Venice....Finally

written by Joanne....

Well, we finally made it to Venice. We arrived at the airport at 11 pm which was a little later than the original expected 2pm arrival. But, non the less, we were here. Now we just had to hope that our luggage made it through the journey with us. So, off the plane we go, it was 28 and very humid - even at 11:00 at night. Off to the luggage carousel we go and wait....wait...wait... I get really excited because I see Shannon's hot pick suitcase coming down the ramp! Yeah, our luggage is with us! We are waiting for 1 more bag to round the turn....nope - note there. Everyone is gone and we are still waiting for our 1 bag! We go to the luggage claim area and find that our 1 bag is still in London, Heathrow airport. It is suppose to come today so we shall see! Shannon and I are in pretty good shape because it was the bag with all the boys clothes!!! I did pack a few things in some of the other bags so they do have a change of clothes!

Thanks to Maurice's carefull planning, when we came out of the airport there was a man standing there with our name on a card. He collected us up and dropped us off at the water taxi. The water taxi took us to the front door of the hotel. We checked in and got our room - they had to put us in 2 rooms. They are side by side which is good and now we have 2 bathrooms...gotta like that! We finally crashed around 1am. It was a really long day!

Maurice woke us all up around 8 this morning, we headed down to the breakfast room in the hotel and had a great breakfast. We then headed off to find the Bibbi....a grocery store where we could get some deoderant and tooth paste!

We then headed out on an adventure to St. Marks Square. Scott navigated us through the streets and after a nice walk - we found the square. It's pretty hot, but there is a nice breeze. We were all ready for a break from the heat so we decided to sit at a cafe in the square and have ice cream and ice coffee with lots of whip cream! Won't tell you how much that cost - except I bet I can buy a leather purse cheaper!

Picked up our water taxi passes and went on a tour of the St. Marks Basillica. Headed back to the hotel for a break to freshen up and cool off [ then off on another adventure to find someone good for dinner!