Hello there! Welcome to Italy, since it was such a large part of the trip I figured it needed its own post. This will finish up my cruise posts, with lots of pictures to come (unless you are reading this later, then they are probably here). Now into the good stuff…
We arrived in Venice on Maddie’s 19th Birthday, which was a super fun way to celebrate with fabulous outfits. After disembarking on the ship and taking a two-hour bus ride (it was plenty stressful getting to this point), we arrived at our hotel, just a bit outside of Venice. Once we got checked in, we dropped off our bags and headed into the city via a train. We had decided to go to Murano and Burano, two of the islands around Venice that are famous for their glassmaking (Murano) and lace making (Burano), to shop around. In order to get there, we took a couple of different water buses and taxis and finally made it to Murano first. We looked around at all the glass, took lots of pictures, and got some cute little souvenirs. I got a small glass platter, Maddie got a perfume bottle, and my mom got a vase and some shot glasses. We then moved on to Burano, which was about a 35-minute ride on a water bus. We loved all of the colors of the houses along the island and took a ton of photos. We shopped around and continued to adventure before calling it a night and heading back to the ferry station. All of the ferries were super crowded, so it was a tight squeeze all the way back to the rail station. We took the wrong train at first, but ended up correcting our course, thanks to a train conductor who corrected us. By the time we got back, it was around 2100, so we called room service and started the first episode of Game of Thrones (Maddie’s never seen it).
Unbeknownst to us, there was a strike scheduled from 2100 Sunday night to 2100 Monday by the railway and ferry workers throughout the country. This put a slight damper on our planned afternoon adventure and tour, since that was our main way to get to Venice. We went to bed thinking we would figure it out in the morning with a couple of options. Thankfully, everyone agreed to just tough it out, and we were able to get an early train in to figure out the situation with ferries. Well…no ferries, so we had to walk 1.5 miles across Venice. Which, for most people seems very easy, for my 81-year-old grandpa, it came as more of a challenge, but we were able to make it work and slowly made our way over to the Plaza San Marco, where the Basilica is. We sat down to eat some lunch before the tour and then started the tour. We went inside the basilica and the Doge Palace. I was honestly star-struck with how beautiful the basilica was and how detailed all of the murals were. The tour ended with a gondola ride around Venice, which was so cool and a really unique experience. That was probably my favorite part of the day. We took a ton of photos and got some little things to take home with us. We ended up taking a private water taxi back to the rail station and then a train back.
Our trip ended with a long day of travel with three flights back. Maddie and I both got to add Germany to our lists with a five-hour layover in Frankfurt, and some very yummy German food. Later, we got back onto the plane to Washington DC. Overall, I am very excited to be back in the States and to get a cold Diet Coke. Seriously, what does Europe have against Diet Coke….This is Katie, signing off.
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