April 10, 2008 by AJ.

Yesterday we drove to Venice in our rental (car). It was very cool! I think the first thing I noticed (that I liked, that wasn’t part of the scenery) was all the mask shops! I almost got one, but in the end I decided not too. I did get a picture of a mask though (not like the one I had chosen out, but still veeery nice) on Grandma Vi’s camera.
Basically We walked ¾ of Venice (the long part I think). We walked to a square place with tons (!!!) of pigeons. We but some pigeon food and fed them, which was so fun! At first I was just putting my hand down on the ground (with the bird food, which was dried corn) and just letting them eat of my hand. Sometimes I would touch hem, because they got so close! It was a very funny feeling them eating off my hand, like mini vacuum cleaners! But after a while, I got bored of that, and stood up so they would fly on my arm! That was even more fun! They would fight for my arm! Mom was the unlucky tenant of a tired pigeon, on her head. It was such a laugh, until Luke (who wasn’t with us while that was happening) came running at us and scared it away. >:(
Once we ran out of food, we had to leave. We walked back a little ways, then dad took a while, because he negotiated a ride on a gondola (because they normally go in a circle for 50 minutes) , and in the end we got 25 minutes closer to our destination, and had to pay for that and the 25 minutes for him to get back. Bit of a ripoff if you ask me. after that we walked back to the parking garage and drove back to our villa ( ) for 3 hours and fifteen minutes. Once we got back home we all went to bed (it was 9 ish)

Posted in 2008-03 to 05, Europe | No Comments »

April 10, 2008 by Luke.

I am sure most of you have heard of Venice The love city. Well we went there yesterday. It is not really the city of love. It is a big touist atraction. There is 2 restaurants every 100 meters on popular road’s. It is also a pigeon attraction there are many tourists (and pigeons) in a big square. There is 3 vendors selling dried corn for you to feed the pigeons. You can put the corn in your hands and the pigeon’s will sit on your arms and eat or you can bend down with the food in your hands and let them eat from your hands but they are not on you. Last but also least you can throw the corn and watch them swam around you. I liked tossing it and when they were surrounding (Sp) you jump. Well thats all for now t.t.f.n (you know what it means).

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April 10, 2008 by Claudette.

Well it’s been a while since I’ve posted a new message, so here goes a quicky update.

We spent our last bit of time in Egypt in the desert and then the Sinai with the McBride Family from Ottawa. Our adventures in the desert were very fun and interesting. You’ll have to take a look at the pictures of us in the Black and then White Deserts. After the desert we spent about six days relaxing by the Red Sea in the town of Dahab. It was so nice to spend a few days with another Canadian family. (i.e. other adult conversation other than your spouse, and we generally all agreed at how we didn’t like been the “tourist” in India.)

After saying goodbye to our fellow travellers, (Thanks, Janice, Warren, Connor and Alannah we had a blast!!) we headed for Jordan. We spent the next few days in Petra, which was spectacular, to say the least. For sure it ranks up in the top 2 or 3 spot for places we have visited this year. I won’t go off in a big tirade of adjectives, I would just highly recommend visiting if you get the chance. Our last highlight of Jordan was realizing that this would probably be the last country in which we were awakened by the 4/5 AM Muslim prayer calls as it seemed like most of our hotels since Malyasia were right across the street from a mosque. (-;

We arrived in Rome on April 2nd, where Grandma Vi (Rick’s mom) and Grandpa Ray (my dad) surprised the kids at our B&B. They are spending the next few weeks travelling with us. After touring around some of the manditory sites such as the Vatican and Colloseum, then we took the train to Florence. We have a villa in the Tuscany countryside booked for a week. Yesterday we drove to Venice for the day where we walked around the city and took a small gondola ride down a few of the back canals. Tomorrow we are going to go to Pisa, before heading to Nice, France on Saturday.

Take care for now, Claudette

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