Ready to See the World: March 2012

Venice, Italy

So we arrived in Venice, Italy on Monday, we had that evening to do what ever we wanted, but I had to stay at the hotel to prepare for the interview that never happened. However, on Tuesday we toured Venice for about 9+ hours. That is a LONG Time, it was rivaling the amount of walking I did in China three years ago. In Venice Italy they either get around by boat (gondolas traditionally) or on foot. There are no driving roads in Venice. There are hundreds of connecting small canals and hundreds of bridges over the canals. Venice has multiple names here are a couple: The Floating City, The City of Canals, and The Romantic City. It is a dying city. Thirty years ago there were 120,000 citizens. Today there is only about 60,000, and it loses approximately 1000 citizens a year. It is a VERY big tourist destination. Some days 50,000 tourists flood the city, just for the day. The Glass industry is the industry Venice is best known for. Everything has to be shipped into Venice, and all the trash shipped out of Venice. Here are some pictures from, Venice Italy.

Me with the Main Canal behind me

A gondola

The outside of the Duke's Chapel

The Palace and Church Square

This is a video of the bronze men ringing the bell

The Main Canal

A Mosaic at the Duke's Chapel, the whole inside of the chapel is covered in Mosaics

The outside of the Duke's Chapel, which is the size of a Cathedral

Our Professor and his wife on the main bridge crossing the Main Canal (They are in the center of the picture, left of the banner)

Me on the Main Bridge crossing the Main Canal

Gondolas docked on the Main Canal

The Main Bridge crossing the Main Canal

A neat architectural building in Venice

One of the smaller Canals in Venice

Another canal in Venice

Canal in Venice

Small Canal

The Alps, from Saltzburg, Austria to Venice, Italy

On Monday we traveled by van to Venice, Italy from Saltzburg, Austria. It was beautiful and we went through over 30 tunnels. I fell asleep after tunnel number 25, but I know we passed through more. Here are some pictures and a video I took.

The Alps

Me in front of the Alps at a gas station stop

The Alps

Beautiful Mountains

There is a ski run down this Alp, it looks like a vertical trail to me

Me in front of the Alp Mountain

So BEAUTIFUL!!!

Me with the Alps in the distance

Sure is pretty

Going through a LONG tunnel, one of many, I meant to say "the end of the tunnel is FINALLY in sight", this was just one of many tunnels through the Alps

Entering Italy!!!

The Italian Alps

Some Alps without snow

Rugged Beauty

They are sure pretty!

Horses in Saltzburg, Austria

Here are pictures of Horses I saw in Austria. There were carriages that you could pay to ride in, but I ran out of time =(

This is where the Arch Bishop would water his horses.

One of the carriages and pair of horses

Same horses and Carriage

Another picture of the watering place for the Archbishop's horses

The horses would be driven right down in to the this, it was full of water then for them to drink and cool off in

You can see the ramp for the horses to drive down into the water on the left side of the photo

Another carriage and pair

Another set

A white pair

The pooper scooper who picked up the droppings left by the horses on the road

Another pair

I REALLY wanted to take a ride, but unfortunately ran out of time. Where the horses and carriages waited for customers, at one point I counted 14 carriages and pairs! I also saw horses pulling carriages for rent in Florence, Italy. I didn't have time there either sadly.

Saltzburg and the Sound of Music Tour

Here are the videos and pictures from the Saltzburg and the Sound of Music Tour

Me in Mirabell Gardens, where a lot of the Sound of Music movie was filmed

This was where one of the shots of Maria and the Von Trapp Children was filmed

Us girls in Mirabell Gardens

This is the Pegasus Statue that they sing around

Me in front of the Pegasus Statue

Us Preparing to sing up the steps (For the Video posted above these pictures)

Imitating a scene in the movie, I got to be Maria in this one

Get ready, set, ACTION

The Pegasus Statue Again

Old Castle Wall Guard Tower

Saltzburg with the Castle in the background

A small Castle, AmBex has stayed in it before, but the students didn't like it so they changed locations, too bad, I would have loved to stay in it

This is the gate that the Von Trapp Children in the movie looked through, wanting to see Maria

Beautiful picture

This is the old wall surrounding the city, it really reminded me of the Great Wall of China =)

One of the Churches in Saltzburg, took this picture on the way to the Abby

A famous fountain in the middle of Saltzburg

Another picture of the Castle, but from a different view

This is where they filmed the Von Trapp Children and Maria falling out of the boat, right after the Captain came home, but this is not the house they portrayed as the Von Trapp Family's House