Day 23: Off to Munich!

We were sad when we woke up this morning. One, because we were leaving Venice. Two, because we were leaving our awesome apartment. The girls have been amazing with all of the packing, unpacking, and schlepping the suitcases everywhere. Venice was especially challenging because there were so many bridges that we had to carry our stuff up and down, and each girl has a backpack, a roller bag, and a smaller roller bag. We decided to surprise them by arranging a water taxi to pick us up about 100 feet from our apartment. We took the water taxi to the airport (way, way easier than what I originally had planned), checked in, checked our luggage, and waited for our one-hour flight to Munich (over the Alps!). 

Water taxi. Like a taxi but on the water and with more room.

Water taxi driver. Like a taxi driver but on the water and with less attitude.

We landed, took the train to Munich Central Station, and then walked the 3/4 of a mile to our hotel. This is the first hotel we booked on the whole trip (everything else has been AirBnb/HomeAway), and it definitely ranks the lowest on our accommodations so far. It’s a ‘family room’, so there are literally six beds in one room; but that is not the main issue - the main issue is that there’s a heat wave in Europe and this place has no A/C!  For all of our other places that we booked, we ensured that they had A/C. However, for this hotel, Sherri and I both assumed that it would have A/C. I mean, have you ever been in a hotel that doesn’t have A/C? I have……now. 

We found a good restaurant across the street from the hotel and finally broke our ongoing pizza streak. We enjoyed the different food of Germany - schnitzel, pretzels, sausages, and meatballs. The servings were huge, and we had enough left over to get three nearly-full takeout containers. We walked around until we found three different people who looked like they needed a meal. We made our way back to our apartment, which was pretty toasty inside. We got to bed a bit early so that we could get up early to catch a train to Salzburg tomorrow. Did I mention it was toasty in the room? 

A flight of beers - when just one beer won't do.

Day 22: Tour Dropouts - Venice Day Two

Thursday was our first full day in Venice. We booked a “Venice in a Day” tour, even though we know you really can’t do Venice in a day. Heck, we could spend a whole day on a gondola ride! (Which, for those of you who are curious, would probably run us around 1,920€)

Anyway, we meandered our way through the alleyways and streets and managed to find our way to the meeting place. This was a larger tour, so we were all equipped with goofy looking headphones (so we could all hear the guide) and we were given stickers for our shirts...maybe so we wouldn’t get lost? I’m not sure how a sticker helps that other than to identify you as a clueless tourist who has strayed from the group. I should translate the Italian on the sticker - it probably says, “Cluelessly lost tourist, return to Tour Guide Matt if found”

We started out with a history on Venice. The Romans were not interested in Venice because there wasn’t much going on over in the 118 islands. No trees, no fresh water, and not a great place to build massive palaces and fortresses since it’s, like, pretty unstable. The Pisa guys could’ve learned a thing or two from the Roman engineers who scouted out Venice.

The Venetians, however, decided to make a go of it and started building on the islands. Since there’s nothing there, everything has to be imported. The Venetians did a pretty good job, as they managed to build on unbuildable land and today they have about 70,000 visitors a day in a city of 53,000. 

We were very impressed with the local shops and markets. The shops are kept very clean and the markets had an amazing array of beautiful fruits, wonderful spices, and scrumptious-looking fresh fish! All of the seafood at the market comes straight from the Adriatic Sea. We really love the vibe of Venice, and we love the fact that the markets have everything you need for a fresh, home-cooked meal. We vowed to come back and spend a week learning to cook the local dishes and drink the great wine here. 

One of the interesting facts we learned on the tour is that, because the ground is unstable, the locals would jam tree trunks into the ground as close to each other (the trees, not the people) as they could. This created a dense and sturdy foundation on which they put limestone. Essentially, Venice is like an upside-down petrified forest! 

We made our way to St. Mark’s Square, where they have a bell tower that used to serve as a lighthouse. I thought that was an interesting factoid. So did Sherri. So did the girls. But we also thought that we’ve been inundated with interesting factoids all along this trip, and as such, there was a spontaneous moment of unspoken silent revolt against a coordinated tour where we learn interesting factoids. Before our gondola ride, which was our next step on the guided tour, Sherri and I conspired and made an executive decision to ditch the tour. We filled the girls in. They were heartbroken……that we didn’t do it earlier. I collected all of our goofy looking headphones, returned them to the guide, assured him “it’s us, not you,” and broke from the group like a bunch of seniors after the last day of class <cue “School’s Out For Summer”>.  Someone then approached me and, looking sympathetically at my tour sticker, said, “Don’t worry, I’ll return you to Matt.”  I ripped the sticker off defiantly and ran to catch the gondola with the rest of the family. 

Shortly before we played tourist hooky

Not sure what this is, because we skipped out on the tour.

Or this...

This looks like some kind of ancient sun-clock-thingy. I bet Tour Guide Matt probably told everyone what this is.

"Excuse us, but have you seen some gondolas?"

 Sister selfie attempt - Take 1

 Sister selfie attempt without lame dad photobomb - Take 2

After the gondola ride, we found a lunch place. Multiple choice guess as to what we had: A) Pizza B) Calzones C) Beer D) All of the above. Hint: D.

Beer me!

Venetians love to have a spritz at mealtime. We tried it and we were definitely a 'no'. :P

Yummy pesto!

Another massive calzone - but again, mostly filled with hot air.

During lunch, I Googled “cool things to do in Venice after rebelliously ditching your tour group” and we found a glassblowing demonstration that was only 4€ per person. We booked it and headed over there. We were all mesmerized by the demonstration. The glassblower made a vase in just a few minutes and the skill and craftsmanship was unreal. The guide (we made sure to keep a lookout for our other tour guide from the morning so that he didn’t think we were cheating on him with another guide) told us that it takes more than 15 years to get highly skilled at glassblowing. After the vase was made, the glass blower literally cut it off his glassblower-thingy™ and chucked it back into the fire!

So cool that he turned this out in about five minutes!

After the demonstration they took us up to their store where they sell amazing pieces. Goblets, glasses, art, plates, bowls, you name it. Sherri and I really loved one of the sets of glasses that was painstakingly made by thinly slicing glass rods and then fusing them together. While Sherri was browsing other items, I turned the glass over to look at the cost of the set of six glasses. 847€!!!! The salesman said they are so expensive because they are very difficult to make and the artist ends up throwing several away because some are flawed after they cool.  I remarked, incredulously, “these are really 847€ for the set??”  He replied, “Oh, no, no.”  With a relaxed sigh, I said, “Oh, good…” and before I could finish he interjected, “That’s for each glass.”  Uh, beautiful glasses, but…hard pass on that. It’s a good thing that wasn’t the price of the whole set, as I would’ve been tempted. 

After the glassblowing place, we found a nice shopping center that had a terrace on the top floor with an amazing view of the city. We went up there and spent some time taking pictures and enjoying the view. 

Another great day wrapped up, we made our way through the long and winding roads to our apartment and started packing for our trip to Munich. The girls and I played Monopoly Deal and then went to bed for the night. We will miss Venice, but we will be back some day!

Secret coven of the Monopoly Dealers

Day 21: What should we do in Venice? We'll cross that bridge when we get to it...

We woke to another travel day. Once again, Team Hummel made sure everything was in suitcases, coffee was consumed, and we made it out the door to the train station for a two hour train ride to Venice. 

Venice is really pretty remarkable. It’s literally a floating city that was build on over 100 islands!  We hadn’t been in Venice for more than five minutes when Emily said, “I think this is my favorite place of the whole trip.”  And we’ve been to some pretty cool places so far. All three of the girls (and mom and dad, of course) love the city of Venice. It is just as you imagine it and it’s very much like you see in the movies. 

I love this pic of the girls

The tough part of Venice is schlepping your luggage up and over the bridges and through the (woods, to grandmother’s house we go…) narrow alleys filled with tourists. Ashley and I are suffering a bit, as our luggage is limping along (mine with wheels that are just barely functional and Ashley with a broken handle), but we’ve all done so many steps and have carried our luggage up so many staircases that we’re experts now.  Our apartment was about a 3/4 mile walk from the train station. The streets and alleys are not marked very well, so it took us a little while to find the place, and it took a little while longer to get in the place, as the owner only provided one of the codes to the lockboxes. However, once we got in…..wow!  This is by far the best place we have rented in Europe. Super cold A/C (much needed in this heat wave), plenty of room for everyone, and recently completely remodeled. 

Here is the drill whenever we land in a new place:

1. Set luggage down
2. People scurry and pick rooms/beds
3. Everyone asks for the wifi password

Priorities, priorities. I know, you would think 3. would come first, but luggage is heavy and you only get one chance to pick your sleeping place for the next few days. 

We got settled and then headed out for some dinner. And, as we were exiting the apartment, we realized - boom! Coffee place is literally arms distance (well, my arms at least) from our apartment!  Apartment just got even better! 

Our time in Italy is winding down, so of course it was important to find a pizza place for dinner. On travel days (and even several of our non-travel days) we end up eating only one meal and some small snack. Today was no different. 

When you're on a month-long Europe trip, your outfits and your beers start repeating...

Biggest calzone ever! Unfortunately, it was filled with air and not yumminess :(

After lunch (?dinner?) we asked ourselves, “what is the most touristy thing we can do in Venice? Gondola ride! (For all you New Mexico peeps, no, this is not a ride in a hot air balloon). Ok, so that’s not how it really went down….Sherri saw several gondoliers (y’know, the folks rowing the gondolas) rowing down the canals and said that it was a must-do in Venice. Although we had a gondola ride scheduled as part of our tour the next day, we went ahead and did it since the weather had turned nice and cool that evening. We were very happy we did….it was awesome! We could’ve stayed in that boat all night long, but my wallet said, “uh, no.”  The nice thing about the gondolas is that the fee is fixed and is the same for everyone. So, you don’t have to worry about getting ripped off and you don’t have to negotiate. It was a great ending to a pretty easy travel day! 

Married 25 years now....and she still puts up with me!

We stopped for gelato (duh!), grabbed some essentials from the grocery store, and then made it back to our apartment by 8pm. Fantastic first day in Venice! 

Obligatory gelato pic