Leaving Venice...facing THE DRIVE!

The breakfast sucked for the third day in a row, not that we expected it to be different. The eggs tasted like scrambled tofu, but NO FLAVOR! (Ves, reminded me our grade 8 home ec. class. :P Haha!) I enjoyed my dry oatmeal surprise again, with a little bit of everything thrown in. Also enjoyed my coffee and stale bread that turned into Melba toast once toasted, even with butter on it. 

Anyway...we're on the vaporetto heading to our parking garage. Arrivederci Venezia! It was great! I will truly miss the pigeons. Anne and I had soooo much fun feeding them. Bye bye beautiful Murano glass key chain, should've bought you. 

On the road again, pulled over at an Esso On the Run and there were NO SNACKS or DRINKS!!! (Terry!) We're down to only a few Pringles now. This has been the trip of Pringles. They've been a great tasty snack while on the road. You can get them anywhere and everywhere!

Oh the grueling, never-ending road trip back to Germany! 9 hrs in the car. I drove all day! Everyone is sore and stiff. There was crazy traffic just before Innsbruck. Mom officially HATES Lily!!! I love her! Lily knows where she's going. In fact, she had us going on a shorter route from Innsbruck, but Mom was so paranoid about getting off the highway that said A12 Munchen/Salzburg that we went east from Innsbruck and ended up going an extra 40-ish kms. Oh well. Mom was happy. I did make up 24 minutes near the end when I was driving between 160 & 180 km/h for almost the entire last couple of hrs of our trip. I was on the Autobahn, what else could I do??!! Don't think I'll be doing that at home.

Finally arrived in Rothenburg at 1830. Mom was giving us directions around the old town. Lily got us to Rothenburg, but we didn't have the actual address on us so Mom was our guide. We went in the opposite direction first, then came out to the main street we were originally on. Had to go a few streets over because a bus was backing up. Found the town square and Anne & I knew where our hotel was from there. However, there was a "Pedestrian Only" street that lead to our hotel. Anne said, "Just go!" So I did! Mom said her famous line, "Cheaters never prosper." Dad was sinking as far down as he could in his seat, so embarrassed! As I went up the street, we came across people sitting outside having dinner. Their tables and chairs were fully out on the street and they had to pick up their chairs so I could get by ON THE SIDEWALK. But before I could go on the sidewalk, a group of at least 25 kids had to be scooted across the street by a few adults who were with them. At this point all I could do was laugh. I couldn't back up, could only go forward. I pressed on over the sidewalk (didn't feel so bad about the sidewalk thing because I was used to parking on it in Croatia). As I passed the kids and the people eating dinner (well, not really eating because they were holding their chairs) I just held up my hand and said "sorry...so sorry". Our license plates are from France anyway. Good thing they couldn't see the Canada sweatshirt I was wearing...at least I think the seatbelt covered most of the word. Oops! Je suis desole! It got us right to the front of our hotel.


PROSPERED!!!

...It's almost 2am. I really wanted to finish my blogs. We're leaving early in the morning for Frankfurt and then on our way back home. It's been an amazing vacation. We've done so much and really have had a great time together. Trip of a lifetime! Got to see where my dad was born and where he grew up for the first 11 years of his life. Very special. Thanks to Mom for doing so much planning/research/booking/confirming...etc. It was great! Sad to leave, but very happy to return home now.

Auf Wiedersehen~Dovidjenja~Arrivederci

Ciao!

Murano & Gondola Ride

Check out his hands!

We went over to the vegetable & fish market first thing this morning. Lovely smells! Mom was talking while breathing through her mouth, not to get any whiffs of the sea. This one guy was squeezing ink out of the squid and rubbing it all over them. His hands were black! Disgusting!!! That reminds me...I was looking at black pasta the other day and wondered how they got it black. When I read the package it said "squid ink". Wonder if it tastes fishy. Hmmmm.

Took the traghetto to the market, there and back. The way back was less rocky. Mom stood the first time, thought she'd try that out. I could hear her the whole way behind me, "whoa...oooh...aaaahhh"...she made it. It is pretty weird, gotta balance.


Took the vaporetto to Murano to check out all the glass-blown items. Wow...so pretty! There were so many rings, necklaces, and earrings. Found some small earrings for Bria. Might go back to that store to get a ring. We found the best store and the owner was so nice, not pushy at all. 

Walked around the island a bit to see where they were blowing glass and how they did it. Didn't want to go in a showroom after Mom and Dad's last experience. Mom said she finally had to yell at a lady to open the door and let them out. She wasn't buying anything that day! They were extremely pushy. No thanks.

Ate lunch along the canal at Ristorante alla Mora. Had a new spaghetti with just olive oil, garlic, and pepperoncini flakes/powder. Very good with a little spice. 

Dad was a little bored with all the stores and tired from all the walking.

We went on a gondola ride this afternoon! It was very romantic having Andrea beside me and Mom & Dad behind us. They wouldn't even kiss under the bridge! C'mon Dad! (He's so shy about stuff like that in public.) We weren't looking...trust me! Haha! It was very nice. However, our gondolier lacked in both personality and volume. Every time he said something about a building we had no idea which one he was talking about and what was so special about it.  Couldn't hear a thing! Oh well. It was so peaceful once we were off the grand canal. Took more pics. We did hear him say that it took him 1 year of schooling/practicing before he could start. Now it's changed and they have to work on a traghetto first for 1 or 2 years. He also mentioned something about Marco Polo's house when we passed by.

Anne and I took off on our own and did some last-minute shopping before dinner, including getting Mom the matching cream and sugar set for her teapot she bought yesterday. 


Well, we ended up going back to the same place for dinner that we went to last night. It was really good and they had such a variety of food. Dad got his fish tonight, Mom had chicken, Anne goulash, and I had veal in a Marsala sauce. Delicious. And the hosts (brother & sister) were so nice! Dad took us out for dinner. Thanks Dad! Very nice!

It's our last night in Venice. Heading to Germany in the morning. We're all wiped! Back at the hotel just after 8pm. Dad's checking facebook for a bit. We're all visiting in the girls' room. 


Buona notte! Arrivederci! Ciao!

Morning in San Marco

We managed to make our way through the Venetian maze to find San Marco's square. There are actually quite a few signs today, not like yesterday when trying to find the vaporetto from the parking garage. 

So we've been up the campanile (bell tower = 325ft + the angel) and got some beautiful pictures of Venice from up there. The tower was standing for almost 1000 years before collapsing in 1902. 10 years later it reopened to the public. 

We went into San Marco's basilica. The GOLD! It's beautiful inside. Wrapped my scarf around my shoulders and hoped my knee-length shorts would meet the security's approval. They did. Some tips from tour guides walking next to us: 1. The peacocks represent resurrection. 2. The columns in the church are very unusual and were brought from Istria as the ballast of the ship. They are more an eastern European look, but this is still a very typical Roman Catholic church. 3. They have mass every Sunday morning and the church is closed off to the public. 4. Along the back benches and columns where people have sat over the centuries, there is a darker brown line from people's heads rubbing against the marble behind them. EWWW!

Sitting in San Marco's square enjoying a caffe americano while listening to a quintet. It's absolutely lovely! I'm getting out Dad's accordian when I get home. Used to play it a little back in the day. I'll have to learn a few Italian classics. Anne wants me to mention that she and Mom are having the best tea here! She's having chamomile and Mom's having regular black tea. Splendid.

Ummm...completely forgot to mention that we fed the pigeons again!

We enjoyed lunch under/beside the Rialto bridge. Really good pizza! Then we walked over the bridge, took some pics and went to explore the markets. We missed the fish and vegetable market by about 20 minutes, so will have to go tomorrow morning. 

Enjoyed the rest of the afternoon browsing the shops. Mom spotted a cute teapot and went back to get it when the store reopened at 3:30pm. On our way back to the hotel we looked for some dinner spots Mom had read about. Some of the numbers were in the wrong places on her map. We later found one of the restaurants half way from our hotel to the square, which on Mom's map looked like it was in San Marco's square. 

We ended up finding a great restaurant by our hotel. It was family owned and operated (mom, dad, sister & brother). Their aunt and uncle own the hotel next door. The sister and brother kept us entertained. She was quite a bit older and kept yelling at her brother to do something. Hard to figure out what was really going on. By the end they were both laughing and joking with us beside our table. Should've taken a picture of them. We were equally entertained by the group of 3 couples sitting behind Mom and Dad. They clapped and sang until their food came, when the Italian brother came over and said, "Enough with the music. Here's your food." (In Italian, of course.) It was pretty funny, but you totally had to be there!


























Anne headed back to the hotel, while Mom, Dad and I went for a stroll to check out San Marco at night. Stopped by the Rialto as well. It was nice. Nothing lit up too much though. 


Returned to the hotel to find Anne watching "Dirty Dancing" in German. She pretty much knew it word for word and translated for me as I wrote my few postcards. 


Buona notte!

San Gimignano to Venice

Well the drive was shorter than we thought. That's always good. We parked in one of the parking garages outside of the city. Wandering around to find the vaporetto with no suitcase handle sucks!!! My handle is officially broken. So I'm pulling my suitcase with just the little strap. So heavy! I was doing biceps curls while pulling, having to switch hands every couple of minutes. It was a struggle from the vaporetto to our hotel. 



Well, now I've seen more people struggling with their suitcases as well. But mine's broken!

We ventured out to San Marco square via the vaporetto. We bought an all day pass, so figured we'd use it again. It's pretty cool here! I cannot get over the traffic on the water. I knew you had to travel by water but just didn't expect that many boats/vaporettos/gondolas/traghettos...Wow! Now I can't wait to see Matt in his gondolier outfit! Haha! (Said he'd be here...pretty sure he was kidding.) :(

I almost forgot...I fed pigeons from my hand!!! They were on my shoulder, down my arm and eating out of my hands! Anne did it too. She had a few land on her head. It was so great!!! Later Dad found bird poop on my shoulder and then I got some on my arm when we went back to feed them again. Gross! Dad got it on video. What can I say Julie and Mel...you should've tried it. 

Having a lovely relaxing vaporetto ride back to our stop at Ca' d'Oro. Going back to the hotel before dinner to have a rest. 

Wandered around our hotel area looking for a place to eat. Passed a few places, but kept looking. The further we got the fewer options we had. So we settled on a low-key pizzeria around the corner from our hotel. Having olive pizza tonight! We're so tired every night now. I usually have coffee if I go out for dinner at home. Maybe that's what I need. By 8pm I'm usually ready for bed here. At the beginning of our trip I had so much energy...but that's pretty much gone now. 


Buona notte!

San Gimignano & Pisa

I was getting ready in our room and could smell the sweetness of baking. Mmmmm can't wait for breakfast. I opened the window and  shutters to see the morning sun peeking through the clouds. So pretty. So fresh (deep breath in). 

Breakfast was good. So many choices. There's a pear tree outside the door of the hotel, but I'm not sure if that's where the pears for breakfast were from. They were so good. I had a huge cup of coffee! Yay for me...and probably everyone else! Haha!

We drove to town--San Gimignano. SO CUTE!!! Love this place! They have the cutest stores. The ceramics here and the leather shops are beautiful! Oh the purses!!! Had to buy a pair of wooden salad tongs with painted ceramic handles. I love them.

This town originally had about 76 towers and it was said that you could almost jump from tower to tower...13 remain. You can see them from a distance. 

In town they also have a 12th century church (Duomo of San Gimignano). It's very plain on the outside, but had beautifully-decorated/painted frescoes inside: the life of Christ, Noah's ark, creation...and St. Fina. As the story goes, St. Fina was a little girl with a terminal illness who had to pay for her sin of accepting an apple from a boy. She prayed for 5 years straight and then St. Anthony came to tell her she was going to heaven. This is a famous story here and is depicted on the walls of this church. She became the protector of the city. Domenico Ghirlandaio, who also worked on the Sistine Chapel, decorated the side walls in this church as well. 

Went back to the hotel. The sun was shining and quite warm, but it was still windy. Dad and I walked around the property to get all our shots in. He's turned this into such a competition. Haha! He's got the video camera and I have the still.

Heading to Pisa. Excited to see the leaning tower. This wasn't in our original plan, but an afternoon at the pool just wasn't in the cards. And since we're here, might as well. Lily got us to Pisa, the city. We ended up driving around inside parts of the old town. Very confusing, especially with such small streets and all the one-ways. Finally got out and parked on the side of the road. We knew we were fairly close to Pisa because we'd seen the top of it from one of the streets we went down. We walked for 4-5 minutes and there it was...and it was leaning! I cheaped out on spending the 15 Euros to climb the 300+ stairs. Took lots of pics and tried to get Anne pushing it over. Everyone there is attempting the same shot, with variation. Should've had her hands up higher. Oh well. There were so many people! It was ridiculously difficult to try and get a shot in without someone walking right in front of your camera at least 3 times. 

Drove back a different way (7 minutes faster according to Lily) and almost ran out of gas!!! There were no gas stations anywhere on the back roads. I kept looking at the kilometers left, thinking I was going to be putting on Mom's runners and going for a lovely Tuscan afternoon jog. We made it, but must've driven at least 30k in the red, with the light on.

Dinner was at La Cisterna Hotel Ristorante La Terrazze. There was almost a 180 degree view of the Tuscan hills from our corner window. While the view was amazing, dinner was only ok (Anne's terrible), and the waitress was horrible...to say the least! She was actually nasty! We waited 30 minutes after dessert to get the bill. Had I not been typing away on my phone for the blog, I would've gone crazy way sooner! She was mad that Anne asked her to take her filet mignon back. She ordered medium-well and it came almost rare. When she asked the waitress to take it back, Anne hadn't even finished what she was saying and the lady swept it away, with a big sigh. The service everywhere is not the greatest, but she never came to our table. Even when we called her she would go back to the kitchen and disappear. BRUTAL! 

Time for bed. 

Just an extra note: Italians here are the worst drivers. They never move over. They drive in both the left and right lane at the same time. They never signal when they should and then leave them on when they're not needed. Unreal! It's been the same all over Italy since we got off the ferry from Croatia. It's very different than driving in Germany, Austria, and even Croatia. Wow! (Not to offend any of my Italian friends--sorry.)