Venice Is For Love

February is almost over...I can't believe how time just slips away!

A couple of weeks ago, for Valentine's weekend, Regan and I took a trip to Venice, Italy! Ah it was fantastic. We had so much fun!

On Thurs, Feb 11 we drove to Frankfurt and hopped on a flight to Italy! It was only about an hour in the air!

This was at the airport. Don't you think something about this guy is a little...disturbing?

Once in Italy, we took a train for about 45 min to the house (or at least the city where the house was) of some of Regan's old friends, the Lazenby family! I was really excited to ride on the train. I love trains!

We stayed with the Lazenby's for the night and they fed us the most amazing pasta! They called it Saccetini, but in my research, I've found that it's more commonly known as Fiocchi. It's a little pouch of pasta stuffed with cheese and pear and it's amazing. I'd LOVE to get my hands on a recipe!!!

The next morning, we took a train to Venice! We didn't realize it at the time, but we took the slow train there so it ended up taking us about 1.5 hours. When we walked out of the train station, we were met with a huge open area full of people, both costumed and not! To be honest, I was expecting to see more people in costume. Carnevale was still going on, but only a very small number of people were in costume. We decided to forgo one of the many the water buses available and set off for what would be a few hours of walking to find our hotel!

This was the first major bridge we crossed after exiting the train station!

One of the MANY canal's we crossed on our journey. I was actually surprised that there were no cars on the island. I didn't realize that the city was almost entirely dependant on the canals for transportation! I always learn so much on our trips.

After probably 3 hours of walking, we finally located our hotel! The Hotel Fontana http://www.hotelfontana.it/eng/index.htm

We didn't stay long, though. We dumped our bag and set off again! We decided that Friday was going to be our 'walking-tour' day and Saturday would be our 'boat-tour' day! Walking around Venice was really fun! More than once we wandered until we were totally lost. There was so much to just soak up and enjoy - the buildings, the people, the shops, the smells (I've never smelled so many different things in such a short amount of time - it was amazing).

There were shops everywhere selling Carnevale masks. We did end up coming home with 2 masks, I'm happy to say!

This tower was one of the landmarks we used in our wanderings. We always seemed to end up near it when we got lost. Venice was full of amazing architecture - so many churches!

One of my favorite places to wander was along the waterfront! Mainly because it was so warm, but the scenery was certainly something!

I love our cat mask!

Later that night, while trying to decide what to do for dinner, we ended up in St. Mark's square! There were many people in costumes wandering around and some really interesting decor had been erected (prime example, the lion behind me). Also note the rose I'm holding: Regan was forced to buy it from a street vendor who was so persistent that he stuffed the rose into my pocket! 4 Euros! Though, it was a very lovely rose.

For dinner, we chose a random restaurant offering a very popular 'sample' menu option. Basically, you could pay a set price (usually between 15-20 Euro) and eat a 2-3 course meal. We, unfortunately, chose rather poorly. If I could remember the name of the restaurant, I'd advice against going. The food was decent, but not worth anything close to what we payed for it. The best deals are at the pizza cafes! SOOOO good and much cheaper!

That night, we went back to the hotel rather early and watched Walker, Texas Ranger in Italian (still amazing, fyi). After a long day of walking, the bed is the best place to hang out! The next morning, we got up early and enjoyed our hotel's free breakfast. Then we were off to St. Mark's square in the hopes that getting there early would help us beat the crowds! It did help us a bit, but not nearly as much as the flooded square did! Inches of water everywhere!

The flood was pretty annoying, but it did make for some pretty cool pictures!

We were able to tour St. Mark's Cathedral without having to fight any huge crowds! This photo is from the roof facing the square (which was still flooded). We spent over an hour there - it was just so beautiful and interesting! The mosaics that filled the cathedral were stunning. I can't wait to go back and see it again!

After we left St. Mark's, there was a noticeable influx of people into that general area, so we decided it would be a good time to hop on a water bus and ride out to the island of Murano!

Murano, as you may or may not know, is famous for glass making! So, naturally, we attended a glass making demonstration. It was pretty amazing, actually. It inspired us to pick up a few pieces! We hadn't really planned on it, but we found a small shop selling work done by apprentices and it was much cheaper than the master's shops.

There were funky glass sculptures all over the island!

We wandered all over Murano for a while - it was nice because there was practically no one there! It was a pretty small island, so we never got terribly lost, but it was nice to escape the crowds of Venice for a while. Eventually, our rumbling stomachs told us it was time for lunch, so we took a water bus back to Venice. The crowds there had gotten pretty intense, though.

This was the scene as we tried to walk from the water bus to our hotel to pick up our belongings! It was total insanity.

Riding on the water buses was one of my favorite things in Venice. I really like being on boats, and these boats in particular had a great view 90% of the time!

This is the Rialto Bridge. As you can see, it's totally packed out with people! We crossed it the day before, but we'd have been insane to try to do so on Saturday!

We decided to have lunch at the pizza place directly across from our hotel! The pizza was amazing (I'm drooling now just thinking about it).

After that, we were pretty much ready to go. The crowds were getting even crazier and we wanted to get back to the Lazenby's place early enough to enjoy dinner and some conversation. They fed us some AMAZING lasagna and we all stayed up too late talking. Good times.

The next morning, we went with them to church. I really enjoyed being in Sunday school and Relief Society! Simple pleasures after months in the Nursery. That night we enjoyed more Saccetini and then it was off to the train station and on to the airport!

Here we are in the airport waiting for our flight! Goodbye, Italy!

Venice was so much fun! We both agreed that we have to go back - there was still so much to do and see, we really only scratched the surface! Italy in general seems like a really great place. Everyone was so friendly and the food is SOOOOOO good! I'd like to go back when it's a little warmer, though.

Last weekend, we took a trip with our friends, the Ta's, down to Strasbourg, France! It was my first time going to France, so I was really excited! Strasbourg is less than 2 hours from here, so it's a trip we could easily make many times in the future. We met Beth and Quac at their house and drove down around 9 AM. We stayed until the cold and rain (and an expired parking meter ticket) drove us back home around 3 PM.

Regan and I in front of Strasbourg's Notre Dom Cathedral! It was a huge building! I wish we could have gone inside, but that will be an adventure for another time.

I'm not sure what was going on, but there were vendors selling carnival food everywhere! Regan couldn't resist getting some Churo's!

Those nubby trees were everywhere! We couldn't tell if they grew that way naturally, of they were trimmed to look like that. Either way - weird! As you can see, there weren't a lot of other people wandering around. It was a pretty chilly day, but it didn't really get yucky until right before we left.

Other than that, life goes on as normal. I'm on the job hunt again - working at the CDC just wasn't a good fit. I hope I find something else soon, though. The money I can bring in will really help with some of our goals for this year.