Venezia!

Unlike most people, I didn't realize Venice was mostly situated on water, minus industrial Venice. In order to get to our hotel, we had to park in a parking garage and take a ferry to our hotel. After that, we either had to take a water taxi or the hotel "shuttle" to get across the water. It was crazy! A couple of words to describe Venice: romantic, great food, ancient beauty, and water. We were very impressed with Venice and liked it even more than we thought we would. Even though it was a couple extra days of driving, we feel it was very worth it.

Beautiful Venice. The view at the Rialto station.

Sorry it is blurry; I took it. This is the residential area and the canals are lined with boats. No cars, no bikes.

Kelly in Venice in the morning.

I was amazed when I saw this; foodservice deliveries Venice style. I don't think those boats have climate control.


Kelly couldn't resist taking this picture. The boat was full of Asians and they were waving and smiling and taking pictures of us during their ride.


Our Gondola ride. We felt like we couldn't go to Venice and not take a Gondola. Althought it was fun, it wasn't our favorite thing we did there and it was expensive. It did show us Venice up close. Our favorite thing was walking around for a couple of hours that night. The town is full of bridges and beautiful buildings which look great at night. See below.


This sums up our walk that night.

Europe in a Nutshell

Kelly and I just returned from a 2 week vacation in Europe. The purpose of the trip was to celebrate Kelly being home from Afghanistan (yay!), but to also visit the cities Kelly served in during his mission, which was the Frankfurt, Germany mission. Kelly and I plan to post a little exerpt from our trip each day for the next couple of days. We flew into Munich at 9am and went straight to McDonald's to eat lunch. FYI, Germany does not have ice cream cones at McDonald's. Then, we headed for Dachau, the site of a concentration camp during WWII. I know what you are thinking, what a great way to begin the trip! I am a nerd for WWII history books, and Kelly kind of is too, so it was interesting for us to see.

The gate translates in English as "Work Makes Free." It was an ominous sign to read as we entered the camp. Wearing my red jacket, I felt like the little girl on Schindler's list.

This picture shows the enormity of the camp, as well as the drap buildings and grey, cold sky. I can only imaging how many cold days these people endured here.

Behind Kelly on both sides are the two remaining "barracks". Behind those are rows and rows of foundations for barracks that used to be there. Inside the barracks are rows and rows of bunk beds that they were crammed into.

On a lighter note; we travelled from Munich to Salzburg the next day. Salzburg: the home of The Sound of Music and Mozart. Here is one of the homes Mozart lived in. We watched Amadeus after touring his home.

This is me "dancing" in front of the statue where the kids and Maria danced during the "Do, re, mi" song. We looked for this forever, and then we realized we had walked past it twice already.



And this is some random cow advertising The Sound of Music in downtown Salzburg.