Here I Go Again...

...not keeping up with the blog after we get home.

Last day was in Venice, again. Got delayed at the airport from Berlin. The aircraft was late arriving from London...I guess there was a nasty storm in the U.K. that caused an hour and a half delay.

Arrived in Venice, took the bus from the airport to the city and rode the vaporetto to our hotel. We stayed at a different hotel than last week. This one was very close to the vaporetto stop on the Grand Canal. Outstanding location and internet access (free for the first 30 minutes, €20 for 5 hours.)

Rode the vaporetto line 2, not as many stops, to a stop about halfway to St. Mark's Square. We walked and shopped looking for Carnivale masks. Heather found a cool one of the hypocritical plague doctor (the one with the big, long nose) at a shop that made masks for the Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman move "Eyes Wide Shut." Never saw the movie.

Headed to St. Mark's Square and checked on Hard Rock Cafe but it still wasn't open. Kept walking looking for a mask for me. Found one near the hotel. It's a Casanova mask (big, black hat and pointy chin.) They're expensive.

Stopped at a pizzeria and got two pizza (they're small.) Grabbed a bottle of wine, some parmesan cheese and a couple pieces of bread from a shop near the hotel. Took it all back to the hotel and had a picnic in our room while watching a movie on the iPod.

Our flight the next morning was uneventful. Stopped and collected some water from the Grand Canal for our "dirt collection." Trisha picked us up from the airport (I re-payed here and the girls the next morning at 6:45 am) and we went to get the boys from Erin's house.

Bud

Why does the Superbowl start so late?

No way were we staying up until midnight thirty to watch the game kick off. But, there are quite a few bars here showing the Superbowl.

Sunday we went to the Reichstag, the German capital building, and walked along the large glass dome on top. Kind of a neat design - the people walk along the top and look down on the government and the politicians look up and see who they work for - the people.

Met a couple of Australian women who were on our Third Reich Tour. They were flying back to London in the evening. We gave them a hard time because they suggested the pub crawl the other night.

Lunch at ARoma, a coffee/sandwich joint with really good bacon, egg salad and tomato sandwiches. Free wi-fi, too, which has proven difficult to find here in the city.

On to Checkpoint Charlie and the Topography of Terror. Two cold-war Berlin wall attractions that are fun to see. The best part was the photo displays along the street with photos from before and after the wall fell. There's a double-coblestone path through the entire city that marks the location of where the wall once stood.

Went looking for a bookstore afterwards. It was more of a souvenir shop than book store. It's called Berlin Story and is on Unter den Linden street near the Brandenburg Gate. We went to Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts for a snack.

Did some more walking and shopping. Then took bus #100 to Potsdamer Platz. The bus route passes many of the sights in Berlin. Did more walking and shopping and ended up at Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. In our defense, we do live in Italy and our Applebees closed down, so there's nowhere back "home" to get American food. We split the nachos and Twisted Mac & Cheese.

Back to the hotel around 9:30 - it's just too cold out for anything else.

Bud