Day 7 Paris to Venice

Venus de Milo: 130-100 BC artist: not entirely known. Louvre Museum. Commonly referred to as "intravenous de Milo" by the Lunds. Ref: movie Spinal Tap

Saying goodbye to France...

Bridge along Seine River with numerous padlocks. Lovers put their names and date on the lock, and throw away the key into the river below.

Chapel at the American Cemetery 

View of the Eiffel Tower at night from one of our venues.

Designed by engineer Gustave Eiffel, for the World's Fair 1889. Worth taking the time reading about the construction of this structure, with so few workers (300ish) over a relatively short time.  And guess who built the elevator to the second floor (along the curve of the legs)? Otis Brothers from the good ole' USA!

Alexander's first and favorite French word:

Saying Hello to Italy..

On Rialto Bridge, overlooking the Grand Canal

Venice: an amazingly beautiful, romantic and truly one of a kind city. We only spent 2 nites here but got a good feel for the city. It is comprised of over 100 little islands, separated by numerous canals which are crossed by hundreds of bridges.

Water taxi is one method of transfer from airport into the historic portion of Venice.

Like a postcard! View of the Grand Canal. Various boats and gondolas. 

Typical "street scenes" seen along canals. Approximately 50,000 or so tourists come to Venice daily (including large cruise ships). The canals don't reflect this volume and seem peaceful and relaxing.

Our hotel is seen on the left, with the red and white "barber striped" mooring. It is a bit odd unloading suitcases from your boat directly into the hotel lobby. Picture below is Eric looking out from our balcony. There was a puff of breeze causing shirt to billow out a bit, definitely not too much gelato. Bad camera angle ! :)

The next day it rained, all day. We definitely made the best of it and did some site seeing, undeterred by the weather.

 Piazza San Marco (aka St. Mark's Square). This is the main public square in Venice. Only moderately packed with people today because of the weather.

St. Mark's Basilica seen in background.

Next we went inside The Clock Tower (circa 1499) and ascended to the top for amazing views of the city, rain notwithstanding.

Our day concluded with a wonderful dinner in an outdoor cafe. This is what I will remember about the restaurant:

 This is what Alexander and Eric remember about it! Evidently the world's lowest "toilette". Whatever!

Something we can all agree on: Gelato :)