the whole roof was a mural with paintings and really fat baby angels with bow'n'arrows in really pretty gold that covered the entire roof.
The rest of the room was made of really pretty mahogany colored wood. We stayed in the room for along time and almost didn't want to leave, but we had places to go so we made our way to the end of the museum and the exit.
After we made our way out of the museum we made a straight shot for the Rialto bridge - the oldest of the bridges across the grand canal. Once we got there we walked up the bridge and got a amazing view of the grand canal and all of the gondolas.
After we took in the view we doubled back across the bridge for some lunch. For lunch we had pizza and a little gelato (Italian ice cream). We took it to go and ate our lunch on the side of the Grand Canal. Shortly after we finished we decided to take a ride in a gondola down the Grand Canal. The ride was amazing and we got to see Venice from the water for the first time.
The gondola driver glided us across the water and we slipped through the water like a knife through butter. When we docked we all got out and thanked the driver before heading the rest of the way home. Luckily the gondola ride got us closer to home so we didn't have to go far but we had a new problem - where to get dinner. We walked around for a long time looking for food but everything was closed until 8pm. (Italians eat late.) We wandered forever until we found a nice take out pasta place. We all ordered and before long we were back at our apartment having dinner. After dinner we all read a little before going to bed.
Total trains: 2 awesome ones
Total gondolas: 1
Total gondolas: 1
Total miles walked: 5.3 and 6.4 miles
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