Buongiorno!

We were going to take the month off but I just couldn't. I read that Italy was experiencing Spring-like conditions and I had wanted to get to Rome before the heavy tourist season. Well, I wouldn't say it is Spring-like more like the beginning of Fall. It isn't bad. It beats the heat of the summer and the masses of people. Breanna, Cameron, Grant and I flew in Saturday evening and will go home on Wednesday morning. We are staying in an apartment in the Campo de Fiori area and while it is more noisy than I would prefer, the location is great. We can walk everywhere and only occasionally grab a taxi. We are adhering to a strict schedule of sights and the gelato keeps the kids going. I will add specifics when I get home and add photos since the only internet access we have is an internet cafe. But it is another great trip in a city with more history that one can wrap their mind around. Arrivederci!

Supporting a great cause: My mom and sister

My mother and my sister both have MS. My sister Jaclyn is doing the MS walk in Kansas City and you can sponsor her at this link. Look for your local MS walk, they are usually sometime in April. It is a great way to support a cause that has yet to find a cure and enjoy the outdoors at the first signs of Spring. I looked here in Ireland for the MS walk. There are three: One in Nepal, Peru and Chile. What!?! Although it does look fun, couldn't they find something a little closer.... Dublin, Limerick, Cork?

How Could I Forget

She kept trying to bend the rules of the giveaway~but came through with a suitcase full of goodies. So just for you Mom...choose one or all!

Alright, You Win!

Well I am happy to report that we had a number of people take advantage of our one and only desperate giveaway. I am fairly confident that most of them had no idea that they had qualified but will be surprised and joyful, I am sure, when their prize arrives. I apologize for the poor photos. They really are pretty bad

It is with great honor that I announce the first winner is Melinda S. She has sent many packages and we are so grateful. Her prize comes from The Louvre in Paris. And fitting for her, it is this statue of Bastet, a cat goddess from Egyptian mythology, circa 6th century B.C. Here she is portrayed with her kittens symbolizing maternal love but a watchful expression ready to attack if necessary. There are many legends of this goddess but we will leave it at this gentle one and not the "female devourer" which is the literal meaning of Bastet.

Our second winner is Eric accompanying his Christmas card was also a box of Lucky Charms. I love this gift and I know he will appreciate it: a set of ball markers from the last 5 Ryder Cups and a divot repair tool. FORE!

I am pretty sure Majbritt had no idea she would be receiving a lovely Christmas linen and candles from Germany. These were bought at the Christmas market in Nuremberg. I love the material and large candle. Thanks for the card and the picture of your beautiful family. Hope to see you this Spring in Denmark!

Lily who has been so busy this year still managed to send out the loveliest Christmas card and I was able to catch up on everyone in the family letter. Lily is a great cook and hopefully she will be able to find time to use these great finds from London by Cath Kidston. A fun striped apron, a very cool double oven mitt and an adorable peg bag for clothes pins. I know she probably doesn't hang many clothes out on the line but I'm sure she can find it useful around the house.

The next winner gets a couple of things for 1) sending a card with her very cute kids on it and 2) for being a comment supporter on my blog. Being the chocolate connoisseur that Jenni is, I think she will be impressed with Demels, who have been making excessive and decadent sweets for over 200 years in Austria. Although ,it will be hard to tear these open as the packaging is gorgeous. And because we both know the Nutella in the States is not nearly as good, here is a jar.

Another great family photo accompanied the card from David and Liesl. Since I don't expect to see you out here in the Emerald Isle, just for you, I have chosen the "This is Ireland" book (I love the whole series that covers many different cities) and the Discover Ireland game. Have fun!

One thing we have found is that food is just better here in Europe, especially the sweets. For Mitch, we have the famed and very yummy official Mozart candy "Mozarkugeln" it has a core of pistachio and almond marzipan surrounded by nougat and covered in bittersweet chocolate. It was invented in Salzburg in 1890 and named after Mozart who was born there. While I wasn't able to get the original Mozarkugeln recognized by the blue and silver packaging this is still very good. Enjoy!

Chocolate covered wafers from Manner's, delicious meringue, and chocolate covered cookies with nonpareils (by the way, it is a Dutch custom to put "sprinkles"on children's sandwiches. Bread with nutella and "sprinkles" we will try that tomorrow) but I digress, all in a cute Christmas tin for Derek. Thanks for the card and the pancake mix!

These wafers from Manner are soooooo good. The original ones with hazelnut are addictive. I am so glad to be able to give these to Jed and Nyla for sending a card all the way to Ireland.

A cute card with kids that are growing so fast from Travis earned him these great mugs. 4 awesome colors with fun prints which we picked up in Spain.

I was surprised and excited to see a photo and a card from my dearest Aunt Patsy. My giveaway wouldn't be complete without some Waterford Crystal! (I have to add this photo later!)


I hope you all enjoy your gifts. Let me know here:)

Mind the Gap

Jay and I just returned from (another for Jay) weekend in London. We drove over Thursday evening spending the night in Preston. Friday we attended the Temple and drove the remaining two hours into London. After dropping the car off near Heathrow airport we took the underground into Westminster station. As I came out of the underground onto the sidewalk there in front of me, in all his glory, looking larger and more impressive than print or television stood Big Ben surrounded by the Parliament. We didn’t do any sight seeing on this trip as I will wait to bring the family back but I will say that London is massive and daunting and will take a couple of trips to even scratch the surface of this amazing city. We stayed at the Marriott County Hall with a view of the London Eye. A great location and nice hotel.

We were able to see two shows on the West End. I LOVE live theatre. I love thinking that I could do that if only I could sing. And dance. We kept seeing posters everywhere showing Don Johnson starring in “Guys and Dolls”. While this wasn’t a real motivating factor (maybe 20 years ago, did I just say that? I am not old enough!) I did think it would be interesting to see him. So we bought tickets at the same day discount booth and although the seats weren’t great the prices were, half priced. Well, what all the posters failed to tell us, me, is that Don Johnson wouldn’t actually be appearing until the day after we leave. So, no Sonny Crockett but it was still entertaining. The second show was “Blood Brothers” which has been running for 20 years and spent a couple of years on Broadway. It was a more serious and sad show with a bit of humor but we liked it as well.

Right now is a great time to be shopping in London assuming your currency of choice is the Pound. There were great sales everywhere but after doing the conversion to dollars it just didn’t seem like a great deal after all. We stopped into Harrod’s and the place was a zoo. So many people and so many floors. We took advantage of the luxurious water closet and headed out figuring we wouldn’t be buying anything there anyway. I had about 5 stores I wanted to visit: Liberty, Waterstones, a stationery store, Sephora and Designers Guild. Our first stop, Designers Guild where they were having a huge sale. So much fabric, bed linens, home décor, I was in heaven. However, Jay was not. While he was a hero being my shopping cart for linens, I knew I couldn’t torture him by looking through bolts of fabric. I really need someone to walk through the shops in Chelsea with me. The only other store I made it to was the very cute store of Cath Kidston. But both were such great finds, I will save the others for another trip.

Just as a side note on eating: We ate at a Mexican restaurant in Leicester Square, Chiquito, and while it wasn’t too bad, it wasn’t familiar Mexican. A vegetable wrap and shrimp fajitas with hardly a spice but that is Europe for ya. We had the Sunday buffet at The Blue Elephant at the Fulham-Broadway stop. Very good Thai food.

The weather was expected London winter but nothing an umbrella couldn’t help. I am thinking that the British are very concerned for my safety. On the elevators you are constantly warned “Doors opening” “Doors closing” “Doors opening”. On the Underground, painted along the platform as you enter and exit the train reads “Mind the Gap” with a constant recording reminding you as the doors open and close. Hence the the title of this blog. So my first glimpse of London did not disappoint and I am looking forward to going back.

Our First Guest and Guest Blogger

Thanks for coming to visit Gene. It was great to have you here!

This is Gene Gray, Jodi’s brother, going to let u know what’s happening here in Ireland. I came over from December 24-January 3 to spend Christmas and New Years’ with the Bean family. We spent Christmas here in Dublin which was great but just felt different because their werent’t lights everywhere like there are in the States. Of course, it’s all about spending time with family and making sure the kids have a good time which they did. They had plenty of presents and Santa was very kind, also. I was able to attend church with them on Sunday, Christmas Eve morning which is the day that I arrived. I want wish to all of u, as the Irish say, ”Happy(Merry) Christmas”. It was a very long flight but well worth it. The Irish are very nice and outgoing people and the city of Dublin is a great town with loads(lots) of old buildings, bridges, churches, and pubs for sure. I will be putting in some of the words or phrases that the Irish use from time to time with the meanings after them. Sometimes they can talk very fast but I seemed to start understanding them but had to really listen hard if they spoke quickly.

On Wednesday, we were headed for London because ever since I saw Peter Pan as a young lad(kid), it was a place that I had always wanted to visit. I truly love my sister and her family very much and am very thankful for the opportunities to spend time with them in such grand(great) places. It was Jay, Grant, Noah, and yours truly that took the road trip to England because Jodi wasn’t feeling well so Cameron and Tori stayed home. Hey, don’t feel bad for them too much because they will be taking the journey later on in the new year. For those wondering about Brianna, she was able to go home for the holidays to visit her family in Colorado. Anyway, we took the van by way of the ferry over the Irish Sea and had to drive what was supposed to be about 4-5 hours but took almost 8 because of the holiday traffic. The drive was worth the sight-seeing because we were able to drive down part of the coast which was amazing with water on one side and rolling hills plus mountains on the other. There were some castles and some terrific views of the countryside with horses and lots of sheep. We were on the motorway(freeway) for most of the time with some country roads mixed in between.

We arrived in London at approximately 9 p.m. and stayed at the Marriott Renaissance Hotel which was just sensational. The building was very old but had been refurbished in 1998 which had a beautiful courtyard and staircases that had several different kinds of marble. It was very lovely(nice). We went around the city on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday by Taxi, the Tube(subway), and the Big Red Bus which had an opening on the top deck. On Thursday, we took the bus around quite a bit of the city streets and saw St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, and got off on the stop for the London Eye. This was built in 2000 and it looked just like a wheel similar to a huge ferris wheel with big viewing capsules that went around very slowly to view the entire city. It was a perfect place to take pictures and hopefully u will be able to view some of them. The wheel went probably as high as the St. Louis arch with only one exception being that u could see everything from the front and sides of the capsules. It was very crowded and took about two hours to get tickets and actually get all the way around the wheel. We proceeded on by going to a merry-go-round for Noah, who thought that was the best thing about London. After Noah and Grant rode on the grizzly bears, the next stop was across the bridge to the Houses of Parliament with Big Ben and the Westminister Abbey. I had always wanted to see that big ol’ clock but it was even better than anything on tv or books where I had viewed it. The Abbey was exactly what u had seen on tv and resembled the Salt Lake Temple in size, just absolutely amazing. If u have never been to London, it is a trip u have to do someday, it is a lot like New York City. Now, one thing I will tell u is that with the exchange rate everything costs double what it does in the U.S. Many Brits will travel to New York City just to go shopping to save money. I never realized how lucky Americans are but trust me I will never take for granted our roads, grocery stores, shopping centers, and even gas prices ever again. Other than the high prices though, London is a lot like New York City with tourists from all over the world and their cabs and phone booths are very unique. We have a lot in common with Brits and are very similar in a lot of ways.
Anyway, I am starting to get tired of typing so I will go through this a little bit quicker. During the next few days, Noah got sick at Hard Rock Café, Grant and I went to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge, Jay and the kids went to the Science and Natural History Museum , I went to Buckingham Palace, Downing Street, Horse guards, Green Park, National Gallery, and Trafalgar Square. On Sunday, we went to Kensington Palace and Princess Di’s fountain but finished off with what had brought me to this grand city, the Peter Pan statue. I knew so much about London even without that movie but just having my picture taken in front of that statue really meant something. We left London on the morning of New Year’s Eve and stayed the night in Birmingham but also stopped at Costco’s. So we spent New Year’s Day driving back and taking the ferry and returned to Dublin about 6pm. On my last day here, I was tired from so much walking so I took it easy and we went downtown to one of the oldest pubs in Ireland to eat or supposedly the oldest but I’m not one to argue when your buildings been there since 1198. I guess that really shows what is so neat about these places, they have been around for thousands of years.
My sister and her family are so lucky to be able to stay in Ireland for a year and travel to these other countries but they still won’t be able to see everything because there are so many places over here. But I’ll just leave u with this, U know u are somewhere special when, I am standing amongst these buildings I have seen on the tele(tv) or in the movies and I actually have to pinch myself to remind me that I am really here. I just want to let the Bean family know how much I appreciate the opportunity to spend time with them in such a believable place, I can truly say that can’t I…..

Bling or No Bling

I don't buy much fine jewelry. Well, any actually. I like to look in the windows along with everyone else but I don't often see pieces I long to have. But it just so happens that after passing this shop everytime we went to the Underground in Vienna, Jay and I finally went in. The saleslady brought out this piece. I tried it on. She said the color matched my eyes! (I know they are paid to say this stuff, but it was working, it still is) But as I slipped the ring off and I glanced at the tag: 6800 euros or $8900. So, I along with you, will have to admire this from the website. Olive is my favorite but I really would like to have the whole collection.

But I did uncover a great find along the narrow streets of Salzburg in a very cute boutique filled with all kinds of clothing by Lana natural wear. I chose the Melrose cardigan sweater made from natural materials and ecologically friendly processes. I am not sure what all that means except it is SO soft. I didn't let myself venture over to the kids collection, as you can see online, it is adorable.

The Hills are Alive!

We took an hour and half train to Salzburg. I love to travel and I love planning it. While this is a first, mistakes are made. I had trouble finding a place to stay in Salzburg. At the last minute, I found the Renaissance Salzburg available. But apparently I only booked it for one night, not the day we arrived in Salzburg. The gentleman at the desk was very kind to call around to try to find us a place to stay. It was difficult but we finally got rooms at the Salzburg Airport hotel. I don’t have any photos but in our desperate state we were definitely taken to the cleaners.

There are about 145,000 inhabitants. It is a small city. We wandered around the narrow streets through the shops and markets. You wonder how the kids can handle all the window shopping? It is called pretzels, crepes, cinnamon apples, hotdogs, ice cream (they have Redbull ice cream. We have not told Jay. Their headquarters are here) hot chocolate, strudels, and so much more. My other mistake was thinking that we were going to visit the Neuschwanstein castle from Salzburg. No that would have been Munich. So I have decided we will come back and drive part of the Fairytale road in the spring which centers around the Brothers Grimm stories.

Jay and the boys went on a Saltmine tour while the girls went on the Sound of Music tour. The Saltmine tour was great. The SoM tour was good but I thought it could have been presented more interestingly. We did get to see some beautiful areas of the Austrian Alps. One of the most breathtaking was the Mondsee. There were great shops with gorgeous sweaters and cardigans. And tempting traditional Austrian clothing for Victoria and Noah but so expensive.

We took another relaxing 3 hour train ride into Vienna. The kids travel so well on the train, much better than the car. Vienna is much larger than Salzburg. This city is also beautiful but not the quaint feeling of Salzburg. We are staying at the Pension Pertschy and I love it. The location couldn't be more central and the rooms are large and unique. The Christmas lights throughout the city are beautiful. We ate at the Augustinerkeller. It was good food and desert and affordable.

Breanna, Cameron, Grant and I took the Imperial tour of the Schonbrunn palace. It was very impressive but the whole European royal genealogy is confusing me. It is too bad we were not here in the spring as the gardens would have been beautiful.

We are now feeling the cold here in Vienna. We opted not to window shop around Stephansplatz (I was tired of seeing the $14,000 watches) so we headed over to an indoor mall at the U1 Kagran stop. This evening we went over to the Christmas markets at Rathausplatz. Here among the incredible government buildings are huge trees full of lighted candy canes, wreaths, hearts, and bulbs. Again not my favorite market but the atmosphere is light and fun. We ate at a chain restaurant called Wienerwald (meaning forest of Vienna. Wein is German for Vienna) It wasn’t that great. Mostly grilled chicken, potato cakes, fries, chicken strips and veggies. But the kids ate well. And again very affordable to eat in Vienna.

Our Bavaria trip comes to and end as we head home to Dublin tomorrow night. We are planning to see a “Life in America” display at a local museum, get Cameron’s ice skating practice in for the week (Jay can only be a spectator), the Museum of Military History and pick up some last minute gift items from Demel’s and Manner’s. This is a magical time of the year to visit Germany and Austria. I can't even begin to explain the amazing architecture, sights and tastes but wish you all a visit here.

Prizes

I know it may be hard for some of you justify the postage involved for an unknown prize but let me give you some parameters. It will be somewhere between this and this.

"Guten Tag!"

The weather continues to be beautiful in Germany. We have been out to the Olympic village here in Munich (where we paid homage to Steve Prefontaine). It is a beautiful area with the old Olympic buildings and many parks and paths. We went up the Olympic tower and had a decent lunch at the cafeteria style restaurant next door. We went ice skating and everyone did pretty well. Jay had a minor mishap (we think he was attempting a quadruple klutz, I mean lutz) and he did a face plant sending his sunglasses flying across the ice and injuring his right hand. Very sore teeth, a fat lip and trouble holding even a toothbrush in his hand he is recuperating. I think his ice skating days might be over. But I think we said the same thing when he tried this about 6 years ago. Jay and the boys went to the BMW museum. Their headquarters are located next door and a very interesting building built to look like a four cylinder engine.
This hasn't been my favorite Christmas market except for the location on the Marienplatz surrounded by an amazing gothic City Hall. They have some great stores although we didn't do much shopping since we are travelling light taking the trains. We didn't make it to the Deutsches Museum and we will try to get over to the Nymphenburg Palace before we leave for Salzburg tomorrow. We didn't plan our time very efficiently here in Munich.
I had my first roasted chestnut but not on an open fire. And let's just say however festive it may be, it was my first and last. We had a delicious meal at Der Tannenbaum. Good Japanese soup at Shoya.
Blogger is still coming up in German. I just did spell check and it told me nearly all of my words are spelled wrong.
"Auf Wiederschauen!" except this one.

Our First and Only Desperate Giveaway

My friend Jenni recently sent me to a blog where there are daily give aways in December of very cute prizes. I thought, "I want to give away things" but I don't have any conncections in any industries or enough traffic to justify getting free product. I am not even sure more than two supportive and very kind people read my blog. But we have collected some great things on our travels and are ready to give them away to some (two) very lucky readers. Here are the rules: From now until January 15th the first ten people to send 1) a christmas card or 2) a post card or 3) one of the following:
a box of Lucky Charms or your favorite cereal
a package of marshmellows
a box of Dots or your favorite candy
or something you don't think you could live with out from the good ol' USA

will be winners of one of our great prizes. Here is the address and good luck to both of you:)

Huntington, Outfarm Lane
Castleknock
Dublin 15 IRE

It's starting to feel alot like Christmas

In Ireland, they are only now getting around to hanging a few Christmas lights and playing an occasional Christmas carol. To give you an idea of the weak Christmas spirit here, this is their favorite Christmas song for two years running. I prefer not to see the commercial part Christmas until after Thanksgiving but I also think by Dec 1 Christmas season should be in full force so that you can take advantage of the festive season for the whole month. The Irish will be lucky to get a good two weeks. I don't see any Christmas concerts or Angel trees out to buy less fortunate kids gifts for Christmas. I am not seeing much Christmas spirit.

Until I came to Germany. Here, they know how to celebrate Christmas. I mean, this is a place where Kris Kringle and St Nicholas are two different people that both deliver gifts on different days. The atmosphere is built around good, aromatic food, chocolate, festive music, chocolate, decorations, trees, music, I could go on and on.

We arrived in Frankfurt, Germany to cold weather with snow flurries. We stayed at the Couryard Frankfurt Messe. It was the right price but it was about 10 minutes from the city center and just not a good location if one was staying longer. We had lunch at the hotel and set off to the Zeilgalerie (mall) to pick up a few hats and some gloves since we will spending quite a bit of time outside. Just outside the mall we experienced our first Christmas market. Jay, feeling under the weather stayed at the hotel with the two younger ones. We walked along the stalls eating chocolate covered fruit kabobs. Strawberries, raspberries, kiwi, grapes, mandarin oranges, pineapple, bananas. Milk, dark and white chocolate. Roasted nuts of every kind. Gingerbread, cookies and cakes. Delicious chocolate covered creamy, marshmallows. Sweets everywhere. Sipped on hot chocolate and hot punch. Every kind of Christmas ornament and decoration you could imagine, or couldn't. We finally left after a couple of hours and called it a day.

This morning we slept in with our chocolate hangover. We headed over to the train station and caught a train to Munich at 11:00am. We made a two hour stop in Nurnberg, Germany the most famous Christkindlemarkt. We left our luggage in the train station and headed over where our first stop was lunch. Mini sausages on crusty bread. Tasty. And then desert. And more desert. The Frankfurt market was on a square but here it is on streets lined by shops. My purchase here will be a wooden nativity and lighted wooden Christmas scene. The weather is cold but not bitter. The only thing missing so far is snow. After taking the two hour train to Nurnberg, we trained one more hour into Munich. Train travel here is great. Quiet, smooth and fast. We are staying at the Acanthus hotel and will be here for three days. The kids are definitely enjoying this trip. I wonder why....

I still haven't posted my Spain photos due to technical difficulites. I am hoping to get them resovled soon so I can also post these amazing photos from Germany. Happy Holidays and Happy Birthday Brianna!

By the way, the strangest thing, I logged into Blogger in English but I am having to compose it with German tabs and buttons everywhere. This might get posted :)

Happy Thanksgiving from....Missouri!

At the last minute I decided to fly Grant and I home to Missouri to celebrate Thanksgiving. I did not tell anyone in Missouri that I was coming. My parents were in St Louis and I knew their hotel so I showed up knocking on their door Tuesday night at 8:30pm. To say they were surprised is an understatement. It was a great visit with beautiful weather and I love to be with family. Is there anything more important?

We had fun eating familiar foods, shopping at stores with way too much stuff and not having to watch football games in the middle of the night. We left clothes just so we could bring back important staples, like, Lucky Charms (shouldn't they have this in Ireland of all places?!?). That my friends will be Christmas breakfast. We are now spending our last 6 hours on American soil in the Atlanta airport with our layover before our 8 hour flight to Dublin. I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgiving.

Costa del Sol

I first want to send out our most heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the families of Steve and Catheryn Roundy. They both worked with Jay for many years at Enhance and most recently Catheryn was working with us at the sunglass store. She gave us great tips for our trip to Paris. They were so kind and always willing to help. They will be missed~

We flew into Malaga, Spain on Saturday, November 11th. This is located on the southern coast along the Mediterranean Sea. We are staying just outside the seaside town of Marbella. During the summer this place is packed with tourist from all over Europe but as usual we are missing all the crowds. We are taking advantage of the 70 degree weather that we have had for the last 4 days. The next two are scheduled for rain.

On Sunday we attended a very small English speaking branch (congregation). A total of about 30 people. Apparently there are many people living and working here along the coast from the UK. Our kids gladly doubled the primary. The next two days were spent near the sea and the (indoor) swimming pool.

Wednesday was a day trip to one of the oldest cities in Spain, Ronda. It is one of the Pueblo Blancos (white villages) that refers to the many white buildings built upon the hillsides. I won't pretend that throughout all these travels that I am an expert on any of these areas we are visiting. Most places we have gone I have never even heard of. I have just spent alot of time researching and reading travel boards to decide where and what to do on our trips. I wish I were more fluent in foreign languages, I wish I knew more about history, religion and architecture on these trips. And while things are still interesting, I know with my ignorance, I am not able to fully appreciate all the significance. But I am hoping it sparks something within the kids that by exposing them to these places now, in the future when they learn about it in school it will have more meaning and they will want to learn more about it.

Anyway, back to Ronda, we spent the short time there wandering the narrow streets, looking off the "new bridge" (200 years old) and touring the oldest and largest bullring in Spain. We learned that most of us would not want to witness a bullfight (the season is usually April-Oct) and it is much more bloody than I had known. We had lunch at the Don Miguel hotel and I should note that the menu was a little too adventurous for the kids but as usual most places are willing to make a tuna sandwich, hamburger or spaghetti for the kids. I had their almond and garlic cold soup followed by the spinach and prawns in olive oil. I just couldn't bring myself to try the ox tail that is a very popular menu item.

Thursday under the threat of rain, but luckily none fell during our outing, Jay, Cameron, Grant and I took the two hour drive to the city of Granada to see the Alhambra (here I was especially feeling that ignorance). The detailed carving and the abundance of it in the architecture was amazing. We spent about two hours and had it not been for our craving for lunch we could have spent another hour. It is massive and well, palatial.

Our last full day we spent in the sun and then went to the Pablo Picasso museum in Malaga where he was born. We had fun guessing what the paintings were and then reading the descriptions. I wanted to link to my favorites in the collection but it won't allow me. Here is the website and my two favorites were Olga Seated and Man, Woman and Child both in The Collection. We walked around the town center of Malaga and I wish we had found it earlier. It has many pedestrian streets and shops. We had wanted to take a couple of other day trips to Cordoba and Sevilla (that one would have been a bit much for a day trip) but we didn't get them in.

I have really liked Spain. I love the mountains and they way they use every bit of the landscape to farm or build even if it is up the side of a steep hill. I love the Spanish tile roofs, the tiled courtyards, arched entryways, carved doors and my favorite, corbels. I have always loved this style and hopefully someday build this style of house. I love the mixture of history and am on a quest to learn more about it. I will post our pictures after we get home on Saturday.

Please post if you have ideas on places to go and things to see. Or post about anything. Our next trip is in December to the Bavaria region (Christmas markets!) of Germany (Frankfurt, Nuremberg and Munich) and Austria (Salzburg and Vienna).

Buenas Noches

So What Did You Do This Weekend?

3 days, 6 countries, 3 Ferries, 1 car, 980 driving miles and we are back in Dublin with our new Volvo XC90. Jay and I left for Goteburg, Sweden on Wednesday afternoon. We had some time that evening and went over to the Mall next to the hotel. It was so nice to see so much COLOR! I have read about and I can attest to the Irish phobia of color, in their clothes, decorating and even their weather. But to be in Scandinavia where the bolder the better was exciting. It made me want to redecorate the house, except it isn’t mine. It was FREEZING in Sweden. The temp was in the low 30’s and the wind was bitter. We were not too adventuresome in the eating department and opted for a sushi place down the street for a snack and the hotel restaurant for dinner. It was just too cold to walk anywhere.
Thursday after picking up the car and touring the factory we headed to our first way point, Hamburg Germany. This was strictly a trip to pick up the car so we didn’t do any sight seeing but covered a lot of area. It took longer to get there than appears on the map which seems to be the case all over Europe. We drove down the coast of Sweden and since it gets dark, pitch black, at 4:30 we missed seeing any part of Denmark in the day light. We took a short ferry across to Germany and arrived into Hamburg at about 10pm. We awoke the next morning thinking we had an easy 4 hours to Amsterdam. It was slow going (which included a stop at IKEA) we arrived in the port at Rotterdam at 7pm. Here we boarded an overnight 12 hour ferry to Hull, England.
We disembarked at about 8am and headed across to the other side of England to take a ferry into Dublin. This we thought would be our longest day was infact our shortest. The total drive time without stops would be only about 4 hours but with our obligatory stops to Costco and a shopping mall near Manchester (with no Thanksgiving to appreciate, Christmas shopping is in full force) We arrived at 5pm to take the hour and a half crossing to Dublin and were home by 7:30pm.
Phew and here we go again on the 11th to Spain. And I thought life would be less busy here in Europe....

Life is Hard

Warning: This is not a travel update just me making some observations about life in Ireland.

Upon finding out that we are living in Ireland for a year from the US, the most consistent question we are asked is "Is it much different here?" This question is being asked in a way that I sense they are hoping (or maybe not) that it isn't all that different from America. Which seems to contradict the "that's too American" theme they have adopted to try to avoid to becoming too much like us.
At first, I answered that it wasn't much different at all. The language is the same (that is not exactly true) and basically we are the same in that we go to work, school, have families, passionate about football (albeit two totally different sports), etc... you know the day to day living. Well that is still true, but the difference I have found, is somehow that day to day living seems a wee bit harder.
Let's start with one of my least favorite things to do in the States that has become absolute agony here in Ireland: grocery shopping. There are only two grocery stores that I can even consider going to. Now it doesn't even bother me that since they charge for bags that I have to remember to take my own. I actually like that idea and even more than that I love (except when I don't have any money with me except a credit card I am cursing the whole set up) is that you have to put a 1eruo coin in the trolley (grocery cart) to get it out and when you return it and attach the chain you get your money back. Which alleviates one of my pet peeves, lazy people who leave grocery carts haphazardly in the parking lots.
But neither of these things actually has to do with choosing the items. A simple recipe of chocolate chip cookies somehow becomes frustrating when I can only find chocolate chips in a bag the size of M&M's for about $5. And how about some warm cornbread on cool autumn night-no not if it calls for creamed corn. And some pretzel sticks for some spooky tarantula cookies. No. And when I do finally find a familiar item I have been looking for it is in a spot I would have never looked in a serving the size of Gerber baby food. Example: cottage cheese. And then of course, let's not forget it won't even taste the same. Based on many of the sizes of things they are still of the mind set to go to the grocery store every day.
I expected that there wouldn't be 5 different brands of the same item, I just didn't expect that there wouldn't be very many items. So I find myself purchasing the same things over and over, week after week. (Cilantro, forget it) Oh and ice cream? It isn't even totally frozen that by the time you reach the check out it is already melting out of the side. A simple plain potato chip? A treasure hunt through all the onion, vinegar and cheddar chips. Not easy. I can't even begin to tell you how expensive it is. And grapes: a luxury. I think we might splurge and have some with Christmas dinner. The advantage of being here is you can choose from all the breads (but only buy what you can eat in about three days as it molds quickly), cheeses and liquor you can imagine. And pushing a grocery cart through the mall and across the street to the library car park where they have trolley returns is an interesting experience.
Next, trying to find materials for the kids school projects. Painful. Finding a Thomas Hardy classic for bookclub? After a week of looking at the library and the only two small bookstores in the area, it must have been fate that Borders opened on Saturday offering the book for a mere 3euro. (Nevermind that I found out today we will be in Spain for the bookclub meeting)
I think that most of this discontent has to do with the awful road planning and traffic that we encounter to almost everywhere, but alas that is another blog.

Hadrians Wall/English Lakes

I hope you all did your homework on the Roman ruins. We visited the Wall starting at Steel Rigg and were going to walk the 2.5 miles along it to Housestead's but the weather was not cooperating. We headed to Vindolanda which was a Roman settlement and I thought the most interesting place of the day. It has many artifacts of daily life that have been uncovered since the Romans lived there in and around 100AD . We ended at Corbridge which was a Roman fort. But by the time we got there the kids had seen enough stacked stone and were paying more attention to the sheep.
We then headed towards Grasmere, England where we are staying at the Best Western Red Lion Inn. It is a very small village of less than a thousand people. It is quiet, relaxing and serene. This is also where William Woodsworth lived and wrote most of his poetry. It is also the home of Beatrix Potter from the Peter Rabbit tales. The drive into this Lakes region was breathtaking with the green rolling hills divided by short stone walls and the mountains in the background. We had spent all day in the car so it was nice to be here in this quaint village and walk along the narrow streets, go to the park and relax. This area is very busy in the summer and very quiet right now. The hills and mountains cater to walkers/hikers and climbers of all abilites. We spent this morning at the park and the shops. We are headed out to one of the easier hikes this afternoon. Tomorrow we are going to stop in a slightly larger town of Windermere, take in some shopping and head down to Liverpool.
One of the highlights of our trip is there: Costco. 4 of us are flying home while Jay and two kids will take the ferry back with the van full of things we just can't get in Ireland.
As always the trip was great but we are ready to get back home and start planning the next. The countryside here and in Scotland were beautiful and I can't wait to get home and post some photos.

Haste ye back!

This is the sign you encounter as you leave the small towns along the coast of Scotland. We will definitey be back. We just got a small glimpse of this country. This morning at about 10:30 we walked to the Edinburgh castle. It took about 2o minutes and the weather today was great. We saw the sun. It was mostly sunny and just a wee bit chilly. The castle is enormous and the highlights for us were the Crown jewels (instead of explaining I will just add links if you are curious-http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/Scotland-History/ScottishCrownJewels.htm
The One o'clock gun which fires everyday at suprisingly one o'clock. The origin of this tradition lies in the days when sailing ships in the Firth of Forth were able to check and reset their chronometers in the days before accurate timepieces were available. Now it is just a way for tourist to set their watches. And finally the Prisoner of War cells and memorabilia. We ate lunch and the kids went to a couple of children activities so we were there for about 3 hours.
We left and walked along the Royal Mile which is full of shops. Along the Royal Mile is a fun and free Museum of Childhood just full of old toys from different eras. We then walked back to the apartment and the boys went to the cinema to see Barnyard. So we were able to see most of what I had planned but we will hasten back and see much more of the country.
Tomorrow we leave early and head to Northern England with a stop at the border to see Hadrian's wall. Refresh your memory so you know what we are talking about :) http://www.hadrians-wall.org/

First Day in Edinburgh

We woke up this morning with a view of the river and Edinburgh castle. It is cloudy and will stay overcast the entire day. No sun to be seen. Infact, I have noticed we all are getting a bit pale with the lack of sunlight. We may have to find the tanning beds:) and take a Vitamin D supplement. But even with the haziness, the buildings are so interesting to look at with the mixture of old and new architecture. We slept in and at 11:00am were on our way to a science museum called Dynamic Earth. This was a fast moving, very interesting museum for adults as well as kids. We also ate lunch in the cafe there which I had read got pretty good reviews. It was good with a wide selection for a museum cafe.
I had planned to take the kids to a puppet show but I didn't know if we would make it in time. It was in the same direction of the Flight museum so we headed towards the Brunton theater in East Lothian. We arrived about 10 minutes late and all decide to go in except for Jay and Cameron who pick us up an hour later. The puppet show was called " The Man Who Planted Trees" from Jean Giono's tale about a French shepherd who transforms a desolate region by planting hundreds of thousands of trees. It was probably too much dialogue for the kids but enough humor and fun from the talking dog that kept them awake, except for Breanna. I liked it and the story of how the tale came about is interesting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Planted_Trees
We then headed for our final adventure of the day the National Museum of Flight also in East Lothian. Here the main attraction is Scotland's Concorde supersonic jet. It has a very thorough tour of the jet along with a short movie. It also includes a couple of hangars with civil and military aircraft. It was a nice museum in the middle of farmland. We headed back to the apartment and will spend the rest of the evening relaxing. Tomorrow's itinerary includes the Edinburgh castle, the Royal Mile, shopping, possibly the Holyrood Palace and Butterfly world. Goodnight

Hello, from Scotland

We left Ireland on Sunday and headed up to a church in Dundalk (about an hour away) where Jay was looking forward to meeting some members from his mission. We drove to the address we had which was a home in a small subdivision but there clearly was no meeting being held there. So after asking a couple of people we realized we were not going to be able to find it on this trip. We had lunch and headed towards Belfast, another hour north. There is no border crossing between the Republic and Northern Ireland. However the scenery does change with a more mountainous feel (well large rolling hills) and seemed much prettier compared to the areas around Dublin. We spent the night at the Hilton in Fitzpatrick and awoke the next morning to take the car ferry to Scotland. We left Larne, N.I. and an hour and a half later arrived in Carinrayn, Scotland. The ferry ride was smooth and not crowded. As soon as we started driving I could tell this was a special place. I don't know if it is all my genealogy research making the names of places familiar to me or the beauty of the country. From the moment you leave the port, on the right side of the car are lush green hills and valleys with white, wooly sheep dotting the country side that seem to go on forever. Turning to look out the left side of the car is the calming waters of the Irish Sea. We follow this route all the way to Ayr which is where we decide to stop for lunch. We are all very hungry and decide to eat wherever we can find a parking space. We find a space next to Carlton's Cafe near a new public park. It doesn't look like much and inside is a quiet, unassuming older gentleman taking our orders. We had a couple of baguettes, pizza, fries, and ice cream which were pretty good. We would have taken the kids over to the park but it is FREEZING and we need to get going to make it to the Stirling Castle. We are already a little behind schedule. So while the driving distances aren't that far you just can't drive very fast.
We arrive to Stirling at about 4 pm giving us a couple of hours to tour the Castle. While it isn't the best castle that I have visited the grounds that surround it and the views are magical. I will put the pictures under the map section. These grounds are where the famous battles of William Wallce and Robert the Bruce took place. We leave Stirling for Edinburgh which took a little, well a lot longer to get to our apartment because I didn't have the address. We arrive at 9:30 and Jay, Grant and I leave to go get a few groceries. We are so starved for good shopping we couldn't wait to get here and find the ASDA superstore. This is Walmart in the UK. It was nice to have selections and it is a wee less expensive. So after getting home at about 11 pm we very tired and look forward to sleeping in.