Day 15 Day in Venice

Sorry for the delay our lovely hotel in Venice seems to have free wifi but non-working power. So that was fun....again.

Anyways so we started the day quite early with a 6am wake-up call and catching a "water taxi" or ferry boat to Venice. We had a guide that toured us throughout the city, which is an absolute maze. There are 118 different islands that make up the city of Venice and they are connected by 420 bridges. So after weaving through the back streets of Venice and hopping through lots of different islands we ended up in St. Marks square. From there we saw the jail, two large poles in the center of the square where hangings would take place, the church and the Doges Palace. The square has Lion's everywhere in honor of St. Mark. Not to mention a beautiful clock tower that actual has a zodiac clock.

We ended the tour at the Murano glass factory and had the opportunity to watch a guy blow glass into a vase and then make a horse. It was amazing. We toured the shops and decided it was a bit pricey for us but still beautiful.

From there we hightailed it to a smaller canal where we loaded up onto 5 different gondolas with 6 passengers each and went for a 40min gondola ride around town. Including a bit down the grand canal. It was hilarous. Our gondolier was a bit hungover from the previous night so we was "singing" or shouting a random tune because he had it stuck in his head (for which he also apologized for) He then gave us a bit of a history of the area. It was really fun but really hot.

Then us girls decided we would hit to the streets and do some shopping. Cindy had her heart set on getting an original Venetian mask in honor of Carnivale. So we went into a few different shops and goofed around a bit before she found one that suited her. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping in all the glass jewelry stores.

After we were exhausted from the shopping we headed to see the Doges Palace and the jail. The palace was beautiful and filled with gorgeous artwork but geez was it hot. We were pretty positive that we were roasting during our little tour so we sped it up and got to the jail in hopes that it would be a bit cooler. It was not. We walked across the bridge of sighs which was named because as prisoners walked across it it was the last glimpse of the town they saw before being executed. So we stuck our hands out the windows and waved at all the "tourists" as they flashed pictures of us.

After the tour we headed to the bell tower to meet with the rest of the group and head back to the hotel. Where again right around 8pm the power went out. So we packed in the dark and showered in preparation for the next day for our transfer to Munich.