Day Eight continues

Steam punk masks!
Dinner....
And a show...
The waiter dumped the ice-bucket for the champagne down two ladies backs. It wasn't burst out loud laughing funny until the gal rescued the champagne slamming it to the table and shooting a fork over a table. THAT was funny!!

Day Eight begins slowly.

I need coffee. Uh café...si café con latté...no included breakfast this morning. I have to hunt it down myself. The horror or if all!

I found it at the bar around the corner. Sat and had a nice café while Liz got ready.

Today was Doges Palace and the bridge of sighs it was early about 9am which in reality isn't early however early for us. We made it through with very few groups. It was nice as I sat in in a private tour for the grand room. Not on purpose. They sat with me...so I listened in for a bit ;)

We even got the obligatory photo of Liz with pigeons. :)

When we were done we went to the station to get reservations to which we were told we didn't need them. Talk about double standards! ;)

We then did a picture match from the small square by the station.
And NO photos on the phone. Hum. Slacker!

We went back to Murano for Liz to buy another present. And I was tempted yet again with glass. This time large sharks (these are 4' tall)
Smaller sharks (1.5' long and €600) sea turtles (6" long - $500€)
And cuttlefish (5" long - 350€) All of which tempted me however I resisted with the knowledge that much money is a trip to Utah for two!!

So pretty.

then back to main venice and the crush of people here! Wow! It's a mad house!
The lobby where I'm sitting now.

Day Seven

Bus to the train station. Well worth the 4€ spent rather than 10-15€ spent if we did taxi.
And our first adventure with hopping a train with no reservations. We didn't even have to move with a fairly full train. We thought for sure we would be booted to different seats. Nope.
Then when they come to check tickets I find that the high speed trains require reservation. Oops. Cost me twice the amount to get said ticket in the train - 20€ at the station vs 36 on the train. Oops! Things have changed since I was here last eh? that and all these high speed trains are under ground... We've been in a tunnel for 30 minutes! The thing was Pisa they didn't bat an eye at no reservations. Weirdness it has to be the high speed vs local issue? Possibly that there is no first class on those trains? Hard to know.
Ah well lesson learned. 
Riding a train is relaxing!

Found the hotel we may well have the exact room we (Suz and I) had in the past.

We're on Murano for lunch and talking about cost ... There is a family of 10 "adults" 7 kids and they were talking about the bill being around $25 a person. Ok. I had to do the math and it was about 550€ for the bill YOUCH. I will NOT complain anymore about our relatively small cost for meals.
Spaghetti with peppers and chicken. Yum
Bear enjoyed it as well! Ha!
Gnocchi - for Liz
And off to shop for Christmas ornaments.
Christmas ornaments purchased and shipping home. 6 clear red ones.
Two new friends in Murano :). They were 8 years old... Cute and had a shop out their window near the water bus station :)
One BIG glass of wine that Berry wanted to share
The ultimate view during dinner.
So Italian!
Finito! 
Our view us towards Rialto.
Ahhhh the life! 7pm and we will wander towards San Marcos then to the hotel to wait for the singing to begin. :)
Similar to the fish I emailed you about Butch :)

Yes - this is the spot!
How Liz is now sitting with feet dangling down. How funny!

We have wifi but in the lobby or stairs only. Good enough :)

We were going to eat dinner here... But it was a sandwich shop so we changed to here:
Nice view ;)

Behind us is a rowdy crowd for the Italy/Croatia soccer match. :)
And a fattening and filling meal was had by all. Goodnight Florence!

Day six.

Day six is interesting. We couldn't figure out where to go next so we stayed here and went to the Uffizi Museum. That was done by 3pm so back to the hotel to chill. I napped and Liz read for two hours. Hum. Not quite what I had planned... But works I guess. Dinner out tonight then Venice tomorrow. Well go early. Drop luggage and then take a train back to Verona if we get the urge that same day as its just an hour and we have a room booked... Again winging it...