Venezia

On Wednesday we all got up early, which was a miracle in itself, and walk to the train station to head out to Venice. We were standing on the platform wondering when we were supposed to get on. Finally someone ask the conductor and he said we had one minute left and we may even miss the train! We hurry down the platform got on the train just as it started to pull out of the station.

2 hours later we were at the end of the line in Venice, we met our guide Martino and took a water taxi to the island of Murano.

It was fascinating to tour a glass factory and watch the artists at work as they created glass flowers for a huge glass Chandelier.

Chase and Dylan

Peter was really looking forward to seeing the glass and as we went through the showroom we found a beautiful glass bowl to put in our new home in San Diego.

After touring The Foundry, we saw old Murano and then hand a long wonderful lunch in town. The soft-shelled crabs from the Venice Lagoon we're in season and we had two large plates of that and then some seafood risotto and two long eel.

When we finally made it to the Piazza San Marco at about 3:30. Martino give us a tour of the Piazza and some tips on what we may want to see. We stopped for coffee and realized that we needed to get back to the Grand Canal for our Water Taxi to the Rail station. As we were getting in the boat Chase suddenly noticed that I did not have my backpack with me. So I jumped out of the boat and told them I would meet them at the train station and I ran to the coffee shop. It took a little bit of hunting to trace my way back but I found it. Then I walked to the Rialto Bridge and got my own water taxi and had a wonderful private ride up the Grand Canal to the rail station. It was quite a day!

 We saw lots of teams practicing for an upcoming rowing contest