Last couple days in Italy (Venice)

Traffic jam in Venice.
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Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Venice.  Well we're actually staying in Mestre, a little outside of Venice.  You can just take the bus in, just 1 Euro and 18 minutes each way.  Yesterday afternoon we rested a little bit, then decided to just go into Venice for the evening, check it out a little bit and have dinner.  We took the bus in and walked around.  Our first impressions of Venice was that it was very impressive.  Its amazing that a whole city can be built on water.  Now I want to know how they did that!  So we ate at one of the restaurants along on of the waterways, not the Grand Canal, but one of the smaller ones.  We had some wine and good food.  On the way back, we didn't get off on the right stop, but we asked someone and they said to get off the bus and catch the next bus going back the other way.  So long story short, it was fine, just asked the next bus driver to tell us where to get off for Hotel Venezia and he told us.  We just play the stupid American tourist role very well and people usually take mercy on us...  Ancient chinese proverb:  Better to look like stupid tourist than not ask questions and end up in ten buck two.

Beautiful buildings and water in Venice.
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This morning we got up and had the breakfast included with our room (not as good as Villa Saulina).  Then we went into Venice.  We walked around the whole thing, goodness gracious, it was a long walk.  Its like a maze, I was thinking is there some cheese at the end of this or what??  Or I'll take some gelato instead of cheese, yummo.  It was pretty interesting, when we arrived at St. Mark's Square, it was peak high tide, and water filled much of the middle of the square.  A lot of people were taking their shoes off and going through the water.  We decided to walk around it, call us germo-phobes, but we figured the water wasn't the cleanest.  Anyway, they say the whole city of Venice is sinking, so that's why the middle of the square fills with water during high tide.  We got some gelato and sat down at a table.  A guy came up to us and asked us if we wanted to eat anything.  We said maybe later.  He left a menu on the table.  He came back about 10 minutes later and asked if we wanted to order anything.  We said no.  He said, then you can't sit here, leave please.  I said Gracia (he seemed irritated).  So I guess if there are chairs in front of the cafe, they get a little grumpy if you sit there, even if there is no one else there and a ton of available tables.  Oh well, guess you find out...

Last day in Italy (Venice)

The Best Western Hotel in Venice. I wonder how much that is per night??
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So we have really good bandwidth here so we'll upload a bunch of pictures on this page, and the last 2 blogs, check them out.

Tomorrow morning we have a short flight to Zurich.  Then we drive to Munich, Germany.  We'll stay there for 2 days and hopefully get to check out some castles and have some beer, brats and sourkraut.  Then 5 nights in Austria, in the Alps, arm pump and a yesss...  When we're in Austria I want to go to the Sound of Music tour if we can.  I think I'll sing all the songs for the entertainment of the other tourists.  Maybe I can get some tips and make enough to cover dinner.

The water seeping up through the ground near St. Mark's Square at high tide.
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Caio, Mahn and Heather