22 hours of travel from Vietnam to Venice and we were knackered.  It also didn’t help that I had developed a raging fever and terrible tummy bug on the plane and so when we arrived jetlagged in the rain and tired in Venice I have never been so thankful for an early check in.  The Hotel Canal Grande was right on the Grand Canal and we were so thankful for the sleep.

I love Venice.  I could wander the streets for weeks and still never get bored with the beautiful houses and the lovely canals.  The small back streets with little restaurants and bars were just heaven.  We did the touristy thing and we did the back street thing.  And loved them both.  Went for a boat ride across to Murano to see the glass and walked for hours and hours.  But I tell you what.  We spent some money there.  Compared to South East Asia we were spending five times as much money for everything.  We drew the line at 100 euro for a 20 minute gondola trip.  We can watch others from the bridge.

After some wonderful days in Venice we hopped on a train to Bologna to pick up our van.   Brilliant train trip in the fast train to Bologna and then we met with our Indie Camper crew.  We spent more than an hour going through the van and how it worked and scrummaging through the items left by previous travellers that we might want to take with us.  We decided to stay very close to Bologna to sort ourselves out before heading off on our big Eastern European Adventure.  Next day we went to an Italian version of K Mart and stocked up on all sorted of things to make our life more comfy.  A fan (in the 30 degree heat) was an essential and also nice pillows and mozzie repellent.

It’s amazing how little things like that make such a difference.

Then it was up into Vienna to stay with Nigel’s cousin Chris and his family.  How lovely to arrive somewhere where they offer you a washing machine and free food and the wifi password.  So special catching up with them all again.  Nigel and Chris were up until all hours of the night solving the problems of the world and watching the International Space Station.  We loved our time in Vienna again and seeing Chris and the family once again.  Family across borders.

When it was time to leave we packed up and were waved off by Chris to start our Eastern European Adventure.  About 20 minutes later we realised that we had left the main backpack with the passports and creditcards in it on the couch so it was back to see Chris again.  He was waiting at the gate with the bag when we got back and laughed as he waved us off again.  Love it.