Day 23: Our Last Day...Venice & Traveling Home
Not gonna lie...today was hard. I'm not totally sure why but it was hard. It was really the only hard day (for me) of the entire trip. We had stayed up late at St. Mark's Square and had to be up early to pack all of our stuff, clean our apartment and be checked out of our apartment by 10:30am. It didn't sound hard in theory but everyone was tired and we knew we had an entire day to fill before our flight left at 10pm and the kids were a little bit done with wandering and going into churches and museums.
We had one last gelato from the little shop a few feet from our apartment (the best we found on the trip...HUGE 2 scoops for 2.50 euro) and headed out with our packs.
It was hot and we were sticky and sweaty from packing our stuff over to the office where we were going to store our luggage until we left. We went to the Frari Church (one of the "must see" churches in Venice). Jeff read us Rick Steve's walking tour and it was nice to get out of the sun.
Next stop was finding the Indiana Jones "library" (which was really another church) from Indian Jones and the Last Crusade. The kids had fun recreating the film scenes and comparing it to the real movie.
After some take-away thin crust pizza for lunch, we found a shady spot on the street and sat down to rest. Calvin and Kira fell asleep so the rest of us went in search of a Christmas ornament (for our travel tree) and more gelato and ended up at another famous church: Santa Maria della Salute (often referred to as La Salute). The name means "Our lady Virgin Mary of Good Health" and the church was built as a tribute to her for saving Venice from the Plague. We listened to Vespers (an organ concert before mass) and enjoyed a break from the sun.
Isaac complained nearly the whole day. He was fixated on a pair of cleats he had seen online and could talk of nothing else. I was tired and hot. Mikey and Isaac fought a lot and we were all trying to referee. I could just tell that they had reached their limit so by 5:30pm we decided to just head to the airport where at least they have air conditioning (and wifi to keep the animals entertained haha). ;)
It was a late night, arriving in Paris around midnight and getting to our airport hotel close to 1am. We were out the door by 7am to head back to the airport to fly home.
It has honestly been such an amazing trip. We all keep talking about how fast it's gone and how fun it has been so it's a bit of a bummer to end on a rough day but at least there haven't been many others. Rough moments here and there but honestly, not that many. I am so grateful to have been able to take this amazing trip with my family. It has been a dream of mine to "backpack Europe" since I was probably 14 years old and I can't believe we got to do this!
We had one last gelato from the little shop a few feet from our apartment (the best we found on the trip...HUGE 2 scoops for 2.50 euro) and headed out with our packs.
It was hot and we were sticky and sweaty from packing our stuff over to the office where we were going to store our luggage until we left. We went to the Frari Church (one of the "must see" churches in Venice). Jeff read us Rick Steve's walking tour and it was nice to get out of the sun.
Next stop was finding the Indiana Jones "library" (which was really another church) from Indian Jones and the Last Crusade. The kids had fun recreating the film scenes and comparing it to the real movie.
After some take-away thin crust pizza for lunch, we found a shady spot on the street and sat down to rest. Calvin and Kira fell asleep so the rest of us went in search of a Christmas ornament (for our travel tree) and more gelato and ended up at another famous church: Santa Maria della Salute (often referred to as La Salute). The name means "Our lady Virgin Mary of Good Health" and the church was built as a tribute to her for saving Venice from the Plague. We listened to Vespers (an organ concert before mass) and enjoyed a break from the sun.
Isaac complained nearly the whole day. He was fixated on a pair of cleats he had seen online and could talk of nothing else. I was tired and hot. Mikey and Isaac fought a lot and we were all trying to referee. I could just tell that they had reached their limit so by 5:30pm we decided to just head to the airport where at least they have air conditioning (and wifi to keep the animals entertained haha). ;)
It was a late night, arriving in Paris around midnight and getting to our airport hotel close to 1am. We were out the door by 7am to head back to the airport to fly home.
It has honestly been such an amazing trip. We all keep talking about how fast it's gone and how fun it has been so it's a bit of a bummer to end on a rough day but at least there haven't been many others. Rough moments here and there but honestly, not that many. I am so grateful to have been able to take this amazing trip with my family. It has been a dream of mine to "backpack Europe" since I was probably 14 years old and I can't believe we got to do this!
This is how the day started...probably a bad sign. ;)
One last gelato from our favorite gelateria.
These boys have been such troopers! Carrying all of their stuff in backpacks nearly as big as them. Even though today wasn't their best day, they have been so good for the rest of the time. I'm really proud of them. They are pretty young to be backpacking around Europe.
These three have been so independent and capable. They can totally take care of themselves and are always looking out for their little brothers too. I think they all have gained a lot of confidence on this trip.
How am I so short? Even these little boys are catching up to me!
So tired.
Dropping off our luggage and de-sweating in the office.
Frari Church
We found the coolest mask shops!
Frari Church
That library from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Calvin being silly and making us laugh. "Zack stop! You're going to get in trouble." (from a funny meme)
A gondola repair shop right on the canal.
Best big brother.
So hot and tired. Jeff- always making us laugh and keeping it light and fun.
Calvin fell right to sleep on this comfy spot.
La Salute
Comments
Post a Comment