To say Venice is unique would be stating the obvious. The train from Milan crosses the Liberty Bridge along with cars and buses, leaving the mainland for the island of Venice which is made up of a labyrinth of canals and foot bridges. The train station on the island is the end point for all motorized vehicles except for small boats which serve mainly as taxis or personal transportation.

We really enjoyed Venice. The Piazza San Marco is the central meeting point. As with all of the other piazzas, you have merchants, restaurants, tourists, and of course, a church. In this case the piazza is overlooked by St Mark's Bascilica

We found a new appreciation for public transportation in Venice. The Vaporetto is the city's water bus system. Very easy to use, 24 or 48 hour passes allow you to move freely around the city and see sights than can only be appreciated by water. The busiest water bus traffic flows through the Grand Canal. At times it looked like typical rush hour traffic. Somehow all of the boats and taxis manage to navigate and keep everyone safe.

There are two times of the day in Venice. The cruise ships are in port and the cruise ships have left port. You notice a real decline in tourists in the evenings. Restaurants are more accessible, walkways aren't as crowded, water buses aren't in demand. And you can enjoy a nice relaxing gondola ride! The gondolas are all licensed by the city and prices are standardized so there's nothing left to do except choose your gondolier (look for good english), climb in, and enjoy.

Thursday morning after breakfast we crossed the waters to the island of Murano. Murano is famous for their glass. We had an interesting tour of a shop including actual demonstrations of the process. It really was impressive to watch these skilled workers or "Masters", as they are referred to.

From there we took the water bus to Burano. A quiet island known for their colourfully painted homes.

Thursday night (our last night in Europe), we found a great little "mom and pop" restaurant for some great pasta, wine, and of course, tiramisu.

Friday morning, we took the water bus (of course) to the airport for a flight to London (Gatwick to be precise). Saturday, we fly home direct to Winnipeg.

We hope you have enjoyed following our travels through Europe. It has really been an amazing vacation. It seems we have seen everything there is to see, and yet I'm sure there is reason to return, and we will one day. Farewell to Europe. We have many pictures that we want to share and will figure out how to do that when we are home. Unfortunately working with an iPad has some limitations.

See you all soon, Keith and Maggie