Venice, Italy - The Orange Full Moon

Day 4 – Venice, Italy

We woke up early and ran (literally ran) to the train station with our giant backpacks on our backs. We got a late start and didn’t realize the work it would take when we got to the train station. Luck was on our side because we had already pre-purchased our train ticket and didn’t have to wait in any lines. If we would have had to wait in lines, I fear we would have missed our train. We were cutting it THAT close. We didn’t realize how big the train station was. There were 14 trains headed to different locations in Europe within the station. I guess we know how to get around Europe from now on! : ) Our train trip to Venice was three hours and we were delighted that the seats were comfortable – much more comfortable than a plane.

We saw some beautiful countryside on our way to Venice – it made us want to come back and visit some of the small towns in Italy one day. Maybe bike through? Maybe one day… there are beautiful fields of flowers and wine vineyards everywhere.

We arrived in Venice around noon and were excited that our hotel was right across the street from the train station. We had to take a short bus ride to get into the actual city, but it was much cheaper to stay in Muestre versus staying in the actual center of Venice. Plus, our room is really nice - a lot nicer than the one in Rome (even though it doesn’t really matter because we are only in our room to sleep).

We decided that the first thing on our agenda was to “get lost in Venice” because that’s what everyone told us we should do. We thought it would be a little harder to get lost, but turns out – it’s easy to get lost in Venice… and hard to read maps! There are so many small streets that are impossible to find on the maps.

After a couple of hours, we got the hang of where we were and enjoyed walking through the narrow streets. The streets are BEAUTIFUL. Before we came, there were people who told us that they didn’t like Venice… I am baffled by this… it is amazing. We found it very romantic and picturesque. The main part of Venice is a huge shopping mall with hundreds of stores. It’s a woman’s dream and a man’s nightmare! Haha, just kidding. Scott was actually tolerating it more than I thought he would ; )

Picture from the web:


We ended up in the main square – Saint Marco Square and saw the beautiful basilica and Doge’s Palace. This is the famous square where people feed pigeons and take pictures (which we did, of course!). I LOVED it. People (including Scott) say that pigeons are trash birds, but I still had fun. There were some nice people who gave us some crackers and when we crunched them up in our hands, we immediately had a bunch of birds swarming us. Scott didn’t want the birds touching him, but he finally put a few crackers in his hands just to try it for a minute : )

We got some gelato (caramel is my favorite flavor so far… yum!!) and headed to the main bridge in the middle of the city – Ponte di Rialto. This is the oldest bridge in Venice and spans the Grand Canal. It dates back to 1172, and was in wood until 1557 when it was rebuilt in stone – according to our map. It is beautiful at sunset.

We got dinner at a beautiful, yet expensive, restaurant right on the canal. It was SO worth the money because it was surrounded by beautiful flowers and had the perfect view of the canal. People warned us that Venice was extremely expensive, and that is true. We’ve just been limiting ourselves to one sit down dinner/lunch each day. It’s hard to remember to eat anyway when there are so many beautiful things to see and fun things to do!

We saw the orange full moon on our way back to our hotel. It was HUGE! We tried to take a picture, but, as usual, the picture didn’t do it justice.

Day 5 – Venice, Italy

We went back to Saint Marco Square so that we could walk through the basilica (since it was closed when we saw it the day before) and couldn’t believe how beautiful the inside was. We couldn’t take pictures, but there were gold mosaics throughout the entire church. Apparently the basilica is the most important example of Byzantine Venetian architecture. It was built in 1076.

There is ANOTHER zodiac clock here… like the one in Prague. The clock moves based on what zodiac sign month are in. So right now it is pointing to Taurus. You know I am loving that!

Picture from the web:


We decided to try to get some culture so we went to the Doge’s Palace (No, not Dog the Bounty Hunter’s Palace - the residence of the Doge “the supreme authority” of Venice Palace) to see some paintings/architecture. According to our map - it was from the Doge’s Palace that the Venetian Republic was ruled, and it is still the highest expression of Venetian art.

We saw a lot of Venetian art by Tinteretto, Titian and Bosch. We also saw a lot of old weaponry and the prisons of the palace. This building was where all of the politicians and city officials would meet and “The Doge” would live. It’s kind of like the U.S. White House for Venice.

We then went to get lunch in a beautiful little café by the canal. We had an amazing caprese salad and decided we need to make those more back home with our fresh grown tomatoes! Yum.

After lunch/dinner we went up a bell tower to look out over the entire city of Venice. The view from the top was amazing. We were a little scared for what would happen if we were up at the top when the bells rang (because we heard the bells are REALLY loud). The bells did end up sounding at 3:30 (yes, they ring at half past the hour as well as on the hour) and although they were loud, we were excited to experience watching them ring so closely.

Now to our favorite part of the day… the gondola ride. We heard the gondola rides were extremely over-priced (which they are), but we were able to negotiate a lower rate in a canal off of the main canal. It was fully worth it… it was extremely romantic, beautiful, and peaceful. We loved every minute of it.

Lions and masks are really popular here. Apparently they have a mascaraed festival during a certain time of year. That would be fun to attend, but the masks are a bit creepy... The lions are a symbol of St. Mark.

Pictures from the web:

Amsterdam Part 2 - Dankavelle! Je Quee.

So, I’ll just start this out by saying that this is one of the best trips I’ve ever been on. Very eventful, very full of adventure, very fun… I’d like to thank Rob for everything. I know the five of us will be friends for life.

We are on our way home (in the middle of a 14 hour flight) and quite exhausted. We are trying to stay awake so we can get a good nights rest tonight and get back on the time schedule for the U.S. As much as we’ve loved traveling for nine days, we have to get back into the groove of the U.S. lifestyle. Work!

The last couple of days in Amsterdam, Holland were brilliant. We went on the bike tour that we had originally scheduled for the first day. We were very happy we did this because the rain went away [I think it’s because of our sun dance ; )] and we were able to enjoy the trip much more than we would have if it were raining the whole time.

Our tour guide’s name was A.J. He was a very down-to-earth guy who obviously enjoyed living in Amsterdam and taking people on bike tours for a living. Even though the bike tour was four hours, it seemed like it went by in five minutes (actually, the whole trip felt like that!). He showed us around the entire city (which was much larger than Prague) and we all wondered why we didn’t get bikes the first day. Our legs were killing us from trying to walk the entire city. He showed us the “I Amsterdam” sign, the various beer breweries, the famous fry shops (people like french fries in Amsterdam… that was new to me), the “coffeeshops”, the art museums, and yes – even the red light district.

It was fun to experience the biking in Amsterdam since everyone does it, but it was a little scary because cars + bikes + walkers + big city intersections required master maneuvering skills. It was an adventure, that is for sure! The majority of people in the city bike, so they carry their kids in bike seats and park there bikes everywhere. I wish people were more like that in the U.S.

We were hoping to go to one of the beer breweries to see how they brewed local beer, but we couldn’t fit that in to our schedule. We will definitely hit that first thing when we go back.

After the tour, we went to a pizza shop and had AMAZING pizza… the best pizza of the trip right near Dam Square. Did I also mention that the coffee is great in Europe as well? We shopped for souvenirs in the hundreds of shops on our walk home to the hotel then decided to go out for dinner with just Scotty and I and do some people watching. We ate dinner at a restaurant where we could look right out into a main square and watch the people walk by/watch the musicians. By this time, we had three layers on with gloves, so eating outside wasn’t half bad.

While we were eating we met a 71 year old man named Roman. We talked with him for about an hour. He told us to be happy, eat lots of garlic and take good care of each other. He was married to his wife for 25 years and missed her very much (he was a leo and she was a libra). I think we were definitely meant to meet him. : )


The next day, we woke up – had amazing croissants for breakfast, then walked to the Van Gogh museum. I have a passion for art history and art was my minor so seeing Van Gogh was a must – especially since they have the largest collection in the world in Amsterdam (because Van Gogh was from there). We didn’t get to see the Starry Night painting because that is housed in New York, but we did get to see the still life of the Sunflowers, some of his Japanese print-like stuff, and his famous “Wheatfield With Crows” picture that was said to be the last piece he painted before his death (though there are a lot of opinions about which piece was his last).







I didn’t realize what a miserable man Van Gogh was… he was very troubled. He cut his ear off because he got in a fight with his friend Gauguin (who loved him dearly I might add). He admitted himself into a mental institution and did a lot of his best pieces there. He used to take art pieces from artists he loved and copy them/bring out the thicker brush strokes/ bring out the complementary colors. He had no scholarly art training, and mocked those that did – he said those who had that training didn’t see art and colors the way people wanted to see them. He was very critical of himself because he didn’t sell any of the paintings he created. He ended up killing himself after struggling with anxiety and mental illness. His artwork wasn’t famous until after his death.

He loved painting pictures of landscapes, working people, nature, anything natural/realistic. He was very close with his brother and painted this picture for his nephew which I thought was beautiful –


After the museum, Scotty and I went to a beautiful bakery and got some sandwiches. I can’t wait to post pictures of this place because it was right out of a storybook.

We then decided to go to Dam Square and ride “the swings” in this carnival like square that looked like a mini Disneyland in the middle of the city. There was a huge Ferris Wheel, a haunted house, swings that went higher than any of the buildings in the city, rides, etc. Scott is afraid of heights, but I got him to go on the swings with me and he was really happy he did it. We got some great pictures of the city at the top : ) It was cold though!

We decided to walk through the Red Light District because everyone says you must do it. Right when we got in the area, we saw thirty beautiful swans in the canal. I had never seen so many swans in one area! The red lights were cool and it was very surreal to think that people were actually window shopping for people there.

We had our final dinner with “the crew” at a cute little spot called the Palladium. The food in Amsterdam was definitely better than Prague. I had a delicious vegetarian lasagna and Scotty had the authentic fries with a hamburger.

It was an amazing trip and we feel truly blessed to have experienced it. Thank you universe!

Best quotes from the trip:
“De Quee, Yo Queue, Ye Quey…” – Rob/all of us trying to say “Thank You” in Prague.
“Let’s Keep It Poppin’.” – Eddie
“My body is shutting down. I need bed.” – Jeff
“Dankavelle.” – Jess trying to say “Thank You” in Amsterdam and perfecting it ; )
“Watch out for the bikes!” - Scott