Full of Surprises (Wednesday, October 12, 2011)

Breakfast is the most important meal, they say. For us, a free breakfast is the most important. It also poses a dilemma: We want the kids to really fill up on the free breakfast, in the hopes that it will cut the later food costs of the day. At the same time, we don’t want to look like ugly Americans clearing out the dainty breakfast buffet. Cheapness wins out as we push more food on our kids—“how about some fruit? Yogurt? Cheese? Okay, one more pastry.”

And we’re off. The Grand Canal is magical—every building worthy of a photograph or two. We caught a vaporetto (no gondolas for us, we've checked the prices) to the market, checked out all the creepy, crawly sea creatures (thought Allison would balk at the smell, but she thinks it is cool).

We walked by some souvenir vendors (there are miles of them), looked at all the masks and picked out a couple of things to take home. Walked to Rialto Bridge and watched the water traffic, the spectacular views and the odd conglomerations of tourists.

Took another boat ride to Piazza San Marcos, which is a huge square with the Basilica di San Marcos and the Palazzo Ducale. We dragged the kids through a museum, because it was included in the price of the Palace ticket. A high point for Andrew was the weapons display, and there was one section that was all Greek sculpture. It seems that once the Venetians gained some dominance in the world, they took a lot of art from the Greeks.

The Basilica is a big, beautiful church, which you can enter for free. You can walk up the stairs to the balcony for 5 Euros each, which is $40 for us! And for another fee you can go up the bell tower’s elevator. We decided we just can’t afford to go to church anymore.

The Palazzo Ducale, or the Doge’s Palace, was the home of the Venetian Grand Poobah for many centuries. The first 18 rooms or so held the interest of our kids, but we started to lose the girls after a while It got interesting again when we got to go through the prison and over the Bridge of Sighs, named for the sigh of a prisoner who gets one last glorious view through its windows before they headed to their death.

There was also some extra exhibition that we could tour, but that was soundly rejected by Andrew’s proclamation: “Let’s not get ourselves into another big exhibit.” Sound advice.

Yes, I'm really on this trip--outside the palace.

We went to what Rick Steve calls “sandwich row” and bought sandwiches. Also the most expensive Cokes known to man—4 Euro for a can ($6!). More than the sandwiches. Oops. Also, we have learned in Europe that beer is cheaper than Coke, and water for that matter as Italian restaurants only seem to offer water in a bottle. And in Italy, we have found good wine for $2 a bottle! We might have to introduce the kids to wine on this trip as a cost-cutting measure.

Back to the room for a break, then we went to a nearby restaurant that seems to be a student hangout and way cheaper than the tourist area. We ordered a random sampling of pasta dishes and passed them all around, and everyone was happy.

We attempted a night tour of the Grand Canal, but the boat we took went the wrong way, and by the time we could get where we wanted to be, the girls were begging to go to bed. Oh well.

Meanwhile, Brian was antsy because he couldn’t get his email on his phone. While I did the nightly bedtime reading and wrangling, he went to the hotel proper to go online. He came back fairly soon, even more agitated. The hotel only had us booked for one night in this apartment, and they wondered what had happened to us. The upshot of it all was that I made a mistake in the online booking process, and that not-so-terrible price for 2 nights was actually only one night’s fee. Surprise! We get to pay all over again. At least no one else was moving in that day, or we really would have caused some trouble.

So, in honor of our (I say “our”, but it is really “my”) stupidity, here are a few other things we’ve learned. If you drive through Europe, expect to pay LOTS of tolls. Don’t skimp on parking—pay for the city parking garage, since it has got to be cheaper than paying for the scratch someone put on it during the night in Vienna where you left it in the free street parking. Don’t buy Coke at the restaurant.

And a few notes about children: Most of the time, kids don’t care about scenery outside of the car window. And it’s easier to let them play their electronic games too much than to listen to them fight. And, it’s amazing how much they can stare at a little screen with no side effects, but the minute homework comes up, everyone is carsick.

And of course, be sure to double (and triple) check all your reservations.

Brian’s phone eventually started working—it turned out to be a worldwide Blackberry outage. You cannot imagine the immensity of his relief—Natalie mentioned the fact that Dad’s on his phone all the time, “then you get on OUR case when we play our games.” There really is no way to describe the superiority and condescension that a 12-year-old can convey in one sentence, so I’ll leave that to your imagination.