Venice was CRAZY when we arrived. All the way on the train a storm was chasing us. As we got off the train the grey clouds rolled in and the wind started getting wild and then the rain came. Suddenly people were rushing everywhere all frenzied. We couldn't figure out if it was the weather or the city. We CROWDED on the water taxi and the rain was pouring in! Everyone was wet.
This picture looks kind of wierd but we're on the water taxi for our first look at Venice. It was beautiful.
This was our window. You could just poke your head out and look down the alley. It was NOISY!!! Until you closed the magic windows that sealed out every sound.
This was just heaven. Wow, a bed we can both sleep in at the same time. All week it had been bunk beds (1/2 the time with 4 other people in the room). It was clean too. We could walk around in our underwear AND barefoot. It was awesome. And they brought us juice and snacks when we arrived- woohoo! Oh yeah and this heaven-sent bed? It's just two twins pushed together!
St. Marks Basilica closed the moment we arrived off the train. Greg really wanted to see it. Oh well. Next time. Looks kinda like It's A Small World to me.
Then it was off to the Dodge's Palace. The Dodge is basically another word for Duke (basically king of Venice). This is the courtyard.
This place was huge. I just kept thinking, "Wow, what a place to live." It was huge and very fancy. Waiting rooms for every room. It was wierd. The whole building was way over the top.
Lots of rooms were like this and they were all BIG rooms. Gold paint everywhere. Huge paintings over every inch except the floor. It was pretty incredible.
One cool thing about Venice is there were no roads so the rooftops weren't all aligned. It always looked neat.
The best part of the Dodge's was the ARMORY!!!!! Look at all these swords!!! There's even armory for a horse!
The helmets had dents in them. You looked and you just knew that people had worn it. People had died in it. People had killed in it.
Can you imagine wearing that?!!! It looked so intense!
Every sword I looked at I just thought, "Wow, you've been in somebody." Kinda strange. I just kept imagining war scenes in movies- herds of men in these suits wailing their swords at each other. CRAZY!!!!
This part was crazy too. It was the dungeon. Think of a movie with a dungeon in it. It's just like that!!! Tiny rooms! I want to say we could see scratched words in them! Little doors! Just cement everywhere! OH!! I just thought, no one should live this way!!!
I could not imagine sleeping in a place like this. So depressing. I would go insane and probably start talking to myself.
All done and walking around, looking for a restaurant.
Beautiful canals everywhere.
St. Mark's square. It actually was pretty cool looking. One side was dirty, black, nasty and the other would be a sparkling white. And then construction all over. Construction ruined everything! This made me think of Just Married- the movie. There was a scene in this square.
At night the restaurants had bands playing. Sometimes you could hear both at the same time, though, and it was terrible.
Ah we found it. Cheap calzones to go in an expensive city. We found this random dump in some alley and we walked in and I thought, "This place looks gross, let's get out of here," but then everything else was so expensive we went back! And it tasted really good!
Walking back to the hotel . . .
Our favorite part of every city was just wandering the alleys. They were all (well mostly) beautiful and picture perfect.
And yes, this is what I looked like every 5 minutes. I was having MAJOR lower back issues since the first day in Rome. I would have to stop and stretch (by bending over) constantly. I got some weird looks but it was all I could do! (Eventually we got some Ibprofen in Prague. Why we didn't think of that a week earlier, I don't know.)
Ah back to the hotel!
This was the best breakfast we'd had. Orange juice AND hot chocolate. Yogurt and pastries, toast and . . . NUTELLA!!!!
We were in Venice for WELL UNDER 24 hours. We got there 4 hours later than expected and left really early the next morning. That stunk, but we loved it. We kept saying we wanted to come back.
4 comments:
So fun! I love your little narratives with the pictures. Like with the swords. That's too bad you were in so much pain most of the time. At least you know now to always have IB Profen with you! I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amen to all of that!!It was like walking down memory lane! We went to the dodges castle also, but didn't get to see all of what you saw. We missed the armor room. The jail stuff was amazing. I remember thinking the same thing. We were there only 24 hours also and loved every second of it, it was one of my favorite parts. I loved the square, when we were there they took turns playing music, so I loved it. I know how long it takes to blog all of that, I am so grateful you did that, it is fun and feels like you are there! I love you!!!
Wonderful blog Megan, loved that you did a narrative of the places, and the thoughtful things you said about the armor, and swords. Wow I felt like I was there. I would hate the jail also, I can't take small places!YIKES!!! You did a great job of explaining the alleys also. You will definetly need to go back. We miss you thanks for taking the time to blog. Hope you are settleing in and things are getting easier for you. Love grandma
OK the picture where you are bending over, there are some water marks on the ground, so it totally looks like you are peeing, even though your pants are on, but still- at first I thought maybe that's what the picture was about! Even though, duh, why would you post that! OK- those dungeons, yowsa! I think that might creep me out, but yet be really facinating at the same time! That breakfast looked really good! Hot chocolate sound sso good right now! You guys look REALLY happy in all the pictures. I loved the cieling with the paintings, so beautiful. Isn't it crazy to think that someone painted that!!!!!!!!
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