Beautiful Salzburg

The drive from Venice to our home is 8 hours.  Salzburg is conveniently located at the 4 hour mark.  We drove up from Venice on Thursday, April 21st, and arrived at our little guest house right at bedtime.  The next day we woke up, enjoyed a fantastic breakfast at our hotel, and drove into Salzburg to see the sights.

Our first stop was to ride the funicular up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress.  You can see the massive Fortress situated on top of the hill in this photo.  

Townsend and Emerson listening to the audio guide of the Fortress.  They were interested for about 5 minutes, unfortunately the tour lasts 45 minutes!

The tour takes you to the top of one of the guard towers.  Julian was a real trooper being stuck in the backpack the whole time.  From the top of this tower you can see all of Salzburg plus the surrounding countryside and mountains.

Instead of riding the funicular back down the mountain we decided to take the Mönchsberg Walk from the Fortress back into the city.  It was a beautiful sunny day and perfect for a hike down the mountain.

We enjoyed some time in the Mirabell Gardens.  They have fountains and paths through trees to explore but best of all they have a great playground!

Julian throwing rocks into the Salzach River that runs through Salzburg.  Say "cheeeeese" Julian.

Family photo with Salzburg in the background.

Saturday, April 23rd.  We knew we had to head home but we just didn't want to give up our vacation quite yet.  Just outside of Salzburg is an "open air" museum with old houses that have been brought from different parts of Austria and reconstructed on site.  It was another sunny day so we figured we had one more stop to make before we headed home.

A small train takes you around to the different "villages" within the museum.  Julian loves trains and was so excited to watch the world go by from the train window.

You can explore inside all the old homes.  The boys loved just running all around the house, up the stairs, down into the cellars, around the gardens.  It was a great opportunity to get some energy out before the long car ride home.

Julian loved all the water troughs.

There was a pond with millions of tadpoles swimming around.  They must have all hatched about the same time, there were so many.  The boys just had to dip their hands in the water and they could catch a tadpole.

Mountains, old farmhouse, green meadow with flowers...what more do you want in a photo?

We ate some yummy Austrian food and then it was time to officially call our vacation "finished" and hit the road for home.  What a fantastic trip!

Leaving Venice

Thursday, April 21st.  It was hard to say goodbye to our little apartment in Venice.  You really feel as though you have experienced something different by going to Venice and I was reluctant to head back home to the everyday routine of life.  The boys convinced us that we needed to make one more stop in St. Mark's square to feed the pigeons, so that's where we headed first thing in the morning.

Townsend

Emerson

What the...?  I bent down to give the boys a few more crackers to give the birds and this cheeky pigeon flew onto my shoulder!

We had bought the boys some cheap little balls to kick around in the squares.  It was so cute to see them kicking the ball back and forth.  I just love it when small things can keep them entertained happily for an hour.

Goodbye Venice, I'm not sure if we will see you again but you gave us a fantastic Spring Break, thanks!

Adventures in Venice Continue

Wednesday, April 20th.  Another beautiful, sunny day greeted us as we left our apartment Wednesday morning.  There are not many "big" sights to see in Venice, we had done both of the main sights the day before, so Wednesday we decided to enjoy walking around and discovering new parts of Venice, away from St. Mark's square.  Our trusty old guide (Rick Steves) suggested we hit the fish market early in the morning.  Most restaurants in Venice serve seafood and this market is where they come each morning to purchase their fish for the day.  The boys found it very interesting.  We saw eels, squid, octopus, salmon, giant tuna, and lots of shrimp and crab.  I'm not a huge seafood lover but it really was neat to see the fresh catch of the day laid out.

Taking the vaporetto over to the fish market.

The boys wanted to ride on a gondola but we had to say no for two reasons.  One, they are really pricey.  Two, I couldn't imagine Julian sitting for 45 minutes in a boat that might tip over if the boys got too wild.

At the fish market.

The boys enjoying fresh strawberries from the market.

After the market we headed over to the Frari Church.  This Franciscan church is the home to many beautiful Renaissance paintings by Titian.  The most dramatic being the painting behind the high altar, The Assumption of Mary.

Titian's The Assumption of Mary.

We explored around a bit more and found yummy gelato for our hot and tired boys.  Here the twins are taking a rest from all the walking.

After lunch we decided it was such a nice day we should head over to the beach again.  The boys were very excited to head back over to the ocean.  We tried a different beach this time, a lot more crowded but with better sand.  The boys built a sand castle, Julian collected and then threw back into the water all the seaweed he found, Oma's purse got stolen...wait a second, that's terrible!  So our trip to Venice wasn't all sunshine and gelato.  Oma put her purse inside Hyrum's backpack and someone came by and swiped the backpack while we were playing in the waves.  Luckily she didn't loose her passport or credit cards, which she had left at the apartment.  Still a bummer, but it could have been much worse!

Townsend getting warm on the sand.

Julian loving the waves.

Emerson by the sandcastle that he, Townsend and Daddy built.  Emerson collected all the seashells and placed them to decorate the castle.

On our way home from the beach, all tired and ready for bed.

For our last night in Venice Hyrum and I decided to take a walk over to St. Mark's square.  There are cafes on the square that have musicians playing classical music outside.  It was interesting to stand in the middle of the square and hear multiple concerts coming from different sides of the square.

Adventures in Venice

Tuesday, April 19th.  We could not have wished for better weather.  We began our adventure in Venice by trying to find our way to St. Mark's square through the back alleys of Venice.  Wow!  You really can't explain the uniqueness of this city.  It is so neat to walk along a narrow alley and find yourself, at the end, in a piazza surrounded by canals and multiple lanes going in different directions.  It's easy to get lost among the maze of small alleys and bridges.  Luckily for us there were signs along our route directing us to St. Mark's square, probably placed there for lost tourists.  Once you can orient yourself in St. Mark's square you can find your way around to other sights.

Venice is hard to do with a stroller.  All the bridges have stairs.  We got pretty good at lifting Julian up and over all those stairs.  Here we are lost among the alleys and canals on our way to St. Mark's square.

St. Mark's Basilica.  Venice was an important city on the trade route from the East.  You can tell from the architecture of this church that Venice was influenced by the Byzantine Empire.

Every inch of the interior of St. Mark's is covered in tiny little stones to make beautiful mosaic pictures.  It is hard to comprehend all the time it took for them to cover the entire ceiling with chips of stone no bigger than a fingernail.

The winged lion is the symbol of Venice.  The boys had fun spotting winged lions all throughout the city, on buildings, in paintings and sculptures.

Townsend feeding the pigeons in St. Mark's square.  Probably the highlight of the trip for the boys.  The pigeons would fly right onto their arms to eat the food our of their hands!

 Emerson with a pigeon on his hand.  The pigeons were really aggressive.  I can see why there is a law against feeding the birds!

The other main sight in Venice, besides St. Mark's, is the Doge's Palace.  This was the seat of Venetian government for 400 years.  We took the tour of the inside.  There were lots of winged lions in murals on the ceiling and walls.  Most of the rooms are pretty sparsely furnished but it was still impressive to see the elaborate carvings and paintings.  The best part was the palace prison.  Prisoners were led over the "bridge of sighs" to the prison.  The cells were interesting because many of them had carved initials from the inmates.  

After a hot morning of seeing the sights the boys were worn out and ready for a break.  We caught the ferry over to Lido island and enjoyed the afternoon at the beach.  The beach we found was full of sea shells and the twins collected a whole bag full of shells.  Julian loved the water and splashing in the waves.  

Julian and Oma at the beach.

Brothers enjoying the sunny day.

Can you tell he liked the beach?

After a few hours at the beach it was time to head home for bed.  Each night after we got the kids in bed Oma spoiled us by letting Hyrum and I go for a walk by ourselves.  It was so great to walk around Venice in the evening, after all the big tour groups had gone.  Thanks Oma!

Emerson and Townsend being very silly in their jacuzzi tub.

The Rialto Bridge lit up at night.

Getting to Venice

Our adventure began shortly after church on Sunday, April 17th.  As soon as we got the car packed up and the kids fed we were on our way.  Our first stop was Innsbruck, Austria, about 3 hours away.  Here we stayed for the night in a wonderful guest house situated on the hillside outside of Innsbruck.  After traveling for so long the boys were excited to get out and run around.  Hyrum took them on a hike up the hill to a small playground to get some wiggles out while I put Julian to bed.

The view from our guest house, typical Austrian landscape, beautiful mountains, green meadows and a church.

The next morning we all hiked up to the little church at the top of the hill.  It was a gorgeous, sunny day.

Julian wanted a drink of water from this fountain but we didn't want to take him out of the backpack so Hyrum had to bend way down so Julian could reach the water, it was pretty cute.

Monday, April 18th we left beautiful Austria for beautiful Italy.  To break up the 4 hour trip from Innsbruck to Venice we decided to tour the town of Verona.  There is actually a balcony in Verona that tourists can stand under and pretend it was the balcony from Romeo and Juliet but unfortunately there isn't really any historical connection to the star crossed lovers other than the fact Shakespeare chose Verona for the setting of his tragedy.  We got a bite to eat, enjoyed the sun and did a self guided walking tour of Verona (thanks Rick Steves!)

Enjoying a nice lunch under the trees in Piazza Brà.

Julian loved throwing rocks into the grates and listening for the splash of water.  Hey, anything that keeps him happy and occupied while we eat lunch is OK with me;)

Daddy and Julian outside the Roman Arena in Verona.  

Porta Borsari, original Roman gate that functioned as a toll booth.

Mommy and Townsend enjoy the view of Verona from the river walk.

After a quick stop at a yummy gelateria we were back in the car for the last leg of our trip to Venice.  We parked our car in Mestre and from there took a train onto the island of Venice.  Once on the island we took a vaporetto (Venitian water bus) to our hotel.  The sunlight was just perfect for our first introduction to Venice along the Grand Canal.

The Grand Canal with gondolas parked outside Venetian buildings.

Another shot along the Grand Canal.

We got to our apartment with no problems.  The boys were excited to have the whole upstairs all to themselves with their own bathroom.  We were all happy to be in a clean and comfortable apartment and to start our adventures in Venice.