Part 8, Train Ride into VENICE

Okay team: almost done with the Europe posts. 

We had to leave Gimmelwald early to get to our train to Venice.  

However, that morning there was a HUGE wind storm!!!  

It is such a romantic thought to be in a village only accessible by cable car...but it was this morning that those thoughts were dashed as we realized we may not be able to get off.

Luckily, they did run one cable car and we barely made our train.  

Riding the trains in Europe was crazy!  One of our transfer stops gave us only 4 minutes to catch the next train...and so the minute it would stop we had to literally run around the train station to find our platform.  STRESSFUL.

But a fun part was we got to see the gorgeous scenery and stop in little random towns like this one:

All of our luggage for the ENTIRE trip

Those would be the Italian Alps in the background.

Stop #1 VENICE!

We finally made it to Venice and the first thing we witnessed was a pick pocket chase...right in front of our hotel! 

But Venice was stunning.  Seriously.  All the pictures don't do it justice...it is just like a magical story book city.  We checked into our hotel and walked around, grabbed dinner and just enjoyed the city. We ate pastries, listened to the dueling orchestras in St. Mark's Square and it was lovely.  

View from our hostel

Pastries we sampled

Mr. H w/ his map

Instead of paying for a gondola ride, they have public water taxis.  We took one home down the Grand Canal, and it was amazingly beautiful.  We were in the front of the boat, and it was oh so romantic. 

What a gorgeous city at night!