Hellooooo Murphys Law!  We had a heck of a time trying to get to Venice, Italy! We should have turned around at the German border when we realized our ESSO card was declined due to the Military Police putting the wrong license plate number on the card.  For those of you who don’t know and Esso card is the discount card for gas.  In Germany gas is very expensive, and charged by the liter.  Your Esso card must match the license plate of the car you are driving.  If not it will decline.  We were on our second rental car and ended up having to pay nearly 50% more that we should have.  We also needed to purchase a toll ticket for 18 euro, aaaannnnndddd a map.  The rental company changed the settings on the navigation settings to avoid all toll roads.  Our 4 hour trip to Vicenza ended up taking us nearly 7.  We did not use the toll ticket because the navigation had something against tolls!  We took back roads through most of Germany and all of Austria.  Once we figured out what was going on we turned to the trusty map to get us to Italy without wanting to strangle each other.  I am pretty sure I said on more that one occasion "Pat you know German figure this thing out!”  Telling me to turn this way or that way did not sit too well either!  I repeatedly told him to use your lefts and rights Pat!  (Sound familiar, Mom?)   He was stressed because roads are not clearly marked, and we missed multiple turns!  We stopped for dinner on the border of Italy and Austria at a fantastic little diner.  With the stress of the trip a good meal was welcoming! This part of Italy used to be considered Austria so many signs were in Italian and German.  However, nobody spoke German.  We tried to get E and K some hot chocolate and coffee for us before we got back on the road.  Pat ordered in German, and they were so confused.  The waitress thought she finally understood what Pat was saying and said “ahhhhh you want a frappe!!” Pat is saying YES! I am laughing too hard to correct him.  Needless to say I have been in Starbucks enough to know frappe is a cold drink, not hot!  She came out with two iced coffees, and chocolate milk for the kids.  Pat was not thrilled, he hates frappuccino’s he likes his coffee piping hot and black! We got back on the road, made seven more wrong turns until we found our hotel.  The kids in the back would speak up about every hour asking how much longer.  They did not like the fact that we did not know, we said we were doing this old school without a gps.  We made it to the nicest military hotel we have ever stayed in.  We had not slept in a real bed in quite sometime.  The next morning we got up after a fabulous nights rest and headed for the train to Venice.  There was something happening that day in Vicenza and no parking.  We ended up decided it would make more sense to drive to Venice, park for the day, and not have to rely on a train schedule.  When we arrived we purchased our ferry tickets to get over to the main area.  We were warned that Venice is incredibly expensive, and you will have to suck up the ferry prices.  We pain 80 euro for four short ferry rides.  Not the easiest pill to swallow, but we expected it.  Kellan panicked as soon as we got on the boat.  He was not a fan of the ride, especially after the boat almost hit another one. When you are stationed in Europe you should really know the US, German, and other European holidays.  We were elbow to elbow every minute of the day.  Some elbowed Kellan, and another ran over Elly’s foot with her stroller.  Venice is not stroller friendly!!!! Neither of us are fans of big crowds.  It was nearly impossible to catch a ferry because they were constantly packed full of people.  I will tell you the city was incredible. We loved taking in the scenery, but that was about all we loved about Venice.  At lunchtime we ducked into a small eatery for the kids to have something to eat.  We were also told the food in Venice is over priced and not fantastic.  General tourist-y food.  We ended up splitting an 8” pizza.  Every since we got to Germany I have wanted a burger, I wanted it because I knew I could not have it.  Pat always jokes that if we are ever stranded and out of something, I will instantly want it! We ended up finding a Hard Rock Cafe and decided to eat there.  We know the food is decent, and would know what we were getting.  We would have been more willing to branch out if we weren’t so exhausted.  The previous night was our first night in a real bed, and we were still a little jet lagged. We all needed a little familiarity.  We have absolutely zero desire to ever go back to Venice.  Overall, we thought it was dirty and hated being stopped every 100 feet from people trying to sell you selfie sticks, and other cheap crap.  We headed back to Vicenza that night and enjoyed another restful night in our fabulous hotel!  The next morning we went to what I call the highlight of the trip.  The PX and Commissary!  Our commissary and PX are both very small here in Garmisch.  I have heard the army would like to shut them both down.   I was able to get some groceries that we could not get at home.  On the way home we figured out how to change the navigation system to allow toll roads.  Every 50 or so kilometers it would change back to avoid toll roads.  We knew that Verona was on the way back to Garmisch and decided on an impromptu visit to check out the city where three of Shakespeare’s plays were set.  Stupid stupid stupid decision on our part!!! We got into the city and could not get out of it.  There was some kind of race going on that morning in the city, and was finishing up as we were getting there.  It took us nearly an hour to get back on the free way, because every other street was blocked off, and no parking.  At that point we laughed at our poor luck and slowly got back on the road.  Once we made it home we met our friends for dinner at our favorite place to eat for a nice meal.  I do not see us making the trip to Venice again.  Someday we will laugh about our trip! See photos below!