Day 28: Teufelsberg

Halfway through my walk to work with Chris, I realised I forgot my Bahn ticket at home. Doh! The problem of going back and forth from a purse, to a backpack, to an exercise pouch, and back again... I left it in "my other purse". I had no Bahn ticket. I am walking home.

I have been interested in visiting Teufelsberg, an artificial hill, an abandoned "listening post", and now the largest display of graffiti (in Berlin or the world... I don't know). I've been waiting for a day when it's not too hot, as there is a 30 min walk up to the hill (so and hour round-trip) and I want cooler weather so we don't bake on the walk.

This morning, I confirmed with Chris that he wouldn't be too sad if we went without him, then I emailed the Teufelsberg "people" that I wanted to come for the 3pm guided tour (it's only an hour versus the historic tour, which is two hours). The website gives information on pricing and times, but then says to email them to register to come. Well, I don't know what that means? I emailed them (as best as I could in German, saying I'm an English speaking family of 3) and never heard back. So, by 2pm, it was clear we wouldn't make the 3pm tour. So I emailed again (this time in English) that we could make the 4pm tour and asked if we just show up or if we need to hear a confirmation? No response.

A little before 3pm, I decided, "What the heck, let's just go for it!" If we get into the tour, great. If not, we'll know more than we do now and have a nice afternoon jaunt under our belts. So, off we went with a little more than an hour to travel (train should only take 30 min and then 30 min of walking), plenty of time!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The Grunewald Forest

Well, we took the Bahn to our destination and looked around. There were no clear signs on where to go. But, we are smart enough to see city-life on one side of the tracks and forest-greenery on the other, so we headed towards the forest. The only sign we could see said, "Private land!" Um... but it's the way we're supposed to go. And everyone else is walking through there... I couldn't read the rest of the sign, but it did talk about visitors... so I assumed visitors were welcomed, but I don't know what is expected of us, as I can't read anything else.

I used Google Maps a lot, but I had to save battery-life. So, I'd launch, see where we were, where we wanted to go, and we'd go for 5 minutes and then I'd repeat. I had to do this, because, once you were in the forest, there were a ton of paths and NONE OF THEM ARE MARKED. And, when you look on Google, for better or for worse, there seemed to be many paths you could take. Some paved, some dirt, some for cars (with no sidewalks, so we avoided these).

At one point, I saw the towers up high and indicated that's where we were headed. Venice looked up through the trees and was a bit concerned with how far we were going to have to walk to get there. But remember, the website AND Google Maps said only 30 minutes of walking!

Well, the hour of 4pm drew closer and closer and we still weren't there. I checked my email a few times and no reply from Teufelsberg. So, we just came to the conclusion we weren't going to see the tour but that we could climb the hill and see if we could get any views and/or information.

The abandoned area says, "no," to being developed into luxury apartments,
but says, "yes," to allowing artists to create and display art there.

Most of the hike was flat, until the end, then we climbed the hill. We were 25 minutes late (our walk took 45 minutes). But, hey! There's the gate! And there's some tour-looking people standing in line paying money! AND, the guide said, "Hi, this is by tour only." I asked if there was room. Yes! So, we jumped in line, paid and started the tour along with everyone else (who must have been waiting 30 minutes before starting, suckers!)

A view of the grounds as we entered (top left)
Examples of wall art (middle left, right)
Perhaps a piece done by the artist we saw the other day
painting the "mechanical horse" at Mauerpark? (bottom)

As we began the tour, the guide said, "Today's tour is normally a silent tour, but I will answer questions when ever you have them." The guided tour, is really just that. A guide takes you around the areas, but that's it. If you want talking, you better take the historic tour. Well, this is actually perfect. Because the talking he does do, is 90% in German, so we don't understand much of what he's saying anyway.

We were able to see a lot (but not all, there's so much) of the graffiti artwork. I asked if artists are invited here, of if they just come. I'm not sure I understood his whole answer, but I did understand that the artists have to explain what they plan to paint before they paint it, and (I'm not sure I heard this part right) the old artist has to be ok with his/her art being painted over. I have no idea how long one piece of art is there before it's painted over. I have no idea on a lot of stuff. Do you get the theme? I don't know squat. We are here just to see the graffiti and the views.

The main building seems to be several floors of wide-open concrete layers. A 3-4 floored parking garage, is the best way I can think to describe it. I supposed it could have been office space, but at this point, it's gutted with nothing but concrete floors, no walls, no dividers, etc. Just large opens pace. Then in this space, are 30ft-long by 6ft-high concrete wall sections. It's on these wall sections that the artists paint. Some are on bigger walls, and there are some enclosures (all concrete) that are painted on too. Here are some examples:

This painting took 50 hours to paint, or 15, my German is bad (left)
This boy picking his nose made me laugh (right)

Some of our favourites. Venice (and I do too) likes the one on top.
We all thought "This is a photo opportunity" was funny. Xander likes the "Snake"
I like the colourful building (this was the outside of the building, so it's several stories high)

After seeing a few of the walls "in the building', the guide took us to the roof, via a small, very dark stairway. We were blown away. The views were stunning and we were up close and personal with the empty radar towers. The guide said this was always the case... people are, "cool, nice art," but when they get to the roof, they're, "WOW," with very happy faces. And we were no different.

He gave us 20 minutes to roam around and take photos. The views were magnificent. The empty radar towers were echo-y. The sound of the broken sides (the white-flappy material that "canvasses" the outside) flapping in the wind, sounded like thunder.

Stunning views with forest as far as you could see.

You can see the flapping canvass on the tallest tower (left)
Posing with the forest and another tower behind them (right)

Many views of the empty radar towers.

Inside the empty towers.

One of the doorways to a tower.

A window from an "inside" floor (left)
A doorway-frame on the roof (right)

The kids giggled at the many works of art that included naughty words or sentiments.
This one was very "American" - Fuck Yeah! What you may not be able to see, is the
eagle saying, "Comin' again to save the motherfuckin' day, yeah!" is carrying/letting
go of a golden hand grenade. Fuck yeah, I get the artist's intent.

After enjoying ourselves on the roof, the guide guided us back to an "inside" floor. His English left me confused. I heard him say, "Here's the flat I want to build." And we went to an area in the far corner. He said, "Here's the bathroom, the kitchen, and just imagine how they were sitting here with a big screen TV. And the view is right there!" I think he was saying, "wouldn't this be an awesome place to live?" But some of the subject and verb tenses confused me (as some were "they" and some were in the past)... but I can't imagine after WWII, people were living here with big screen TVs, so it must be that this area was where some lived. But he was thinking it would be awesome to live here now, with modern amenities and this amazing view.

Missing walls on an "inside" floor (left)
Weathered glass on a broken window (middle)
Xander enjoying the view from an "inside" window (right)

Then the tour was over. And now is when the rain begins. I thought I was hearing more "thunder" from the flapping canvas, but Xander said, "No, that's REAL thunder." He was right.

After huddling under an overhang with the rest of the tour folks, in an awkward "ending" (the tour guide never said, "That's it, good-bye!" so we all just hung out for a while), until we realised the tour was done and some were just waiting for the rain to pass. We heard others asking, "Where is the nearest S-Bahn?" We listened to the guide's answer and decided to run for it following those who asked.

The guide said, "20 min" to the nearest S-Bahn. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Not funny! It took us another 45 minutes, damn it! AND, it was raining hard. So hard, that anytime we were under the trees, we were still getting soaked. Puddles appeared. Lightning struck. Thunder clapped. We ran. We laughed. We DIDN'T cry. We trudged on (what other choice was there?)

Beautiful sun-lined clouds (left)
You can't see it, but this is a downpour (middle)
These? These are drowned rats (right)

We took a turn, different from those we were "following", but we thought it was the way we came and thus a good way to go... we were wrong (I was wrong). We ended up on a trail that was less traveled, and thus we did a little weed whacking as we went. I figured, as long as we were going down, we were ok. But we did stop every 2-4 minutes to check our progress on Google Maps (as my phone was getting wetter and wetter... NOTE: iPhone finger touch won't read thumbprints if the fingers are wet!)

It started out warm. But now it was getting colder and colder. I got a text, at one point, from Chris saying he'd be home a little later due to a phone call he had to make. I couldn't even text him back my fingers were frozen, my phone was wet, and we HAD to keep moving to get to somewhere dry.

After many, many, many turns and twists, we saw traffic, lights, civilisation in the far distance (about 5 blocks away) and we cheered! We saw an M Tram go by, we cheered! One way or another, we now knew we'd get home, we didn't care how many transfers we'd have to make!

Xander had directed us (on one of our last Google Map attempts) to a different S Bahn station than the one we arrived on. It looked closer to our current position, so we went for it. When we saw the S Bahn station, we cheered!

We made our way to the platform and saw the others we were "following" and they looked as wet as we felt. I felt good that they must not have been far ahead of us after all, even with our wrong turn.

In the dry of the Bahn, I texted Chris we were on our way!

Peel off the wet clothes. Everybody takes a warm shower. Cozy clothes all around.

When Chris got home (he was dry, dry, dry, I guess 30 minutes west is a very different climate than here). We had dinner and, yay, warm cookies. Now, from the warmth of our apartment, it was possible for us to ENJOY the pouring rain that, finally, made it to the east side of Berlin.

P.S. You'd think I'd have learned by now. Always keep an umbrella in my backpack? I just didn't think it was going to rain. There was a small chance at 7pm, but not a crazy storm at 5pm!

P.P.S. The kids were CHAMPS. They stayed positive through the whole ordeal. Congrats to them!

Day 22: Cooler Weather

Fall has introduced itself and we welcome it.

Chris gave me some positive feedback for walking every morning with him, which was very nice. And why shouldn't I? It gets my day started. Even if I don't want to, I figure, he can't "not go" if he doesn't feel like it. I want to support his work-life since that's the reason we're here.

And coincidentally, today was another day of work for me, for Nagai Photography. Closing in on the last of this project! Yay me!

After lunch, I figured I needed to get the kids out of the house at least once today. My reasons are 1) the kids need to get exercise, 2) the kids need fresh air, and 3) I can't have them tell Chris they did "nothing" all day.

THE basket swing. Venice is lifted off the ground (right).

We decided to try the big park, hoping we'd be earlier than the kids getting out of school. We were. So, the kids utilised this time to spend a lot of time on the big basket swing they've been eyeing since we got here. The basket swing, the other day, was made from scratchy rope. This basket swing is made with lots of little plastic (PVC pipe-like) pieces over the rope, so it rolls and moves, thus making it much more comfortable for the kids to sit in. This one is also a lot bigger in size and swings very high (so high, that when the kids are pushing, they can get lifted off the ground).

Xander brought our new ping-pong paddles and balls. He was all ready for game, set, match! The tables are concrete as are the "nets".

Side note: The breeze was a good competitor as well, making the ball bounce in unexpected patterns.

We did get warm, but nothing like before. I can't say enough how much we are welcoming Fall into our lives.

Xander decided to stay at home, while Venice and I went to explore another market. This market, also just a few blocks from our apartment, but in a different direction, was exciting to explore. It felt more like a Safeway, in that, the aisles "made sense", there were lots more canned/packaged items, and just felt like a regular market. The LPG Bio-Markt that we've been going to, has a more labyrinth of aisles, things are not necessarily where I think they'll be (remember "sour cream-gate"?) So, it felt a little more familiar and it's only 2 blocks from our house, so I may come here more often.

That being said, it also had more "American" foods. Some familiar and some cray-crazy. Venice found Cool Ranch Doritos but they are called, "Cool American". I found an end-cap filled with food "from the land of unlimited opportunities". Included on this shelf were items like Pop Tarts, Jiffy Pop, Swiss Miss (which I think is funny), syrup, and so many different cheeses in squeeze bottles and cans. Yum! Funny stereotypes of our food. I will admit to recognising (and maybe wanting some of it... popcorn!) some of the foods, but many were brands I've never heard of before and didn't recognise (why not Jetpuff marshmallows instead of the random brand they had?)

American end-cap (left), Venice, the Cool American (right)

Exiting the market, we saw evidence that it had rained. Later, Xander informed us it, "dumped for a while!" Good thing we were in the market because, once again, we had no umbrella or jacket. Instead, it was a lovely scented walk back (avoiding puddles) home.

Evidence of the rain (left).
Venice walking on part of the sidewalk that is common here, made with little pieces of stone (middle-left).
A different set of stones for a driveway (middle-right).
Evidence of fall (leaves) coming (right).

Tonight, Chris is home for dinner! Yay, this is the BEST news because it means he's cooking and not me! I worked a bit while he cooked. The kids were able to Skype their friends, Carlie Jo and Joshua (and cousin Teiya a little later). It was a nice ending to the day.

Day 19: It's September!

Street/railway work that's been going on near our apartment.
It's been fun watching them progress every day.

Hello, September! Wow, we've been gone for almost 20 days. Even though we have dealt with some "everyday obstacles", it still feels like vacation, although, in the back of my mind, I am very aware of the time. Chris is worried that time is going fast, and that we're almost out of time. I'm more worried that when we get home, our German is going to still be bad. Most everyone here speaks English, so our challenges, while we have them, are not as hard as they could be if no one spoke English. I do want to get lessons for the kids and myself, it would help our German along as well as give us some consistent activity. BUT, I'm super lazy, right now. That sounds like a lot of effort to go find a perfect program for us (the easy answer is following a poster that's everywhere, but it seems their program is 2-3 hours a day, every day, for two weeks, I think... um, that's too much consistent activity). We'll see.

Side note: I feel very conspicuous walking with Chris in the mornings. I am the ONLY person in exercise gear. Everyone else is on their way to work, or eating breakfast at a street side cafe. So everyone is dressed for the day and I'm in my running gear. I ran into (punny!) two other runners, one day, but it was far from where Chris works and in on a side "nature" (in quotes because it was just a side trail for a quarter of a mile) trail. Otherwise, I don't see anyone exercising outside. I think they must do it earlier in the day and maybe not in the center of all the businesses. In any case, I always feel underdressed in my running gear.

Back at home, the kids wanted my American Crepes again! Yum. Then, the kids occupied themselves while I did some work for Nagai Photography (my dad photographed a Bar Mitzvah and I am now editing the photos, our first time working like this - time difference, and solo on both ends).

Then to lunch at Na-an Sushi. We saw this restaurant a few nights ago when we were looking for the noodle restaurant (that we never could find). But this sushi place looked good and we were coming back to try it out. Nice that it's only a few blocks from our apartment (like many other restaurants).

Ugh, it's still hot and the bees are crazy. Xander sat on the end of the bench so he could make a run for it any time they came around (yes, it was a lot). Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the beautiful plate they served us. But I did get a photo of the shoyu! Two bottles of shoyu, both the same company, but one was manufactured in Salem, OR and the other is a "Product of Japan"... we found it amusing to see which one was used more.

Well, the darn bees were so aggressive, the kids really wanted to leave. So, I gave them the key to the apartment and they headed home. I paid the bill and headed in the other direction in search of this 2€ store.

I walked for a few blocks here and there, but never found the store. However, I did find, a kitchen store and just decided I had to shop there. I spent over 60€, so definitely not a 2€ store, but now we have a measuring cup, some mixing bowls, a new trashcan (because I broke one), reusable straws (for the kids), and a few other items we needed.

I still couldn't find any measuring spoons. I'm still timid (embarrassed) in asking for help (FYI - this is true whether I speak the language or not :)

As I checked out, the clerk smiled and said something about the garbage can I was purchasing. I gave my line, "Entschuldigung, mein Deutsch ist sehr schlecht (excuse me, my German is very bad)." He responded with something about Austrian (maybe he was saying he spoke Austrian German, that's a thing!), so I looked and asked, "English?" He shook his head. Ah well, we tried. He rang me up and nicely showed me the total so I could pay.

Side note: Chris has mentioned that knowing our numbers is very important. He's right. Here's my biggest problem. If you are learning English, say, and someone says, "Your total is $79.83." That's a lot of numbers, but if you can hear the first thing "70", then you could hand over $80 and know you're going to cover it and whatever followed the "70" doesn't matter, you're good.

But in German, oy, they say their numbers differently. 79 is not seventy-nine. They say, "nine and seventy." So, if all I hear is the "9", I'm in trouble, it could be 29, 39, 49, 59, 69, etc. So, I try, but they talk so fast that I'm really best if I can see the total. I'm hoping to get better at hearing the numbers, it would help me greatly.

After returning back to the apartment, I took a long rest (that was a long-hot errand, I needed to cool down!)

The kids and I decided we'd try to recreate one of our favourite recipes from home (Chris won't be home until after dinner tonight). So, Venice agreed to accompany me to the market to buy the ingredients among other things (like nail polish) we've been wanting.

While, I'm getting better at knowing where some things are, others are still a hunt for us. I spent 10 minutes looking for cornstarch, baking powder, and baking soda. I found the baking powder and soda, but only in small, single-use packages (maybe a tablespoon per package). I want this for recipes where I need 1/4 cup or more. It just seems like crazy packaging to be able to use 1/4 of baking soda. I'll keep looking, but do they not use that here? How do they make cookies or keep their refrigerator smelling fresh? Who would have guessed I should have brought my box of Arm&Hammer?

As for the cornstarch, well, I found a translation (on my phone) and it called it corn flour. I thought this was weird, but when I found corn flour and felt the package, it felt "right" for cornstarch, so we bought it. Get it home, and duh, it's corn flour. So now I have no cornstarch and am now looking up corn muffin recipes (which, by the way, will use up one of my packets of baking powder, ugh). And, side note, the stroganoff turned out to be much soupier than at home, I really could have used the cornstarch then!

At the meat counter, I knew I wanted about 500kg of ground beef. BUT, I got flustered and couldn't remember four from five and then couldn't remember if it was kg or g. So after thinking really fast (but felt like it took forever for my brain to think of it) I blurted, "fünfhundert (5 hundred)" and then just skipped the grams/kilograms part. The butcher is smart, he knows what I need. Phew. They always trip me up asking another question, and when I look at them blankly, they switch to English, "Do you have a member card?" No, I wonder what that would get me and what's involved in getting a member card, but for now, I just want the meat.

Sour cream!!!!

Sour cream. Dang it. I knew where the crème fraîche was, remember, I asked and it was right in front of the lady restocking it? Well, I stood for another 5 minutes in front of that area and COULD NOT FIND IT! No where. I found other items (cheese curds are very popular here) but not the damn crème fraîche. Guess what? They moved it! Just to trick me and make me go crazy. It was in the open cooling-shelf versus the closed-doored refrigerator area. And while we were there, deciding which one to get... I found REAL SOUR CREAM!!!! Yay! So, I bought that instead. OMG, where will it be next time?


We were finally done and ready to head back home with our goods. Well, the rain came early AND the market "browsing" took longer than I planned, so we had to run home in the pouring rain (no light sprinkle!), unprepared, without jackets or umbrellas, with glass items in my backpack.

Both Venice and I were wearing skirts (it was hot today!) so, feeling a little silly running home in sandals and skirts. I guess, one time it's ok to be hot, so as not to be miserably wet and cold.

 We tried to hurry home, not just because of the rain, but because there was thunder and lightning. Xander does NOT like the crack or rolling of the thunder (and we're sure getting our fair share of it on our trips!)

Side note: Did I mention we've been using Skype to communicate with the kids while we are out and they are at home? Their iPods can use the wifi and they can send us messages via Skype. We can send messages back. So here's one I got, from Xander, while out at the market.

Dinner was nice and cozy with the rain in the background. Just like home. Rain. Stroganoff (which came close even with the crazy different ingredients). 

Day 7: The Basilica and Views

Pigeons!

The new room is louder. Lots of banging throughout the night. I picture the locals opening and closing their shutters all night long, yelling to their partner through their house. In the morning, it sounded like people were dumping metal pipes onto boats (I think it was the metal doors sliding open of the shops as they opened). AND, the new rooms do NOT have an espresso maker (the old one did). BUT, with two bathrooms, we have twice the toilette paper! Not that we ran out before, but it was close, even with the bidet :)

All our shoes were dry, no more squishing around!

After breakfast we headed to Piazza San Marco with breadsticks in our pockets, ready for the birds. If you are a pigeon advocate, please skip this part (as we are feeding them non-bird food and exploiting them for photos). The birds are crazy. They do tend to be able to smell who has food and who doesn't. If you don't, they mostly fly by, but if you do, they land on your arm, your shoulder, your head. I really wanted one on my head, but they wouldn't land there. They did tend to favour hats over plain heads. Their claws were mostly gentle. But, after a few minutes, our arms were a little irritated and we were out of food, so, perfect timing. It was also time for our tour at the Basilica di San Marco.

Alessandro had encouraged us to buy tickets online. This means you skip the line (which is an average of 45 minutes) and walk right into the Basilica. It cost a little more, but it came with a 60 minute tour. Not too long, for those of us disliking these kinds of tours. What was great about it was all the history our guide shared with us (I never would have read as much as she told us, so it was great to hear it all). The tour also allowed us to go into a side room that only tours are allowed to go into. There are absolutely no photos, videos, selfies (yes, it says this), or camera usage within the Basilica. But, in this side room, they close the doors, turn on the lights and we are allowed to take photos.

Outside wall of the Basilica (left).
BabyKiller in the side room (middle).
Our selfie, in an permitted area, over the tile floor (right).

There is a wall in this side room, where they took away the marble wall to see what was beneath it. But they took it off to roughy and took of half of a mosaic wall that was hidden under the marble. They have tried to restore it, but with the salty air, it is futile. Within just the last 7 years, more of the remaining mosaic has disappeared due to salt. So they have closed this room off and only open it a few times a day for the tours.

In this room, there are several items, including three burials and two baptising "baths". One, big tub, is to baptise adults, and the other (seen in the middle photo) is to baptise babies. However, the artist made the "lid" out of very heavy metal and the four doors (so you can baptise four babies at a time) are too heavy, so VERY unsafe to put a baby in there (so we nicknamed it the BabyKiller, not that any babies died in there, but in our warped need to entertain ourselves, this is what we called it).

Also inside the Basilica, our tour allowed us to go into areas that usually cost a small fee (so we paid for it via our tickets). We got to see the sarcophagus of San Marco, himself, if you believe it. Our guide mentioned that it had the Pope's seal on it, and anything with the Pope's seal is above scrutiny (no scientific tests can be performed). And we saw an amazing gold altar piece, the Pala d'Oro. It was truly amazing with the amount of gold and jewels and attention to details. We enjoyed the story of how the Venetians thwarted Napoleon's attempt to steal it by painting a ulgy-false front that he deemed unworthy of taking, so he left it.

After our tour, we were left within the Basilica to roam around at our leisure. We decided to pay a few extra Euros to see the upper level, which included a wrap-around balcony with amazing views of the Piazza.

As is our pattern, after the Basilica, we headed back to the hotel to rest before lunch. Also, backpacks are forbidden in the Basilica, so we needed to go back to pick that up and fill it with water and other items. Chris wondered if we needed to bring rain jackets again, I said no, I thought the weather was going to be ok the rest of the day (foreshadow alert!)

The Rialto (notice the giant building on the right covered
so you can't see the construction going on below it. the
building on the left is also having this done, but it's a little
harder to see in this photo)

After lunch, we headed to Peggy Guggenheim Collection. On our way, we were able to cross the Ponte dell'Accademia, the southern most bridge to cross the Grand Canal. Wonderful vistas and great photo opportunities. A great way to make up for the Rialto being closed. Side note: You can still cross the Rialto, but all the sides are blocked off, so there is no view off of the bridge, and coming in via water, you only see blocked out shops on the water side. Shops in the middle are open for business, and on one side, there is a 10x30 sqft. area where you can take photos off the bridge, but your view is of construction, not waterside restaurants with colourful awnings as it was in the past.

The Guggenheim Collection was more interested to me than the Biennale. I'm reinforcing that I definitely like old art better than a lot of the more modern art. I'm sure there are more artsy defining words to describe what I do like and don't like, but anyway. I did like seeing actual Picasso and Dali pieces. The visiting collection of the Pollock brothers (mostly Charles was represented, but there were a few pieces from Jackson) was cool to see. My favourite ended up being pieces by Vasily Kandinsky, while Xander enjoyed this piece by Picasso.


After the museum (yay, we made it through two museums and a tour on our trip!), we headed for some gelato (of course!) and then to the part of the island that would give us a panoramic view of Venice, from the Piazza all the way to the end where the Biennale is located. More walking, more gelato. More heat. More photos.

On our way to dinner, we figured we'd cut our walking by half if we could take two traghettos. Yay! But when we got to the first traghetto, it closed at 6pm, it was after 6. Boo!

So, more walking it is. Side note: yesterday was about 7.22 miles, and today is about 7 miles. We are deserving of that gelato!

We enjoyed a very lovely dinner. It was a most relaxed dinner, knowing we had seen so much of what we had wanted to do. Xander was feeling much better. The food was good. The atmosphere (a quiet square) was good.

In the last five minutes of our dining experience, a panicked waiter came running from table to table. He got to ours and talked super fast Italian. We looked at him with blank stares. He paused, realising we didn't understand a word he just said, "The rain! It's coming!" He was handing out table numbers on pieces of paper, asking people to bring all their stuff inside, to transfer themselves inside to finish out their meals. We had already finished, so we just asked, "Il conto per favore!"

Meanwhile, we looked to the skies, and yes, they were dark and foreboding. And yes, lightning started (foreshadow "cashing in").

Xander, not a fan of the lightning or thunder, wanted to race home. So we ran through the streets towards our hotel. Just about the time we got cramps from eating and running, the drops started to fall. We were almost home, but then... we passed a self-serve frozen yogurt shop... remember, moral imperative... doesn't matter that it's yogurt and not gelato... must. stop. to. get. frozen. yogurt.

So we stopped to fill cups of yumminess and that's when it really started to rain. We tried walking under as much cover as possible, but... it was wet and our shoes were squishy again.

Day 6: Museum and Rain

Watching the lightning and rain off in the distance, knowing it's coming our way.

We slept through the night, despite the thunder and lightning.

We knew we were in for a day of rain, so it's a perfect day for museums and being inside. After breakfast, we left with a few umbrellas and rain jackets to walk to La Biennale, located on, from what I can tell, what seems to be, the greenest part of the island (so many trees!) There are several smaller buildings on the property, each dedicated to a different country. Just as we go into line for our tickets, the raindrops began to fall.

We are not a big "art" family, or "museum" family, so many of the exhibits we saw were confounding. Very modern interpretations of philosophical concepts. Or too bloody and violent for the sensitive souls. But some displays were cool and interactive.

Denmark's take on sustainability and identity

Weird representation of whatever.
We just liked how it created static in our hair.

On a recommendation,  we were really here to see the art from Shiota, a Japanese artist, who, we found out at the exhibit, now lives in Berlin! So amazing. His art is something we could all enjoy. The message (that we are all connected through time, love, and more) is a concept we can all grasp and appreciate. It was stunningly beautiful.

Close up of some keys (left). A great shot of two boats (photo by Chris).

But, Xander wasn't feeling well. He persevered through Shiota's exhibit, but then we figured we'd better head out. It was raining pretty good now and we had a looooong walk back to our hotel. Just to give you and idea, I normally walk about 6,000-10,000 steps a day (I use a Fitbit to track). On days like today, I walked over 17,000 steps. So, it's a lot of walking, and praise to Xander who made it back to the hotel not feeling the best.

Before the rain (left). During the rain (right).

So, we made it back to our hotel. It felt good to get back and rest. We all took off our soaking wet clothes, got one some dry clothes and relaxed for a few moments. Xander was feeling better. Yay!

BUT... we found a leak in our room! Yes, the hotel is old, but this leak was pretty bad. Water was dripping down the corner of our room and pooling behind the TV, falling off the counter and puddling on the floor. Yikes. Chris called maintenance and, after seeing the leak for themselves, said that they'd move us to another room, for safety.

We packed up quickly, and headed to our new room. The new room had pros and cons. One door into a small hall, then two doors, one for the kids' room and one for ours. Privacy! And because the areas are smaller, the air conditioning seems to work better. But our room is much smaller, and you have to use different keys to the different "second" doors. Kind of a pain. But, we get two bathrooms. But, no bathtub or bidet (which we all tried in the first room, by the way, with lots of giggles and comments). [edit: I am reminded by Venice, that we DID have bidets, doh! and the kids' bathroom did have a bathtub, just not ours.]

And now, it's super late, as we weren't anticipating a room change, and we're starving for a late lunch (3:45pm). Xander really was craving a hamburger, so we went to the Devil's Forest Pub. The hamburgers were delicious. The fries were good too (the kids were not convinced to try the mayonnaise dipping sauce and stuck to the ketchup). And, by the way, the kids were feeling better now that they found a place that serves Shirley Temples (although they were mixed with ginger ale and they have been used to 7-Up/Sprite).

Bridge of Sighs (left). I "heart" Venice (middle). More Bridge of Sighs (right).

By now we were feeling drier and better. We split up. Chris and Xander went hunting for espresso and then back to rest in the room. Venice and I went on a "hedgehog" hunt. She had seen a cute glass hedgehog, but couldn't quite remember where the store was located. We hunted up and down the crazy maze of streets. I am starting to memorise the streets and ways, but it's still so hard to keep the shops separate in my mind (they all look so similar). We finally found the right store and, of course, it's located towards our hotel and only a few streets away (we had been hunting in the wrong direction). So we got the hedgehogs and... got caught in the rain AGAIN. So, we got soaked again. To paint a picture of how wet we got, our shoes were squishing out water as we walked through the hotel lobby.

Due to the rain, we decided to eat downstairs in our hotel. Not our best meal, not much choice. We were ecstatic to not have to put on wet shoes and get rained upon again. But, did you know, it's a moral imperative to have gelato EVERY DAY while in Italy? So of course, we did slosh in our wet shoes to find one more perfect gelato to end our day.

Still so beautiful, even in the rain.

Day 5: Second Day in Venice

GOOD MORNING! 7am, the bells ring and the city comes alive. We're guessing this is the agreed upon time that locals can make noise. Right when the bells began ringing, gondoliers were yelling down the canals and people banged their shutters open. Ok, early to bed tonight, for sure!

Side note: locals hang their laundry over the canals to dry. We are all wondering how often do they drop something that is then lost forever? I'm just imagining all the things I would drop with my butterfingers.

Cappuccino from Alessandro

Our hotel includes breakfast with our stay, so it's nice to just head downstairs for the simple buffet. Afterwards, we headed back to Alessandro's hotel to take him up on his offer to arrange a trip to Murano for us. The last time Chris and I did this, the glass shops were closed. We thought it was because it was a Sunday, but Alessandro says it must have been something else as they have always been open to tourism on Sundays. That will remain a mystery.

Also, last time, we paid for a bus ride there. This time, Alessandro arranged for his hotel to take us to Murano. His hotel has an agreement with one of the glass manufacturers there. They both offer complimentary taxis to and from Venice and there is no high-sales pitch to force us to buy anything from their store. I was skeptical but optimistic. Mostly just glad to see the glass blowing in action as we missed it the last time we were here.

Enjoying our boat ride to Murano (they don't mind if you stand the whole way,
just watch your head going under bridges!)

When we arrived on Murano, we were escorted right into the area where they perform glass demonstrations. It took two workers about 10 minutes to create one glass. It was a lot of heat it, melt it, shape it, repeat. There were a few times that both workers were shaping the glass at the same time. No wonder the glass from the Masters is expensive!

The main glass worker made the glass and then made a horse. Funny, Alessandro explained that he grew up on Murano with his dad (a glass worker) who would do demonstrations for the tourists by making a horse (and then the tourists are guided into a room full of glass horses, wouldn't you like to buy?) I can see how it works. It's pretty damn amazing to watch them shape the glass into a horse right before your eyes.


The kids were invited to then try their hand (or lungs) at blowing some glass. There was a bit of confusion as to what they were being asked to do. Since Venice went first, Xander had an easier time of it. But they were asked to blow, and blow, and blow. I kept waiting for the glass bubble to break, but it never did and the workers kept chanting for them to blow, blow, blow. After they blew, blew, blew, the worker smashed the glass bubble onto the floor. Too bad... I might have paid to take that bubble home!

After this show, our host, Stephan, guided us into the show room. He talks a lot about the artists, their work, and says if we have any questions about how the glass is made to ask (I did ask how all the bubbles were made, some are with salt and some are with molds). But he never explained that this wasn't the only showroom. So as we look around, we are seeing price tags of 50K and higher. Um, yeah, we're just window shopping!

We are polite as I wonder if he thinks we're rich Americans who just can't think of anything better to do with our money than purchase a life sized glass horse for our entry way (it was beautiful, by the way).  Then he says there's another shop on the other side of the furnace with a lot more items. Oh good! We get there and I see that one of those glasses we just watched being blown, is marked at 250 Euro. Um, yeah. Still window shopping.


As we wind our way through the glass displays (severals rooms full!) I do see a few things I'd love to take home. Chris and I start deliberating on a few items. Stephan takes them to a table, so we can see one at a time. He and his assistant are never far behind (so we can't have a whispered discussion on how much we want to spend or what we like) offering us to see other similar items or a glass of water. It's not too high pressured, other than we can't get privacy and they linger with us.

We finally decide on a piece we really like. Stephan had said to not pay attention to the price tag, but to ask him what it would cost, as we are friends of Alessandro and he will make us a discount. So, we finally ask about one piece and he shows us the discounted price. WHAT? He's giving us 75% off! Well, holy crap, we'll take some more, please and thank you!

I'm loving the Italian hospitality right now! First several free drinks. Time and touring advice. Now this discount at the glass furnace. Alessandro kept saying, "When I'm in Oregon, you pay. When you are in Italy, I pay." Very generous. And we want to send a big thank you to Granny and Jiichan for being our "delivery address" for these items (no stealing!)

After taking the complimentary taxi back to Venice, we had lunch on the water. It was at this time that we realised we didn't take a photo of any of the pieces we bought! We'll just have to wait to see them again in three months and hope we still like them!

For this meal, Chris ordered sea bass. When the server brought the fish, Chris was away from the table at the time, she asked if we'd like her to clean it. Um, si per favore! Nothing like seeing an entire fish on your plate and not knowing what to do about it. So we got a table side show of the preparation of the fish. It was quick, 30-60 seconds.

On a traghetto gondola ferry.

After lunch, we headed to see the oldest-original bridge in town. It has no side rails and heads to a private residence. Venice snuck on the bottom stair for us to take a photo, then we were on our way to the next thing, a traghetto! In the olden days, The Rialto bridge was the only bridge spanning the Grand Canal. But you could take a traghetto, basically a gondola ferry. For 2 Euros, you are transported from one side of the canal to the other. Short, but fun.

The oldest bridge (left). Venice in one of her new dresses (right).

Everyone was tired and ready for a siesta so we began the long walk back to our hotel. We thought we'd walk through the fish market, which we did, but we were too late, 90% of the stalls were packed up and gone. No worries, we saw some cute dresses in a window and Venice wanted to try them on. So, Chris and Xander continued on for some espresso and then rest while Venice and I shopped a little. We found stores close to our hotel that had all the little glass animals we wanted, so we took note and said we'd come back to buy a bunch of souvenirs later.

The kids were tired and ready for rest, so they hunkered down in their beds with their iPods. Chris and I decided we wanted espresso and that we'd go out and get it on our own. After riding the elevator down, we thought, maybe we could just get a quick espresso at the hotel lobby, but no one was there. Chris remembered there was a roof-top cafe, so we decided to try that instead! No espresso up there, only drinks... OK! So, we had an afternoon cocktail along with some complimentary (or did we pay for them?) snacks.

The view from the rooftop was beautiful. So many red-tiled roofs. Quiet. Lovely. And bonus, we realised we could see our balcony from our table. We Skype'd the kids to quietly come out onto the balcony and look for us. A few seconds later, Venice was out there waving to us. Xander came next!

Now guess what time it is? Dinner time! Seems it's a lot of walking and a lot of eating on this trip! We headed out for one restaurant, decided it wasn't what we wanted, so we walked around for a little, trying another one, until we ended up at restaurant that had outside seating near the water of the Grand Canal. Did we have a reservation? No, but unless you go after 8pm, it's usually ok, so there were plenty of open tables when we got there.

Chris decided to get the eel for dinner. Be adventurous. He asked the waiter,  (who didn't seem to have much of a sense of humour) if that was a good choice. The waiter replied, "No. Do you have it before? Eel is not for beginners. You have something else." We all laughed, except the waiter. Needless to say, Chris ordered something else.

A panorama of Piazza San Marco (with a little warping on the right)

After dinner, I really wanted to see the Piazza San Marco in the dark. I imagined it would be lit up and beautiful. It did not disappoint. It was unbelievable. The lights were romantic. The evening air was perfect. Different restaurants had live bands playing different kinds of music. From jazz to swing to Phantom of the Opera. What a difference a few hours makes.

Gelato on the way home, a perfect way to end the day... until the thunder and lightning started. Xander was a bit nervous with the loud crashes of lightning and had a harder time falling asleep.