Hot Like a Sardine in a Hot Tub

Before we begin our regularly scheduled post, can we all take a moment to revel in the glory that is Lucette in this picture. Isn't she marvelous?

Okay, we may proceed. The main character in the book series we are listening to is famous for bad metaphors and similes. It is one of the things that makes his character charming and makes us all laugh. So we tried to channel our inner David for today's title. 

Anyway, we found summer. So far on our vacation we have enjoyed amazing temperatures never getting into the 80s. We left the Dolomites today to spend the weekend in Venice. When we got here we had a very rude awakening...it's July and it's HOT. I mean logically we knew that it would be hot here, we just were unprepared for the 30 degree temperature jump.

I woke this morning to the realization that our adventure yesterday took its toll. We are all a little sore, some of us (or just me) are incredibly sore. Like I have to free-fall onto the toilet sore. So today was interesting. Our time in the car was rough with sore muscles, but walking around was equally rough. Oh well. No pain, no gain.

Our 3.5 hour drive got turned into a bit longer today because every cyclist in the world was on the very windy single lane roads that we had to traverse. It was an insane number of cyclists. I've never seen so much lycra all in one place in my life. We eventually got to roads with only the occasional cyclist and were able to move a little fast. We needed to be to our accommodations by 3:45 pm and we weren't sure how long it would take once we returned our rental car.

We dropped off Fancy Fritz at the rental return and then headed out on foot dragging our suitcases and backpacks along behind us. The thing about Venice, as I'm sure my dear readers know, is that the "streets" are canals. So in order to navigate on foot you must go up and down lots of bridges. Lucette couldn't carry her suitcase up and down the stairs and Azure was struggling with her 1 arm. So the rest of us had to help. My poor sad legs. We made it to the ferry with little time to spare. They have ferry's that run like the metro does in other cities. When we got off the ferry we still had a good long walk ahead of us, so the kids and I pulled over with all our gear and Ammon used his genetic advantages (aka 2 very long legs) to meet up with our host to get the key. He made it in time and then returned for us to help us lug all the stuff.

I have been feeling like we absolutely packed way too much, but then again, how do you stay away for 8 weeks without stuff when you have 5 people? As a person who always overpacks I felt very proud of how little we brought, but in hindsight it was still too much. Anyway, the kids once again amazed me today as we trekked through the city. It is amazing how they can fight and pick at each other when we are in comfortable situations, but once it gets hard they often do pretty well. There were some questions of if we would ever get there, but they kept right on walking and hauling with almost no grumbling. I'm pretty impressed with these world travelers.

After dropping off our gear and taking a few minutes to cool down we struck out again to see the city. We really only have today and tomorrow to enjoy the city, so we wanted to take advantage. We headed to St. Mark's Basilica and were about 20 minutes late to go in (they closed at 5:00...it is starting to be a pattern). We enjoyed marveling at the outside of the building. I love the mosaics on the exterior.

We walked along the main canal for a while taking in the city and enjoying browsing the street vendor's carts. Then we decided to start looking for food. It was hard to navigate around the square, they had chairs set up for a big concert tonight. I'm sure it would have been fun, but we were really over the crowds and tired. As we were looking for a restaurant a very enthusiastic Italian showed us the menu and promised us a free starter since we were "the first American's to eat there today" - which was false as there were definitely Americans already eating when we went in. They brought us each a complimentary fun looking drink...turns out that the ones they made for me, Ammon, and Cormac were alcoholic. When we told them we don't drink they were truly shocked. The food was good though. As we were leaving our little Italian friend grabbed Ammon to give him a shot. Apparently, they cannot comprehend non-drinkers. 

We headed back towards our little apartment by walking along the canal. Ever since we arrived Lu had been begging for ice cream, so we kept an eye out as we walked. 

We found our Gelato place at last. Lucette was first up and she wanted 2 scoops. The music was so loud in the place we had to shout to be heard. The guy helping us had the most bored face I have ever seen. He scooped her up 1 scoop and when I said, she would like 2 scoops he just gave me a flat stare until I took the ice cream as is. Turned out that was a good thing. It melted so fast the kids struggled to keep up with it. Also, it was rather amusing and the kids think the grumpy Italian is the best.

We ended up walking down some creepy alleyways to get back to our place. On the way we stumbled upon some more cool things to see.

We made it back and are excited to turn in early tonight to catch up on sleep from a rather late night last night and somewhat early morning this morning.

Since yesterday did not go according to plan I completely forgot to ask the kids their thoughts about leaving the Dolomites, so I asked this morning.

Cormac wasn't ready to leave. He really loved those mountains and would have liked more time to explore. 

Azure was ready to move on, but she really liked the hiking, but also found it somewhat boring only hiking every day. Azure also ultimately decided she preferred the Swiss Alps to the Dolomites.

Lucette was also excited to move on. She did say she would miss the really beautiful and dramatic mountains. Yet she was really ecxited to see Venice. Within a few minutes of us being in this city she told me she wants to live here when she grows up. This is the most crowded place we have been so far, so I don't really share her sentiment, but I'm glad she likes it. 

Ammon was also feeling that he wished we had more time to explore the Dolomites. The places where we get to be outside exploring really are the best.

I was conflicted. I would have liked more time (though I don't know how many more hikes I have in me right now), but I also get excited to get to the next place every time we move.

Today marks the halfway point on our European Summer. We are excited for the 2nd half, though sad that we will likely be in actual summer heat for the remainder of the trip.