Left Salzburg on our way to Rosenheim in Germany where we changed trains to go to Venice. Trains ran on time and we had a compartment to ourselves for the 8 hour trip. Travelled through Innsbruck and the Brenner Pass into Italy which meant lots of tunnels (one we were inside for 10 minutes !) but we didn't see any snow.

Arrived in Venice at 6.30pm and it was getting dark quickly. Tourist information had a long queue so we decided to run the gauntlet of people trying to get you to stay at a certain hotel and head for the Vaporetto stop outside the train station.

Bought tickets and boarded Vaporetto number 1 hoping it was going in the right direction. We got off at a stop near St.Mark's square and using a map printed from the hotel website walked across the square towards the clock tower as the square was slowly filling with water. We got lost and asked directions to our hotel from a waiter at a restaurant, we managed to misinterpret his directions and had to ask again at a jewellery shop. Turns out we were just around the corner from our hotel, Hotel Orion.

We checked in and then went around the corner to McDonalds for dinner before returning to St.Mark's square to find it underwater! Returned to our hotel for some TV and rest.