Christie, Allie and Cara enjoying the ride down the Grand Canal.
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Christie, Allie and Cara enjoying the ride down the Grand Canal.
The Rialto Bridge, one of only three bridges over the Grand Canal in Venice. Although there are only three bridges over the Grand Canal, there are dozens throughout Venice. (It felt more like hundreds with the stroller.)
Taking one of the hundreds of narrow side canals in Venice.
A panoramic view of Venice on the way to Murano Isle.
Approaching Murano Isle. The clouds are forming. We don't know it yet, but we're in for some pretty nasty weather.
Here our glass-blowing demonstration begins by getting the molten glass from the oven.
Minutes later, right before our eyes, it's turned into a candy dish! To demonstrate how hot the dish still is, they dropped some paper in the dish. It immediatly ignited in flame.
Another demonstration creates this little horse, entirely by hand, in a couple of minutes.
Back in Venice, one of the busy alleyways. Christie handled the crowds amazingly well. (She hates crowds.) Notice the rain slickers, wet hair & puddled sidewalks. We got off relatively easy with only a couple hours of steady rain & sporadic showers over the next few days. Some European cities were flooded & several (including Prague) were evacuated.
A view of the Grand Canal from the Rialto bridge. Still overcast, but we still have time for it to clear up before our gondola ride this evening.
Allie & Christie enjoying the view. All the awnings indicate the restaurants along this stretch of the Grand Canal.
The whole gang on the bridge.
Steve & Allie at the Grand Canal.
Allie on the Gondola ride. See everyone, I told you the weather would clear up for our gondola ride!
Christie & Steve on the Gondola.
Taking the Gondola under the world-famous Bridge of Sighs.
Christie, Allie and Steve cruising the canals. The poles on the side are to moor boats. The colors used to indicate family names, but now they are just for decoration.
Allie & Daddy enjoying the ride.
One last picture before we leave to Gondola. Better hurry, looks like rain clouds are forming again.
An evening view of the Grand Canal.
Having dinner and chatting with two college students from San Diego.
We had quite an experience trying to get dinner. We went to one sidewalk restaurant and sat down to order. After ordering, the waiter asked what we wanted for a starter and first course. We didn't want anything. They refused to serve us just a one course meal. They pointed us to the restaurant next door.
Next door we asked, prior to being seated, if we can order just one course. They said yes. We sat down and the waiter came to take our order. He proceeded to ask us what what we wanted for a starter, first & second course. After being told we could order one course, they refused to take our order. Nobody here seems to know about the customer always being right.
We proceeded further down the walk and stopped at our third restaurant. Again, verifying we could order one course. We had no problem. The two girls in the picture above overheard our problems and they had similar experiences. They always share a single meal and they were yelled at at one restaurant.
It turns out some restaurants only server full, multi-course meals, others just serve single dishes. They all look the same to us.
There were also two English couples adjacent to us and the 10 of us turned into a rowdy bunch. We had a blast. It turned out to be one of the most fun & memorable nights on the trip.