Venice (act 2)

Sunset alert! My family has always enjoyed our sunsets so the first day we were in Venice I wanted to track it down. At one of the "edges" of Venice, not very far from where we were staying, we waited while slowly others joined us to see it sink below the far off Italian hills. It was nice (understatement) to wake up from our Venetian naptime and get to see the sun go down just before dinner. 

I've got more Venice all week for you so if you're not sick of it yet, you might be. But probably not.

Venice (act one)

VENICE! 

Might be my favorite city yet. I know, I know. I'm always saying that. But it was warm and sunny and beyond beautiful. I think a long trip there is on the horizon sometime in the future... maybe when Chris is done with school. Graduation celebration trip...?

The canals were so enchanting and being lost was part of the beauty of it all. I could wander there for days. Especially because just around most corners, one can find Italian food being served up. I may have eaten pizza every day.

Today is a holiday in Belgium but I don't feel much like celebrating. Kelli and Dan left this morning and are in the air as I type this. I was supposed to be picking up Robyn and Hannah immediately after watching the aforementioned couple go through security but their flight has been delayed a whole 24 hours! Curse you KLM! If I haven't said it before, United is definitely the airline to go with.

In any case, Venice was magnificent and we will return to it (blog-wise) tomorrow. Enjoy your Monday!

Cologne from above

We wandered all over Cologne on the first day in town and took to shopping for the second. Our last main tourist stop of the initial day was the Cologne Triangle and their viewing platform from the top floor.

Sorry I don't have more words for you today. I'm about to (maybe literally) pass out. Marathon training is kicking my butt. I can't seem to get the hang of long run days again. Ta ta for now.

Cologne Cathedral

The first aim of our tourist time on Cologne was the Cathedral or the Kölner Dom as the Germans say. If you haven't noticed in our photos thus far, there is always quite a bit of restorative or new construction going on. Everywhere. The Dom was no exception. But it was pretty spectacular to see it rising up between the buildings like that.

I love that you can see the original color where they cleaned it on the left. Wish we could still see it that way today.

Obviously not the original glass work but lovely all the same.

I actually made it up to this point. From here on out only the guys went on to the top. Way too high for me.

You can thank Chris for all the above.

Where Dan and Chris got to.

The tops of our heads is the point we got to... (I'm still proud)