Sunday, August 31, 2008

Veni, Vidi, Vici

After a short visit to Munich, where Audrey got to see the Hofbräuhaus and enjoyed the Oktoberfest-esque atmosphere…


The ladies departed for Venice on a train from Munich… A train ride that was supposed to be only a few hours long with one transfer, getting them to the port of Venice with a few hours to spare. We soon realized that was wishful thinking, as the train departed Munich late and then ended up breaking down for over 2 hours. The ladies ended up missing the cruise ship, and we now have a new meaning for the phrase ‘missed the boat.’ Andrea and Audrey caught up with their ship in Dubrovnik (only one day late) and had an awesome time on the cruise and were able to thoroughly enjoy themselves despite the rocky start.

I took the overnight train from Munich to Venice (very cool experience) and met the girls after they debarked their cruise ship. Well… I say met the girls, when I really meant to say wandered around Venice for 2+ hours being too stubborn to buy a map, and realizing that Saint Mark’s Cathedral is nowhere near the train station or the port of Venice. So after exploring Venice on my own, ‘read: stubbornly getting lost’ the three of us met up with some of their cruise ship-mates and did some sightseeing. We opted to not take a gondola since they wouldn’t let all seven of us in one gondola, but we were able to see everything we wanted to see in Venice.

We then departed on the rest of our whirlwind adventure of Italy, that took us to 3 other cities all within 72 hours. I'm not sure if any of us have ever been so exhausted from sightseeing... but it was well worth it. Michelangelo's David in Florence was incredible:



The tour of the Roman Coliseum was pretty cool, and the bottles of vino for only €2 still mesmerize me.



Rome is just too great of a place to only spend 24 hours there... but we plan on going back.

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