...venice...

Days 80-83 ... Venice

Well it's very different from everywhere else we've been. We were only there for four days and so much happened!  We watched a man blowing glass, had a ride in a gondola, went to Burano to see the brightly coloured houses, walked to the Rialto bridge and survived a vicious thunder storm. 

When it happened we were having dinner and the sky was clear, then it suddenly changed and the wind getting stronger blowed over an umbrella. At this point Jack was in tears:(. The thing he was most scared about was not paying the bill! 

The coloured houses were cool and I took about 100 photos! And the gondola ride was just fabulous. We got to see all the buildings from a different angle and our gondolier was singing funny songs and giving us information about the city.  All round pretty great............ 

But I DON'T want to go home. ( maybe I do )

Lily

In Venice in our hotel the washing line was outside the window.  When Daddy was hanging out his undies he accidentally dropped them out the window onto the street.

Yesterday we went on a gondola ride.  It was lots of fun.  We saw lots of other gondolas too.  

I liked all the boats in Venice and all the canals and the bridges.  When the police boat went past it made the water very wavy.

We caught a ferry to the glass island.  We saw a demonstration of making glass. They put a long stick in the fire and then blow and twist the glass into shapes.  

Jack

It may be a city that is sinking, that floods weekly in Winter and Autumn and occasionally smells but wow Venice is beautiful.
Whether you are catching the water bus, riding a gondola ( more expensive than first class travel per km) or getting lost walking the canals it is captivating .
What surprised me was that Lily and Grace wanted to shop...and shop....and shop! Al tried to stop them!
Jack was just worried about a big flood and traffic rules on the grand canal.
We leave Italy tomorrow and Jack said he would come back to Italy as they eat pasta. 
Hoping that Richie Porte is in front of Tour when we get to Gerardmer and Germany does not win the World Cup (Al picked them to win a month ago)....They are bit like Collingwood!
The journey home has started.

David

On Monday we caught a ferry to Murano.  Murano is a famous glass making town (nearly every shop is full of glass).  In the back of on of one of the shop someone was doing a glass blowing demonstration.  It was really interesting to watch............. first he got a blob of melted glass on the end of a long metal tube and blew into it and started to shape it in the end it turned out to be a vase... he also made a horse.  

Later we caught another ferry to Burano a town near Murano ...all the  houses and shops were different colours.......it was beautiful.

On Tuesday we got to go on a  gondola ride.  The boat ride was really fun. The paddler is called a gondolier...our boat was called Serena after the gondolier's wife.

Grace