A recap and prospectus

Since arriving in Dublin twenty days ago we've traveled through:  Ireland, England, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Monaco, Italy and, today, into Switzerland.  For me this has been a different trip than the one Janet and I took twelve years ago.  We traveled by bus and train, whereas Cam and I have been driving (since Amsterdam) and have racked up something a little more than 4,000 km (2,575 miles), and we have yet to travel through: Austria, Germany and back to the Netherlands.

We have to leave the car in Germany (Dresden) and go to Prague to see Andrej by train, since we aren't allowed to take the car into eastern Europe.  We expect to visit with Andrej for about three days, then return to Dresden for a quick visit to Berlin then the final trek back to Amsterdam.

We were originally going to make the trip back to Dublin for our flight home the way we came -- buses between Amsterdam and London, then London and Dublin, but we can fly from Amsterdam to Dublin for a lot less than the cost of buses, and be there in less than two hours.

Cam has been doing the bulk of the posting to this blog (good for him1) as I was doing the bulk of the driving when we started out.  He has driven some, and done it well, but he isn't actually permitted to since he's under twenty-five, so we've needed to cool that except when it's safe.  We have a plan:  if he gets into an accident, he's to drag me from the passengers seat and put me on the ground on the driver's side, then run around to passenger's side and lay on the ground and moan.

Internet availabilty hasn't been nearly what I expected (or hoped) it would be.  There have been only a couple of places where we were able to find free and unlimited wireless connections, some places where we could a limited amount of free time, and some places where there was no internet at all, wireless or otherwise.  The paid time hasn't been cheap either, €1 for a half-hour or an hour, up to €15 for 24 hours.  We haven't paid for it very often.

Cam wrote a long post tonight that describes our stay at Hyeres in France, our brief stop in Monaco. our stay in Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre, and our drive into the Swiss Alps, so I needn't add very much to that.

We're just back now from a very nice dinner here at the hotel we chose for tonight's stay in the Swiss alps, a very nice hotel in a most picturesque valley (at an altitude of 3,000 feet) that mirrors the mental picture of the Alps that I already held.

We have each posted a lot of pictures on our Facebook pages.  Cam's are here.  Mine are here.

Hyeres, Monaco, Riomaggore, Swiss Alps

9-29-09

Hello everyone from the CinqueTerre. I woke up early this morning to get a better look at Riomaggore. We arrived around 6:30 last night in the midst of a beautiful Mediterranean sunset. The drive from San Remo, Italy, not far from the border of Monaco, took us a little more than six hours. We probably could have made it a lot sooner if we had taken the autostrade, but who would want to do that when we could take the long, curvy, and slow road along the majestic sea-side cliffs.

On Friday, we arrived in Hyeres Les Palmiers. It was our first stop on the Cote d’Azur. We went out to dinner at an outdoor restaurant in the section of Hyeres called the port. The next morning we walked through le centre-ville in the old part of Hyeres not far from our hotel. Lining the streets were markets selling fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, and fish. The atmosphere was pretty amazing. The streets were packed with mostly locals and we got to see what it was like to live around here. After stopping for a bite to eat at a café, we walked up to the old, old town. It’s built on a steep mountain that must be at least a thousand feet high. Almost at the stop were the Sainte Claire botanical gardens. They were on the property of an old castle mansion with the most beautiful view of the city and sea. After we descended all the way down the mountain we drove over to the port area again and the beaches. The beach we stopped at had tons of wind-surfers and kite-surfers cruising around about 500 feet off shore. Across the road were lagoons with thousands of light pink flamingos.

We left Hyeres on Sunday morning, headed for Monaco. We took the coastal route the entire way which took six or so hours. The pictures on facebook show the amazing views. When we finally got to Monaco we were starving. It took us thirty or so minutes to find parking, then we walked around for another thirty minutes trying to find a place to eat but it was Sunday and almost nothing was open. We finally found a place called “Café Paris” but when we realized that a beer was eight euros we decided just to leave Monaco. So we walked around a little bit, saw what we needed to see, then got back in the car and left.

· We left the Cote d’Azur for the Italian Riviera. The roads and vistas weren’t much different, still very stunning. Everything did seem a little bit older though. The roads seemed a little narrower and we soon got sick of them. Still with nothing in our stomachs we decided to check into a hotel and eat. The first couple of hotels were nice but seemed a little expensive.. about 100 euros for a night.. so we continued our search. One change we noticed was that most of the hotel receptionists in Italy, or atleast the 4-5 we visited, didn’t know any English. We finally found a place in San Remo right along the ocean for a decent price. When we went down to the restaurant we realized that we might have been the only ones staying that night, though. It seemed pretty empty. The hotel was old but nice. It had an indoor and outdoor pool and all the rooms had views but I think it was a hell of a lot nicer when it was built. I couldn’t stop thinking about the mafia while I was in Italy. The music from the Godfather kept playing in my head. I wish I would have had the Godfather soundtrack on my iPod, I would have listened to it.

· The next morning we packed our stuff and were off again. We drove for about four or five hours on the coastal route and realized that we were making horrible time. After we passed through the major city of Genova we hopped on the Autostrade and quickly made it to Riomaggore. What a beautiful little town. It’s nestled into a little cove with huge mountains on both sides. There was only one entrance to the city, and once you entered you had to pay a few euros to park for an hour while you looked for somewhere to stay. We found a place on the second story of an old building which lined the main street. You can tell all the buildings were really old because the stairs to the room were made out of stone. I can’t even really explain how amazing this little town was. If you ever plan on going on a vacation to the Italian Riviera, definitely stay in Riomaggore in the Cinque Terre. I wish we could have stayed longer here and explored the four other villages. It’s truly amazing, one- if not the best place we’ve been so far.

Well, we had planned to stay in Florence tonight, but we decided to get out of Italy and head for the Swiss Alps. We’re in a little town 1000 meters above sea-level in the Italian part. I’m so glad we made the choice we did because it’s spectacular here. The town is called Rossa and it’s in a valley between two massive mountains, both probably 1500 meters in elevation. There is a waterfall cascading down from the top of the rock face on our left and I think I’m going to walk over there now to check it out.

I’m sorry I hadn’t posted in a couple of days but we’ve been very busy. Tomorrow we’ll be in Austria, hopefully staying in a place similar to this because it’s awesome. Ciao! oh and i love you courtney

First Part of France

We’ve been in France for four days now. Our first destination was Omaha beach in Normandy. The American battle cemetery was staggering and very moving. There was a free exhibit inside the visitor’s center that provided a very detailed portrayal of the preparations, assault, and the subsequent liberation of France. The whole exhibit was very well done. When we got outside we followed the path to the cemetery and memorial. The landscaping was incredible and it’s clear that they spared no expense to honor the brave men who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of the people here. We spent maybe an hour and a half at the cemetery then made the short drive down to St. Laurent sur Mer on Omaha beach where we found a little hotel and restaurant to spend the night at. We settled in and then ate. I had the steak au poivre. After dinner, we went for a walk along the beach. The sun was setting and it was downright beautiful. The low tide allowed us to imagine the horrific seen on D-Day sixty-five years ago. The cliffs along the beach now have summer cottages scattered along them but we thought we could make out areas where bunkers may have been. There was one house with a trail leading up to the top of the embankment. The house looked vacant so I walked through the gate and looked for the trail. As soon as I got close though, a couple of donkey’s got spooked. This made me spooked so I decided not to go any further. I don’t know if the beach is more crowded during the summer but there was no one there. Throughout our hour or so long walk I could count the number of cars that drove by on one hand. It was surprising because it’s a very nice area. It was basically a ghost town though.

The next morning we packed our things and left for le Mont-St.-Michel. On the way we stopped at a boulangerie and bought a baguette, a croissant, and a chocolate filled croissant. It only came out to like three euros and we decided we weren’t going to spend twenty euros on breakfast anymore while we were in France. Buying a baguette is the way to go except it makes a mess of our car. Going to Mont-st-Michel was my idea, Papa had never heard of it before. I had seen pictures of it before in French class and was interested by it because there are only certain times you can go there. The road leading out to it is only accessible during low tide. Fortunately for us, it was low tide when we got there. Le mont and the abbey sitting on the top of it was an amazing site to see. We walked all the way to the top, relaxed for like ten minutes then made our way back down.

Papa let me drive which was exciting. I drove all the way to Poitiers, about five and a half hours, where we checked into a hotel and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Our Itinerary

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Belgium

We finally arrived at Bruno’s house around 6:30 or 7:00. He was there with Romeo and Romeo’s son Bruno. Neither of them spoke English so this was my first test. They could understand what I wanted to say but it was really hard for me to understand what they were saying, which is to be expected I guess. I’m sure if I were to stay there for two weeks I would improve a lot. We sat down and had a few drinks and Bruno showed me pictures of when my mom was living there with him and Irene. For some reason I was overcome with emotion. I think it was because I was in the same place with the same people that my mother was in when she was a few years younger than I am now. It was just a very emotional thing for me I guess. I was sort of embarrassed after. We went down the street to a restaurant and had Les Moules (the mussels) in a Vin Blanc sauce. Tres delicieux. After a few hours around the language I was actually able to understand okay and my speaking was somewhat tolerable. I thought I did pretty well for not practicing since May.

Now we are at Xavier’s house. We arrived last night after stopping in Bastogne to visit the war memorial. Xavier didn’t even know we were coming so he already plans to go to a concert with his girlfriend Stephanie. He set up beds for us and told us to make ourselves at home. They have a kitten named Ziggy that I played with for most of the night. One thing I noticed about Belgium are the slugs! The slugs here are huge, I don’t know what makes them so big or what they do but they’re huge. I couldn’t resist the temptation to pour a little salt on some. Cruel but..they’re just slugs, right? This morning we took a ride to Luxembourg with Xavier because he took the day off from work. We also picked up a GPS because we needed one badly. Having to stop and ask for directions or trying to find directions online and not being able to print them out is just too time consuming. If we are going to be able to complete this implausible trek around Europe we will need a GPS. Xavier is making us pasta for lunch and then I believe we will be on our way. Heading for Normandy.

Journey to Belgium

Currently 3:41pm. We were supposed to be at Bruno’s by Noon. We believe we have our bearings now though.

Amsterdam

Saturday 9/19 11:05am

Friday morning was our first full day in Holland. We woke up early which was a struggle, but there was complementary breakfast service. We went to the car rental place and picked up the car to head to Den Haag. Our mission was to find Linda’s house. She is a teacher of technical writing in Den Haag. We arrived around 11:30 and walked to the beach to have some coffee. The cafés on the beach were sick. It helped that the weather was perfect. It would have been a terrific Friday breakfast if it wasn’t for our Yankees fan waiter. He noticed my Sox hat and made it known how he felt about them. We had a few disagreements and I said we’ll just have to see what happens in October. Then Linda told him to go get our coffee. Haha.

Linda could only stay and chat for a little bit, but it was nice to see that side of Holland. There is definitely more to Holland than Amsterdam. The highways are lined by large fields with horses. Every couple of minutes we’d pass a massive white windmill. Outside of Amsterdam I noticed that the cities are very modern.

· I think the one of the most unique and best things about the cities in Holland is the tram. In Amsterdam, the trams are situated on the larger straats ( streets). It’s not only good transportation but it was also a good indicator when we were lost. The trams in Leidseplein Centruum were always coming through the square, dinging a bell to alert pedestrians. They made it very interesting to just go for a stroll around the area.

· It’s known that there are so many bicycles in Amsterdam. I’ve never seen anything like it. I think the chances of being struck by a bicycle are very high. The locals ride fast and it’s important to pay attention to where the bike lanes are. Linda told me that there are two bikes for every person in Amsterdam. I’ve never seen anything like it. I wish I would have taken a video with my camera of the bike traffic in and around the square. I really wanted to rent a bike early Friday evening but I wasn’t able to find a rental place. I asked for directions more than once. Even though I didn’t have the bike I still went wondering around. It would have been better to be lost on a bike though. I found that if I strayed out of Leidseplein or off of Leiderstaat I got lost. Something about the way the city is laid out I just couldn’t grasp it really. It’s good that a lot of Dutch speak English and most of them were a lot of help.

One thing I really wanted to see was the Anne Frank house but we didn’t end up getting over there. I guess the lines are always very long and it’s a very popular museum.

While I was out strolling around I sat down in Leidseplein Centruum and enjoyed the great weather and people watching. I sat down at an outdoor café and had a few Heinekens. Very expensive for a beer though. About 8 bucks for a pint. The square was packed with people. Some break-dance street performers were doing a show. I had seen them the first night though and the second time wasn’t as interesting. I walked around to some artists selling their work and stopped and talked with a lady named Constantja who worked with watercolors and ink. Woah, balloon in the road, it just hit us. Anyway, I stayed in the square for a while and just took it all in. Our hotel and the coffee shop were right down the street from it so it was where we spent most of our time. Everything we needed was right there. It was a perfect location to stay for a couple of nights.

The restaurants we ate at varied. The service was very poor at some of the outside places. I don’t think they had enough waiters/waitresses to handle the people sitting inside and on the outside area. Also though, we haven’t been eating at top-notch restaurants. We are trying to eat light, maybe in Paris we will visit a few very nice restaurants. The one thing I miss about America is the ability to just get a hot-dog or a hamburger. There were absolutely no places to get just a quick bite to eat. I think the best service I received while in Amsterdam was from the people at the Rookies Hotel and coffee shop. They spoke English very well and were just better than any other place in general.

It would have been nice to stay in Amsterdam for a few more nights but we’re on a mission to see a lot of places, not just one. I guess you could say we were on a quest, to see what’s out there. To see places and learn things about cultures that, in America, you only get to see bits and pieces of. Things that have been introduced to America many generations ago.

First Day in Amsterdam

Sitting here in our room at the top floor of a four-story building housing The Rookies Hotel on Korte Leidsedwarsstraat in the Leideseplein District of Amsterdam. All we can see from our window are the rooftops of nearby buildings, most of which are old, or else have been built later to resemble the style of the old buildings that surround them.

We arrived here early this morning. The bus coach we were booked on left London at 7:30 PM. By 10:00 we were at Folkestone, the England terminus of the EuroTunnel that runs trains under the English Channel, trains that carry passengers (the EuroStar) and ones that carry vehicles, including buses and large trucks on a 35-minute crossing winding up in Calais, France. It was a long coach trip (made longer by the three British yobs sitting in the two rows in front of us who kept up a schoolboy conversation about what they would do while in Amsterdam), but about 2-1/2 hours less than it was scheduled for, putting us at the Eurolines coach stop, a 15 minute, 15 Euro taxi ride from the Central rail Station, a starting point that was at least somewhat familiar to me. From there we hoofed it to Leidseplein, a walk that took us a lot longer than I remembered it taking and putting us on the platz at about 7:30 AM. We took breakfast at the Satellite Sports Café on one corner of the platz next to the world-famous original Bulldog complex.

I sent Cam on a mission to find us a room that a) was available; 2) had wireless internet access, and 3) wasn't TOO expensive. He did a fine job and loacted the The Rookies hotel, next door to The Rookies Coffee Shop.

We're a block-and-a-half off the main square and on Korte Leidsedwarsstraat, a small street that is made up primarily of hotels, restaurants, coffee shops and a variety of other small businesses. It's a street I have walked on before, three times, once with Janet and Betty and Lee; and twice with Janet alone in 1997. We liked the street because of the variety of restaurants and bars in the area and because of the street scene that surrounds it. It's well-enough lit to make ones way along the street and those that cross it. In some ways its like Soho in London, but more lively, more colorful. One principal way it was different, and I hope it will continue to be, is the street theater that goes on for patrons dining at outside tables in front of many restaurants featuring at least a dozen cuisines, from American barbecue ribs to middle east shawarma. We've seen singers and other musicians, jugglers, magicians, puppet shows and more, all plying the crowds for monetary appreciation for their efforts. Just a few doors down there's a small jazz club that Janet and I dropped into the last time we were here together in 1997. We were on our way back from spending thirty days in Europe ourselves, carrying backpacks and moving around by buses, trains, and for a brief time, a rented automobile.

This time Cam and I have a car for 29 of the 41 days we'll be traveling together. I went by and signed the papers this morning and will pick the car up tomorrow morning early. We're driving to Den Haag (The Hague) to pick up an ATM card that Cam was supposed to bring with him but that didn't get activated soon enough. A long-time friend of hours lives there during the winter months, so Cam's Mom over-nighted the card to her so we could get it on Friday.

We rested up earlier in the day to catch up on the sleep we lost on the coach from London, Cam had some lunch and I went on a photo safari along our street, Korte Leidsedwarsstraat, taking pictures along about two-third of it before exhausting the battery on my camera. I'll put the photos up at Facebook and try commenting on the ones I think are more interesting.

We went off together late this afternoon for a walk along some of the canals that criss-cross the old streets of Amsterdam. As is usual, I got us lost enough to ask (so far) friendly locals for directions back here. When we got back I took Cam for a shawarma wrap at a small restaurant very near our hotel. The sandwich was very good; the man who prepared it was as unfriendly as could be and so got no tip. He had just been dressed down by another, older man who was either our man's father or his boss, but that's no excuse for unfriendly service.

We've had dodgy internet service from the hotel's wi-fi. It worked fine this morning while downloading e-mail and reading news, and even up until early afternoon, then it disappeared, not the wi-fi itself but the internet servers we should have been connecting to. Cam talked to someone at the Coffee Shop and got it working again, but now it's out again, so I probably won't get this entry or the photos uploaded tonight. I'm hoping that we'll have better luck tomorrow.

Now it's 10 PM, Cam's gone out to have another look around, and I'm gettig ready for bed. I really should get dressed again and see what's happening a the Blue Note jazz café just down the street, but I just don't have the energy. At least we got our exercise.

Hello again.

Cam here.. I realize I just posted a few minutes ago but I'm sitting in "The Rookies" coffee shop just next door to the hotel. It's just such a beautiful thing it brings tears to my eyes. The shop itself is very well down. It has wooden pillars and wooden tables and stools. I love the all wooden look, it's very old school. Some of the kinds of weed they have are: Amnesia Haze, Power Plant, Northern Lights, Jack Herrer, Outdoor lights, and Thai. For hash they have: Super Pollen, Super Maroc, Nepal, Afghaan, Manali, and Afghaan Pollen. I'm waiting for Papa to get back from picking up the rental car just down the road.

There are two American middle age guys in here sitting a few tables away from me and they lit up, coughed intensely, and then just burst into laughter it was hilarious. One thing I must say is I love the eclectic selection of music they place in here. Right now it's Nelly, a few minutes ago it was Jimi Hendrix, before that it was something way different. Pretty cool. Well I'm going to bring the laptop back up to the room and then go get some money. Plenty more posts to come.

Amsterdam

We just arrived in Amsterdam this morning. Sooooo sick. I know you are all very jealous. We were in London the past two and a half days but my Papa pretty much stole the show on the blog so I had nothing to write about. I'm going to have to think of unique aspects of the cities to write about so I can interest you followers. Hmmm... BUT, I am sure I will have plenty of things to write about Amsterdam! You can probably already tell by my writing so far that I am rather giddy. hehe. I just got word that my mother is doing well after her dental surgery and she is now on her way to Key West to visit my Grandma... Have a safe trip mom, i love you.

Hokay, so! We arrived this morning around 5:30 or so and hopped in a cab to Central station. From there we walked all the way to the Leidseplein section along side the canals. It was a nice walk, we took several breaks along the way because we were rolling our heavy bags and carrying our laptop bags. We stopped in at a couple of hostels and hotels asking them about their prices and availabilities until we found one we liked. It's called the Rookies and it has a coffee shop attached to it. It's a little more than Papa was planning on spending for a room at 80 euros per night but it's a nice hotel with WiFi and a nice deck outside. We're picking up the car today at 12:00 which is pretty soon so I'm going to go. I'll be writing again soon!

Day five - in London

I've been spending this day mostly inside at the Piccadilly Backpackers Hostel on Sherwood Street in London (Facebook).  Directly across the narrow street there's a construction project
underway, a modern 10-story hotel that will be done in 2011.  The site is basically a hole in the ground right now, still being excavated, with dump trucks taking away load after load of earth.

I'm chatting with the traffic marshall whose job it is to stand on the street edge and stop cars and trucks when the crane swivels to deliver materials to various places at the site.  He came here from Ethiopia three years ago with his wife and child and earns minimum wage, about five and a half pounds sterling ($9.00 USD) per hour.  We talked about the economy and the social schemes of England and the U.S., and about the job he's on.  He's been in the rain all day, as have the workers on the site.

Sherwood street is a very small one, only a couple of blocks long.  It's partially blocked by the construction equipment at the site.  It seems to be thoroughfare in the morning and in the evening for people arriving on the Piccadilly Underground line and spreading out to head for their jobs.

There's a homeless man who lives on the sidewalk just outside the theater next door with his pit bull dog.  I watched today as the sanitation department picked up and disposed of the man's bed, a cardboard box.  No doubt he'll find another and curl up in his sleeping bag when darkness comes around again.

We're in the area known as West End.  There are many theatres in the area.  The one next door to the hostel is playing Grease right now.  There's a sign outside offering a limited number of same day tickets for 15 pounds ($25).  Cam and I were thinking about going to see Wicked, the story of the witches of Oz, if we could find cheap tickets, but the best price we could find was 45 pounds ($75).

With the rain continuing, we don't know what to do other than stay in and make plans for our continuing journey that will put us in Amsterdam on Thursday morning.

To finish up this post that began four hours ago, we went out in the rain and ate at a place called Soho Pizzeria in -- guess where -- Soho, an interesting part of London with many places to eat, drink and party, as it was fifty years ago when I was first here.  Changed, of course, but still a place for entertainment.  When I was there in 1959, I and some Navy shipmates discovered a place called Les Enfants Terrible, a disco of sorts, music, dancing, young people.  It was also near Carnaby Street:

1958 saw the first boutique, His Clothes, opened in Carnaby Street by John Stephen (after his shop in Beak Street burned down)^[1] and was soon followed by I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet, Mr. Fish and Cecil Gee (both of whom owned bespoke tailor’s shops), Kleptomania, Mates, Ravel, and others.

By the 1960s, Carnaby Street proved popular for followers of both the Mod and hippie styles. Many independent fashion boutiques, and designers such as Mary Quant, Marion Foale / Sally Tuffin,^[2] Lord John, Take Six, and Irvine Sellars were located in Carnaby Street as well as various underground music bars such as the Roaring Twenties in the surrounding streets. With bands such as The Beatles, Small Faces,The Who, and Rolling Stones appearing in the area to work (with the legendary Marquee Club located round the corner in Wardour Street), shop, and socialize, it became one of Swinging London's coolest destination associated with the Swinging Sixties.

Anyway, Soho Pizzeria is in a very nice space, good food decently priced, top notch service, a woman singing and playing jazz tunes.  I asked our waiter about it.  He said it was started by the founder of another company -- the name escapes me -- with other partners after he sold out his original business.  A place like it would, I think, do well in Key West were it to establish a branch there, or in many other places, in fact.  Can you say franchise opportunity?

We're back at the hostel now.  As we arrived here we saw people streaming out of the entrance.  At first I thought they must be gathering for the hostel party which is scheduled to leave at 10:30 PM, but it was instead an evacuation brought on when the fire alarms went off.  A single fire truck soon pulled up in front, a fireman went in and declared it safe to re-enter, and several hundred folks trooped back in.  The hostel -- did I mention this already?  has 800 beds and though there weren't that many on the sidewalk, there were at least a couple of hundred.

First day in London

We're in London today after a long and tiring bus & ferry trip from Dublin overnight.  The money system changed over to Sterling (pounds) when we crossed the Irish Sea and arrived in England.  It goes back to Euros when we arrive in Amsterdam on Wednesday.

In both Ireland and England it seems to me we've been paying about the same number of Euros/Pounds as we'd be spending dollars for similar items, but we're having to pay between $1.65 to buy one pound and $1.46 to buy one Euro.  Both countries are undergoing some of the financial strains as the U.S. (and for the same reasons), but Ireland is suffering more from it.

I walked to the Apple Store on Regent St. today, raising a further blister on my right foot, in hopes of getting a replacement for a key cap that broke just before I left.  They didn't have it though.  Luckily the key itself is OK and I'll survive with it this way until I get back.

We're staying right near Piccadilly Circus (which, as I'm sure everyone knows, isn't a real circus but a square with a fountain of winged Eros in the center (film at 11).  It's kind of like Times Sq. in New York, with flashing electric signs on many of the buildings.

We watched a portion of the Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace today.  Cam has the photos and will probably write about the event today or tomorrow.

We talked about taking a bus tour tomorrow, as that's usually the best way to spot where the interesting bits are and to learn some of the history and sense of a place (shades of the little Conch train.)

Ate Chinese food in Chinatown tonight, then walked a bit to help digest dinner.  We went to Soho, an area that I walked in 50 years ago while here on a Navy shore leave, but I didn't see anything that I remembered much from then.

The hostel we're staying at for two nights is not as nice as some others we've seen, but it's pretty well-situated, not too far from many things of interest, and the price wasn't so bad for a downtown hostel in a big city.  They even have a Facebook page.

exhausted

Not everything is glorious on a Euro-trip.. this 7-hour bus ride to London sucks. Out of the 45 seats on the bus I get the one that doesn’t recline. Whatever. I’ll sleep when we get to the hostel.

Selected photos

Following, some photos from Bob's camera.  I'll post the lot at FaceBook.

Leaving New Hampshire on Wednesday; then Boston

Cam at Dublin Airport (4:30 AM)

Statue of Phil Lynott;  Statue of Robert Emmet in St. Stephen's Green with me, Robert Emmet Kelly posing.  (Let no man write my epitaph.)

Temple Bar, Dublin

cliffs of moher

Well, to really understand what these cliffs were like you’ll need to look at the pictures on facebook. However, seeing them in person is incredible. The sheer magnitude of them is unbelievable, but also the café and stores built inside of the hills on top of the cliffs is a pretty astonishing thing as well. The bus ride to the west coast of Ireland where the cliffs are located was not bad. The countryside was beautiful with the emblematic stonewalls lining the properties and the cattle grazing in almost every plot of land. The landscape was just like what I’ve seen in books or magazines about Ireland; gentle hills covered in lush grass for as far as the eyes can see. Papa brought up a good point and that was how you really must be a farmer to live in this part of Ireland because there isn’t that much out there. The road to the cliffs was extremely narrow, barely big enough for the coach bus never mind another car, god forbid another bus. Back to the cliffs though.. They’re INSANE. At the end of the “real” trail there is another one that belongs to private property that you aren’t really supposed to go on but everyone does it anyway. On this trail there aren’t any stonewalls blocking you from falling off the 800-foot high cliffs which might just be too much for someone afraid of heights. Papa and I were fine though. However, we did almost see some nerd fall off though. The only negative thing I can think of about the cliffs is that because of all the cows in the area there were massive swarms of flies everywhere that would attack you and fly into any orifice they could. You could barely talk or even smile in a picture without swallowing a few flies. Also, I don’t know if this is common or not but there was a young kid, maybe 5-6 years old who was freaking out while walking along the trail. I don’t know if it was because of the flies or if he were possessed by some kind of mischievous sprite but he wouldn’t stop screaming in tongues. It was ridiculous. Other than those two minor things our day at the cliffs was absolutely unforgettable and I hope to take my family there some day.

After backtracking to Ennis, we caught our bus to Galway. It was an hour-long ride and I sat next to a girl from Seattle who I talked with a little bit. By the time we arrived and found somewhere to stay it was pretty late so we didn’t get to explore the city, which was unfortunate, but I can’t complain because what’s missing one city in a trip covering so many different places. After skyping for a few we strolled down to the hotel pub around midnight and had a pint. Being a Saturday night, the bar was packed and by that time everyone was piss drunk but us so we had a few laughs watching the locals sing and dance to classic American songs that only a really drunk person would sing and dance to. After seeing a lad almost puke we decided to call it a night.

· Later that night while I was trying to sleep I noticed something. Papa is one of the strangest sleepers I’ve ever seen/heard. I’ll do my best to describe what it was like.

o So we hop in bed and I decided to stay up and chat a little bit. Almost as soon as he hit the bed he was asleep. Soon after that he seemed to be in a deep sleep. Casually snoring, which isn’t strange, but he would mix in a phrase or two like “Oh boy” or “Ow/Ouch” while he turned over. Sometimes he’ll even mumble something or say actually sentences or phrases. For example, last night I heard him say, “Item.. In this case..” They’re just little phrases like that but it’s just strange. There were other things too but I can’t remember them.

o Another thing is that he’ll snore in many different tones. He’ll go from a deep long snore to a quick snort blast as I’d like to call it. Then he’ll begin to wheeze, also in different tones. A high pitched wheeze, tapering off to deep one, almost sounding like a long grunt.

· Anyways, that kind of stuff continues throughout the night. I woke up this morning at 8:30 before he got up and he was still mumbling and what not. It’s sort of funny to listen to him but also at the same time hard to fall asleep because I can’t concentrate on sleeping and just chillin’ because I’m just listening to him do his thing. So I think I’ll try to get to bed and fall asleep before he does in the future to avoid this type of thing.

We’re on the bus to Dublin right now where we will hang out until we board our bus which will take us on the ferry to London. I have excite. Okay well, until next time. Ciao

-Cameron

Day Three in Ireland (Bob's View)

Made it to Galway at about half-eight (8:30) but we didn't get into Kinlay House as we had hoped to do.  In fact every hotel in the downtown area was booked up and we wound up at a hotel/B&B on the outskirts, thanks to the manager and doorman of a place we stopped at to inquire.  He rang up and got us a reservation here and also called a taxi for us.  The Irish have a well-deserved reputation for being friendly and helpful to strangers who ask for their help in a polite way.

It's about 11:30 now (half-eleven) and we're both pretty tired having spent many hours on buses today.  We left Carrick at just before half-eight and traveled to Limerick, changed buses there for Ennis, and changed again for a trip out to the Cliffs of Moher.  We spent about three hours there and returned to Ennis, changed buses once more for Galway.  We're traveling on a bus ticket that allows us to travel as much as we want on any three out of six days.  We'll use up the final day tomorrow to travel back to Dublin where we'll board a bus to London, traveling overnight by ferry and then land to arrive at Victoria Station in the morning.

I'm behind in getting my pictures posted.  I hope to catch up to Cam's prolific posting in the next coupld of days.

On our way to the Cliffs of Moher

We're in Ennis (Co. Clare) heading for the Cliffs of Moher for the afternoon.  Thence to Galway tonight where we'll stay at Kinlay House, a favorite hostel from the trip that Janet and I took in 1997.

Cam's enjoying it all so far.  We've been pretty much on the move the whole three (and a half) days that we've been here, hauling luggage and so, which will be the way things are until we pick up our car in Amsterdam in five days.

Cam's discovered that Guinness isn't at all bad; we will probably make a visit to St. James Gate, the source of all Guinness when we return to Dublin at the end of our journey.

We had a lovely visit with cousins Jane and Barbara in Carrick-on-Suir.  There happened to be a bicycle road race underway while we were there and we watched the start from a good vantage point on the main street.  We then walked to the old bridge, first built over the river Suir in 1446, and watched as the tidal flow back to the ocean began.

Cam has been diligent in his note-taking and in writing something her as often as possible.

We're discovering that internet access is less accessible in Ireland than we had hoped it would be.  We'll be looking for improved internet access as we move into mainland Europe.

We'll leave for England tomorrow night, probably, for an overnight bus-ferry trip winding up at Victoria Station in London.

Stay tuned for more news of Cam and Bob's excellent adventure.

My Turn

I'm now a co-blogger with Cam on this blog.  We're going to catch a bus in a few minutes, so I'll fill in the backgrounw when we get to our next stop.

Papa

Leaving Jane and Carrick

It’s 8:30AM, Papa and I just boarded the bus to Limerick, Ennis, and the Cliffs of Moher. It’s a two hour bus ride so I’ll use this time to write about yesterday’s events.

We started off the day with a full Irish breakfast at the Carraig Hotel. It’s one egg over-easy with two different kinds of sausage (both sort of spicy), bacon, a hashbrown, and toast. The bacon was actually what we call ham. It was pretty good. I wasn’t a huge fan of the sausage but the rest of it was tasty. The good thing about the meal is that it really holds you over for a long time. We didn’t need another thing to eat until that evening.

· After breakfast we took a walk around town, stopping at the internet café to see if we could hook our laptops up there. Then we walked down the street to where they were starting a bike race for military forces. We only stayed for a bit but got to see the Belgian, German, and Irish riders depart. It was pretty legit.. they had the caravan of vans and cars following after each rider. Fans holding their country’s flag were lined up on the street to support their country. We saw what we wanted to see and started up on our walk again.

· We walked down a street to the river where we crossed a bridge built in the fifteenth century by soldiers. It was made of stone and very narrow. On the other side of the bridge was the town of Carrick-Keg. Which means Carrick on the mountain I think because it lay on the side of a big hill. There wasn’t much to see there but we walked down the street which ran alongside the river and then we crossed back over on another bridge. From that bridge we had a nice view of a big mountain in the distance. It looked a lot different than the mountains in New England because there were no trees on it. You could see the road all the way up to the top and if we had more time in Carrick I would have liked to climb up it.

· We headed back to Jane’s to get ready to leave with Libby, Barbara, and Jane for Waterford. Libby is the daughter of Jane’s late husband Kevin O’Driscoll. She lives in Tremore.

· Waterford is a pretty large city. We walked around for a while, bought some postcards and saw a few sights.

· When we left we headed for Tremore where Libby lives with her husband Paul and three kids. She has two sons.. Sam who is 19, Zach who is 18, and Eppie the youngest, she is about 12. Tremore is a tourist spot right on the sea. There is an amusement park which was closing down for the winter. From the beach we could see the bay with two ancient lighthouses on the left and three on the right. At the top of one of the lighthouses on the right was the Metal Man who points out the sea. Libby told me they built the lighthouses hundreds of years ago to warn the sailors of dangerous rocks in the bay which had already claimed the life and ships of many sailors. We took a ride along the coast over by the Metal man where I took some pictures. Then we went to Libby’s house. It was in a beautiful spot with a view of the sea. Libby went out to get us some of Tremore’s famous fish and chips. She said we couldn’t leave without having them. While she was out doing that we sat down and talked with her husband Paul and had a couple Coronas. He works for a company with its headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. The fish and chips were excellent. On the way home the sunset was amazing. I took a few pictures but we were in the car so they didn’t come out so well. Libby told us how lucky we were that the weather was good because like in New Hampshire it had rained pretty much the whole summer. When we got back to Carrick we decided to make it an early night and head to bed. I slept okay but woke up in the middle of the night because of a weird dream I was having. I was in some kind of junkyard for some reason in a car with some people when this American muscle car sped up to us and opened fire on us with a machine gun. I was the only one to survive. Pretty bizarre dream I’d say.

· Anyway, I’m going to enjoy the bus ride now and I’ll write again later after today’s adventures. I miss you all.

o -Cam

Carrick-on-Suir

So our first day of the trip is over. It seems like we’ve been here for a few days though because it was such a long day. I’ve only had about 36 hours of sleep in the past two days so I’ll be glad to be able to get a full night’s rest tonight.

· We went for a walk around Carrick tonight. We saw the castle that belonged to Black Tom or Tim or something like that. He wasn’t really black of course. I assumed you figured that because there aren’t too many black Irishmen, especially with castles. It was given to him by Elizabeth the first. Cousin Jane made spaghetti for dinner and it was quite good. Definitely felt better in my stomach than the broccoli and cauliflower soup I had earlier today. That didn’t settle so well.

· After dinner we met up with Enda who is my grandmother’s second cousin. He lives here in Carrick and is an actor in theatre. We met him at the J. Lawlor pub for a pint or two. It ‘s only one of the many pubs in this small town. The pubs here aren’t like the bars we have for a few reasons. For example, the bartender or what they call the “bar-man” over here was actually a “bar-woman” and she was pushing 80 years old. I’m sure she had owned and ran the bar her whole life. A lot of the tacky decorations in the bar had been there for a while too. There was a cigarette machine that looked like it was forty years old. The cigarettes here so expensive, almost ten American dollars a pack. Another reason why is that they didn’t have Budweiser or Coors like they do in America. I ordered a pint of Guinness which was on tap along with Carlsberg and some other Irish beer. I was very surprised with how Guinness tasted. It was really good, the very dark appearance fooled me. When we finished our glasses Enda brought us to another pub downtown. I liked this one better. From the street it looked very small but it actually wasn’t at all. It was dark and filled with neat signs and pictures. The lounge went back like fifty feet with tables set up along the way. Next to the door that read toilets there was a door which led to an outside bar area with TV’s and a few slot machines. There was a patio and on both sides were round tables. We chose to sit in a little side nook that seemed to be the bar’s old kitchen because it had tile floors unlike the rest of the bar. We drank a few more pints and talked about the Irish sport called “hurling”. Which is sort of a mix between baseball, soccer, and hockey. Baseball because you carry a “hurley”... Soccer because you run around and play on a soccer field. Hockey because it’s physical. If I grew up in Ireland I would definitely be a hurler and not a soccer player. Enda even said soccer was a fairy sport. I agreed.

I’m disappointed that I can’t get on the internet here. There are a few spots with WiFi but they are all locked. I’m hoping the rest of Europe will be better in that way because I’d really like to be able to post on the blog and add pictures as much as possible. As well as facebook and chat with my friends and family who I miss a lot. Especially Courtney.. I love you very much.

·

Long Morning in Dublin

So Papa and I arrived at the Dublin Airport around 4:30am. I was completely exhausted and sore from the long flight. We got our bags and Papa left me out on the street watching over the bags as he went and looked for somewhere to exchange dollars for Euros. He came back five minutes later with the money and we bought two bus tickets for Dublin City Centre (O’Connell St.) By the time we got off the bus it was still dark outside. It was strange seeing the beautiful city of Dublin for the first time in the dark with no one on it’s wide streets. I was able to take a couple of nice pictures though. Our plan was to find our way to the bus station and buy tickets for the bus to Carrick-on-Suir and lock up our bags in the storage area of the station. I was pretty weary of the whole situation because we didn’t really know what we were doing. We didn’t have money at the time because we spent it on the bus tickets, and we were both tired. After finding out the bus leaves at 1:30, we went back out to explore. By this time it was starting to get light out and I could really see how amazing Dublin is! The buildings are all so beautiful and filled with history. It makes it even better that I am half Irish so I could connect being in the capitol of Ireland with my families’ heritage. We explored the old town for about two hours. Stopping and taking pictures whenever I saw something I thought was really cool or different. I wanted to go on the internet really badly so we searched for a café or place with WiFi but we couldn’t find anything. Finally we decided to go into a McDonald’s Café and have a sausage mcMuffin with egg and some coffee. After that I felt a boost of energy and we started to explore again. We made it over to the Trinity College campus, which is utterly amazing. I’m actually typing out this blog entry from a little underground café In the center of the trinity courtyard. I took a lot of pictures of the campus so you’ll be able to see what I mean when I say it’s amazing. Another neat thing we explored was the park where I took pictures of Papa next to the Robert Emmett statue. He thought this was of extreme importance seeing how he was named after this Irish hero.

We're leaving later today around 2:00. I couldn't sleep at all last night, but hopefully I'll sleep the whole flight and be ready to arrive in Dublin tomorrow morning around 6:00 their time. I'm really hoping everything goes smoothly to start off this trip.

Leaving tomorrow!

Hey everyone.

This is my very first post and I'm very excited to say that my Papa and I are leaving tomorrow from Boston, Massachusetts at 6:00 PM. I plan to add a new post after every day informing you (the follower) about our adventures. I will also add as many pictures as I can.

-Cam C.