track our trek

having rearranged our itinerary to fly from johannesburg imstead of accra, we made it to london at 6am after a long overnight flıght...we knew already it would be too cold there to suit us, so we'd booked ourselves on the first thing smoking to venice, in hopes of finding warmer weather. we were in town only long enough to transport ourselves out to stansted airport (where the discount airlines fly) and meet up with the lovely natassa for lunch and some walking around. (we'll come back to the uk at the end of april for stef's wedding...give things some time to warm up!) natassa seems to be adjusting well to being back home after her 19 months of world travel & it was great to see her for a few minutes on her home turf! after a quick turn around, we headed off to italy, where the weather turned out to be equally dreary and cold, much to our dismay! but what a beautiful city venice is!

we spent a wonderful 4 days riding the water busses and wandering the streets and canals exploring...& we didn't even scratch the surface! there is a beautiful piazzo or square around every corner and across every little bridge. it is fascinating to see how venetians live their lives on the edge of all this water...and sadly it really does seem true that the city is sinking. we'll definitely have to come back to this country again! we soon realized a few days in italy would be bad for our waistlines after a few days of walking with long breaks for italian coffee and pasta to warm up...one night i had to wear my pj bottoms under my pants to keep warm!...but then the rain came & all was soaked through...sigh...nothing to do but buy a liter of wine and take it back to our b&b to wait out the storm... tons of fun, but trouble for the diet conscious! jokes...