Marco...polo...Marco.....

The boys watched movies all the way to europe while I tried to sleep so I can get on track with the time change.  At this point they have been awake for near 24 hours and a new day is just starting in Europe. We landed in Germany so Dan and Drew found it fitting to add "das" ( the) to every English word they know.  After three years of German class I high school ... That pretty much sums up Danny's learnings. We drank "das coffee" and window shopped in " das store". Even though the boys talked about grabbing " das german beer",as soon as we landed in Germany, they opted for " das nap" instead.  Danny was slightly disappointed that they didn't accept " das American dollar" here.  I think he is finally realizing that we aren't in Maryland anymore. Upon arrival in Marco polo airport in Venice Italy we decided to travel like the locals via bus.  We were headed towards a random campsite I found about 2 minutes before jumping on the bus, but since we didn't have reservations there and were open to any campground we let the locals direct us to " jolly camping" which would have been better named " where the side walk ends".  With only one small sign at the end of the road to direct us we walked down a pedestrian/ bike path and through a graffiti decorated tunnel to our new home. We set up the tent and quickly shattered Danny's fantasy of a multi room tent that you can stand in, by the reality of our teeny backpackers tent.  We headed back on the bus to tour the grand canal in Venice. It is  streets upon streets of shops, canals, and bridges.  We settled for dinner in a restaurant that has been in the family for three generations but was a bit of a tourist trap. The food was good but the tiramisu was disappointingly sub par. After our long European style multi course meal we trekked back to the bus.  Apparently none of us watched for the bus stop to the campground and we missed it. After a quick tour of the Venice suburbs we finally found our bus line and headed back to the campsite.  Along the way we found a French couple on who was " on holiday", lost and searching for camp jolly.   So we made friends and despite feeling slightly shady leading them down dark allies and though the graffiti tunnel they trusted that we knew where we were going ( and we actually did at this point).  We arrived just as it started to lightening and drizzle. " camp jolly" was starting to feel like " camp ... This was a bad idea". Thankfully, we quickly fell asleep, somehow stayed completely dry and awoke ready  for day 2. Pics are on Facebook.com/Lindsay.holbein they aren't uploading on the blog for some reason