Venice

We had a frantic start to our trip to Venice.

There was construction going on at the Markt Schwaben underground tunnel to the train station.  We weren't sure exactly how to find the station.  Construction workers were pouring hot pavement on the path to stair down to the station.  A nice college age student helped a couple of the girls carry their bags over to the steps.

Once we got to the Munich East train station, we weren't sure where to find the track for our train to Venice.  I asked a couple of people, but it just didn't seem right that we would be in the same area as the S-Bahn trains.  At the information desk (20 min. before our train's departure), we were stuck behind a little old lady who needed several versions of a trip plan printed out for her.

However, we arrived in Venice without event after a 6 hour train ride.  I had splurged for 1st class seats, and we had the whole compartment to ourselves.

View of water taxi as our trained pulled into Venezia Santa Lucia station

Venice from the front of the train station

Hotel Marte

Elizabeth on her bed

View from the balcony in our room

Another view from the balcony

Dinner on the streets of Venice

lots of vendors selling items on the street

Our Garmin took us straight to Hotel Marte, a one star hotel.  I can't help but feel uplifted in this city.  Even though our hotel has only 1 star, it's nicer than our RV.  We have 2 triple rooms with private bathrooms (both with bidets!)  And, we have an Internet connection!!!

We found a nice place for an inexpensive dinner followed by gelato and an evening stroll.

I have two odd first impressions of Venice:

• It's a temperate, expensive version of Rocky Point with watery streets
• It's a very large version of the restaurant in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland