Since I've neglected to write for a few days, I must now apologize for that and for the fact that I'm writing these things under intense emotional swings so those who are reading this please don't judge me too harshly.
After Ludwigs castle we had to head south out of Austria and out of the mountains into Italy. We were all surprised to discover when we reached Italy that the mountains didn't just end. Please don't laugh at us, we've seen areas where the mountains just end and go into flatness. In fact I used to live in a place where it did something quite close to that, North Carolina. We drove through the mountains, admiring the beauty of them and admiring how they kept the blazing sun from hitting us (when we went in the shade). We eventually stopped and grabbed a few apples and then we headed back on the road. As we ate the apples we left the mountains, and arrived in flat, dry lands. Unlike the Germans who adore keeping their houses pristine, the Italians didn't mind having a bit of dirt on the sides of their houses, didn't mind having graffiti on the sides of their houses, and they didn't mind having what Momma would call a "redneck" shed with lots of things hanging about outside.
As I viewed these things I wasn't just admiring and observing the Italian homes. I was looking for road signs, and for any indicators of a hotel (as we got closer to Venice it started getting very late). We eventually decided we were going to stay at another Ibis. So we called them, made reservations, checked our map to see how to get there, and headed off. We ended up in a trucking section of town where there was only one hotel. We were given directions from there to get back on the highway and keep going because we'd been driving around the wrong neighborhood. After some serious issues with the roads and the toll booths we managed to make it to the hotel where we took our belongings up to our rooms.
I had my own room in this hotel. It was a good thing and a bad thing. I missed Ahmee and Poppy talking, but I had silence that I could work in. I decided I'd visit them in their room and work later. I also decided that I was going to see then if I could get internet up. That night we ate down in the restaurant that was in the hotel (Em's spaghetti is ten times better), I wrote to people, sent things, did Spanish, watched the news with Ahmee and Poppy, and went to bed.
The next day we got up, went downstairs, waiting forever in line (there was a bus tour staying the night there) for breakfast, watched our fellow tourists as we ate, went back upstairs, got ready, and went back down to get a taxi to the train station.
At the train station we had a fun time finding our train (after we got out tickets of course). Luckily we ran into a very nice man who didn't speak a word of English but made sure we got on the right train. This train to Venice was packed with people before our crowd even got on. For a while Ahmee and I stood in the middle of the isle. Every time someone came down the isle I had to scoot between several guys and when I didn't scoot I felt like my butt was in their faces. Needless to say, I moved. I moved over to the door of the train, behind two other Italian guys (didn't do anything so it was no biggie) and leaned against the wall. Ahmee shortly followed me saying she was protecting me. I got to watch the countryside and the Adriatic Sea roll past the window as we moved into Venice.
The first thing we saw while in Venice was the crowd of people. Venice seemed to be a jumble of buildings on the water that were empty and were only there for tourists use. Obviously this isn't the case. There were people who lived in Venice, but I never saw anyone in the windows of their homes. Our first destination was to go to San Marco, or Saint Marco Cathedral.
After getting a drink (it was very hot and very sunny out) we went back over the bridge to catch what Ahmee thought was a tour boat. It wasn't a tour boat. It was a boat that is basically the subway of Venice. Only difference was was that it rocked a whole lot more, and went much slower than the subway. While on this boat we got to see the industrial side of Venice. We got to see the trainyard, a few factories (I think), and the docking area for all the huge vessels that came in. There were five cruise ships docked in Venice, and there was room for more. Hopefully that will give you an idea of how deep some of the waters are there (this is closer to the grand canal and the area between the island we came in on and Milan). We got off the boat and grabbed a bit to eat in a restaurant close by (to the subway boat and to the plaza that Venice is so famous for that's just in front of San Marco).
After we ate we went off through the crowds, through the vendors, and through the musicians (one which had on the same thing that Burt had on in Mary Poppins in the first scene) over to the plaza where we checked out the line for San Marco. The line was at least one block long. Ahmee decided she was going to stand in line while Poppy and I took a look around. We walked out, took a look at the vendors (I was checking to see if they had any paintings I wanted-I'd already seen a few but we needed to get move on), took pictures of the pigeons and the cathedral (and the horoscope clock that's right next to the church, and the palace that's right next to the church), and then we headed back to Ahmee. The line had moved considerably since we'd left her.
Ahmee was about 10 feet from the entrance when we found her again. While we stood in line I admired the vendors closest to us who had masks on sale. Venice is famous for it's huge carnival in February where everyone wears these. I didn't get to look long at these because soon we were ushered inside the cathedral. This cathedral was incredibly decorated. Since Venice was quite a trade merchant city it was greatly influenced by many different cultures. The mosaics we saw on the ceiling seemed more middle-eastern than any others I'd seen, actually, everything was so ornate and decorated that I wondered where exactly it all came from. Part of the history of the cathedral made me laugh. After a certain time period the King of Venice declared that if the merchant ships wanted to come back into Venice they had to bring back a valuable treasure to dedicate to the cathedral. The cathedral had a separate room dedicated to these treasures (something tells me there are more). It was obvious that some of the merchants had to resort to piracy. I wonder just how many of them pirated what they gave to glorify the church.
I enjoyed looking around at the treasures (except for the bones of various Saints - the apostle Mark is one at St. Marco -I think that reliquaries are just wrong) and at the church. 
When we left I didn't know what postcards I should get. Course we were ushered out by a man who refused to let us go up to see the horses of San Marco. It's because we didn't look at those before we went in, if we tried to we would've disrupted the flow and it would've been a security issue. Still, was annoying that we didn't get to see them. We left after the guard said no and instead went outside to take more pictures and to go check out the shops along the plaza. Ahmee and I really liked the glass shops. Milan glass, I think, is more beautiful than diamonds.
We headed towards the grand canal, through twisty curved roads where Ahmee and I window shopped. We ended up getting lost. We decided to figure out how to get to the canal we'd take a gondola. The gondola tours are EXPENSIVE. They cost anywhere between 80 euros to 150 euros. While on this gondola tour we learned which direction to go, we got to see Marco Polos casa, we got to see Casanovas casa, and we got to see tranquil scenes such as: laundry drying between buildings, boats docked up next to the houses, bridges with sunlit people walking across, and other gondolas maneuvering around each other (while the tourists from different nations smiled and waved and nodded-since we're never sure the other can speak our language). After this tour we hopped out and made our way over to the grand canal where we ate and where I had a black dish of cuddlefish (the black was the ink from the fish). The waiter warned me it was black and said if I didn't like it then he could change it. He thought I was a culinary coward. I proved him wrong by eating the whole thing, and the thing is that I enjoyed it. It was different but it was delicious.
After dinner we decided we'd just walk along the canal back to the train station. We got some news: the boardwalk didn't go all the way down the canal, we had to go back into the winding streets and navigate our way over to the train station. At first this wasn't too much of a big deal, but after about thirty minutes of walking around we started to run into dead ends. It was then that I started wondering what time it was, because I knew that the last train left at 11:30 and I also knew from looking around that every hotel was pretty much full in Venice. For the first time I didn't want to be lost. As we walked through the dark streets and through the dark plazas (courtyards) I started imagining us being stuck on an island that was filled to the brim with tourists, with no way to get off the island, and no place to stay. I was more than relieved when we found the train station, I was ecstatic. Then of course we had to find which train we needed to be on. This took us about 15 minutes of walking around, asking people where to go, and wondering: "why does our train not have it's lights on?" We ran into a very nice lady who showed us which train we needed to get on. When we could get on the train we took out the camera and oohed and ahhed at all of our pictures we'd taken that day and we discussed various things we'd enjoyed. When it was time to get off the train another, different, nice woman let us know. We're lucky to have these nice people. They help us immensely.
Once back at our train station we nabbed ourselves a cab (the cabdriver drove incredibly fast while he hopped on and off his cell phone), and went back to the hotel. Once back in the hotel I sat and watched a bit of the news and then headed to bed. I didn't write anything, I was too tired (it was 11:45 at night).
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