Venice!!!

Our train ride was a long one. About 4.5 hours if I remember right. I had never been on a train before! (Neither had Greg!)
We got to Venice and had a very handsome Italian man come pick us up in the water taxi and take us to our apartment. Oh my gosh. Venice is the COOLEST place ever. There isn't anything like it! We got on our cute Water Taxi, and immediately started  taking pictures and "oohing and ahhhing" at everything. And our apartment was ADORABLE.

 Our apartment had a balcony that overlooked onto a canal. It was beautiful!

After we got settled into our apartment, we wandered around and found a restaurant along one of the canals. We were sick of pasta and pizza so all ordered fish and steak, then ended it with gelato.
One of my favorite things of Italy was their fountains all around the cities with fresh water you could drink! Seriously, the best water ever!

 The next morning, we had a walking tour of Venice. We asked her to take us around to the un-touristy areas of Venice, because 2 cruise ships had just docked that day, and we were kind of sick of the crowds. One thing I didn't know about Venice was that it is 118 small islands that are separated by canals, then connected by bridges. It is seriously a huge maze. Bridges everywhere, canals everywhere, and no streets. Things are built up, because they can't build out. Look at this cool building:

 Us on the Rialto Bridge

 The group on the tour

 Locals eating their sandwiches along the canal

 After our tour, we at lunch, then Greg and I decided to go off on our own and wander around Venice. We got lost and walked around aimlessly (the number one thing to do in Venice), then met up with the group by the Basilica di San Marco.

Piaza San Marco was mobbed, because of the cruise ships that were docked, but a beautiful church. After that, we went on a Gondola ride!!! It was so much fun (we went with the whole family because if we went on our own it would have been 80 dollars...) and not romantic at all. :)

 After our Gondola ride, Greg and I decided to go off on our own again, and walked along the outside of the Islands outside the grand canal. We walked probably 3-4 miles and found this awesome church!

Then we ate dinner (and got pasta of course) and headed into the hotel early (Like 9 pm. We were tired!) We took a water taxi the next morning off to the bus station, where our 49 passenger bus we rented was waiting for us! Off to Austria!