Where do you want to go Grandma?

While we were in Salzburg, we asked Grandma B what else she would like to see while she was visiting. We pulled out a map to see if anything nearby looked exciting. Did you know that Venice, Italy is a mere 4 hour drive from Salzburg, Austria?  Bingo! Let's go!

We hopped online and booked a very affordable stay. My kids were equally excited because they had never been to Venice either. It was a perfect Spring Break stop.

When we left the house to pick up Grandma at the airport, we had planned to stay in Salzburg only one night. That means we packed only an overnight bag for all of the kids and ourselves. This made for some somewhat ingenious dressing and cleaning of ourselves and our clothes. It also made this trip more adventurous and memorable, I think.

Luckily, Grandma still had her entire suitcase from the plane, so she was well-prepared.

We stayed in small trailers at a Camping Village outside the city. Each trailer slept three. Grandma and the girls stayed in one. Erick, the boys, and I stayed in the other. We were right next to each other, so it worked out great:

We took a bus into Venice and walked and walked and walked. This is especially impressive when you realize that Grandma recently replaced one knee and had plans to replace the other very soon. Ouch!

But she didn't complain a bit. We saw some beautiful  sites:

Joey was pretty certain that this bricked doorway was linked to a world of witches and wizards, like that of Harry Potter. She was trying to find the brick that would open the door:

We saw a lot of masks. This store was where Grandma found her favorite, a Pinocchio mask. The man who owns this store makes all of the masks himself:

I love the doors and door knockers all over the city:

David was a little too eager to go off on his own. We kept him contained in a stroller for most of the day:

TJ was thrilled when we got him this plastic mask. He was eager to decorate it when we got back to Germany:

We stopped on some stairs between a church and a bank to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and take a rest. We know how to spoil Grandma. We're high class like that:

The kids thought this alleyway stunk pretty bad:

But they thought the gelato tasted delicious!