Day 3 – Monday, December 21, 2009 – Drive from Salzburg to Venice

Katie woke up early – good girl!  Daddy was tired.  Kids were up around 8:00 am, and daddy shortly after.  We all got ready, and then we had a wonderful breakfast in the hotel – they serve great breakfasts.  This was really wonderful and we took our time.  We were sitting next to a glass window and we watched the snow falling on the already-covered ground.  Looks like they had about one foot of snow.  It was really beautiful.  Like a winter wonderland!

After breakfast, we finished packing our things and then we checked out right before 12:00 pm and we hit the road.  The drive through the Alps… pretty awe inspiring. The road was easy; and it makes a big difference when you travel during the day.  It wasn’t really snowing when we drove (during the day), and we enjoyed looking at the snow-covered Alps!  We saw several slopes where people were skiing.  Even Katie (non-skiir) remarked that it looked like fun, given the beauty of the surroundings.

Night fell.  Katie finished the drive to Venice while I made some phone calls (work-related). Adverse conditions during the night drive.  Snow falling and typical European highways; although Italy was better than Germany in terms of lights on the road and reflectors…

Our route from Salzburg to Venice

We got to Venice, and we faced the reality that you really do have to park outside of the city and then haul all of your stuff with you to the hotel.  Nothing is built to be easy (like in the U.S.).  We realized the task ahead of us as soon as we left the parking garage.  No clear signs regarding which way to go.  After about 20 minutes, we found the water-taxi station.  Oh yea, and it was snowing the whole time… in Venice!  We boarded the water bus, which is basically the public bus / subway system for Venice.  It seemed like we were the only tourists on board.  We had a ton of luggage.  I’m sure that people thought we were crazy (Americans), or a royal family or something (but why would we be taking the water taxi).  To my knowledge, nothing was stolen today.  We felt safe; the people seem relatively nice.  There are places to sit inside of the water taxi.  We had to leave some of our luggage outside on the deck… it got crowded a couple of times, so I stayed outside on the deck (cold… snow…) to watch the two bags that were out there.  Katie and the kids stayed inside with the other bags.  Pretty cool though.  You see all these famous places and it feels like an everyday thing…

We got off at the wrong stop.  We didn’t really have a good idea of where we were going (famous last words).  We had to walk about 500 meters, over a canal, to another water-taxi stop and board again.   This took us to the right stop.  We got off and then walked through this very narrow passage… tough with all that luggage.  After a while, we found our hotel.  It really is a 16^th century place… I’m not sure really how much updates they have done since then, but, it does have an ancient elegance to it.  We have so much to be thankful for!!  We really do.  We have each other; we are all in the same room; and we have the  love of Christ in our hearts!  They actually put us in the handicap room, I think b/c it has more space.  Definitely a different feel from the Austria hotel, but that is a good thing (diverse experiences).  I dis-assembled the bunk bed and put one of the mattresses on the floor.  It was about 9:00 pm when we arrived at the hotel (we got to the parking garage around 5:30… on the boat around 6:00 pm… so we were “searching” for three hours.  Time flies when you are in Venice and looking around like crazy Americans!  So, we hadn’t eaten yet; and the reception guy at the hotel wasn’t a huge help (he’s not bad after you get to know him), so I ventured out and found the “bar” at the Best Western.  I convinced the bar-tender / chef to let me take the very nice china and silver tray back to our room at a different hotel.  He was very nervous but I gave him no choice; and I said that I would return it.  He had one ham & cheese left and I ordered two tomatoe and “brucheta” salads.  Both delicious.  He was kind of like a chef – presented very nice.  He was very appreciative when I brought it all back to him – I made a new friend today!

To bed. Tomorrow should be fun.  I learned a little about the tide flow here in the city.  It actually floods occasionally (I heard the siren tonight for high-tide).  They even get some water in the lobby of the hotel in the early morning hours occasionally (like right now – raining/snowing, lots of water).