Venice: 6/23/14

Well, we made it into Venice despite a quite interesting overnight train ride.  I didn't get much sleep at all on the train ride over for a few reasons.  One, our couchette room (6 beds to a "room") was so small we could barely fit our bags in them, two, the beds above you are so close you cannot sit up, and three (saving the worst for last), there was a very large group of high school seniors on our train that were soooo loud.  I guess since they are able to drink in Europe they were going crazy, but they were definitely drunk, had music playing all night & one girl was going up & down the hall asking who wanted to smoke weed in her room.  Remind you that this train did not even depart until 1:30 am.  We are now running on 4 nights combined sleep of about 15 hours.  At this point the sea days we start with on the cruise are looking quite nice to us!  Anyways..... Besides the trip into Venice, Venice itself is totally amazing.  There was a good possibility of rain, but it never did rain, and we actually ended up with very blue skies towards the end of the day.  We pretty much spent the entire day navigating the island, getting lost in back allys, etc.  We were first in line to the cruise port to check in so that went quick and smooth although we just didn't get on the boat opting to explore for the rest of the day instead.  There are no cars allowed into the island so all travel is via some type of boat.  St. Marks Square is the main touristy area and it is super crowded there.  We pretty much went to see that area, but didn't spend too long there as Venice has many other amazing areas.  The realto market is another crowded area of shops, etc that we saw some of then avoided like the plague due to the amount of people.  Venice is definitely the most unique city I have been to in Europe though..... So beautiful in the most artistic way!  Here are some pictures I took that can do the talking & I think they do a great job depicting the city.

We made it onto the boat after exploring the city, and so now we begin our cruise ship leg of the trip!  We will start with some good sleep!  :)