Venice, Italy

Two weekends ago we went to visit Venice, Italy, the city of canals.  We had a great time seeing the city.  Here are some of the pictures we took.

On the way down we drove through the Dolomites, or Italian Alps.

Incredible views!

When we got to the city we took a "water bus" to our hotel.

Our hotel sign pointed us down this vary narrow alley.

This was the alley and the door to our hotel on the right.

This was another way into our hotel, over this small canal.

Shanan enjoying breakfast in the courtyard.

Gondolas were all over the city.

This is Rialto bridge, the first one built over the Grand Canal.  It was built in 1255.

View of the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge.

St Mark's Square with St Mark's Basilica in the background.

These are the famous Venice pigeons.  Fortunately we did not get pooed on!

The front of St Marks Basilica.  It was first built in 832.  We weren't able to take pictures of the inside, but it was amazing with millions of mosaic tiles on all the walls and ceilings.

Part of St Mark's Basilica.

This is Doge's Palace the home of the rulers of Venice.  It was the most powerful half-acre in Europe for over 400 years.

Inside of Doge's Palace.  Every visitor whether king or pope would walk up these stairs to meet the Doge at the top.  We read that the Doge never came down to great his guest.

Statute at the top of the stairs.

This was a ceiling inside of the Doge's Palace.  

Inside the Palace was this letter drop (into the mouth).  It was a way that people could anonymously accuse someone of a crime or injustice despite the fact that it was true or not.

View of St Marks Basilica from the back and inside Doge's Palace.

Gondolas everywhere.

Venice misty sunset.

These were all over the city in just about every court yard.  This was Venice's solution to clean water.  Whenever it rained the water would drain into these collection wells providing the city with rain water.  They are now not in use, but still remain all over the city.

The Carnival of Venice is a celebration that occurs ever year.  One of the unique parts of this carnival are the masks that people wear.  There were mask shops everywhere.

Mask's everywhere!!!!

We ended up buying some masks from this mask maker in his little shop.  We loved his beret and paint covered jacket.

Venice at night.

On our second day in Venice we decided to go out to a small island called Murano.  It is famous for the glass that is produced there.  Back in the day all of the glass makers from Venice were required to move their glass making shops to this island due to the fear that they would burn Venice down should a fire break out.  Notice the large blue glass sculpture in the background.

Mr. Glass Man making a glass vase.

Of course we had to get a vase for our own.  We bought one from this guy!

Shanan enjoying a Gelato!

We had a great time in Venice!

BoJangles the Escapee

I have to tell you a funny story ... On Thursday when I came home from work I accidentally left the door open a crack and didn't know it. So I sat on the couch for probably an hour and a half checking my email and reading the news. And Matt was upstairs working on some paperwork.  This whole time I am thinking " where is the cat?" because he normally wants to cuddle and get some love. So I get up to make dinner and then I notice that there is cold air coming from the front door - I go look and IT'S OPEN!  So I yell at Matt to go look for Bojangles and after 10 minutes he comes back in and says that he can't find him - also it is like 20 degrees outside. So I put on my new rain boots and my coat and I go searching for him. I was walking around the whole neighborhood and I couldn't find him. In the process I walk over to where the woods begin at the end of the street and I see something that is orange so I go running to it and calling  his name. When I get closer I notice that it is a lot bigger than my cat and it stops to look at me and it is A FOX! Now at this point I really wished I had a gun because I would like a fur  scarf at some point but none the less the fox is kind of looking at me like "What? I am a fox, big deal. I dare you to try to catch me crazy lady."  and turns and walks away slowly. Now I am like starting to freak out - what if the fox ate my cat? I run back to the house screaming at Matt there is a fox outside and that the cat is probably dead by now. So he comes running down stairs and we get flashlights and go look for him again. Matt starts going down the side of the street that I hadn't checked out yet and I go in to the backyard to see if the cat is in the park behind our house. When I go in the back yard and I am like calling him in a whisper because everything echoes in the neighborhood and I notice out of the corner of my eye that there is something sitting at the sliding glass door of the neighbor's house. I look closer and it is our stupid cat looking in to the neighbors house through their window - just sitting there like he wants to go in. They had to have seen him at some point (even though it is dark). So we try to trap him and what does he do? He runs under the fence to the other yard. So we try to trap him again and he goes back under the other fence. This goes on for a few minutes - the whole time Matt and I are in two of our neighbor's yards trying to stay away from the windows so they don't know we are standing on their property. Anyways, we finally catch him and throw him inside. He is very naughty. But the good news is that there is a fox that lives in our neighborhood and next time we meet I will have my crossbow ready because momma needs a new fur coat.

Hallstatt

This is the final part of the trip that we took a few weeks ago and now I am finally posting the pictures.  We went to a small town in Austria called Hallstatt.  Some of Hallstatt's oldest archaeological finds date back to 5000 BC.  The area was initially developed around a salt mine.  

This tree grew right up the side of this house.

We saw this inscription at the top of this door 20+C+M+B+08.  The letters have two meanings. They are the initials of the traditional names of the Three Magi: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. They also abbreviate the Latin words “Christus mansionem benedicat.” “May Christ bless the house.” The letters recall the day on which the inscription is made, as well as the purpose of blessing.The crosses represent the protection of the Precious Blood of Christ, whom we invoke, and the holiness of the Three Magi sanctified by their adoration of the Infant Christ. The inscription is made above the front door, so that all who enter and depart this year may enjoy God’s blessing. 

At one of the churches there was a small side building full of hundreds of skulls.  There was so little room in the cemeteries that every ten years the bodies were dug up and placed in this room with the owners name on it.  Since the Catholic church has now ok'd cremation they no longer do this.

Yes, these are really mounted fish heads!

Enjoying lunch by the lake.

View of Hallstatt from above.

Earlier in the day we took a cable car up the side of one of the mountains near Hallstatt.  We toured some ice caves.  The tour was all in Austrian so we really had no idea what the guide was saying, but we still had a great time.

Tomorrow we are going to Venice, Italy for the weekend so more pictures are soon to follow.

Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest)

This is very delayed, but none the less we wanted to share with you some more of our trip that we took several weeks ago.  We left the castles and drove to a Hitler's Eagles Nest.  The views were incredible.  From there we drove into Austria and a small campground for the night.

The Eagles Nest was given to Hitler on his 50th birthday in 1939.  It was incredibly constructed in 13 months.  It was meant as a retreat for Hitler which he only visited the area about 10 times.

The view of Hitler's retreat from above.

Enjoying something to drink and the view at a small cafe at Eagle's Nest.

Great views.

This fire place was inside Hitler's retreat and was a present from Benito Mussolini.  If you look close you can see that it is chipped (in 1945) when the US troops captured the retreat.

The van has been named the mystery machine (from Scooby Doo) by some people in my unit.  This was our camp site just over the border in Austria.

This was the view from our campground.

That night we drove into the small town that was near our camp spot.  We ended up eating dinner in a small restaurant that was packed with people.  Soon after we started eating a yodeling accordion player started performing as the people sang.  It was quite an experience.

The following morning we went back to the same restaurant for breakfast.  It was a neat little town.

Shanan enjoying a coffee.

Neuschwanstein

At the end of the conference we traveled over to Fussen, Germany and the Neuschwanstein and Hohenshwangau castles.  Neuschwanstein is the fairy tale castle that the Disneyland castle was modeled after.  It was built in 1869 and commissioned by King Ludwig II.  Hohenshwangau was the childhood home of Ludwig II.  We left Garmisch with clear blue sky, but unfortunately by the time we made it to the castle it was foggy.  Regardless, it was a great visit.

The gate into Neuschwanstein.

Shanan's new home.

This castle was less impressive from the outside, but alot of the interior was decorated.

We noticed that the crown in this stain glass was the same crown that we saw on display in Vienna.

This was our campsite for the night, that is a styling campervan!

We had a great view right behind our site.