We spent a couple of days in Munich first. We have a cute picture of the twins in this swing together as babies... they don't fit so easily any more but they're still pretty darn cute.
Lily got to see one of her old friends almost right away, and they went right back to being good friends. Elise even got to join in.
First stop in Italy - Venice! We'd wished we'd visited when we lived in Munich since it's only a ~5 hour drive, so it was a long time coming. This is overlooking the Grand Canal.
Gondola ride! We started at St. Mark's Square - essentially at the edge of the island and in the sea/lagoon - and made our way into the canals for a nice ride. Fun St. Mark's trivia: a couple of Venetian traders stole St. Mark's remains from Egypt and brought them to Venice to increase the city's stature. Lily enjoyed little stories of Medieval intrigue like this, seemed someone was always stealing something or tearing something down to reuse its parts somewhere else.
It's pretty crazy how the gondoliers maneuver the narrow canals without running into walls or each other or motor boats.
Venice itself was a crazy maze of small and big streets and small and big canals and bridges. We enjoyed walking around the city as well as taking water taxis around.
View into our airbnb apartment, a perfect place away from the main drag but by plenty of good restaurants.
Elise was in pasta heaven pretty much the whole time we were in Italy. We the adults had a lot of good seafood in Venice, but much pasta and much pizza was eaten by the kids.
And gelato. Every day. In some pretty cool places (St. Mark's church in the background, quite an ornate place filled with golden mosaics)
One of the days we took the water bus over to another island in the lagoon: Murano. Lots of glass studios, a pretty cool place to hang out and watch masters at their work.
Taking a break on Murano at a lighthouse which also had a bunch of sea glass - of course! A nice place to chill out and enjoy some tasty panini for lunch and meet some other American tourists - ask Nicole about her new friend Nancy sometime.
Crazy bird lady. No bird flu.
The ride up the Grand Canal on the water bus was pretty cool. The Rialto Bridge back there has been prime shopping in Venice for about 600 years. Better view from the canal than on the bridge which was completely packed, even in mid-September. Definitely glad we visited a bit outside of the busiest and hottest season. Didn't have to deal with any smelliness we'd heard of in mid-summer.
It was interesting to experience life in Venice. Essentially everything that's done by car in any given city is done by boat there - deliveries, laundry, garbage collection, and teenage cruising.
Glad we got a chance to see such a unique place in the world. Who knows what the future will bring as its population shrinks and as sea levels rise.
That wraps up Venice - up next, Tuscany!
