4th and 5th of July 2011: This is our second visit to Venice this time with another tour group. We are in the hotel all'angelo which has a great location on the island of Venice near St Marks square. On our last visit here we stayed on the mainland to save money. As we had two days here we had time for a guided tour of the byzantine Basilica where the remains of St Mark are entombed. We also saw the lavish Doge's palace and walked through the B...

Today we had a half day In Venice exploring the city on foot. First we watched a master glass blowing demonstration. Then we had free time on our own. What chaos it was with huge crowds in narrow alleyways, bumping up against each other. The tiny streets with 3 to 4 storey high buildings either side, are like a maze. The afternoon was spent in the island of Burano where we inspected the local craft of lace design and enjoyed a hearty ...

18 June: Traveled south via mountain scenery into Austria. Here we stopped in Innsbruck where the winter olympics have been held twice. We saw impressive ski jump where "Eddie the eagle" once flew before he was banned by the ski jumping federation in case he should die and give the sport a bad name! We travelled through the Brenner Pass into Italy, then on to the romantic city of Venice. Venice is built in a lagoon with canals and arched pedestrian b...