The start of the great journey to Athens

 Tuesday night we met Aaron at the train station to take a train to Bologna, Italy. We were flying out the next morning to Athens. The train was a double decker, which Chris thought was pretty cool.  It is always a fight as to who gets to sit backwards as we ride. 

We got to our hotel in Bologna (after a crazy bus ride)...girls in one room, boys in another. Three twins in each room. We were glad to have a place to sleep after our first accommodations fell through!

 Wednesday morning was a foggy one.  With kids full of energy and staying at an airport hotel we thought it would be no problem to burn off some energy and walk to the airport! PROBLEM!

 Round about with only, those are the only two exits....not sure why a round about is needed.

 Well this is where the directions took us. Not the airport!! I googled it on my phone and found we were 28 min walk away. We had already walked 45 min and were needing to be at the airport in no later than 30 min.

 We quickly turned around and started walking down a very empty and country like road. No signs of cars, taxi's or buses.  I happen to see a hotel and run to ask for directions.  The kindest man helped us and offered to let us jump on their shuttle to the airport, free of charge.  I flagged down the rest of the family as they madly dashed to board the shuttle.  As we are driving to the airport, the entire area is under construction. There is NO way we could have walked to the airport. What a blessing! 

Finally we can sit and rest a few minutes.

 

Relief that we made it, checked in and are just waiting to board!

 Here we come!

 We took a shuttle out to the airplane and boarded from the stairs in the back.

Once in Greece it was a metro ride to the center and a few blocks to our next airbnb.

 Great clean metro

Once we were settled we set off to get something to eat. Down the street was a local restaurant that smelled great and had my favorite kind of meat cooking in the window!

The kids were a little nervous to try it out, but ended up loving something that we ordered.

 

 YUM!!

 Chicken, pork, lamb, sausage, slouvaki, warm pita, fries, tatziki. It couldn't get better.

Trying to decide which Greek yogurt to get for breakfast. Plain with 2% or just plain, oh wait here is a strawberry.

We were right around the corner from this little church.

We all slept well our first night in Greece!

Feast of La Salute (health)

 We woke up to a foggy and rainy day, water bus routes changed which added some mystery to the area.

 We had lunch with Aaron before he was off to meetings again and we were off to explore a Venetian holiday, La Salute.

 To celebrate the end of the Black Death Venetians who survived the outbreak commissioned an architect to design the great Chiesa Di Santa Maria della Salute. (this beautiful church)

 On November 21 people come out to celebrate and pay devotion to the Virgin Mary who freed the city from the plague.

 It was crazy busy! The kids loved the balloons. Lots of fun street foods

 They construct a bridge of boats over the grand canal for the holiday. We had to cross it! Along with everyone else.

  On our way to find the entrance to the bridge, we saw this cool shop where they make the part of the gondola that holds the oar, the forcola. All one piece of wood. 

Crossing the bridge

A "scent"sational place: Palazzo Mocenigo

 We were able to go and visit a museum/ house that was pretty cool. It taught about the spices that were traded early in the history of Venice and how to make perfume.

 The kids loved smelling the bowls full of spices and trying to figure out what they were.

 These were some of the different items used to make medicine and perfume from the spices

 Part of the house all showed the clothing of the time period, some very neat Murano glass light fixtures, and of course amazing art work.

 This was a desk where they would mix and create perfume.  All those little bottles are different smells and they would make a mixture creating the perfect perfume.

 Smelling some of the basic smells that go into perfumes.

 Finishing the day off with a gelato on a stick...dipped in chocolate and your choice of sprinkles. YUM (Vanilla, white chocolate and sprinkles)

 Mint  and dark chocolate (DELICIOUS)

Chioggia

The adventure of the day was to an outdoor fresh food market and clothes. We live where the blue dot is on the map. We went to the bottom of the map to a place called Chioggia.  Want an adventure just to get there.  We took a bus down the length of Lido. At the end of Lido the bus boarded a ferry.  (Was Chris ever excited!!) 

Once the ferry got to the next island, Pellestrina. The bus continued on it's way down the next island.  Towards the end of that island the bus stopped. We deboarded

 Then we waited for a vaporetto to take us the final leg of our journey.

 The major fishing of the lagoon happens around here.

 

 the crazy squid I found

 David thought the water looked like Murano glass

 We made it!

 photo bombed

 The streets were lined with these cool vans that had umbrellas that came out to hold all the items they were selling.  

 It cleared out fast.  We found some great finds!