The Shwits

Summer Send-off (in Belgium !)

I’m not gonna lie. I had a fantastic summer.

No work. Lots of travel. Still got paid (thank you bankruptcy settlement).

Mid-September I started a new job and you’ll be happy to know that I have been paying the price for my idyllic summer.

Nice to meet you up-at-6-am-with-a-45-min-one-way-commute.

Long story short, I’m still re-adjusting to working life and my other half has that whole ‘I need to finish my PhD’ thing going which means there was little motivation left for the blog – despite the fact that we had a fantastic trip with our friends through The Netherlands & Belgium!

Side note: the new job is going well. I’ve been there for a month now. And yes, I must learn Dutch for real this time! I’ve started with a tutor – so hopefully there will be more speaking soon. Right now I do a lot of listening…

Ben & Jen’s visit concluded our summer of visitors. Our first few days were spent in Leiden and Amsterdam where Holland greeted our guests with ~~beautiful weather~~ nothing but rain. We stayed in a lovely Airbnb in Leiden city center which had the cutest garden we were never able to use.

At one point it hadn’t been raining for a while, there was blue sky, nice temperature, so we thought “Hey! Let’s sit in the garden!”. We were outside for literally a minute before it started raining again – blue sky and all.

We did eventually get a break in the rain and were able to wander around Leiden.

We also spent a little bit of time in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, Jen picked up a stomach bug on the way to Europe, so she had to sit this one out.

While showing Ben around, Shane and I were able to get in some ‘Amsterdam firsts’ too.

We went to a local brewery that we’ve been eyeballing for a while, Brouwerij ‘t IJ. Good beer + cool location (in a windmill) makes it a pretty popular hangout.

We also made it to the Foodhallen, which is an indoor food and drink market located in a converted train depot. We all really enjoyed the Foodhallen because it has anything you could ever want – food and alcohol alike.

Bitterballen variety plate. Not pictured – the ‘Monkey Balls’ (aka: bacon wrapped meatballs) – which were gone before I remembered to take a picture.

After a few days in The Netherlands, we rented a car and headed to Gent, Belgium with one slight detour on the way. A little backstory, when Shane and I visited London we walked across the upper portion of the Tower Bridge which has the glass floor. Up there was a small exhibit of famous bridges around the world. One of these bridges was the ‘Moses Bridge’ located in the south of The Netherlands. It’s called the Moses Bridge because the bridge itself cuts through the mote around Fort De Roovere. When you cross the bridge, you’re walking through the water – get the name reference now?

Anyway, I needed to see it, but it is in a location that isn’t necessarily easy for us to access from Groningen and particularly so without a car. Luckily for me, it was essentially on our route to Gent, so we stopped!

And boy was I disappointed.

IT WAS FLOODED.

(insert reaction inappropriate for a blog post)

I don’t wanna talk about it anymore.

Next stop – Gent, Belgium!

Note to anyone visiting Gent. If you see the sign below don’t drive any further or all the grandmas walking in the streets will glare at you while shaking their fingers.

Turns out, Shane was driving in a pedestrian only zone. In his defense, this was the only sign and generally the road color changes when you enter a pedestrian zone. Not so in this case. Oops.

Once the car was safely parked, we headed off on foot to see Gent like everyone else we passed in the pedestrian zone earlier.

Waffles were a necessity, naturally.

Belgium day 2 took us by train from Gent to Brussels for the day. I was particularly excited for Brussels because we scheduled a beer and chocolate tour which was 5 hours of awesome! If you find yourself in Brussels I can’t recommend this tour – The Brussels Journey – enough!

It’s advertised as a two part tour: part 1 – chocolate, part 2 – beer. I honestly expected that during the chocolate portion of our journey that we would have one, maybe two pieces of chocolate per place.

NO MA’AM! (or sir)

In each of the 4 chocolate shops we tried 4-5 pieces each, and our guide – who I unfortunately can’t remember her name because she was FANTASTIC – knew. her. chocolate!

You know what else our guide knew about? Beer.

Living in Holland, we have tons of Belgium style beers. Dubbel – Tripel – Quadrupel. After three years did I have any idea what that actually meant? Nope. But I do now! And, in keeping with chocolate portion of our tour, the beer part did not skimp on the tastings.

Additionally, this tour was also part walking tour. As we made our way around the city we were able to see some of the major sites – like the the Grote Markt and Manneken Pis.

Manneken Pis is surprisingly small and has so many outfits! Over 200 to be exact – enough to dedicate an entire museum to them. As you can see from the pictures below, when we passed by Manneken Pis during the morning he was wearing one outfit.

HE CHANGED CLOTHES by the time we went back with the tour in the afternoon.

Magic I tell ya.

That night, we said by to Brussels and hopped on the train back to Gent.

The next day, it was back in the car and back to The Netherlands. This time, to Den Haag and the neighboring beach, Scheveningen.

It was a little chilly and a little rainy, but the beach was a nice backdrop for our last evening with Ben & Jen.

And of course, even though it’s really cold they had to at least touch the North Sea.

And that’s a wrap on Summer 2017!

As always, thanks for coming to hang out with us, friends! 🙂

Tot ziens,

Whitney

A Fangirl’s Harry Potter and Outlander Journey Through the UK

aka: The Best Darn Mom & Sis Trip: Part 2

London & Scotland!

To fully understand the importance of this trip we need to take it back a decade (omg) to 2007 when the final Harry Potter book was released. The epilogue was titled “19 Years Later” and given the age of the characters and the time of the book release the math worked out to be 2017.

Spoiler warning! …if for some crazy reason you’ve never read/watched/heard the end of the HP series.

On September 1, 2017 Harry Potter takes his son, Albus Severus Potter, to King’s Cross Station to send him off to Hogwarts for the first time.

Sis and I promised ourselves back in 2007 that ’19 years later’ we would be in London at King’s Cross Station lookin’ for our main man, Harry.

We kept that promise!

In the 10 years between then and now we’ve also developed a love – thanks to mom – for the historical fiction book series, Outlander, which is based in Scotland during the Jacobite rising of 1745. Therefore, our trip mostly centered around important Harry Potter and Outlander locations.

What?

Isn’t that how everyone plans their vacations?

anyway….

I’ll start with Harry Potter.

King’s Cross Station, Where: London, England

I’ve covered why King’s Cross is important above, but King’s Cross was a filming location as well. During the first movie the wall between platform 3 & 4 was used as the entrance to platform 9 3/4. In reality, platforms 9 & 10 aren’t next to each other inside the station.

Tour for Muggles, Where: London, England

If you’re a HP fan and in London then DO THIS TOUR! Our lovely tour guide, Greta Granger (below) was seriously THE BEST (I mean, she carries her wand with her to pubs. New bestie). We saw HP filming locations, and real life spots that inspired J.K. for places that appeared in the books, like Knockturn and Diagon Alley. We also got a bit of London history to top it off. You will not regret this tour.

The Millennium Bridge, Where: London, England

This bridge, known to locals as the “Wobbly Bridge,” was featured in the beginning of the 6th movie when it was destroyed by Death Eaters.

Doing a little scene reenactment, naturally.

Glenfinnan Viaduct, Where: Glenfinnan, Scotland

Which you might recognize as the Hogwarts Express!

…or the Jacobite Steam Train. Either one.

Initially, we planned to ride the Jacobite train which you can catch in nearby Fort William. It’s a full day trip from Fort William to Mallaig and back and the views can supposedly be spectacular. Overall though, the reviews online were hit or miss. Basically, if you were really into old trains it was great. If you wanted to see the viaduct, it was OK, since it passes over the viaduct fairly quickly and to get just the right view you needed to be on a particular side of the train. We opted to go to the Glenfinnan Visitors Center, which has not only a nice exhibit on the Jacobite Rebellion & Bonnie Prince Charlie, but a guide to walking trails taking you to the Glennfinnan Monument and various viewpoints of both the monument and viaduct.

You can walk right up to the viaduct and the views are fantastic, even on a day when it was literally pouring rain. Perhaps it’s also good to know that the visitors center sells umbrellas…

The Elephant House Cafe, Where: Edinburgh, Scotland

The “birthplace” of Harry Potter since J.K. Rowling spent a lot of time writing here. We intended just to walk by, but we went in the evening and there was seating available so we channeled our inner J.K. and stopped for a coffee.

And, I was amazed to find that the bathroom was covered in HP graffiti! Fans over the years have come and written notes on the bathroom walls. Apparently, the cafe used to paint over it and discourage people from writing on the walls, but eventually they realized it was never going to stop and just embraced it. So if you happen to find yourself here, go check out the bathrooms. It’s quite overwhelming—all the HP love!

Greyfriars Graveyard, Where: Edinburgh, Scotland

Voldy’s Grave!

Ok, ok, not really. But Thomas Riddell was the real life inspiration for the name Tom Marvolo Riddle – aka: Voldemort.

now, on to Outlander!

Oh Claire! Oh Jamie! ….seriously if you haven’t read these books you NEED to. It’s also a show now on Starz (which is surprisingly close to the books) but let’s be real. You can’t replace the books. First up…

Glencoe, Where: Glencoe, Scotland

The opening scene of Season 1, and other great shots throughout the series.

This view is of the “Three Sisters” mountains. We were staying in a B&B about 15 minutes away, and had nowhere near enough time here. Some of Scotland’s best walking/hiking is in this area, including the highest peak in the UK – Ben Nevis. We were able to do one short hike in Glen Nevis, but if you’re into the outdoors you could easily spend a week or more and not be bored.

fullsizeoutput_15f3 — Steall Falls hike in Glen Nevis.

“Craigh na Dun”, Where: Kinloch Rannoch, Scotland

So, unfortunately for us Craigh na Dun, the stone circle where Claire is transported back in time, is only fictional. Fortunately for us, where the filmed the scenes for fictional Craigh na Dun is real! With a little email help from blogger Susanne from Adventures Around Scotland, we headed down some windy-two-lane-but-really-only-big-enough-for-one-car roads we found THE spot! (clearly the top image is not mine)

We also saw TONS of darn cute sheep on the way. It never got old.

Blackness Castle, Where: Linlithgow, Scotland

Blackness Castle acted as the Fort William headquarters during the 1st season of Outlander.

Linlithgow Palace, Where: Linlithgow, Scotland

Real life residence of the Stewarts, and the birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots. Wentworth Prison in Outlander.

Doune Castle, Where: Doune, Scotland

This one was a triple whammy! Not only was it used as Castle Leoch in Outlander, but most of Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed here, as well as the interior scenes for Winterfell during season 1 of Game of Thrones. The audio guide here was quite entertaining, as it was narrated by Terry Jones (Monty Python actor/director) & certain areas by Sam Hueghan (Jamie in Outlander).

Glenfinnan Monument, Where: Glenfinnan, Scotland

As one might expect, the monument is not part of the Outlander books or a filming location as it was built after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. Regardless, this place marks an important piece of history because it was here where Prince Charles Edward Stewart, the Bonnie Prince who lead the ’45 rising, first landed in Scotland. Essentially, this location marks the beginning of the rebellion that eventually lead to the Battle of Culloden and the end of the Scottish clans.

fullsizeoutput_15f0 — View of the Glenfinnan Monument from above.

Inverness, Where: Inverness, Scotland

Modern day Inverness also wasn’t a filming location, but it was a prominent setting in the books. Quite a charming city, and well worth the visit.

Culloden Battlefield, Where: Inverness, Scotland

If you’re an Outlander fan, then you know that this is the location where sh*t goes down. In real life, this was the location of the final battle of the Jacobite rising which resulted in the slaughter of the Scottish, and the end of Galic culture and clan system.

Today, you can walk the battlefield. Blue flags indicate the position of the Scottish troops, red flags for the English. Stones mark the location of mass graves for each of the clans who fought in the battle.

And that was about all the time we had! And don’t worry. We WERE able to fit in other things not related to Harry Potter or Outlander (hah). We saw Kinky Boots in London, stumbled upon some Kelpies, looked for Nessie from Urquhart Castle, toured Fort George in Inverness, admired the views over Edinburgh, and took it upon ourselves to learn the ins and outs of Scottish whiskey.

Take home message?

Read Outlander (& Harry Potter if you really haven’t!).
Go to Scotland.

Sláinte (cheers)!

Tot ziens,

Whitney

The Best Darn Mom & Sis Trip Ever: Part 1

You know when you anticipate something for so long and then when it’s over you feel like, “wait…how did that happen?!”?

That’s how this trip felt. Mom & Sis were always going to come visit but we needed to wait until the fall of 2017 (more on that later), so to think we’ve all been waiting for 3 years is kind of crazy!

They packed their bags and came Crosson over the Atlantic for ~2.5 weeks of family fun!

First stop – The Netherlands!

They just COULD NOT wait to get their hands on Meatball!

She obviously felt the same. 😉

We spent the first few nights in Leiden, which is a city about 40min south of Amsterdam by train. This was perfect because Amsterdam was still accessible, but they were also able to see a city with fewer tourists. Holland was also extremely kind, and gave us sunshine and summer-like temperatures!

We did, of course, spend time in Amsterdam. We visited the Anne Frank house, the Rijksmuseum, got mom in a clog…

Side note: If you ever find yourself visiting the Rijksmuseum I would highly recommend the “Highlights of the Rijksmuseum” guided tour, which can be booked through the museum itself. It’s only 5 euros and an hour long, but if you’re like me and tend to look at art and go “ooohh…. cooooool” and move on, it’s nice to have someone explain some of the main pieces.

Hanging out with Rembrandt and the Night Watch.

After a few days in the south, we made our way to Winterfell (Groningen) via Bitburg, Germany. I’m not gonna lie. I was not excited about an ~8h car ride versus ~3h but my mom was born in Bitburg and wanted to go back so back we went!

And look how happy that lady is drinking her Bitburger beer in Bitburg!

She’s giving Dany a run for her money…

After our detour, we spent the remaining days in Groningen showing off our adopted hometown. Most importantly, they braved the craziness and toured around town on bikes! With the average household owning three bikes, and the city nicked named “The World’s Cycling City,” it’s easy to understand why biking here might be viewed as intimidating.

Last, but most certainly not least, I couldn’t let them come to The Netherlands without having some proper Dutch food things. This is an area in which I feel that I’ve shorted our previous visitors, and I sincerely apologize.

Dutch food things such as bitterballen, frietjes, hagelslag, stroopwafels, and drog worst!

And that, in a nutshell, was our week in The Netherlands! Next up, Part 2: London & Scotland for a Harry Potter & Outlander adventure!

Stay tuned…

Tot ziens,

Whitney

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Ya know how sometimes you need something, but you didn’t know you needed it until you have it?

That was Palma de Mallorca for me.

As I write this is 18°C (65°F) & raining. It’s getting dark at 9:30pm now. I’m slowly accepting the fact that The Long Night will once again be upon us. (Game of Thrones reference, sorry for being dramatic.) Therefore, one last weekend on a sun-shiney Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea was exactly what I needed!

I ditched Shane again (sorry hubs) and met up with my friend, Kaitlin, from grad school who was in Spain already for a wedding.

Per usual, the first day we walked, ate, drank, repeat.

We starting our Saturday with a free walking tour to learn the layout of the city center and a little history! For instance, did you know that Palma was founded by the Romans and later taken over by the Muslims before the reconquest of the Christians? Now, there is essentially no evidence of the Roman or Muslim eras on the island as, with few exceptions, the buildings were either destroyed and rebuilt, or the ruins were covered over the years.

The current city center was also surrounded by a medieval city wall – similar to Dubrovnik – but law prevented people from living outside it. What did they do? Change the law? Nope, in the early 1900s they tore down the entire thing. Makes sense…

I guess people like to take pictures with trash cans…

One other unique thing, which we never would have noticed on our own, were the small faces on street corners (above the street sign, below the lamp). Each face is that of a person of importance to Palma, and is adorned with something representative of their contribution. It’s hard to see, but this guy has books on his head as he was a professor.

Another great thing about walking tours is asking your local guide where to go. We asked about food & beaches (priorities). Her suggestions lead to some interesting scenarios…

Her first suggestion was a lunch place which was a little outside of city center so off we went. Let’s be real, you always anticipate some awkward scenarios when you’re in a foreign country and you don’t really speak the language (thankfully Kaitlin speaks some Spanish), but this was a chart-topper for us both. As we walked into the restaurant we were immediately sized up by the staff as tourists (I suppose), and then promptly ignored. Finally, when we were able to catch the eye of the waiter, Kaitlin asked for a table for two (in Spanish) to which he gives an indication to come with him….or so we thought. We followed him to a table of 4 he was serving, then back to the front counter, then almost into the kitchen – all the while getting the same ‘follow me’ type of look.

After almost joining to cook staff we decided we’d reached our daily dose of awkward and that was our cue to leave.

Tour guide status: 0/1

After a quick lunch elsewhere, we stopped for a typical Mallorcan pastry, the ensaïmada, at a quite off the beaten path shop also recommended by the tour guide as one of the best in the city. You can have them plain with only powdered sugar, or stuffed with fruit/cream/chocolate – you name it.

I ordered apricot. It came right away.

Kaitlin ordered something? I don’t remember, long story short they were out. “Would you like chocolate instead?” Sure!

25 min later…. nothin. After a little reminder, her’s finally arrived.

Tour guide status: 0.5/2

Next up, the church Santa Eulalia, recommended by our guide as her favorite in the city. This, she was not wrong about as the views from the bell tower were fantastic.

Tour guide status: 1.5/3

Our final stop of the day was Bellver Castle which sits on a hill overlooking the city and took a little hiking to reach…

In case your wondering. We discovered a paved route with stairs once we got to the top (facepalm).

Anyway, the view was great, and the castle was really cool as it’s one of the only round castles in Europe.

it was a steep hike to the top…

All-in-all Saturday we walked a little over 20km (12mi) therefore we were quite ready for dinner. We ordered so much food that they actually asked us to move from a 2 person table to a 4 person table…

Seemed a little dramatic in my opinion, but I wasn’t going to complain.

Day 2 was spent at the beach!

Tour guide told us to take bus #3 to the end of the line, and we would find Illetes, a much nicer beach than the one closest to city center.

I don’t think turquoise waters will ever get old.

Tour guide status: 2.5/4

Our last meal in Palma ended up being the best one. After a day at the beach, we were hungry. 7pm, in case you’re wondering, is too early to eat dinner in Spain. As we were wandering the streets looking for an open restaurant a little google action brought us to this place called Calixto.

I think there were only three employees and only tables outside on the terrace in a smaller, quiet square. There were no menus. The waiter (and maybe owner?) offered us paella (traditional, only meat, or vegetarian) and sangria to which we immediately said YES! It did not disappoint.

Tour guide should add this place to her list of suggestions!

And that was the weekend! Way too fast, per usual, but great to meet up with another friend!

Up next, Shane’s ESEB conference and my mom & sis arrive in a week!

Tot ziens!

Whitney

Charlotte, NC USA

My instinct for the title of this post was “Eating My Way Through America”, or more accurately, “Eating My Way Through Charlotte”, because I felt like that’s all I wanted to do on this trip home.

Since the majority of the food I ate ended up in my stomach before I remembered to take a picture, it didn’t make the final cut.

Despite my inability to re-brand The Shwits as a food blog, I had a fantastic week at home with my dad and sister. The weather was warm and I was able to hit all my favorite spots, even some new ones!

First stop (duh)…

12 piece tailgate box for three of us? Yup. That’ll do.

As I mentioned before, I was able to play tourist a little bit this time. I think when you live somewhere, you often don’t take advantage of all the things the city has to offer. That’s definitely been the case for me, and to be fair, a lot has changed since I last officially lived in Charlotte. Therefore, I present to you the new things I did while I was home.

New Thing #1 – BB&T Ballpark

Home of the Charlotte Knights AAA baseball team!

This is by no means my first Knights game. We went a lot when I was a kid, but the stadium only recently moved to uptown Charlotte. And for good reason… what a view!

New Thing #2 – NASCAR Hall of Fame

Opened in 2010… It only took us 7 years to get here! (insert eye roll)

As I learned in the hall of fame, the birth of NASCAR itself was in Daytona Beach, FL, but the origins of NASCAR date back to the days of prohibition when guys would modify their cars to improve their ability to run moonshine out of the mountains of NC. NASCAR fan or not, the hall of fame was very interactive and absolutely worth the visit!

Sis & Terry trying their hand at being part of the pit crew.

and speaking of racing…

New Thing #3 – Lancaster Speedway

Dirt track racing! And while technically not in Charlotte (it’s in Lancaster, SC) I’ve never been so I’m counting it.

And yes, I forced my sister to wear matching pigtail braids with me.

Not pictured – funnel cake fries. I think you can understand why.

As for the rest of the trip, I was able to see some friends, get my fill of Mexican food, sis and I got matching ear piercings (lol), and we had some nice evenings out in the Queen City.

I’ll see you again at Christmas, Charlotte!

In the meantime, I’m off to Mallorca, Spain this weekend! My summer of unemployment is pretty rough…

Tot ziens,

Whitney

New Bike, New Job !

Since this is supposed to be a blog about our life here in The Netherlands, and everything is official now, I think it’s only fitting that I take a moment to acknowledge a pretty major change in my day-to-day life here in Groningen.

I am officially on bike #4.

My poor poor ‘grandma bike’ – Helen – met her end due to rust. Pieces were literally falling off while I was riding it. And you know it’s bad when you take it to a bike shop for repair, and the shop owner tells you to just buy a new one.

Ok Ok, so that’s not the big news.

The big news is that I am unemployed.

But don’t worry too much, luckily it’s only temporary!

Quick recap, when we moved to Groningen it took me about three months to find a job. I ended up working for a small biotechnology company, Mucosis, who was developing a nasal spray vaccine for RSV. When I joined, the company was expanding to prepare for entering Phase 1 clinical trials.

Fast forward ~2.5 years, and a lot of hard work later, we met all the necessary criteria, and our vaccine went to Phase 1 clinical trials! This in itself is quite an accomplishment for a team of ~15 people.

Fast forward another 6 months, and Mucosis is bankrupt.

Unfortunately, the vaccine did not meet the criteria to progress to Phase 2. The goal of a Phase 1 trial is safety, and because we are testing a vaccine, you are also able to get preliminary data in how effective the product is. Very generally speaking, vaccines should stimulate an immune response, which should then allow the body to remember the pathogen & protect against it in the future. Our vaccine was safe, but it also gave no indication that it was going to be effective.

And when you’re a small company with no product for sale, you rely on investors for funding. I think it goes without saying, but the investors decided to pull out leaving Mucosis bankrupt.

Honestly, we knew this was always a possibility. It’s the nature of working for a small company, but it was also one of those ‘that will never happen to us’ kind of scenarios.

Now, I’m going to get a little bit mushy, because of course I’m bummed to not have an income, but I’m more bummed to leave this team of fantastic people. Our small team felt like family, and that was invaluable considering all my friends and family are a literal ocean away. Here, I was able to be my actual self, and still learn a hell of a lot career wise.

Each and every person in this company taught me something that I will take with me.

Some science-related (ELISA troubleshooting… amiright?!)

Some personal (‘zin van vandaag’)

Regardless, words can’t express my gratitude for Mucosis, and the impact it had on my life. So, to my Mucos-was colleagues should you ever see this, THANK YOU for being mentors & friends.

Ok, enough with the mush. On to the good news!

I got a new job!

Starting mid-September, I will be a Senior Analyst in the bioanalytical lab of PRA Healthcare (which oddly enough, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC).

This will be a promotion for me. I will be moving into more of a leadership role in the lab, which is exactly what I want. And, to Shane’s delight, I will actually have to commute in Dutch weather to work each day. The company is located in Assen, which is about a 20 minute bus ride from Groningen Central train station.

And, as tradition dictates, I was rewarded for said new job with a trip to the Pannekoekschip! Gah, I love pancakes.

(Shane did say this better be my last celebratory trip to the ship while we live in Groningen… I guess he has a point)

So, that’s the update! I’ve got a lot of free time right now, which some might think ‘oh! how nice, the summer off!’. Well, my friends, it’s been about 17-20°C (62-68°F) since I’ve officially taken on my housewife role, so if you could tell real summer to head my way that would be much appreciated.

I’ll be heading to the U.S. in a couple of weeks for a family visit but until then…

Tot ziens!

Whitney

Venice: the video

As Whitney promised in the previous post, we also have a video of our recent trip to Venice –

check it out!

Happy viewing!

Shane

Venice, Italy

Ahh, beautiful Venice!

Last weekend we whisked off to meet some friends at the beginning of their summer holiday, and (if I do say so myself) we kicked it off pretty well! The company, the scenery, the weather, the wine… it was all fantastic.

Here are a few reflections from our weekend in Italy.

The streets of Venice are really beautiful… and you WILL get lost.

That’s part of the fun though (until you’ve been walking for an hour and still haven’t reached your destination). Long story short, get ready to get lost despite signs like ‘per (to) Rialto’ and ‘per San Marco’ guiding you to various parts of the city. We heard it’s easy to walk in circles, and it’s true, so if you’re on a time schedule I would suggest aiming to be there 15 min. before you’re supposed to.

Additionally, don’t seek out the Rialto bridge because

You will cross the Rialto 15,000x in your attempt to navigate the city.

And if you’re very lucky you’ll get to drag your 25kg (50lbs) suitcase up and over on multiple occasions.

but no worries, because when your lost and out of breath…

There is never a bad time for wine and gelato!

All day. Every day.

Get a little turned around trying to find your AirBNB at midnight? Gelato will fix that.

28°C (83°F), you’re out of water and you’re only halfway through your walking tour?

Wine is the answer!

And yes, Venice is crowded, but

If you wander off the beaten path (aka: point number one – get lost) you can find yourself all alone.

For instance, we wandered to Campo Santa Margherita where it was clear that there were fewer tourists and more students/actual residents. Here, we found a cocktail bar and GUESS WHAT! The bartender’s girlfriend (6 degrees of separation, I know) was from Wilmington, NC and he was flying to Charlotte (my hometown) next week to visit her! What a small world.

and speaking of finding cool places.

Walking tours are the way to go.

While the tour we chose this time wasn’t too rich in the history of Venice (in fact, we didn’t really learn anything) we were taken to some places in the city we would have never found on our own. Such as this really cool art shop in the Jewish Ghetto where we ended up purchasing two paintings.

One was titled ‘Cats of the Ghetto’. I mean come on – I had to have it.

We also walked through a square which was once Muslim, as evidenced (I don’t remember why) by limestone carvings on the wall. Interestingly enough, all of them had their noses broken off. We saw this in Egypt too, for example with the Sphinx, where the pieces of the noses were broken off for luck. Here, one guy had his broken nose replaced with a brass one. Now, it’s good luck to touch the nose.

We also saw one of two remaining bridges in the entire city without railings (parapet), got a secluded view from a monastery, saw some interesting art, and ended with a spectacular view from above.

Also, the internet did not lie to me.

If possible, buy your tickets to the major sights online and visit after 2pm.

We pre-purchased our tickets online for Basilica San Marco (St. Mark’s Basilica) and for Doge’s Palace. For both, we went around 4pm and walked straight in.

No shorts or sleeveless shirts allowed…

fullsizeoutput_1498 — The Bridge of Sighs

And no, we didn’t go up the bell tower in St. Mark’s Square. We did, however, take the water bus across the lagoon to San Giorgio Maggiore and climb (lol ok not climb – elevator-ed) up it’s bell tower for a fantastic view over the main island, and the surrounding ones. Again, thank you internet for that suggestion!

View from the San Giorgio bell tower back towards the main island.

And finally,

No, we didn’t ride a gondola.

A gondola ride station with San Giorgio in the background.

To be perfectly honest, we talked about it and voted against it.

1) It’s expensive. €80 for 30 min (for up to 6 people). For us – €20 per person. Which we would have gladly shelled out if it hadn’t been for my next point.

2) Everyone looked BORED. Seriously. Maybe it was the heat? Or the fact that all the gondolas seem to take the same route, so you end up in a traffic jam. Who knows.

Perhaps if we had ventured to a more quiet street we could have found a ‘road less traveled’ gondola route, but for us, it just wasn’t worth it.

So, in a nutshell, that was our trip! We really enjoyed Venice, and even more so that we got to explore it with friends! We miss you guys already! 🙂

Shane should be making a video of our trip. Until then,

Tot ziens!