This morning we had to wake up early to catch a water taxi out to Venice Before that though we spent twenty minutes killing mosquitoes in our hotel room before we could go to bed. Even then we didn't get more than half and there was still a wasp stuck in our lantern over our beds.
Any who we got to Venice and took our hour long walking tour where we got see Doge's Palace and the Rialto bridge, absolutely amazing, the bridge that is not the palace. I think after seeing the Vatican we are all so jaded to other cathedrals and nothing is quite as spectacular. After our walking tour we went to see a blowing glass demonstration where the "master" made a glass vase with handle and a little glass kitty right in front of us in about then minutes!
After all the tours we did some shopping of course and bought some of their famous glass pieces. I picked up a few necklaces both made with real gold flakes to make a light purple color and silver.
While walking around shopping we noticed huge puddles of water forming all around the city. We learned that these puddles appear because the entire city of Venice is built on pillars over a sand foundation. So every six hours when the tide changes, the entire island and all its structures change as well. The puddles we forming because the tide was rising and coming up through the marble foundation! Its crazy to think that in the next few generations the city could be under water!
This is a particularly sad story because I don't know where all the pigeons will live once Venice is gone! These pigeons literally run the city and rumor has it if you hurt or catch one of the pigeons you will be charged 200 euro! There were many many people today feeding them and letting them sit on their arms to feed out of their hands. We even saw a couple who just married taking their wedding pictures in the middle of San Marcos with the pigeons eating from their hands while the couple kissed. Very cute!
A lot of our group also took gondola rides around the city. I did not ride one, they are pricey but they are really cute and make for great pictures. our tour guide said they used to wear stripes to represent their family colors but now they all just wear the blue or red striped shirts we all know. The gondola boats themselves are beautiful long black boats some with gold embellishments and velvet seats. The gonaleers are silly too, some sing and whistle along the way and they have to duck or squat to get under the bridges!
Tomorrow we head to Munich, yeay Germany! However somehow we got screwed and EF delivered us a bus with 49 seats when there are 51 people in the group. So some of us will be taking a train there instead of the bus, myself included which should be interesting. The good part to this story is the train ride is about two to three hours faster than the bus ride, and the bus will take our luggage. So we literally just take some money, some food, a pillow and relax on the train until we get to munich. Oh and we get reimbursed! :D
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1 comment:
Aww, pigeons <3
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