Vienna 9-22, Venice 9-23,24, To Greece 9-24

Since the Italian railway went on strike, I couldn't leave Vienna as planned so I hung out an an Internet cafe during the day, checked out some more great Klimt at the Leopold Museum and finished my night with a wine at Cafe Hawkela. This place is cool, smoky and a great place to catch up on any newspaper you need to see.

I told you that Vienna was my favorite and it seems they feel the same way about me. I didn't ask for it but on my way to my night train to Venice I noticed they started naming stores after me.

You need to be careful what you ask for.  On my train to Venice, I was thinking to myself that I hoped it would rain to keep the tourists away and what do you know! I got my wish.  Little did I know that nothing keeps the tourists away from Venice, they have been coming here for hundreds of years and they are still funny to watch.  Here in St. Mark's Square, since it is mostly at or below sea level, they erect temporary bridges so the tourists can get drenched while waiting to enter St. Mark's Cathedral. I am not sure what all these folks were waiting for because I took a nap and then an hour later I walked right into the Cathedral and Doge's palace.

I won't bore you with all of the touristy shots because the postcards to a much better job than I do. But here's a tip, the best way to see Venice is to spend $3 and jump on the slow Vaperretto that takes you through the entire island.  Venice is much prettier as all the Venitian glass chandilliers light up at night.  Another tip is to get lost, I had a great $4 dinner including wine in a small cafe with great appetizers.

For me Venice was a little too touristy so I got out of there fast, trained down to Ancona where I was going to catch the 19 hour fast boat to Patras Greece.  With my rail pass, the ride is only $6 so I am thinking Perfect Storm fishing boat.  Man was I surprised when I found out that the boat was essentially a cruise liner, with a disco, great cheap food, swimming pool and a sleeping area that only had 4 out of 200 beds being used.  The trip was a breeze.

Here is my hotel in the lower left behind the bridge.  I mean the breakfast room was below the water line!  I had a room on the 3rd floor and could have fished out my window.  The gondolas came through around 10 pm and were serranading folks, dude had some lungs!

Here's Carey, Matt, Susan and me killing time on the boat.  These Northwesterners kind of adopted me and we wound up together in Santorini for a week being very, very lazy and playing a bunch of games of Big 2.

Here's the view from the disco looking back at Ancona. Life is rough on the road.