Venezia!

So before Heidi left I was lucky enough to have a couple of days off. Because Venice is only a few hours away by train we decided to head down for a night and check it out. I had been to Venice before in 2004, but this was Heidi's first time. Yet even for me the beautiful architecture and canals of old Venice were amazing. We had booked a room at a bed and breakfast about a 10 minute walk from St. Marcos Square. We had a great rate through Hostelworld.com, and the room was absolutely gorgeous. It was an emerald green with fancy crown molding and old world furniture and wallpaper. Outside our window we had a view of the main canal and could watch the Venice traffic. Unfortunately winter is not the ideal time to visit Venice. When I went back in 2004 we had warm sunny weather and spent time at the beach on the Lido. This time was a completely different story. When we arrived it was lightly snowing (not that annoying) but it slowly progressed to a heavy cold rain (very annoying). This forced to plan our sightseeing around the next time we could jump into a cafe and grab a coffee or beer to warm up. However there is something really special about Venice in the cold. First, it isn't nearly as crowded as it is during the summer months. This means that walking around in the cool little shops and cafes has a much more intamate feel. Also during the winter the water in Venice is a cloudy light aqua blue. This is from all of the calcium in the water that comes down from the mountains. The combination of the lack of people, the icy weather, the ghostly pale blue water, and the narrow maze of streets and canals makes Venice in the winter a completely new experience.

While we were there we were able to have dinner with Taylor and Lauren from our team in Klagenfurt. We found a nice little nook to eat some pizza and drink some wine. The food is very expensive in Venice and spending 20 Euros on a panini and beer is pretty easy. Nevertheless we had a great meal with our friends and then afterwards a hot chocolate. Because of the weather decided to head back to the room almost right after dinner. On the way back we stopped in a confectionary and bought some pastry treats and a bottle of wine. That night we just spent in the room enjoying some terribly unhealthy goodies and some wine while watching the BBC.

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel and then headed back to St. Marcos square to do some more shopping and picture taking. We had a great lunch at a nice sit-down place around 12 and then decided to start heading back to the train station. We still had a few hours before our train left but the weather had begun to take its toll on us so we decided to walk to the train station, instead of taking the canal boat. This turned out to be much more difficult than we had first thought and we took several wrong turns. Yet after about an hour we made our way back to the train station with enough time to grab a coffee.

Because of Heidi's ticket she had to leave on 3rd of February, and although I was terribly bummed to see her leave, our adventure in Venice was a good way to go out. February has been a pretty busy month because I was completing the finishing touches on my UCI law application. I also have to upload pictures from my training camp at Faak am See, but I am still trying to find the connection cord for my computer.