Venezia till Mt Blanc

Yesterday was a beautiful day when we visited Venezia - otherwise known as Venice.
We were again woken up at 7.15 by Emily's crowing phone. (Her alarm is set as crowing :) ) We ate breakfast outside on our little verandah and then walked to the outside of the camp to the shuttle bus which would take us to Venice at 9am.
The bus dropped us off at Tronchetto - the first part of the island where all the cars are parked - so we still had to walk a while to our first busboat station. Dad and Mum went to print out our tickets while the three of us waited. We watched many tourists being dropped off by big buses and were quite amazed at the amount of people being brought to this smallish island. Even while we were driving to Venice, there were many buses around us with many people in them.
Dad and Mum have been to Venice before and said that there are many tourists there. So they suggested to go to Murano - a neighbouring island which is still part of Venice where they do glassblowing. We took a vaporetto (water bus) to the island. As soon as we arrived there, we noticed how little tourists were there and how quiet it was. While walking around, we looked in the windows of shops, examining beautiful glass art such as birds, jewellery, and much much more. We even saw a bit of a demonstration of glassblowing that made us marvel. A man sat there with a ball of soft glass and using some tools he molded and pulled parts of it to form... a horse! It was really cool and didn't even take him long. There were also many different colours in the models too which was so impressive. It was very interesting to look at what they could all make with glass.
Murano was very beautiful - Dad and Mum remarked that it was cleaner and quieter than Venice, without so many tourists. The buildings were quite the same level, very colourful and there were some quite detailed ones too. While walking around there, I tried to imagine what it would be like to live there... I'm sure at first it would be very interesting but you could get a bit sick of the tourists, and maybe a bit lonely there.
We found a supermarket - it was called COOP - where we bought some lunch. Sitting by a church, we ate our lunch and soon were surrounded by many hungry pigeons who scurried around our feet eating the crumbs we dropped. There was one pigeon which seemed a bit loopy - you'd throw a bit of bread at it and it would scurry away, scared. Other pigeons all fought for pieces of bread while the loopy bird stood on the outskirts. There was also a pigeon with some tape on its foot which we tried to get off but couldn't since it kept walking away.
Taking a different route than we came from, we walked heading towards a waterbus stop. We walked through quite a few alleyways and narrow streets till we found our stop. Before we left however, Emily wanted to buy something as a souvenir which she had seen before we had lunch. Luckily the place she remembered wasn't too far away or hard to find.
Then we hopped on the waterbus back to Venice. We decided to take the vaporetto to San Marco - where there is the famous Marco Polo square. There were many people there, and many people were also lining up for St. Peter's basilica. We just walked around there for a while, took some photos and then walked away. Just outside of the square is many different alleyways lined with shops and stalls - good ones too - we even saw a Gucci shop! :) We zigzagged our way through them, feeling sure that if we were alone, without a map or anything, we would be lost in no time! :) It was very interesting, looking around, seeing what was for sale. There were also quite a few shops that were selling Murano glass. While walking between shops, we noticed there were some small alleyways - not road but water alleyways too. :) We saw some gondolas sailing through some and other boats too. We did buy some small gift/souvenirs for family back home while we were there too.
The bus which would take us back to our house (Camping Jolly) was going to pick us up at 5.30 from the same place, so we had to soon make our way to a waterbus which would take us back.
Unfortunately, we had to wait for quite a while in a line for a boat, and when it finally came, some people got off it, but more wanted to go on! Most people, also the ones behind us, pushed and shoved a bit so that they could get on. We had to stand on the boat, VERY crowded, body-to-body almost, for quite a while. It was also very warm and uncomfortable.
Finally, we arrived at the stop close to where we were to be picked up from. The bus was on time which was good and we arrived home about 20 minutes later. Mum and I went for a dip in the pool for a little bit and then went back for dinner.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable day of sightseeing and walking around. God blessed us again with warm, sunny weather which made us very thankful. Venice is a very impressive town which made us marvel. It's amazing how it survives on water and functions well. Tourism is definetly their main income though I'm sure. :) Venice is an amazing place to visit.

Now we are in France, just over the border from Italy. We left this morning at 8 after waking up at 6.15. We had a pretty good drive, a bit boring at first because it was very flat. However, after about 3/4 of the way it became very interesting to look out the windows. There were many mountains around us, and as we went further, there was even snow on top of some mountains.
In Aosta valley (still in Italy), we went to Fenis castle for a tour. It was not a very big castle, but still quite impressive. We took a tour through it - in Italian unfortunately, but there was in each room explanations of what room was used for in French and English.
Then we drove on towards the tunnel through Mt Blanc to France. Before that tunnel though, we had to drive through about 5 other tunnels through the mountains, each about 1-4 km long! As we came out of one tunnel there was between 500m- 1km and then we went into another one.
Finally, just before entering the tunnel into France, we stopped, just after some toll gates. From there, we had a BEAUTIFUL view of the Aosta valley. We took some photos, had a little look in the shop there and then drove to France! We're not sure how long the tunnel was, but it was about 10-15km long! Arrivederci Italy, and Bonjour France! :)
We had to burn some time before checking-in to our apartment (you could only check in between 4 and 7) so we drove around for a while, did some shopping and then came back. Now we are sitting here in our loungeroom, having some tea and admiring our lovely view of Mt Blanc! :)
Its very light here still, feels like 4pm still or something but its already 7pm!
Tomorrow we hope to have a relaxing day and listen to a sermon.
So long for now! Lots of love from Dad, Mum, Em, Steve and me :)