Venezia & Innsbruck (20-21 May 2006)
My sis stayed on for another week, went around Italy for a holiday. For me? I got to work! But anyway, nothing to stop me from meeting her in Venezia, which is closer-sounding to its English name: Venice.
So once again, hopped on a night train from München to Venezia (OK, not exactly hopped on. I bought a ticket), the land (not exactly "land" too) of longkangs!
Venice is commonly called "the city of canals" (or longkangs, as I mentioned earlier). It was built in the Venetian Lagoon and because of its low-lying stilts, floods are quite frequent in Venice.
The train crosses a bridge to reach Venice proper...
Into the Venezia-Santa Lucia Station
The train station
Met up with my Sis and Ms Koo, then we moved on to St. Mark's Square by water bus which goes up and down the Grand Canal
Finally there! Piazza San Marco or St. Mark's Square in English, location of the Basilica di San Marco, which has been around since the 9th Century, along with the Doge's Palace beside it. The interesting part of the basilica is that it contains the remains of St. Mark, author of the Gospel of Mark.
St. Mark's Square
The Doge's Palace
The multitude of pigeons in the square
The corner of the basilica
The arch above the main entrance
The whole facade of the basilica
No pictures inside, as always, but the interior is covered by mosaics made by crushed glass and put into the walls piece by piece. No one knows the exact number of pieces, but there is 8000 sq m of it, so go figure... The building took 30 years to build, but the interior also took 300 years to complete, so there are distinctly different styles of mosaics due to the technology available.
Anyway, we moved on to Murano, the place where the famous Venetian glass is made.
Arriving at Murano
For a free glass-blowing demonstration
He's good!!!
The final product: a glass snail
The multitudes of glassware available
Yes, it's made of glass...
So are these!
Another example of glassware, recognise them?
So after the ladies have done their shopping, we went back to San Marco. Ms Koo wanted to continue her shopping, so I walked around with Sis.
Narrow streets are a norm here...
Yet you can even find a familiar international sight
Even narrower walkways
421 bridges over narrow canals, so this is common
The gondolas are also a staple
The famous masks of Venice
The famous Rialto bridge
No roads here, so everything's done by boat. This is an ambulance boat!
And a firefighting boat
And of course, Venice by night.
As for food, I had an Italian specialty (which is distinctly Venetian, I read): Spaghetti with black cuttlefish sauce. Essentially noodles with a sauce made by the black ink of the sotong.
As you can see for yourself
Parting shot of Venice, back across the bridge
So from here, we left on Sunday morning and went to Verona for a stopover at the vineyard that Sis went. Nothing much inside, I thought, except the vines.
The vineyard...
Against a scenic mountain backdrop
The tiny grapes
So after lunch at a nearby Italian restaurant, where I whacked the "black mee" again, then moving on to Watten, a small town close to Innsbruck in Austria. Time to revisit another place I've been to: The Swarovski Kristallwelten
I've been to the Swarovski Kritallwelten (translation: Swarovski Crystal World) before during my first trip, so this is nothing new, but a time to revisit with my new camera and tripod! This is also the site of the Swarovski factory and their shop range is vast!
The largest perfect crystal in the world
Crystal horse
A wall of perfect crystals
Inside the crystal dome
The "Giant's Ring"
The "Giant's gloves"
The "floating poem", you can see the words swirling around on top
And a huge jellyfish that changes lighting
Very artistic museum (or theme park, as they call it). On top of it is a beautiful garden where you have a very beautiful view of the mountains.
See the "Swarovski" logo?
With Sis in front of the landmark fountain
Recommended by CNN, ok!!!
After this was a short drive over to Innsbruck, a former Olympic host for the Winter Olympics. Innsbruck is also the capitol of the federal state of Tyrol, Austria, and is situated between 2 mountains with a river flowing in between.
The most-famous site in Innsbruck: The Golden Roof
A beautiful backdrop of the mountains
I thought this was interesting: chocolate asparagus
Yup, only a short pit stop, but since I've been here before, so nothing really much to do also. Time to head back to München and back to work, while Sis has to catch her flight back home on Tuesday, but not before a shopping trip downtown Munich on Monday.
Photobucket: Venice Trip
So once again, hopped on a night train from München to Venezia (OK, not exactly hopped on. I bought a ticket), the land (not exactly "land" too) of longkangs!
Venice is commonly called "the city of canals" (or longkangs, as I mentioned earlier). It was built in the Venetian Lagoon and because of its low-lying stilts, floods are quite frequent in Venice.
The train crosses a bridge to reach Venice proper...
Into the Venezia-Santa Lucia Station
The train station
Met up with my Sis and Ms Koo, then we moved on to St. Mark's Square by water bus which goes up and down the Grand Canal
Finally there! Piazza San Marco or St. Mark's Square in English, location of the Basilica di San Marco, which has been around since the 9th Century, along with the Doge's Palace beside it. The interesting part of the basilica is that it contains the remains of St. Mark, author of the Gospel of Mark.
St. Mark's Square
The Doge's Palace
The multitude of pigeons in the square
The corner of the basilica
The arch above the main entrance
The whole facade of the basilica
No pictures inside, as always, but the interior is covered by mosaics made by crushed glass and put into the walls piece by piece. No one knows the exact number of pieces, but there is 8000 sq m of it, so go figure... The building took 30 years to build, but the interior also took 300 years to complete, so there are distinctly different styles of mosaics due to the technology available.
Anyway, we moved on to Murano, the place where the famous Venetian glass is made.
Arriving at Murano
For a free glass-blowing demonstration
He's good!!!
The final product: a glass snail
The multitudes of glassware available
Yes, it's made of glass...
So are these!
Another example of glassware, recognise them?
So after the ladies have done their shopping, we went back to San Marco. Ms Koo wanted to continue her shopping, so I walked around with Sis.
Narrow streets are a norm here...
Yet you can even find a familiar international sight
Even narrower walkways
421 bridges over narrow canals, so this is common
The gondolas are also a staple
The famous masks of Venice
The famous Rialto bridge
No roads here, so everything's done by boat. This is an ambulance boat!
And a firefighting boat
And of course, Venice by night.
As for food, I had an Italian specialty (which is distinctly Venetian, I read): Spaghetti with black cuttlefish sauce. Essentially noodles with a sauce made by the black ink of the sotong.
As you can see for yourself
Parting shot of Venice, back across the bridge
So from here, we left on Sunday morning and went to Verona for a stopover at the vineyard that Sis went. Nothing much inside, I thought, except the vines.
The vineyard...
Against a scenic mountain backdrop
The tiny grapes
So after lunch at a nearby Italian restaurant, where I whacked the "black mee" again, then moving on to Watten, a small town close to Innsbruck in Austria. Time to revisit another place I've been to: The Swarovski Kristallwelten
I've been to the Swarovski Kritallwelten (translation: Swarovski Crystal World) before during my first trip, so this is nothing new, but a time to revisit with my new camera and tripod! This is also the site of the Swarovski factory and their shop range is vast!
The largest perfect crystal in the world
Crystal horse
A wall of perfect crystals
Inside the crystal dome
The "Giant's Ring"
The "Giant's gloves"
The "floating poem", you can see the words swirling around on top
And a huge jellyfish that changes lighting
Very artistic museum (or theme park, as they call it). On top of it is a beautiful garden where you have a very beautiful view of the mountains.
See the "Swarovski" logo?
With Sis in front of the landmark fountain
Recommended by CNN, ok!!!
After this was a short drive over to Innsbruck, a former Olympic host for the Winter Olympics. Innsbruck is also the capitol of the federal state of Tyrol, Austria, and is situated between 2 mountains with a river flowing in between.
The most-famous site in Innsbruck: The Golden Roof
A beautiful backdrop of the mountains
I thought this was interesting: chocolate asparagus
Yup, only a short pit stop, but since I've been here before, so nothing really much to do also. Time to head back to München and back to work, while Sis has to catch her flight back home on Tuesday, but not before a shopping trip downtown Munich on Monday.
Photobucket: Venice Trip
posted by Chiu Weng | 2:50 AM
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