Our European Vacation Part 4 - Venice

On Friday, September 11th, we bid farewell to the beautiful country of Switzerland and boarded a train bound for Venice, Italy. It was about a 6 hour train ride from Geneva to Venice which gave us sometime to rest, relax, and reflect on the amazing time we had in Switzerland. We arrived at the Venice train station with no one waiting to greet us for the first time in our entire trip. It took us a little while to figure out the new country and the new language but once we did we were well on our way to enjoying a few days in Venice.

Liam's first boat ride on the "cab" from the train station to our hotel.

Mary Anne and George splurged and got a water taxi.

The Grand Canal, on the way to our hotel.

Weaving our way through the city canals on our way to the hotel.

No one seemed to know exactly where our hotel was located. The water taxi dropped us off near where he thought it was but then we had to wander around pulling our suitcases in search of our hotel. It didn't take long and we were settling in.

Settled in and off to explore this beautiful city.

Looking across the water at the Santa Maria della Salute

One tired little boy.

Clothes lines were everywhere.

After a great first day in Venice we enjoyed a fabulous, authentic Italian dinner in the garden of a quaint, family-owned restaurant recommended by the concierge at our hotel. If he had not given us directions we would never have found it.

What a hottie!!

I could absolutely see myself living on this little canal.

"Delivery truck."

Hanging with Grandpa George.

Totally touristy pic.

Gondolas cruising the canals.

What a rebel...

(see the sign)

Rolf was our tour guide again in Venice. Assisted by a great book called Daytrips, he mapped out our entire day and took us to some very cool places.

Mamma's boy

The market

Family photo on the Ponte di Rialto overlooking the Grand Canal.

The Grand Canal from the famous Ponte di Rialto.

Our great traveling partners, Mary Anne & George

(aka Mom & Dad or Aga & Papa)

Liam enjoying pizza for the first time! No better place to eat it than in Italy.
(He also tried a little gelato courtesy of his dad and did just fine....I guess our dairy allergy days are done. YAY!)

Heading home!

On our flight home we were bumped up to the bulk head row! Thanks Lufthansa! Liam really enjoyed that he was able to get down and crawl around and so did we. The extra space made the 15 hour trip (longest leg 9 hours) home a little more manageable.

And that is the end of our European vacation! We are truly blessed and thank God for the amazing opportunity to be able to take our sweet little guy on such an awesome adventure. Although we know Liam will not remember any of it we have tons of pictures and stories and can't wait to tell him all about it.

And last but not least a very special thank you to Mary Anne and George. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you for letting us travel along with you on part of your empty nest vacation, thank you for being so generous with your time and your finances and your love and your friendship. We are truly grateful for all of the memories and are so blessed that you were apart of them.