Venice

Daph and I have many places we would like to visit while we live here in Germany. To our surprise, our children also have some places they have heard about or learned about, that they have showed an interest in visiting. Julia said the one place she wanted to visit was Venice. We drove the 5 hours south through Innsbruck, down the Dolomites, past Balzano and Verona into Venice. We had great weather and were able to walk the city and see the major sites.

The city was just as advertised - it was beautiful with the gondolas, grand houses on the canals, and historic cathedrals. It also had the crowds of tourists from around the world. My impression was there was three types of people in Venice: 1. young couples in love, 2. Older couples enjoying their lifelong dream to visit, and 3. us.

The good news is Julia loved it. The boys said we walked too much. My favorite part was stopping for a $15 soda and being charged a service charge of $16 to hear the music being played in St. Mark's Square. To be fair, it was nice music. I would have guessed it would come with a CD however.

Here we are on the south (less touristy) side of the island. Coke is global.