We had another early wake-up call this morning and had a relaxing day of travel to Austria, which I know a lot of us used to catch up on some much needed sleep. Marco and Stefano had the bus ready to go at 8:30 this morning and at some point had rearranged our luggage neatly below the bus. We left the hotel in Padova shortly after 8:30 and headed for Venice where the tourist bus fee to enter the city is 240 Euro - that is just to pay for a 10 minute drive from the check-in point to the parking area where all of the ferries leave!.
With today being a Sunday, we hit a little more traffic than expected, but still made it to the private boat for 9:45. The ride was extremely relaxing and we were able to just sit and enjoy the scenery. We docked shortly after 10:00 and walked over to the Piazza San Marco to meet our tour guide, Paolo. We followed Paolo through a one-and-a-half our tour of the city. At the end of the tour, went to the Murano Glass factory, where we saw a short presentation of one of their best artists blowing a piece of glass. Afterwards, we went into the shop, where we were able to purchase some of the glass items - jewelry, vases, glasses, trinkets for a special price they give specifically for large groups. At the conclusion of our visit at the glass factory, we broke into small groups for free time in the city until our meeting at 3:30 to head back to the parking area.
The city was one of the most beautiful places I have visited and I think I liked it so much because there were not cars. Just people (and pigeons) milling about, sight seeing, shopping, eating.
Venice is built on an archipelago of 122 islands formed by about 150 canals in a shallow lagoon. It sits on tons of wooden piles above marshy ground and the islands are connected by about 400 bridges. On interesting statistic is that there are actually more pigeons that inhabit the city than people.
We departed Venice at around 4:00 and began our four-hour drive through the Italian Alps to Austria. Marco had started the day behind the wheel of the bus, but when we boarded at 4:00, it was Stefano who would get us through the twists and turns of the mountain roads. Most of us slept for the first part of the trip until we made a brief stop about two hours in. I think almost everyone remained awake for the rest of the journey, gazing out the windows at some of the most picturesque setting I have every seen. I don't think words can desribe the mountains, some of which had snow on them, or the views as we were getting into Austria with the sun creating shadows and an orange glow in the clouds behind the mountains. I will try to post some photos in another gallery tonight.
We arrived at our hotel around 8:30 and immediately went to the dining room for dinner, where we had our first meel since arriving in Europe that did not consist of pasta. Tonight's dinner was a salad to start with and then pork, potatoes, and green beans, followed by cake. I ended up eating a plate of vegetables and some of the other vegetarians had fish in addition to potatoes and green beans.
We have another somewhat light day tommorrow with an 8:00 wake up for our white water rafting trip on Class 3 rapids. We should have some free time in Innsbruck, before heading to Germany, where we will spend the next two nights.
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