Venice

Wow! This, unbelievably, was my second time to Venice, and to my surprise, I was amazed by it as much as I was the first time. Ahhh, Venezia! You just want to sigh at every charming moorish window and laquered gondola. We were there for 2 days, and luckily, a third because we missed the train to Vienna.

When we first arrived, we enjoyed drifting down the grand canal to the Rialto. We walked to our hostel, Forresteria Valdese, which was in a huge, beautiful venetian church building. We were seperated into male and female dorms. My room had 10 women, two balconies and a fresco of maidens on the ceiling. The thunder storm at night made it seem like I was in a haunted mansion.

The next day, we did the ferry ride to the islands. First we went to Guidecca, which might be the old Jewish section, anyone know? We had a cheap pasta lunch there and had to keep our feet up because we were constantly getting splashed by the water. It was bizzare, like a game and eating all in one. Take a bite, dodge a wave, take a bite, etc. By the way, get to Venice while you can, because it is definately sinking! Then we went to the other islands. Murano, where we saw glass being blown. Burano, with it's colorful cottages, and Torcello, a somewhat abandoned island with a very old church that was closed when we got there.

Yesterday, we went to St. Mark's Church, which Jon was so glad he didn't miss. It is stunningly decorated with gold leif mosaic frescos. This is my favorite church, not that I've seen that many. I am also enchanted by the symbol of venice, the golden flying lion. I love him!
We ate a recommended pizza and gelatto joints and ended our time at the Peggy Guggenheim museum of modern art. Can you believe she named her daughter Pegeen? Yuck. It was a nice collection including Magritte, Pollock, and one Dali and Picasso. There was also a sculpture garden. I would like to see more surrealism works by Dali and Magritte.

We are now in Prague, which we arrived at via overnight adventure train from Venice. I was worried about another bumpy, sleep shattering ride like the one we had from Paris to Madrid, but this one was much smoother. We were in a little cabin with six beds, and four train roomates from Czech Republic.