Planes, Trains, & Automobiles - A trip to Venice

And boats and buses...oh my! :o)  We have been on all of them in the past 24 hours (ok well not the train yet, but that will be tomorrow...close enough).  Wednesday night officially started our whirlwind Italian and cruise adventure.  We were leaving from Charleroi airport (an hour outside of Brussels) early Thursday morning so we decided to stay the night at a cheap hotel by the airport.  Our trip started by taking a bus to the midi station where we planned to hop a bus to the airport (to save on 13 days worth of parking fees).  When we got there we were somehow convinced by a cab driver that it was a better idea to ride with him to Charleroi as it would be easier and faster...and he was not kidding.  Jacob said he was driving over 100 most of the way.  I was completely freaking out, holding on to Autumn as tight as I could and seriously regretting our decision, but we were stuck.  Thankfully our 30 minute ride of terror ended and we made it there safely and vowed to stay out of cabs whenever possible.  From there we took a shuttle to our hotel and went straight to sleep.  We may as well have slept on the shuttle though because we were back on it at 4:30 the next morning. 

We boarded our flight to Venice (barely skimming by without yet another $50 excess baggage fee as I put on several of my shirts at once so the suitcase would fit...ha!) And by 10:00 AM after a short bus ride we were in lovely charming Venice.  I booked the Carlton Capri hotel that was quite close to the train station (as we were lugging two large suitcases, one small, and two carry on bags...oh and the BOB).  We only had to navigate across two small bridges thankfully and found it relatively easily.  I’ve heard Venice can be quite a challenge to navigate with lots of small alleys and bridges, etc.  It all adds to the charm, but also the difficulty of finding your way around.

As soon as we dumped all our stuff we set off to explore.  Jacob opted to carry Autumn in the backpack to avoid carrying the BOB over the many, many bridges.  There weren’t a lot of things on our “itinerary” in Venice...mostly just to explore the city.

We wandered aimlessly for most of the day, found some yummy rolled pizza and a sandwich for lunch and a quaint park to eat it in...Autumn fed most of her sandwich to the birdies :o)  

We ended up in St. Mark’s Square with St. Mark’s Basilica and Doge’s Palace.  We’ve been using Rick Steve’s guidebooks somewhat for our trips and discovered you could download free audio tours on his website...that’s right I said free!  So we wandered around the square while we listened to Rick explain the history behind it all.  It was nice to actually know what we were looking at.  

After we toured the square, we did the unthinkable...we took a gondola ride!  These things aren’t cheap, but really, how often are you in Venice.  And it was totally worth it.  We were worn out and tired so it was just the break we needed and a lovely way to tour around Venice.  Autumn especially loved our gondolier...she was making eyes at him most of the trip...hehe :o)  She’s such a flirt.

That evening we had dinner in a cute little restaurant and then sat on the steps of a building on the grand canal to watch the sunset.  It was the perfect way to end a wonderful day.

The next morning we wandered around a bit more, but stayed close to our hotel as we prepared for our afternoon train to Rome.  The charm of Venice was intoxicating and I loved the simplicity of this city.  It left us open to just wander and take in all the quaint little aspects that make it so fantastic...the only agenda for Venice is to walk and enjoy!

Click here to view the full album from Venice.

Next up...Rome!