Day 34 - 37, Beck's Wedding

As mentioned earlier, we got up at the ridiculous time of 3 am to catch a 4 am train to Vienna, then somewhere else I don't remember, and then Munich. After that, we went through a bunch of small German and Austrian towns until we came to the Alps, where the scenery was absolutely stunning. All snow-capped mountains, lush green valleys, gigantic viaducts, and awesome architecture. We then changed trains again at Verona, where we caught a completely shithouse train that made even the crappiest QR train seem like luxury. There were puddles of wee everywhere, and an African bloke who asked me to marry him so he could move to Australia. As flattering as that was, I took off to sit with the oldies in order to feel somewhat safe.

Once in Venice, it was nearly 10 at night, and Bryan was waiting for us. He then proceeded to lead us on to a ferry, and through a maze of buildings, stairs and bridges to the apartment we had rented along one of the canals. All carrying over 20 kilos of luggage. I was completely buggered.

The next day was much better however, as it was Beck and Bryan's wedding day. Her dress was stunning, and the room where the ceremony was held at the town hall was beautiful. It was conducted in both English and Italian, and it was a rather intimate affair. After that, the happy couple took a gondola ride down the grand canal, as you can see in the photo below, while the rest of us followed in a water taxi.

The water taxi took us past the Church of Good Health, built after the end of the Plague, as well as many prominant Venitian landmarks, until we reached the entrance to St Marks Square, which you can see in the photo below. The photographer and videographer made us walk around the city after this photo was taken for a good 2 hours before we were allowed to go to the lovely seafood restaurant where the reception was held. Everyone got quite a bit drunk, sung 'When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie' very loudly and off key, and stumbled back to the apartment for a kip.

In this photo, I'm the one on the far right, in the white dress with black flowers.

After the nap, AJ and I walked around Venice, and stood on a bridge overlooking teh Grand Canal, where you could see all the landmarks we had seen earlier that day. Venice is absolutely gorgeous at night, with all the light bouncing off the white buildings and black water.

The next day, two of our party left for Switzerland, and the rest of us took it fairly easy - I went shopping for groceries and had gelati and pizza, and went on a ferry ride around Venice to see whatever we hadn't yet seen. This was the rest day before yet another mad dash, this time to our final cruise on the Ruby Princess that was to take us around the Mediterreanean.

Days 32 - 33

After the epic train journey yesterday, we got out at the train station, caught taxis to the hotel, and discovered it had a tiny spiral staircase and our rooms were on the third floor - thus, we had great difficulty dragging up 25 kilos of suitcase. I longed for the cruise ship so I could just rest without worrying about lugging everything I owned (which amounted to half my weight) around with me.

Prague is gorgeous, exactly how I pictured it. The day after all that train travel, I walked a bit down the street from the hotel, hopped on a tram and walked around the city's centre until I found the Old Town, with the beautiful Astronomical clock, Wenceslas Square, Tyn Church, and what I think was originally a gate into the city.

I bought one of those really yummy hot chocolates that taste like they've just melted a block of chocolate into a bowl and set off to find the National Museum, Charles Bridge, and Prague castle.

Prague is beautiful, but I just didn't connect to it as much as I did with Germany.

Didn't really do or see anything else in Prague as the next day we had to get up at 3:30 am to have an even longer day of train travel - a total of 14 hours to meet up with Beck and Bryan in Venice, Italy for their wedding.