Magical Mysteries

The Albert Docks
Liverpool, England

We left Birmingham early and drove to Liverpool to kick off our second day of travel. There were many things to do in this city but we were there to take The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour and to see the docks where my grandfather landed during WWII. The docks have changed a lot in 70 years, but it was still fun knowing we were walking in his footsteps.

I want it.
Penny Lane, Liverpool, England

The Magical Mystery Tour was crazy but it was a lot of fun. We boarded a very loud colored bus and drove around the city checking out sites that were tied to the Beatles; we couldn’t look more like tourists, not even if we wore visors and fanny packs. We saw their childhood homes, Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, and the Cavern Club; our tour guide was even in one of the documentary films about them. When we visited Penny Lane Neil told us the sign was stolen so much when the song was new, the city decided to paint the street name on the wall instead; then people stole chunks of the bricks. Recently, the city decided enough time had passed, and they could put a sign back up; the signs now last an average of 3 days. I definitely wanted to return after dark with a wrench.

The Cavern Club is an underground music club that opened in the 1950s and the Beatles began frequenting in the 1960s. Over the years the club hosted many famous bands, and these are commemorated outside on the wall of fame; it truly is a piece of music history. Across the street is the Cavern Pub, a similarly decorated, underground pub serving normal bar food. When our tour ended we walked to the Cavern Pub for some lunch. The walls were covered with memorabilia from and photographs of dozens of artists. After lunch we briefly returned to street level before descending again into the Cavern Club.

The Cavern Club
Liverpool, England

Interior of the Cavern Club, with a Beatles Cover Band Playing
Liverpool, England

Other artists play at the club, but more often than not, there is a Beatles cover band playing, even at 3pm on a Thursday. My Dad was super excited to be there and was singing along with the band, oblivious to everything else. The group was two guys with guitars, and we kept trying to convince my Dad to drum for them. He refused, even after we bought him official Cavern Club commemorative drumsticks. We stayed down there, taking it all in, until they finished their set.

Approaching Malham Cove on the Pennine Trail
Malham Village, England

Emerging from the club we were greeted with sunshine. The storm from earlier had cleared and the weather was perfect for our next adventure: hiking to Malham Cove in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Malham Cove is about 2 hours northeast of Liverpool and was the site of Harry Potter filming. The cover is a portion of land where a small creek has, over time, created a sheer cliff face; it’s like approaching a natural rock climbing wall. Peregrine falcons use the cliff face for their nests, and the whole cove is a haven for the birds.  The footpath through the area is called the Pennine Way; it’s part of a 267 miles trail through northern England. The trail ran through pasture land and was dotted with cattle and sheep; several times we changed fields and made sure to close the fence behind us lest the animals escape.

The sheer cliff face of Malham Cove; the colored spots are climbers
Malham Village, England

The real draw was at the top of the cove; water and wind have uniquely shaped the rocks into an eerie landscape. During The Deathly Hallows Pt. 1, Harry and Hermione camp on these rocks. It was a lonely spot in the movie, a perfect place to hide from Voldemort, but in real life there were lots of people climbing the face of the cove. Maybe the climbers come because of the movie and it was more desolate before, or maybe it’s always been popular.

I did not expect either of my parents to climb to the top; it’s a steep climb and it goes pretty high (260 feet), but they both did it. They didn’t stay up top very long, leaving us to explore a little more while they hiked back down. The entire hike we were serenaded by myriad wildlife including cows, sheep, and pheasant; Joe and I even found a flock of sheep on top of the cove. It was very pastoral and relaxing—I was reluctant to leave.

We regrouped at the bottom of the cove and decided to eat dinner in Malham Village; the Buck Inn was an easy decision as it was the only place open. The proprietors were very friendly and the food was delicious. While we were discussing the virtues of the onion rings the owner joked he could live on the onion rings, and I had to agree, though it would shorten both our life expectancies a bit. Before we came to Europe, everyone told us “Oh in [x] country they serve room temperature beer”. When in [x] country we would ask the locals and they would say, “oh no, not here, they serve it that way over in [y]”. We heard this about every beer drinking country, but until that night at the Buck Inn, all the beer was cold. At the Buck Inn we were drinking “Real Ale” or cask conditioned ale, which is unpasteurized, hand pumped beer served slightly below room temperature. So this would be considered warm compared to a cold, pasteurized, keg conditioned beer. The beer was more flavorful and less fizzy than keg beer, and I can appreciate the call for more “real” ales and ciders across Britain.

The steep Pennine Trail; perfect for sheep.
Malham Village, England

In addition to being a delicious pub, the Buck Inn is also an inn. My mom wanted to spend the night, but as tempting as it was, we’d already paid for accommodations in Newcastle, so we got back in the car after dinner. My dad was driving this leg, and to be honest, it was a little nerve-wracking—sorry Dad! We were following our Garmin, not the car’s built in GPS, and it was programmed to route us the fastest way. To calculate the route it uses posted speed limits, however if there is no posted speed limit it uses a default speed based on the road type. In the UK, the national speed limit on a single carriageway for cars in 60pmh unless otherwise posted. Using these default speeds the Garmin calculated that the quickest route to Newcastle was through the Yorkshire Dales Park. Unfortunately, we were not driving the default speed. The road was barely wider than our car and as it was through the national park, there were no street lights. To make our drive even more harrowing, there were also steep grade changes, 90⁰ hairpin turns, and no almost towns. Oh, also, we were running low on gas and the few tiny towns we drove through were all closed up for the night; yes the entire town was shuttered and dark. I could see the speedometer, so I know my Dad was only driving about 25 mph, but it felt like 70 in the dark and I spent most of the ride with every muscle in my body clenched in terror; I was very sore the next day.

Harry Potter fans will recognize this vista
Malham Village, England

Useful Links!
Pictures from Our Trip!
Take the Magical Mystery Tour
Liverpool Tourism Website
More about the Pennine Trail
About the Peregrine Falcons at Malham Cove
Images from HP7 (in case you forget where they camped)
Malham Cove at the Yorkshire Dales National Park
Malham Village Visitors Website
Learn more about what "Real Ale" is
The Buck Inn
Helpful information about driving in the UK

In the Footsteps of Legends

The Cutty Sark Museum
London, England

When my parents came to visit we planned a week long excursion to the UK. After we landed in London we proceeded to pick up our rental car, but Sixt wasn’t located at Heathrow; we had to take a shuttle out to the lot. Our car was a black Citroen something or other; the standard European hatchback. Whenever we get a new rental car (at least every 3 months), it’s my job to fiddle with the dials and to figure out how the navigation system works. The nav system wasn’t very intuitive or user friendly so I switched to our handheld Garmin—a decision I would later regret. Perhaps to make up for its navigational deficiencies the car came with a bonus; there was a CD already in the player! It wasn’t just any CD either; it was The Beatles #1 hits CD. Naturally we put it on and drove through London feeling very authentic.

Best. Picture. Ever.

Cutty Sark, London, England

Our first stop was the Cutty Sark, a ship that dates from the height of the British Imperialist era, though it was in use until 1954. This ship has been in dry dock since 1957 and acts as a museum of English maritime history. It was a very hands-on museum and there were many exhibits for children and Joe. A lot of the ship is original; they’ve delineated restoration work with gray paint; original ironwork is white. Most of the boat was dedicated cargo space and the living quarters were cramped; the vessel was designed for making money. Throughout its eight seafaring decades, the Cutty Sark carried a variety of cargo, but I think the best time would have been when it was ferrying tea from China; this cargo would have smelled much better than wool from Australia.

Crossing Abbey Road
London, England

We then drove all the way across London to Abbey Road. We parked in an underground lot and witnessed a large queue of cars at the exit. A man was struggling with the automatic pay system and the mechanical arm wouldn’t let him out. Among those behind the man were an irate delivery truck driver and an anxious mother late to pick up her kids. Later, when we returned, the arm was bent at a funny angle; perhaps forced just high enough to let a car through. Abbey Road was once again packed with people, and since I’d already been there, I volunteered to stand on the island of safety and take pictures. 

My mom asked me to take this picture.
She said she hadn't seen clothes like this in awhile.
Oxford, England

Despite not sounding like much, due to the size of London and the abundance of traffic, these two visits took us past 3pm. We were spending the night in Birmingham, so after visiting Abbey Road we headed north. We stopped briefly in Oxford for dinner. Originally we were going to try to take a tour of the Bodleian library, a Harry Potter set, but we arrived too late to join a tour. Even if we had arrived on time, I don’t think we would have made the tour; Oxford University was having its graduation that day and there were gowned students and their families everywhere; surely the tour would have been full.

Instead, we delighted ourselves with looking at the old buildings and eating dinner in the Kings Arms Tavern. Almost every year my parents spend a week in Colonial Williamsburg, and one of their favorite places to eat is the Kings Arms Tavern where the food is prepared using colonial methods, and the staff wear traditional garb. Since Colonial Williamsburg is set before the American Revolution, technically both taverns are British. In the modern Kings Arms we learned British pub protocol; place your order at the bar, receive a number, and wait for your food to be brought to your table. I ordered a rabbit pie with cider. Mmmmmm. Meat pies in the UK tend to refer to a stew baked in a puff pastry pie shell; very hearty and delicious. It was an excellent conclusion to our first day in England.

My parents outside the Kings Arms Tavern
Oxford, England

Useful Links!
Pictures from Our Trip!
Visiting the Cutty Sark
Abbey Road Live Feed Camera - Watch the Madness
My Sister and I Visit Abbey Road
Oxfordshire (region Oxford is in) Tourism Homepage
Oxford City Guide
Bodleian Library Tours
Kings Arms - The Oldest Pub in Oxford
Kings Arms Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg

LEGOLAND!!!!!

Entrance to Legoland Germany
Gunzburg, Germany

Lego Lunch!
Legoland, Gunzburg, Germany

GAHHHHHHHHH!!!!! LEGOS! Everywhere! That’s pretty much how my brain was during our whole visit. I was geeking out like crazy and it was so much fun! They made some truly amazing things out of Legos and the rides were fun too! We even got to watch them making Legos, albeit souvenir Legos and not actual bricks for sale.

Flying Ninjago Ride
Legoland, Gunzburg, Germany

Joe and Jason riding Hero Factory
Legoland, Gunzburg, Germany

The coolest ride was a flying ride. Your seat came with wings you could control, Icarus style, and the 9 seats flew together in a large ellipse. If you flapped your wings in the right way you could spin upside down. The guy in front of me was spinning around like crazy, but I opted to remain level-headed.

Look! It's Venice!
Legoland, Gunzburg, Germany

Karl Benz seems to have crashed his 1886 Benz Patent Motor Car
Legoland, Gunzburg, Germany

The worst ride was this this called Hero Factory and you sit in these giant robot arms that twist you around like they do to component parts in a factory. Jason and Joe loved it and rode it 3 times. Once was enough to completely throw off my equilibrium and make me wobbly-stomached the rest of the day. It was at this point that I became official ride photographer; I stood to the side with all the other moms, waving and snapping pictures as the boys went by.

Darth Maul attacks with the force
Legoland, Gunzburg, Germany

Making Legos in the factory
Legoland, Gunzburg, Germany

My favorite part of the day was the Lego Factory shop. All around the store were bins of Legos sorted by shape and color; they were sold by the kilogram. I went a little crazy with the scooping, but it was great! And now, I can build a ridiculous house boat for my mini-figures.

Useful Links!
Pictures from Our Trip!
Visiting Legoland Germany
Check out the REAL Venice
Check out the REAL Benz Motor Car

Yes that is a clown riding a house boat. 

It's All About the Cars

Outside the BMW Museum
Munich, Germany

Hey everyone, it’s Joe here with another guest post. My brother Jason recently came out for a couple weeks and we did some tours of the BMW and Mercedes museums. Needless to say, Kelly wasn’t super excited about these events so I’m going to fill you in. We started off by visiting the BMW headquarters and museum in Munich. It was full of tons of gorgeous BMWs and Rolls-Royces (they are owned by the same company).

Airplane Engine
BMW Museum
Munich, Germany

They also have some awesome exhibits that display how their various models changed throughout the years and showed off their fancy new i8 prototype. Some have changed significantly since they originally built airplane engines… My favorite was definitely the 1956 BMW 507 but I will gladly take any car in the place and since BMW knows this they have a dealership with a test track right next door. We wandered over there and sat in some very expensive cars which was awesome. Jason even found 20 Euros but unfortunately that wasn’t enough to drive home in anything. :(

BMW 1956 507
BMW Museum
Munich, Germany

The Only Picture from the BMW Factory
Regensburg, Germany

A few days later we went on a tour of the BMW factory just outside of Regensburg and Jason got to see where his car was born. It was like being in an episode of How It’s Made! It was so cool to go behind the scenes and watch these giant machines toss around cars like they were nothing. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed so you will just have to visualize it in your head. We walked through the entire process of building a car from stamping out pieces from aluminum sheets to painting and installing the entire custom interior. Their factory produces about a car a minute and because of the cornucopia of configurations they typically only create 2 identical cars per year. That’s a lot of customization! Also while we were there our tour guide decided to fill us all in on what BMW stands for (apparently it’s not common knowledge). For those of you who don’t know it stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke in German but for some reason our guide translated it to Bavarian Engine Plant in English explaining that it was actually BEP in English. For the life of me I can’t figure out why she didn’t just translate it to Bavarian Motor Works which would keep the BMW acronym intact. It makes no sense!! Anyway, after our tour they gave us a bunch of brochures for building our very own BMW and even let us take some pictures with a few of the finished products.

1886 Benz Patent Motor Car
Mercedes Museum
Stuttgart, Germany

Our last stop on the cars of Germany tour was the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart. This museum had a very different focus than the BMW museum. The BMW museum focused on showcasing their cars and filled the rooms with as many as possible. Mercedes was more centered on providing a timeline of the development of the automobile and displayed cars that represented certain parts of their history. They also provided you with information about the world during various periods so you understood what was happening as Mercedes was producing cars. BMW also had a room with that went into their detailed history but it really wasn’t their main focus. The Mercedes museum started in the obvious spot with the invention of the automobile “by” Karl Benz. The reason for the quotes is that Karl Benz is remembered as the creator of the automobile based on a technicality in my mind. Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach actually created the first internal combustion engine small enough to power a car and they retrofitted it into a carriage. Benz is more remembered because he built a vehicle around the engine (rather than adding one to an existing carriage design) and filed a patent for his creation.

1935 Mercedes Benz 500K Special Roadster
Mercedes Benz Museum
Stuttgart, Germany

It’s always amazing to find out some common knowledge isn’t so common. Throughout the rest of the museum Mercedes showed off all of the types of vehicles that they make from luxury cars to buses to the popemobile and even hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. All in all, we enjoyed exploring both museums but I would still pick a BMW over a Mercedes.

1980 Mercedes Benz 230G Popemobile for Pope John Paul II
Mercedes Muesum
Stuttgart, Germany

Useful Links!
Pictures from BMW in Munich
Pictures from Mercedes in Stuttgart
Mercedes Museum Visitor Information
BMW Welt (World) in Munich Visitor Information
BMW Plant in Regensburg Visitor Information

More Funny Ads!

The Third Reich in Bavaria

Hitler's Former Retreat, Eagle's Nest
Berchtesgaden, Germany

While our guests were here we visited a variety of former Nazi hangouts. Hitler was quite active in Bavaria and there are many things to see, even if they aren’t widely publicized. With Joe’s parents we toured Eagle’s Nest and Dachau, and with his brother and my parents we explored the Rally Grounds in Nuremburg. We also learned that both Mercedes in Stuttgart (not Bavaria, I know) and BMW in Munich used concentration camp inmate as forced laborers in their factories to keep up with demand from the Fuhrer.

Sun and snow
Berchtesgaden, Germany

Eagle’s Nest is an interesting place to visit, but it hardly retains any of the vestiges of Nazism. This house on top of a mountain was a 50th birthday present from the Nazi party to Hitler. Like the German cars of the time, the house was built by slave labor. When the war ended, there was talk of blowing it up, but the mayor of a nearby town convinced people it should be saved. The building was spared from total destruction, but it was ransacked and stripped of anything valuable. Joe’s dad visited it 20 years ago and said all the windows were gone and it was open to the elements—like a true eagle’s nest. Since that time a restaurant has bought and repaired the building; they’re open from mid-May to October, depending on the weather.

Eagle’s Nest is in the Alps and at the top of the mountain the weather is vastly different from the valley below. When we visited, the weather below was mid-70s, but there was still snow on top of the mountain! The views were stunning and we were in the cloud line; they were changing by the second, revealing and concealing panoramic vistas. I do think that the ticket was a little expensive; to reach the summit you could either walk/bike up, or you could ride the bus for a mere 17 euros per person. It was like 1 euro/minute!

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No man's land, Dachau Concentration Camp
Dachau, Germany

Dachau was an informative site, but I have mixed feelings about it; not surprising as it’s a former concentration camp. When the war ended, and the camp was liberated, almost everything at Dachau was leveled. The buildings on the site now are exact replicas, something I found a little odd. I was also annoyed with groups of noisy tourists not showing the place enough respect, and with the people snapping happy family portraits: inappropriate.

Some aspects of the camp remained as they were in the 40s: the ovens and the geography. Around the perimeter of the camp was a tall, electrified fence with barbed wire on top; it’s still there, but no longer electrified. Immediately inside the fence is a 4 foot wide strip of land called no-man’s-land. If a prisoner entered no man’s land, they were shot and killed. To even make it to no man’s land they would have to cross the deep ditch filled with the rushing water from the Amper River. Inside the ditch was finally the area of the camp where prisoners could walk. The camp seemed large until I realized how many people were crammed into the space. The beds were triple bunk beds and they put at least 3 people in each bunk. This sounds like an impossible feat until you remember the prisoners were emaciated to point of resembling skeletons.

Some of the ovens at Dachau Concentration Camp
Dachau, Germany

During the height of the 3rd Reich, Dachau was used as a model camp and all the other camps were based off its design. The first people imprisoned were political prisoners and the camp was periodically inspected for cleanliness and safety. At some point though, the line was crossed and the camp was used to house “undesirables”: Jews, Poles, Roma, and the mentally ill. When this occurred, systematic killings began, and they incorporated the gas chambers and the ovens. Anyone asked to run these machines could have no doubt about the moral implications. This is not something to turn a blind eye on, claiming ignorance of the operation. This was a carefully orchestrated way of methodically ending lives. So many bodies piled up waiting to be incinerated, and the original ovens were so overworked, the camp needed to purchase several new, larger ovens. The ashes were dumped in piles outside; to this day no one knows how many people were disposed of in this way. It’s been decades since the ovens were used and they appear ghost-like, bringing unbidden thoughts to my mind; is that residue ash; am I walking over thousands of remains; why did this happen? The camp was close enough to the town that there could be no mistaking what happened there, and with the ovens running almost non-stop, the smell would have been undeniable.

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Former Nazi Party Rally Grounds, now it's an occasional racetrack
Nuremberg, Germany

With Jason we visited Nuremberg and the Nazi Party Grounds. On the outskirts of the city, Hitler was building a massive complex of buildings and parks for use by the Nazi party. He finished the Rally Grounds, and for several years there were annual rallies held, drawing thousands of visitors for speeches, parades, and ceremonies. Hitler also began construction on a large building modeled after the Colosseum, but this was never finished. Today it houses the Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände; incidentally the largest German words we’ve seen to date.

Dachau and the Holocaust museum serve as memorials to the victims and details the horrors they experienced in the camps. The Docu-Center is about the Nazis themselves, providing a different view of the situation. In no way does it glorify the Nazis, but it does provide the history of the party and eventually the war. It provides historical information, but its focus is not the Holocaust. The museum has a 5 euro admission and comes with a free audio guide that translates all the signs from German. The exhibits are chronological and detail the party’s rise to power. They also provide background information on some of the support systems, such as the secret police and the propaganda team. There is a wealth of information here including pictures, videos, sound clips, and, as the name suggests, documents. When you find yourself at a Holocaust memorial, baffled by the number of victims, and you’re asking, “how could this happen”, the Docu-center is the place to go for some answers.

Useful Links!

Pictures from Eagle's Nest

Pictures from Dachau (Concentration Camp & Nearby Dachau Palace)

Pictures from Nuremberg 1

Pictures from Nuremberg 2

Eagle's Nest Visitor Information

Eagle's Nest at Wikipedia

Dachau Concentraion Camp Website

A History of Dachau

Information about Dachau from the Jewish Virtual Library

Nuremberg Document Center Visitor Information

Before and After Photos of Nazi Germany

Monuments Men: Recovering Looted Art in Post-War Germany

Road Trip Pt. 3: Venice, Italy!

Interior of St. Mark's Basilica
Venice, Italy

I love Italy with its mild temperatures and Mediterranean diet. When we visited Venice though, I learned there is a big difference between southern Italy and northern Italy. The biggest shock was the olive oil—there wasn’t much. The climate is not conducive to olive growing and there are only a few groves in the area around Lake Garda. Also much less surprising, being closer to the Alps, the weather is cooler and subject to greater fluctuations—hence no olive oil.

We spent two days in Venice and had 3 tours booked using Veneto Inside. Our first tour was behind the scenes at St. Mark’s Basilica, and it turned out that we were the only people on the tour. We were able to ask lots of questions and our guide escorted us to areas no longer open to the public, most notably the baptistery dedicated to St. John. St. Mark’s has vastly different architecture than what we’ve seen previously. Venice was a seafaring, merchant city and the basilica was obviously influenced by styles outside of Western Europe; it looks like a typical byzantine church found in Turkey. Much of the interior was gilded and the art within was more Middle Eastern than typical renaissance art found in other Italian churches.

Venice, Italy

That evening we had dinner on the Grand Canal. Venice has more tourists than locals and the restaurant didn’t have an authentic feel, but the ambience of sitting canal-side was nice. We sat right next to the edge of the canal and were able to watch the chaos that is water traffic from a safe distance. As we finished our dinner we encountered a downside to sitting so close to the canal: flooding. The water had risen during our meal and was now pooling around our feet. We paid and headed into the labyrinthine streets in search of our hotel. There are over 400 bridges in Venice, but lots of streets still dead end into the canals.

Minor Flooding
Venice, Italy

The next morning’s weather did not bode well for the already swollen canals; a storm was brewing. We decided to visit Murano Island in the morning and wander around more of Venice in the afternoon. Murano is another small series of islands similar to Venice and is located about 1½ miles northwest of the city.

We took a water bus, or vaporetto, to Murano. Our route took us out into the lagoon where the waters of the Adriatic were rougher due to the impending storm. Knowing what white caps mean from experience, I went below deck and had the pleasure of watching everyone above get soaked when we hit the first wake of another boat. I also delighted in standing the whole ride; it was like surfing. I could see the locals waiting for me to fall and I’m proud to report they were disappointed. I may be clumsy on land, but years of sailing with my Dad have given me pretty sturdy sea-legs.

Rough Seas
Murano, Italy

Murano Island has far fewer tourists and locals than Venice; people tend to visit for one reason. For centuries, Murano has been the location of master glass craftsmen. During the height of the glass monopoly, the masters were forbidden from leaving the island for fear of trade secrets getting out. There were rumors that dissenters would have their tongues cut out.

The secrets are still jealously guarded, though with less brutal punishments. Today the main fear is cheap, Chinese knockoffs, and photography isn’t allowed. Now with fewer craftsmen in the city, I’d rather support the masters so the craft doesn’t die out. The art is stunning; shapes and colors that shouldn’t be possible with glass as a medium. It takes at least 10 years of training to become a master; many craftsmen spend even longer developing their skills. The price of the art is proportional to the amount of work that each piece requires. At first blush the prices seem outrageous, but as soon as you see the process, you understand.

Our Lamp Shades from Murano

If cooled too quickly, hot glass breaks. During formation the glass is heated to ridiculously high temperatures so that it will be pliable. After the master shapes the pliable glass, the piece is placed into an oven to cool down. Letting the glass cool on its own to room temperature would cause it to break; instead it cools slowly in the oven over a few days.

Joe and I purchased a beautiful light fixture (previously I was saying chandelier but that’s not really an accurate description) from Franco Schiavon Gallery. It’s mostly metal, and it reminds me of a tropical plant; the glass shades are the flowers. There are 5 shades, each in a different color. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take any pictures before they wrapped it up, so it’ll be awhile before you can get the full experience.

After our purchase we were allowed to see the work shop and the specially commissioned pieces. We were also permitted to photograph as much as we wanted. I won’t be making these pictures publicly available to protect the privacy of the artists, but it’s nice to have them for my personal use.

The Grand Canal
Venice, Italy

All the lights and chandeliers are wired for European outlets and voltages when they’re made. Since we are taking ours back to the US the wiring needed to be changed before we could leave the shop. While they were changing our wires and boxing the light, we wandered around the show rooms. After, while we were waiting, the power went out! The store was 3 levels and each piece had display lighting. During our tour of the store, our guide would power up each room when we walked in, and flip all the fuses back off when we left. I think someone had too many lights on at once and overloaded the system. Once power was restored we got our packages and some cute glass candies as a parting gift. We didn’t have time to return to the hotel so we carried our bulky packages the rest of the night—through 2 tours.

Venice, Italy

The first tour was pretty interesting; it was called a taste of Venice, and by chance we were again alone with the guide. Basically we were bar hopping; eating a traditional small snack, or cicchetti, paired with wine, sort of like tapas. Unfortunately, something they ate didn’t agree with them, and Joe’s parents both got sick. Joe and I didn’t, and everything we ate tasted amazing.

The second tour was a large ghost tour and it was given about a half hour before dusk, so it wasn’t very dark. It was difficult to get in the mood when there were no shadows creeping around corners. We were able to see more Venice on this tour and to witness the city under siege from high water. All the rain during the day had significantly increased the high tide depths. The high water warning siren rang, and the flood gates went up in front of home and businesses. We had to splash our way through a few puddles to get home that night.

Useful Links!
Pictures from Our Trip!
Franco Schiavon Gallery-Murano
National Geographic Guide to Venice
About Authentic Murano Glass
Byzantine Architecture - Be sure to scroll left and right
St. Mark’s Basilica Website
Veneto Inside Venice Tours
History of St. Mark's from Sacred Destinations (I love this site!)
Article about the Negative Effects of Cruise Ships Visiting Venice
Riding the Vaporetti (from Smithsonian Magazine)
Venetian Pub Crawl through Cicchetti Bars (from Smithsonian Magazine)
Climate Change: Rising Sea Levels and Venice (from Smithsonian Magazine)