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.

Happy Easter

We celebrated Easter in two parts this year.  The first was an Easter egg hunt that we shared with our friends, the Platt family.  I had almost 100 eggs hidden around the yard and this year we tried to hide them in tougher spots so the big kids would have a challenge.  Julian loved walking around the yard picking up eggs and putting them in his basket and was very excited when he found out there was candy inside each egg. 

Julian loading up his basket

Townsend had to climb a tree to get this egg!

In the end there were happy kids with chocolate faces

Part two of our celebration was held a week later on Easter Sunday.  The Easter bunny visited the boys and brought them some treats.  It's so fun to celebrate holidays with the boys because they still believe in the Easter bunny, leprechauns, Santa and the tooth fairy.  I think it will be sad when they finally discover the truth but for now I love the excitement that holidays bring.

Emerson and Townsend with their Easter treats.  Inside the Easter egg was a small figure of a winged lion, the symbol of Venice (more to come on that adventure)

Julian spent about 5 minutes unwrapping this chocolate bunny and then only ate one bite.  Those who know me well know that I certainly didn't mind having an uneaten chocolate rabbit left at the breakfast table...mmmmm.

A picture of our Bavarian Easter egg tree.  I love the festive look of all the decorated trees here in Bavaria.  We traveled a lot this Easter season and we have found that this is truly a Bavarian tradition.  Other parts of Germany and other countries in Europe don't really decorate like this.

Two Wonderful Weekends in Rhineland

I am desperately trying to keep caught up on this blog.  We have been traveling a lot lately for a few reasons.  One reason is my sister Paige will be leaving in a few weeks and I want to spend as much time as I can with her and and the second reason is that Oma is here for a visit and it's fun to take her around and explore new parts of Germany.

On April 2nd I left the boys with Oma and Daddy and made a trip out to visit Paige.  It's not a bad 3 1/2 hour drive if you don't have kids in the car.  I really have loved having Paige within visiting distance, I am going to miss her a lot!  We went to our favorite restaurant in Kaiserslautern, the Himilaya, and stayed up way too late watching tv and eating ice-cream...I love sister time:)

On April 3rd we headed up into the Mosel Valley, about an hour and a half north of her house.  The weather was supposed to be beautiful and we wanted to explore this valley with, "peaceful, sleepy, romantic villages slipped between the steep vineyards and the river."  (Sometimes Rick Steves explains it best!)

Unfortunately, almost as soon as we arrived in Cochem it started to sprinkle rain and halfway through our tour of the castle it was really pouring down.  But, on the plus side, the town of Cochem was having a festival that day and so we got to walk through the market square and enjoy browsing through the vendors and sampling gelato and bratwurst on our way.

The GPS decided to take us home on the "scenic" route, which was fine except I don't do real well on windy roads and there were quite a few windy roads in and among the valley, plus it took us twice as long to get home...I'm not really sure we were enjoying much of the scenery after two hours in a car with rain and fog outside:)

Paige and I, about halfway up the hill to the castle.  This hill starts out pretty steep and then gets extremely steep as you continue on your way.  At least we got our workout for the day!

At the entrance to Cochem castle.  This castle was completely destroyed in 1689 by the French.  It lay in ruins until 1868 when a very wealthy man from Berlin decided to buy and restore the castle.  He spent almost his entire fortune and 10 years of his life restoring the castle.  The sad news, he died shortly after the castle was completed.

A view from the top of the castle hill.  You can see the Mosel river and hills with vineyards in the background.  You can also see the crummy rain clouds that ruined our day!

This suit of armor was on display in the castle.  This was actually made for a knight that was over 7 feet tall.  Imagine seeing this guy come charging on his horse toward you!

The following weekend we decided to take the whole family to visit Paige and to visit the Rhine Valley. The weather was spectacular!  We even got a little sunburned playing outside all weekend.  We left on April 8th around 9:00 AM and got to Paige's house around 1:00 PM.  Not too bad considering we had the kids in the car and we had to stop for a potty/run around and get wiggles out break.  Our first stop was the wonderful dinosaur park in Kaiserslautern.  My boys have been here a few times but they always enjoy running around, climbing up towers, sliding down giant slides, playing in the water and swinging in giant basket swings until they feel nauseous!  Sadly, Paige had to leave to catch a flight to Southern France but it was lots of fun to see her for a few hours and of course, totally awesome that we could stay in her apartment for free all weekend:)

Julian getting his feet wet at the park.  He was a little nervous about taking his shoes off.  He hasn't been barefoot since last summer and I'm sure he doesn't remember that so it was pretty cute to see him walk around gently on his little soft feet.

Auntie Paige with the craziest lot out of her 15 nephews!

The next day, April 9th, we headed up to St. Goar on the Rhine River.  Once again the sun was out and it was a wonderful day to be on vacation.  We took a boat ride from St. Goar to the town of Bacharach, wandered around the cute town for a few hours and then took the train back to St. Goar.  The river boat ride was wonderful.  There was a nice breeze on the river and the boat wasn't over crowded.  The boys enjoyed a snack while we cruised for an hour on the Rhine.  We played "spot the castle" and I think after they found about 12 castles on the hilltops along the route they got tired of the game.  Needless to say the scenery along this stretch of the river is beautiful with castles and ruins around every corner.

The boys throwing rocks into the river as we wait for our boat ride.

Oma enjoying the beautiful scenery.

The town of Bacharach has about 10 wells that the boys just had to throw money into to make wishes.  Some of them were pretty funny, "I wish I can be spoiled" or "I wish to eat only candy every day."

A view of Bacharach from the top of a vineyard.  

Oh gelato, where would I be without you?  You come to our rescue when our boys are spent with walking around old towns.  You're always good on a nice hot day.  You bring me joy.  I will miss you when I move.

Back in the town of St. Goar.  The main attraction here is the ruined Rheinfels castle.  The best part of this castle is that it is already in ruins, so my boys can't really destroy anything as they climb, run and jump around.  Here they are posed on top of a pile of catapult balls.  These balls were expensive to make so after a battle the soldiers would have to go outside the castle walls and retrieve all the catapulted rocks.

This castle was great for exploring.  There were staircases that led to empty, secret rooms.  There were tunnels to crawl through.  There were walls to walk around and explore.  Not many rooms remain in tact but the sheer size of this ruin makes it fun to explore.

The boys were pretty well spent by about 3:00 PM.  Unfortunately this meant we had to scrap our plan of visiting Burg Eltz, which Paige and I had wanted to visit last weekend but scrapped because of crummy weather.  

April 10th we woke up and decided the weather was simply too gorgeous to just pack up in the car and head out so we decided to take a hike up to the castle ruins in Paige's little town of Hohenecken.  

Oma and Julian explore the ruins.

Family photo op at the castle.

We could not have asked for better weather, for a nicer place to stay (thanks Paige) or for any more scenic locations than we got to visit this weekend.