Leaving Venice

We awoke this morning to the sounds of boats chugging on the canal outside. Sure enough the strike was over as promised and all was well. It was a good thing too. In the matter of 30 minutes we saw 4 cruise ships arrive as well as 2 large ferries from Greece. I figure that is about 10,000 people dumped on to the tourist heaven that is Venice.

We gathered our bags (only 2) and headed to ride the vaporetti to the car park up the canal by the train station. The car was still there and ready for another day of adventure on the roads of Europe. We headed north out of Italy and into Austria. The valley leading to Brenner Pass into Austria is not only gorgeous, but alternately filled with industry and vineyards. The higher we went the more vineyards and fewer industries.

(As we drove up the U shaped valley caused by glaciers that covered the whole valley just a few thousand years ago I wondered before the glaciers all melted was the Mediterranean just a pond, was Venice (or the area) high and dry and where was Al Gore to stop all the melting? Just idle thoughts while driving.) This is Charlie speaking - I told him to delete this part, but he wouldn't.

We arrived in Innsbruck early in the day thus had time to explore the old town area and marvel at the beauty of the surrounding mountain vista. We strolled around the "old town" and had a delicious weinerschnitzel!

Tomorrow we drive to Munich and turn in the car. We still have three days to hang out in Munich and get bags packed for the plane so that things all get home safely and in the same number of pieces that we packed.