Venice: Part 1

So Italy is the place Brent and I have always said we wanted to go someday. Getting the chance to go to Ireland was so great. It was even better when we realized they would pay our way BACK from somewhere besides Ireland, if we got ourselves there. It took some research and discussion to decide which parts of Italy we wanted to visit most. We found really cheap tickets from Dublin to Venice and decided we should take advantage of the flight savings of getting there and back, and go on our dream trip! We are so glad we did!- even though it meant being away from the kids for 2 WEEKS.
THANKS again Grammy and Papa and Nana and Papa!!:)

We flew out of Dublin early on Friday morning.

We had some beautiful views on the way. This is the Swiss Alps!

Our trip over was uneventful, but when we arrived we discovered that the public transportation employees were on strike.  This meant we would have to pay a private water taxi to get from the bus station to our hotel or walk. Walking was really not an option. There aren't real "streets" in Venice as there is no automobile traffic at all. There are small maze- like, alley-like, poorly marked roads that you walk with numerous little bridges all over the city. With our luggage we're guessing it would have taken us 3 or 4 hours to walk there even if we gad a clue where we were going. SO......we paid 70 Euro (about $100) for a private water taxi. Gulp.

 

Our first glimpse of Venice is hard to even put into words.

 It was like all those amazing pictures you see, except better and more beautiful, and it was real life!

 The pictures do not do it justice!!

 I mean, I think I've seen a painting of this exact scene!!

 This was our hotel.

This was the entrance to our hotel. All the hotels had little docks for the boats to drive up to.

 

After we got checked in we went right outside our hotel and across the bridge to a little restaurant for lunch.

That's the entrance to our hotel just across the canal.

....and this is the view of the city from just outside our hotel.