We spent this morning in and around Venice. Martin and I went to Burano, the fishing village beyond Murano where women (apparently, we were too early to see it) sew lace all day while the men are out fishing. The houses are all painted different colours: bright pinks, blues and greens, a perfect fishing village. It is absolutely beautiful!We left quite early as we had to get back to Venice to check out of the hotel, which was quite unfortunate. We spent the rest of the morning around Venice wandering streets we’d not walked before and seeing buildings and churches not listed under the attractions but beautiful in a more unadulterated ways.
Something that really struck me about Venice was how many churches there are in the squares all around the city. It is amazing. They seem to open them every morning and evening so that the people who live in those squares can pop in for morning and evening prayers, which we did this 
Meanwhile, Simryn and Edu went to Murano where they were fortunate enough to be able to see one of the masters create a beautiful glass horse and sign it. They were smarter than us and managed to escape without spending their fortunes!
We took a train from Venice that afternoon to Villach in Austria, where we picked up a rental car like the ones mentioned here (https://www.junction21chauffeurs.co.uk/) and went in search of our accommodation for the evening. The directions were a bit bad from where we were but we eventually found our way there. And “there” was pretty amazing! The Blue Mountain Inn is one of the highest lodges on a beautiful Alp in the Verditz Ski Resort. The apartment had one double room and one four bunk bed room which we were upgraded to from just a normal four bunk
room as we were the only guests in the hotel, so Edu and Simryn got the double bed this time round.
The owner, Michelle Lively (who owns it with her husband Tug who was off with a tour group) cooked us a stunning dinner of goulash soup, chicken schnitzel and a delicious fruit compote in the middle of a donut thing with ice cream. Absolutely delicious!
By the time we’d finished eating and chatting to the Australian Michelle with her twin daughters, it was very late and time for a very quiet, peaceful, thin-aired night’s sleep.
