The Moselle

On a warm long weekend, we took a trip to the Moselle valley. It is nice. We camped and stopped in the places pictured below.

Hamburg

We did a long weekend trip to Hamburg in the spring, since the Thursday was a holiday in Germany. We saw the harbor area, then walked over to the Reeperbahn area, the red light district, where the Beatles also played when they were starting out. We had dinner at a vegetarian restaurant (Leaf) in Altona, a gentrified area west of the Reeperbahn area. The next day we saw the Speicherstadt and the Miniatur-Wunderland. The amount of deatil there was very impressive. Then we had lunch at Ti Breizh, which serves gallettes and the same French cider (Val de Rance) that we had at another crepe place in Berlin. After that we walked around more, by the old town hall, and stopped for tea at an art nouveau cafe (Cafe Paris). Then we went by the Chilehaus. We had dinner at an Asian restaurant (it's a thing in Germany to combine countries). That night we went to a Laura Marling concert with Gill Landry as opener. It's not the first time we've combined a concert with a visit to a city (Paul McCartney in Vienna and the Decemberists in Zurich, e.g.). The next day we went over to Blankenese, a rich area with nice houses on a hill overlooking the river. There were a few old-style houses with thatched roofs. Then we took the ferry back to the city center and went to the Museum for Kunst & Gewerbe, which had Islamic art and tatoo exhibits and an art nouveau room. Then we went to dinner in the Schanzenviertel (another hip area of Hamburg). I got a veggie burger at a vegetarian burger (and other things) place. Then we went to a seafood restaurant, where I got salad. Our last morning, Sunday, we went to the fish market, which sells fish and lot of other things. It is funny to see all the people who have partied all night stumbling around at 7am. In the old fish auction hall they keep the party going with a live band and beer drinking. There was also a plant seller who had kind of a performance for selling the plants. Some of the other sellers were also kind of entertaining. After that we stopped at a Portuguese bakery before going up the bell tower in St. Michael's church. We then went by a memorial to Brahms (Brahms cube) and the place where he was born (there's just a stone with a plaque there now). The weather was nice, so we went to a cafe right on the Binnenalster lake. It then rained for about 15 minutes, but then it was ok again. Before we left we had lunch at a gourmet burger place named after a Grimm brothers fairy tale (Hans im Glueck), which they played in the bathrooms.

Limburg

We went to Limburg for a birthday brunch for one of Ben's colleagues. Afterwards we walked around the old town some, but it was very cold. Limburg has a lot of half-timbered houses. It is not where Limburger cheese comes from.

Marburg

We went to Marburg on German Unity Day (a national holiday). It has a pretty neat castle and old town, and the weather was good.

Berlin! (finally)

Japan Day in Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf has a relatively large Japanese population, and they have an annual Japan Day festival. We though it would be a lot of traditional arts and food and such, but it was much more Japanese pop culture-oriented. There were a lot of people in anime and other costumes. I think there was a competition. Almost everyone there was in their 20s or younger. A lot of people were wearing "free hugs" signs, and at one point, there was a very long line of such people, and you move down the line hugging everyone in it. There were also food stands, but just serving food, not with grocery items other than some packaged snacks. The whole thing was outside along the Rhine river. They also had various martial arts demonstrations and musical groups throughout the day and a fireworks show at night. The next day we went to a Japanese ramen place for lunch.

Black Forest

In April we took an extended weekend trip to the Black Forest. Our first stop was Baden Baden. It has hot springs and apparently a lot of rich people go there. It was nice enough, but didn't have too much for tourists to see. We didn't go to the hot spring spa, because it was kind of expensive. They did have a bunch of flower pots everywhere with quotes on them, which was neat. Then we went to Gengenbach. It was used in the Tim Burton Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie as the hometown of Augustus Gloop. It is picturesque, with a lot of half-timbered houses. Next we went to Triberg, which is one of the places where Black Forest Cake was supposedly invented. We got some cake at a cafe that claims to use the original recipe. The town is very touristy, with many souvenir shops and a little train to take people up the hill. There is a waterfall there, but you had to pay to see it, so we didn't. Not pictured below, we stopped briefly at one of the two places that claims to have the largest cuckoo clock in the world. It's on the side of a souvenir store. Towards the end of our first day, we went by one of the origins of the Danube, that is, one of the small rivers that combines with another river to become the Danube. It comes up out of the ground as a small creek. Then we went to our hotel. It was pretty neat. It's an old building now operated by Best Western, between Freiburg and Titisee. There were some cows in a field nearby, which we tried, once successfully, to feed. They seemed wary of people. For dinner we went to Titisee, to an Italian restaurant.

The next day we drove to Freiburg. It has the most sunny days of any city in Germany. It did get sunny in the afternoon. They have mosaic signs on the sidewalk everywhere that historically represented what kind of shop they were in front of. Some of them are still traditional-looking and some are newer. After eating lunch we drove to St. Blasien, which has an impressive cathedral and overpriced cafes. In the late afternoon we went to a large indoor pool complex with lots of pools and waterslides. An hour was included in a pass we got from our hotel. They had one pool with a high salt content, like the Dead See, so you could float really easily, which was fun. They also had seats that shot out bubbles, like a jacuzzi, but they were seats in a larger pool and an outdoor heated pool area with a bar, as well as a hamam-style steam room. But the waterslides were the best part and much fun was had.

On our way back home the next day we stopped by the confluence of the Danube and in Villingen, a small town where we ate in a restaurant that had booths in giant wine vats.

Another Castle

We went to Sigmaringen.

Fall Trips

We had the opportunity to use Ben's parents' car for a few weeks in the fall, so we took some weekend trips.

First was Bodensee (Lake Constance). We started in Lindau. It was kind of rainy and windy, but the view from the shore out to the lighthouse and lion statue was still nice. We also walked around the nice old town area. Next we drove along the coast to Wasserburg, which is more of a summer vacation town. We walked around the shore there and past a lot of charming B&Bs. Then it was on to Friedrichshafen, which is one of the larger cities on the lake, but one of the newer, more industrial ones, and is known for zeppelins. They have a nice promenade along the lake, but it was rainy and foggy when we were there, so there wasn't much of a view. All of the many cafes along the way were full anyway. We then drove on to our hotel in Meersburg. We had originally planned to stay in Friedrichshafen, but could only find a hotel in Meersburg, which turns out to be a good thing, since Meersburg is much more picturesque (also touristy). Our hotel, the Gasthof zum Baeren, is centuries old and right in the old town. The city has a medieval castle, so we went there first. Most of the rooms have medieval decor, but some have furniture and such from later centuries. After the castle, we walked down to the waterfront area. It was the time of year for "new wine" (known by many different regional names), so we went into a wine shop/bar and had a glass. The next day we moved on to Konstanz, the largest city on the lake. They, too have a nice waterfront promenade and a weird rotating statue on a pier. Next we saw 3 old churches on Reichenau. Our last stop on the lake was Ueberlingen. The weather was much nicer that day, so we stopped at one of the many crowded cafes with outdoor tables on the promenade for the popular coffee/cake combo and some more new wine (you have to drink it while you can, since it's not around long). On the drive back, we stopped in Ravensburg, of puzzle fame, and walked around the old town.

The following (extended) weekend we headed north to Franconia and Thuringen. First stop was Bamberg. Bamberg is a very nice city, and consequently popular with tourists. We were also there during Oktoberfest, so we think that was a popular day trip from Munich. First we saw the cathedral and surrounding old buildings, and got some lunch with more new wine, even though the city has famous smoky beer. Then we headed up the hill to Michaelsberg Abbey, which has over 600 medicinal plants painted on the ceiling. There was a new wine festival happening on the premises. Then we walked along "Little Venice" and saw the old town hall on the river. Next we drove to Bayreuth, which is where the annual Wagner opera festival takes place in the summer. We saw the old opera house, which we were lucky to see, since it closed for multi-year renovations 2 days after we were there. It is filled with elaborate wooden decorations. We had some of the local specialty, Klöße (dumplings, often potato dumplings), for dinner. The next day we saw the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which was built under Wagner's supervision and is used exclusively for his opera festival. We also saw the graves of Wagner and his dog Russ. We then drove to Coburg and saw the old town, then headed up to the large, attractive Veste (fortress/castle). Finally we drove into Thuringen to its capital of Erfurt. You wouldn't know Thuringen was part of East Germany, except for some remaining Ampelmännchen and occasional Soviet street names. We walked through part of the old town and the Oktoberfest carnival happening in the cathedral plaza, and saw the Bernd das Brot statue next to the Rathaus (town hall). The next day we went to Goethe-central, aka Weimar. Weimar was also home to a whole host of other famous Germans (see list), the Bauhaus art movement, and the Weimar Republic. Unfortunately the Goethe museum and the Anna Amalia library were closed (Mondays), but we saw many other historic locations and monuments. Weimar also has several streets with art nouveau houses, which are very nice. The next day we saw more of Erfurt, including the cathedral, paintings in the Rathaus, and Krämerbrücke (like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence or Rialto in Venice). Then we drove to Eisenach. Aside from being the birthplace of J.S. Bach, the main attraction there is Wartburg castle, so we walked up there first. Parts of the original medieval castle remain, and the rest was continuously updated. Inside, where we couldn't take pictures, are several impressive romantic-era mosaics, the music hall that was the site of a medieval minstrels' contest and the inspiration for Wagner's opera Tannhäuser, and the room where Martin Luther hid out for a while. After the castle we saw the old town, including Bach's birthhouse and one of the houses where Luther lived. Our hotel was a villa on a hill next to the city, which had many other cool villas. If it wasn't already known for Wartburg, I would consider Eisenach the City of Villas. The next day we drove home, stopping in the half-timbered town of Schmalkalden and then Meiningen.

Our last weekend, before we returned the car, we went to Burg Hohenzollern. It was originally medieval, but was mostly destroyed twice, and the current castle is mostly from the romantic era, in the gothic/medieval style. It's pretty neat.

Japan

There hasn't been much activity on the blog recently, since we've gotten settled in Ulm and the weather in the winter here isn't that great for taking trips. Maybe no one is even reading this anymore. :-)
Anyway, we went to Japan on vacation for two weeks at the end of March/beginning of April. That worked out quite well, because we were able to take advantage of the Easter holidays in Germany and catch the cherry blossoms in Japan. Actually, due to the long, cold winter in Japan, the cherry blossoms were about a week behind schedule compared to the average, so we only saw them towards the end of our trip (in Kyoto, we kept saying to ourselves how impressive this must look with cherry blossoms...). We covered quite a lot of ground in those two weeks: We flew into Nagoya, then stopped briefly in Okayama to see the famous Koraku-en before continuing on to Hiroshima and the famous floating torii at Miyajima. We then backtracked to Kyoto, where we spent several days, taking small side trips to Uji and Hikone. From there it was off to Nara, before heading to the Japan Alps, where we stopped in Matsumoto and then visited the snow monkeys and hot springs in Shibu Onsen. We then traveled to Tokyo with a brief stop in Nagano. Tokyo was again our base for several days, with a side trip taken to Nikko, before flying back home.
We had a fantastic time, and I'll let the pictures do the talking instead of commenting on everything. Unfortunately, I did manage to fracture my ankle after getting out of a hot spring in Shibu Onsen, which meant that I was on crutches the entire time in Tokyo. Therefore, we didn't see as much there as we would have liked to, though on the bright side, that means that there's a definite reason to go back in the near future!

Spello and Gubbio

The next day, we visited two other hill towns in Umbria: Spello and Gubbio. First up: Spello, just a few miles away from Assisi, but much quieter and less crowded. I would guess it's probably one of the prettiest towns in the area. There's not that much to do other than wander its picturesque streets and visit two churches, but that's pleasant enough. In addition, the area is famous for its olive oil, which we had a chance to taste (and buy). There's also some nice art by Pinturicchio in the two churches: a finely frescoed chapel in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, and a Madonna with Saints in the church of Sant'Andrea.
Afterwards, we drove to Gubbio, stopping on the way to have a picnic in the hills with a view of Perugia. It's larger than Spello, and with more sights, but without the sunny hill town vibe of Spello. That doesn't mean it's not hilly, though: to get to the main square, we took a public elevator. Further uphill, we visited the cathedral and the Palazzo Ducale, where we were lucky enough to get free admission (it was the day of culture, or something like that), and saw a nice exhibition of Umbrian maiolica. Finally, it was off to the cable car up to the Basilica of Sant'Ubaldo. Described by the Lonely Planet as looking "frighteningly like an open-topped human birdcage," that seems like an apt description. The church at the top was decent enough (more remains of a saint!), but the ride up was definitely the highlight. Afterward, it was back to Florence.

Assisi

My parents came to visit last weekend, and since they've been to Florence several times now, we decided to go out and see something new. We decided on Assisi and surroundings, so Saturday morning we drove down from Florence, hoping that the weather would stay nice (it did for the most part). Assisi is, of course, the home of St. Francis of Assisi, where he preached, and is now the goal of many pilgrims.
The city itself is much like many other hill towns in Umbria and Tuscany: steep streets, bare stone houses, many churches. The highlight here is the Basilica of St. Francis, where the saint's remains are stored. Consisting of an upper and a lower church, both decorated with some fantastic frescoes by Cimabue and Giotto, among others, it really is a sight to see. We then went to see some of the other churches in town, among them the Romanesque Basilica of St. Clare (with her remains) and the Duomo di San Rufino. The town is nice enough, but I do wonder what St. Francis would have to say about the crass commercialization.
In the late afternoon it started to rain, and since we still had plenty of time before dinner, we drove down the hill to the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli, which was built around the Porziuncola chapel, where the Franciscan movement started. I liked the small chapel, but like with the sights in town, I'm guessing they have much more significance to true believers.
After a mediocre dinner in town (note to self: make reservations for the recommended places), we walked up to the Rocca, from which we had a great view onto the monuments of the city, lit up in the night.

Galicia

Last week I attended a conference in Ourense, Spain. I actually had never heard of the city before the conference, but it's a pleasant place in a beautiful region of Spain. The conference was very well organized, even if the program was quite full -- I usually only had about 10 or 20 minutes a day of free time in between talks, group lunches and dinners, excursion, receptions, etc.
After the conference, I spent a day visiting Santiago de Compostela, an hour away, and location of the airport. While I myself didn't walk any of the Camino de Santiago, I saw plenty of pilgrims there. I did attend the pilgrim's mass in the cathedral, mostly in order to see the botafumeiro being swung at the end. It's quite the spectacle for a liturgical celebration. The city itself is small and cozy, and there's a lot of life in the evenings when the local student population comes out. I stayed in the very nice Hotel Pombal, having been moved there since the original hotel I had reserved was overbooked.
Getting home was a bit of a challenge, but I was quite lucky. Due to the volcanic ash cloud, most flights in Europe have been canceled and airports closed, as I'm sure you've heard. I was booked on a flight to Bologna via Madrid on Sunday. When I found out Saturday evening that Bologna would also be closed on Sunday, I immediately called Iberia. After about an hour on hold, having the call dropped, and having to call their German call center since no one in the Spanish call center spoke English, I was finally able to change my destination to Rome, which was still projected to be open. I did make it to Rome, where a large crowd of people were trying to make arrangements to travel to their home countries -- Germany, England, the Netherlands, etc. I managed to get a train to Florence a few hours later, so I had better luck than the many people who were affected by the announcements that all trains from Italy to Northern Europe were fully booked until Friday! I was extremely glad to be back home, even if it was a few hours later than planned.

Egypt

For the Easter holidays this year, we wanted to go someplace warm, relatively cheap, and preferably not all too Catholic (so that the holidays wouldn't interfere with the vacation). So when we found a good fare to Cairo, we took advantage. It would also be my birthday, so we'd be celebrating in Egypt.
In the end, we spent a week traveling through the country (that's the absolute minimum of time, in my opinion), stopping in Luxor, Aswan as well as Cairo. Luxor surely had the most monuments: as the site of ancient Thebes, there were many temples, including the famous Luxor, Karnak, and Hatshepsut temples, as well as pharaonic tombs in the Valley of the Kings, among others. In Aswan, we visited Philae temple as well as the old quarries, took a felucca ride on the Nile and took a quick trip to Abu Simbel on the morning of my birthday. Finally, we took in the crazy and crowded city of Cairo in two days, seeing the Egyptian museum and the Islamic monuments of the old town, as well as seeing a multitude of pyramids -- the famous ones at Giza of course, but also the older ones at Saqqara and Dahshur. In Dahshur, we even got to climb down into the Red Pyramid, which was an Indiana Jones style adventure, and ensured that our legs were sore for a few days afterwards.
All in all we had a great time, even if traveling in Egypt can be frustrating at times: as a tourist, you're of course prey for all the touts trying to sell you camel rides, felucca rides, taxis, and any kind of souvenir. Then there's the haggling, which is necessary for almost anything -- certainly for taxis and at the souq. In Cairo, we were tired enough of this that we specifically sought out metered taxis, and a fixed-price fair trade shop, and I'm convinced that we saved money in this way. Finally, there are constant demands for baksheesh from most anyone, and I'm sure there are a few corners of the monuments that we avoided seeing because there was a guard there who we were sure would try to point out some obvious things ("face... cow...") and then ask for some baksheesh. Nevertheless, the beauty of the country and its sights more than balance out these inconveniences, and we're happy to have had the opportunity of going there.

Paris

A few months ago, I found out that I had won two free nights at the Park Hyatt Vendôme Paris by participating in a Lufthansa internet quiz. We thought about combining it with a visit to the Paris opera, and were lucky enough to be able to get tickets to a performance of "Idomeneo" -- I realized only afterwards that this was Valentine's Day weekend, so it worked out well.
We arrived on Saturday in the early afternoon after a quick flight via Munich, and checked in to our luxury accommodation. Lucky us were even given an upgrade to a deluxe room, and two minutes after we got to the room, an employee of the hotel came by with a bottle of wine to welcome us. Not a bad beginning. Though it was cold, we did leave the hotel some in the end, and went to see Notre Dame, before returning to the hotel. That evening was the opera, which was at the Palais Garnier, a short walk away from our hotel. It's probably best known these days for being the setting of "The Phantom of the Opera," with it's majestic chandelier. We had no chance of being killed by it falling, though, since we were sitting up in the Amphitheatre seats. Note to prospective visitors: the view from there is excellent, the acoustics good, and the price remarkably cheap compared to most other seats. However, the seats are probably the most uncomfortable that I've experienced: so steep that your feet don't touch the floor, spaced by the minimum amount possible so that your knees are probably hitting the head of the person in front of you, and to top it off, a hard bar poking in your back. We were very happy when the break came. The performance, on the other hand, was world class. All singers were excellent, with the main characters of Charles Workman in the title role and Vesselina Kasarova as Idamante being the standouts for me. The choir, much utilized in this opera, was very good as well, and carried the action.
The next day, we had a nice breakfast (luckily included for us, otherwise it would have cost €42!) and then went to the Louvre. What a pleasant experience after having to endure the pain that is getting tickets at the Uffizi! Of course, we went to see the highlights such as the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and the Napoleon apartments, but we spent the most time in the Oriental and Egyptian antiquities section, which has a very impressive selection. In the afternoon, we met Christian, a friend of mine from college, and his wife Kathrin at the Cafe Angelina, where we had a nice decadent African hot chocolate. After wandering along the Seine at twilight, we went to a cozy Creperie for dinner, since both Kristen and Kathrin are vegetarians, who are not well accommodated at most French restaurants.
Monday after checking out and storing our luggage, we took advantage of the metro tickets we had left over (a pass of 10 tickets simply gives you 10 single tickets) and went to see Sacre Coeur and Montmartre (passing by the Cafe des 2 Moulins on the way), the Centre Pompidou and Pletzl, and the Eiffel Tower, before heading back to the hotel. Before heading towards the airport, I was able to pick up some wine and baguettes, which will contribute towards a very nice dinner soon! Our flight back was slightly delayed, so while we were able to make our connection in Frankfurt, our bags weren't, but they've since arrived.

Barcelona

Last Tuesday was a holiday in Italy, so like all good Italians, we made a long weekend out of it and went to Barcelona for a few days. We really liked the city, with its Gothic old town and modernisme architecture by Antoni Gaudi, among others. Kristen got tickets to a concert in the Palau de la Musica Catalana for her birthday, and we enjoyed listening to Mozart's Requiem in this over-the-top concert hall. Add to that the excellent food (tapas and paella), and you can tell we had a good time.

It was also enjoyable to be in a city (even a southern European one) in which there is ample and functioning public transportation, mostly friendly and helpful people, and you don't feel like you're being ripped off at any given time. Hey Italy... *nudge, nudge* Interestingly, there were very few jaywalkers... what's up with that?

Scotland

To escape the constant, unrelenting heat in Florence in August, we went to Scotland for nearly two weeks around Assumption Day, which is when half Italy packs up and leaves for the beach or for colder climates. In all our travels, we had never met that many Italians, so I thought that they just didn't travel much. However, it seems that they do travel, just all during August: in Scotland, we saw almost as many Italians as Germans, and that's saying something!
In any case, we started out in Glasgow, where we visited Alecia and her husband, and then rented a car to drive around the countryside, camping in our tent as we went. Via Stirling Castle and Doune Castle, which was thankfully free of taunting Frenchmen, we headed for Loch Lomond, Inveraray Castle and Oban, before reaching Glencoe. Nearby, we went to the Glenfinnan Highland Games, before heading up to the Isle of Skye, where we spent a very stormy night. At this point of the trip, the weather was quite rainy and stormy, so some of the attractions, such as the Old Man of Storr, were shrouded in fog. Coming back from Skye, we crossed Scotland's highest road to get to Applecross, and drove along the coast some from there before crossing over to the east. Here, we were in castle country, so we took in Dunrobin, Urquhart, Cawdor, Fyvie, Craigievar, Fraser, Dunnottar, and Glamis. In this area, Kristen had found the locations of several Pictish stones online, so we also hunted those out. Going back south, we stopped by St. Andrews, where we had a classy lunch in the clubhouse with Andreas, a friend of mine from college, and then drove to Dunfermline, where we stayed the night with Maureen and Martin. Finally, we spent a day in Edinburgh, where we naturally visited the castle and the excellent Museum of Scotland.
While we cooked most of the time when camping, we did try the local food, such as haggis, fish and chips, or chicken tikka masala, most of which we liked, but some of which (the deep-fried pizza) was a bit too much. We also made it to two whisky distilleries, of which we have conflicting opinions (Ben: mmmmhhhh, Kristen: ugh). Some pictures of our trip can be seen below, or by clicking on the slideshow for the larger versions.

Parma and Modena

Yesterday, Kristen returned after spending some time in the U.S. and trying without success to get her visa renewed. Since she flew into Bologna, I decided to meet her there in the evening, and spend the day in the nearby city of Parma.
After walking downtown from the train station, I first had to get something for lunch -- my choice was a sandwich with Parma ham, of course. Parma isn't a huge city, so it was easy to see everything in a few hours. There aren't too many tourists there either -- I guess they're all trampling themselves in Florence. The highlights were the Romanesque Duomo and Baptistry. The latter was impressive due to its height and the frescoes covering the entire interior. The interior of the Duomo was largely Baroque (very much overdone, in my opinion), with famous cupola by Correggio though also with a nice relief by the sculptor Benedetto Antelami. I also briefly visited the Museo Diocesano, which had a few nice sculptures and a 5th century floor mosaic.

Detail of the Parma baptistry ceiling. Note the depiction of the evangelists as half-animal, half-human figures.

Since there was still enough time before Kristen arrived, I took the train to Modena, which is located halfway in between Parma and Bologna, and which is probably most famous for its Balsamic vinegar. It also boasts one of the most important and impressive Romanesque cathedrals of Europe, though, which has made it onto the UNESCO World Heritage list. Unfortunately, parts of the facade and the bell tower were being renovated, and were therefore covered up. Nevertheless, many of the stone carvings by Wiligelmus could be seen, and the (rather dark) interior was impressive.
Then it was time to take the train to Bologna, where I met Kristen and helped her lug all of her luggage back to Florence.

Tolfa at sunrise

Weekend in Venice

This weekend, we went to Venice to meet my parents, who were there after my mom's big birthday. On Friday, we took the train from Florence, met my parents at the train station and immediately started the sightseeing by taking the vaporetto (water bus) along the Grand Canal to our hotel. We were lucky to get seats outside in front, and the weather on our arrival was fantastic, so the parade of palazzi along the canal was spectacular. After arriving at the hotel, we quickly dropped off our luggage and then walked back to the Piazza San Marco, where the evening light made everything look even more picturesque than it already is. We took the elevator up to the campanile on the piazza, from which we had a great view over the city. At 7, one of the bells started ringing, which was unexpected and quite loud! Finally, we walked further west, looking for a restaurant. Unfortunately, the one we had chosen from our guide was closed, and most other places were already full, so we ended up in a touristy restaurant, which was however better than expected.

The next day, we took a vaporetto back to Piazza San Marco again, and went to the Palazzo Ducale (Doge's palace). This was quite impressive in the abundance of monumental paintings by Tintoretto, Veronese, and others, as well as for the insights into Venetian buerocracy. I guess now we understand that Italian buerocracy has a long tradition... Afterwards, we went into the Basilica San Marco next door, which was overwhelming with all its gold mosaics. Maybe less is more in this respect. Then we made our way over the Rialto bridge to the Ca' Pesaro for a rest from all the old and religious art we've been seeing the last few months to go to the Museum of Modern Art and the Oriental Art Museum. From there, we slowly made our way back south and crossed over to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, from which we had a good panoramic view to Piazza San Marco and the buildings on the main island. Finally, we went to dinner at La Zucca, a good restaurant in a quiet area near the Rialto bridge, which I can recommend (but make reservations!).
On Sunday, the weather was more overcast, cooler, and it rained lightly at times. Nevertheless, we started out in the former Jewish ghetto, then took the usual combination of vaporetto and walking to the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, where the attractions include some giant stone funerary monuments, as well as two famous Titian paintings, and the tomb of Claudio Monteverdi. Finally in the late afternoon, it was time to pick up our luggage and return to the train station, from which we took the Eurostar back to Florence.