After a very cool night, we were allowed to start breakfast at 8°C. There we noticed the seemingly endless queue at the toaster. One of Christian's ideas for optimisation was particularly good: as the slices of toast were only about 50% of the thickness of a normal slice of toast, you could put a total of 4 slices into the appliance and thus increase the throughput by 100%. Despite these teething troubles, everyone managed to get something for breakfast and be on the bus on time.

After breakfast, we took the bus to Venice, probably to the most expensive coach park in Europe. From the coach park, the plan was for us to split into 2 groups. However, this was very difficult due to communication problems. Nevertheless, we managed to form 2 groups: Group 1 led by Dagmar and Group 2 led by Kurt.

While group 2 only travelled on the People Mover and then continued by foot, group 1 took a vaporetto directly to the Maritime Museum due to a lack of time. Both groups arrived at the museum as planned. Unfortunately, it was closed as it had rained heavily on the day of the lecture and the roof was leaking. Nevertheless, we were allowed to visit a real submarine in the armoury! During the tour of the submarine, Dagmar briefly got lost at the Arsenal and our minder "Giovanni" got a slap on the wrist from the general.

After visiting the submersible, both groups travelled to Murano to visit a glassblowing workshop. Despite the immense temperatures, we were given an exciting guided tour and were able to watch the master glassblowers at work at close quarters.

Photo in the glassblowing workshop in Murano

Photo in the glassblowing workshop in Murano

Then we fled from the rain - to the next best bar, of course!

After visiting the bar, we went to a sponsored dinner in Venice - a real highlight! We were able to enjoy great food and the best Italian drinks. Unfortunately, there were again problems with coordination on the way back to the bus and only a few people caught the right vaporetto straight away. The others had to wait a little longer - but in the end everyone made it back to the bus and an eventful day came to an end at the bar in the accommodation.

Report: D. Laa, S. Nistler