Mostly travel day today. We left our rooms and took the bus to the train station and from there took the train to Venice. There, we walked out of the front of the station and, instead of cars on a road, found boats on a canal that ran in front of the station. It soon became clear that all of Venice was like that – no cars or bikes anywhere, but canals and boats and little foot bridges that cross the canals.

It was shortly before noon, so we walked to our hotel. Near the station, as we were crossing a large bridge, a couple of guys carried our bags over the bridge, looking for a tip, so we gave them something. The girls were impressed with how nice they were to carry our bags.  We adults were miffed that they basically forced us into a tip that wasn’t really in the budget.

We found our rooms without too much trouble. They were at a university, on the third floor. They were pretty spartan, but still were marvelous – in an old building, right along a canal, with balcony and window views out over the city.

Since we were only in the city for one night, we dropped our bags and set out to explore the city. Venice is amazing. Seemingly every building was beautiful and charming in it’s own way, and the city is filled with nothing but really narrow twisting alleys that snake between them. And after walking through alleys, you emerge onto a canal and are greeted with a view of a canal crossed by charming foot bridges. Boats and gondolas were everywhere. Venice gets a lot of hype, but it lives up to it. I would say it’s the prettiest city I’ve seen.

We spent most of the day just exploring the alleys, slowly making our way to the main square at San Marcos. Maps are mostly useless, so we navigated by dead reckoning using a compass. We stopped for a quick lunch at a roadside pizza stand, and stopped at a few stores, including one where Phyllis got a wallet. A lot of Venice consists of stores, and after a while it began to remind me of a giant outdoor mall. Although we were mostly by ourselves at first, the tourists got thicker and thicker the closer we got to San Marcos.

We crossed the Grand Canal over the main bridge in town, with amazing views in both directions, and the girls each had a crepe.  When we finally got to the square, it was a crowded throng.

I took the girls inside the church there – different from all the others we have seen because of the Byzantine influence. The floor had detailed mosaic patterns, and the walls and ceilings we’re covered with gold mosaics.

Back at the square, we walked to the mouth of the Grand Canal, which opens onto the ocean. Very cool. There, thanks to Judy, we bit the bullet and paid for a gondola ride. Everything was so beautiful that our camera gave out halfway through. I hope that the girls will somehow remember it.

Afterwards, we slowly walked back to our rooms, stopping along the way for dinner at a pasta restaurant along the bank of the Grand Canal.  There, we left the girls with Judy and Phyllis and I went back out to walk some more. We walked along the southern bank of the island, where it opens up to another island across a channel and then to the ocean. We walked to a point with views of San Marcos from across the channel, and sat and looked as the sun set behind some clouds. After about an hour, we walked back, stopping again to sit on a stone bench for a while and then returning to the rooms in the dark. That night, a storm came through, with thunder and lightening outside of our open window.