VENICE!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=11pcpqol.7u3rlqv5&x=0&y=g86j6i

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The trip was a lot of fun, and we learned a little more about what we like and what we don't. We probably will never do another far away USO tour. Not because it was horrible. Just because there are things we like and things we don't and we are a little more familiar with what they are now. One of the main things is our schedule. It's hard to accommodate 46 people at the same time. The USO did a good job of allowing for tour time and on your own time, but there were times that we'd have done things differently and you don't really have that option with a group.

I cannot imagine a better deal. $200 per person for transportation to and from Italy plus water taxi to the island of Venice, an overnight in a hotel, BIG free breakfast two days, and a visit to the market in Camisano. Plus, they work it so that if you have to work Friday and Monday of the 4 day, you still can! If not, you can rest up some before work on Tuesday.

We enjoyed the 1.5-2 hr guided tour by the actual Italian tour guide, and we also were glad to have several hours on our own to take the Gondola ride, have lunch on the Grand Canal, walk all over town (getting a little bit lost!) and having gelato in a small courtyard. We got lucky that the weather could not have been better, and it was fun to just walk the streets and watch the people and the goings on. We didn't go to the museum, mostly I think because the lines were so long and we just kind of wanted to wander the city.

We didn't enjoy the horrific bus ride. Riding back was not so bad, but over night to get there was misery. It isn't as though we weren't warned, but it was uncomfortable and some people on the bus were not terribly considerate of others. (ie talking and laughing really loud when some people were obviously sleeping, bringing salmon pasta dinner on the bus=STINKY!) It was kind of fun eavesdropping on the conversations around us, but really the bus was the very worst part.

The one good thing about on the way back was that the view was truly amazing. We took a couple of pictures out the windows, but we stopped when it was painfully obvious that there was no way to convey that kind of scene that way. The colors were so vivid and it was really cool to look at grape crops for wine in Italy, waterfalls in the mountains in Switzerland and little villages all along the way.

There were 4 kids on the trip. An 8ish yr old girl , a brother and sister about 11 and 9 respectively and another girl about 11. ALL were wonderfully behaved, more so than a few of the adults. We watched Two Weeks Notice and Pirates of the Carribean on the way and Shrek 2 and Monster in Law (questionable for the children) on the way back.

The hotel was really nice. Not fancy, but nice staff, English speaking, wonderful breakfast and comfortable accomodations. Hotel Aries. And we were smart to forgo taking our stuff upstairs when we first returned from Venice (we just got a couple small things...not like the guy that got a chair!) and went straight to the pizzeria by the hotel for dinner. The USO guide mentioned it as pretty much the only option for dinner, so we knew it was going to get crowded. We already had our drinks and orders in when the others started trickling in. *tapping temple in "smart move!" gesture.

Oh, and a little glimpse of home...there was a gas station/restaurant/store in Switzerland where we stopped on the way home. We lollygagged around the store part for a while and happened upon Old ElPaso flour tortillas and "Nachips". :)

I'm tired today. We spent a little time on the bus also deciding some other things we want to be sure to do while we are here. We only have two years left, and a LONG list of things to do!