Day 2 - Enroute to Venice

Our plane landed in Munich bright and early. Having no checked luggage, we were through customs in a heartbeat, and jumping on a train to downtown Munich. Ironically we figured out the ticket machine quicker than we did in DC 2 years ago. But truthfully we had no idea what we bought and if we were on the right train! Fortunately we were, and 45 minutes later were walking through the Karlstor- the gateway to the Old Town. We took a short self walking tour. Interestingly the scaffolding covering the facade of Saint Michael's kirche (church) was a "picture" of the real facade, instead of the usual ugly scaffolding. The Glockenspiel in the Marienplatz was beautiful in an ancient sort of way, and the city's chiming church bells were musical. The streets were just beginning to wake up, and we had the Frauenkirche (one of Munich's most famous landmarks) all to ourselves ... the first of many churches on our trip! Legend has it that the builder made a deal with the devil not to have any windows in exchange for help building it, and truly from the "devil's step" in the entrance hall you can't see any of the ~20 beautiful stained glass windows! (Ok, you could see the one behind the alter.)

Next we headed to the Hofbrauhaus. Originally we hoped to have their beer and brat breakfast but our jet-lagged stomachs couldn't even consider it. Instead we headed to the Viktualienmarkt (farmer's market) to pick up a selection of meats from a butcher and breads from a bakery. Then we headed back to the Hauptbahnof (train station) to catch our train to Venice. "Bad luck for you" the nice ticketing agent informed us - Italy is having a train strike so we could only go as far as Brenner, Austria (at the Italian border). Shattered is my romantic vision of riding into Venice like Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp in "The Tourist"!

The train ride was off to a great start. We had our reserved compartment to ourselves until 2 Englishmen came in, followed shortly after (and to their disappointment) by their wives. They proceeded to break out 6 glasses and a bottle of champagne, and keep us laughing til our cheeks hurt!

The last 4 hrs of the ride were in a cramped bus. We got our taste of "Italian driving" and made a mental note not to get in the way of any big buses.

So, a plane, a train, and a bus ride later... We finally arrived in Venice! Walking over our 1st bridge, we were in disbelief and delight -- omg we are in Venice!

50 bridges later, and still no hotel, the excitement was starting to wear off. We accepted "being lost" as the tourist norm, but I guess I hadn't realized it would involve so many dead ends and back-tracking! And doing it at night made me feel blindfolded! We were trying to follow the signs to St. Mark's but they inevitably were not placed at forks in the road. And several had been tampered with - perhaps by shop owners who wanted the tourist path to pass their store. Whoever said "Venice is for Lovers" was obviously not severely jet-lagged and famished. If my lover said one more time, "haven't we been here before?" (implying we were walking in circles) I was going to push him in a canal!!

We finally found our hotel - without directions - which must've been blind luck. We spent our first night (a late change to the itinerary) at Hotel Do Pozzi near St. Mark's. Our room was "small" but we had no complaints. I'm sure the bathroom was designed with a sick person in mind - how ingenious to be able to sit on the pot and throw up into the sink at the same time!

Arriving at our 9:00pm dinner reservations at Osteria ai Quatro Feri, I was just about at my breaking point. I thought I knew just where the restaurant was but we ended up in a deserted, unlit alley. When we did walk into the restaurant, it was crowded with all Italians and no Americans - and they really didn't want to give us the time of day. I almost started crying when they sat us with another lady - this was not the romantic 1st meal in Italy I had envisioned! The menu was all in Italian, and my sinking feeling was confirmed - every dish was fish. Greg was in heaven and my dinner - a 1/2 carafe of delicious red wine - was quickly warming my spirits.

Needless to say, we crashed hard into our bed. Considering tonight was Italy's time change, it was now midnight! What an experience our 1st (2nd?) day was!!