Thursday, July 21, 2011

Venice!

We're in Venice!

Things have been going very well on the National Lands' European Vacation the past week!!  After Valence, France, we went to Thun, Switzerland for two nights.  We stayed with a wonderful couple that we wish lived much much closer!  We went on a delightful bike ride to Bern on Saturday.  It was along the river, with snow-covered peaks in the background.  Then Sunday we went to a small town about 45 minutes east of Zurich.  Again, we had wonderful hosts!  They helped prep us for our upcoming visit to Portugal! :)

We arrived in Venice on Tuesday and have spent most of our time walking along the beautiful streets, eating gelato.  We're also alternating between pizza and pasta for each meal.  James Taylor played a concert in the Piazza San Marco on Tuesday night.  We listed to about a song and a half.  Then it started raining, so we left.  Yesterday we got a free gondola ride with our Eurail passes.  After a picnic dinner we went back to the Piazza San Marco and heard an orchestra play for a while.  What great timing - free concerts and free gondola rides!

Today we spent the first part of the day at the Venice Biennale.  It's a huge art show with work from some of the world's best contemporary artists.  We saw about half of the main galleries today.  Tomorrow we will visit the rest.  We also spent a few hours on the island of Murano this afternoon.  This is where they make all those glass dolphin figurines.

Tomorrow we are spending the day in Venice.  During the evening we will be taking a train to Bologna, Italy.  It's a short trip.  There we will meet up with our friend Andre and our soon to be friend Daniele.  We know it's going to be a great time!

And finally, three thoughts in closing...

1. Throughout Europe, the size of squares of toilet paper seem to be the same width, but longer.  We've noticed this everywhere we've been on this trip.

2. My sunglasses seem to be virtually indestructible.  They have only suffered a minor scratch.  I've thrown them out of photographs in the split seconds before the shutter snaps too..

3. My (Lisa's) eyes look more blue now.  Not like really blue, just not as green.  Strange, huh?

Hope everyone is having a great summer!!
Lisa & Chris

3 comments:

  1. I know you are having a great time and delicious food! What is the cat count????

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  2. Wow! Your vacation is flying by!!! Venice sounds wonderful! We'll have to visit sometime.

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  3. 77! and Kelli, you and Matt are the only two people we could come up with that we reasonably think will visit Venice sometime.. so yes, you will have to visit sometime!

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