Wimbledon - Day 27

Travel Day! I was dragging my butt, and I didn't help things by doing so. We were flying out at 11, and that meant we were going to be cutting it close. The Gatwick Express is an awesome option, but getting there through the normal tube stations with now three large bags, two backpacks, and two relatively hung over adults was not trivial. We did make it, though Colleen didn't seem to appreciate how rushed we felt in the airport. At least the folks were friendly, and we were flying business class together.

The flight itself was uneventful. It still amazes me that 7 hours seems almost nothing. I guess that's what happens after two 16+ hour trips to and from Australia.

Got home, and we were glad of it. A night in our own bed, and then we get back to reality. I am sure I'll have a ton of bills and general mail to catch up on. Oh well, another fun time. Next up, it appears will be the US Open, though only setup. :-)

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 26

Day 26 was a travel day. We had to get up and get ready to fly back on Aer Lingus to Heathrow. We were not terribly hung over, but we were both ravenous. I get downstairs, and somehow Intercontinental Hotels believes that I have enough points to have gotten the night for free, and when I put the Holiday Inn number on the reservation, they submitted it as though I had requested points redemption. That meant the 175 euro room and breakfast for two rate I had been quoted was now just the charges on my mini bar, and the bar last night. Of course, it also meant I had not paid for breakfast and when we got to the restaurant, we had to pay 35 euros for one contintental and one full breakfast. The eggs were cold, but there was marmite and toast and really good coffee. I also liked the sausage and had some mushrooms. Colleen had some of my eggs, but they had to be ice cold by the time we felt comfortable enough to sneak her some. Didn't want to get busted for sharing and then be charged more. Still, at the end, I had paid only 70 euros for room and board for the night. It wasn't too bad at all.

We arrive at the Dublin airport Hertz counter, and it turns out were in the pick up only spot. We can't return a car there, we have to go to short term parking at the terminal and return the car there. The punks. Through some fault of my own, I had reserved the car using my Corporate Card apparently, and it had not paid for all of the use of NeverLost. I gave him my card, and he at least cleared the remainder of the bill. I suspect I am going to have to now figure out how to make sure the company does not pay for my rental car, and at the same time clear the AMEX statement line item that downloads into the system. SIGH!

Construction at an airport, go figure. The walkway to the terminal was long, through a lot of construction, and took longer than we wanted. We did get a laugh as a gentleman in a rental car drove onto the pedestrian walkway in front of us and then off the curb onto the road and out of the airport. Given the time I did that in Germany, I felt an odd sense of relief to know I wasn't the only idiot when it came to driving in strange countries. Of course, my pedestrian walkway ended in poles and I was forced to back all the way out, but that's neither here nor there.

Colleen and I had agreed that we'd fly out of Dublin fairly early so that we'd have most of the day in London. That seemed a reasonable plan. That was, of course, until we find out the flight we're on was cancelled, and that we'd now have to fly on the next flight one hour later, and that we wouldn't be sitting next to one another, and both were sitting in middle seats! From the ridiculous to the sublime. :-) At least we knew there would be no more driving as London meant dragging out our Oyster cards and catching various tubes. The flight was for the most part trouble free. Colleen even managed a brief catnap. I was so immersed in my book and my iPod I didn't even notice until we were announced to begin descent into London Heathrow.

I should mention that I heard on Ireland AM that the time we had been there was the hottest consecutive days streak in recorded history for the entire island. The forecast two days after we left showed showers and cooling temperatures. It figured. However, that did not prepare us for the heat that was London. We get to the terminal, walk for what seems miles lugging our backpacks to find baggage claim, and due to some random chance, Colleen's bag had been routed to the wrong carousel, but had not been placed. We had to wait in the sweltering terminal for the bag. Colleen was in a numb state, and the bag finally did arrive. Now came the "fun part." We were doing it on the cheap, and took the tube from Heathrow to Kensington, but that meant lugging the suitcases because we had to "mind the gap" as the tube constantly reminded us. Fortunately, it was only one train from Heathrow to our old familar Earl's Court station. We would be a short walk from the prepaid hotel and a quick trip around the block to gather the stored luggage. Of course, we had to navigate stairs, and it boiled inside the tube. The temperature that day was slated to reach a 28 year high, go figure! When we got to the Premier Travel Inn we were both ready to crash. The room had glorious A/C, and we cranked it up and lounged in chilled bliss.

Watching TV is dangerous, as I am prone to find some odd game show or quiz show and just start competing against the TV. Once Colleen saw that was happening, she decided it was time to get out of the room. We still had to pick up some last minute souvenirs and the extra luggage anyway, so getting out wasn't a bad idea. So, we went walking around town. Colleen got to buy a CD of an artist she liked from the Bridget Jones soundtrack, and we found the last of the souvenirs.

Got to the Mariott, and they had moved our luggage into a deep storage room, but they did find it. No, I didn't tip him for giving it to me. I probably should have, but I was pretty annoyed with them in the first place for not having a room for us in the first place. I lugged it down the car ramp, and there was our hotel anyway, so it was good we were close. I brought it into the room and discovered that the power supply I was convinced I had lost actually was in the stored luggage. I felt kinda stupid, but I was glad I had found it. I honestly didn't miss my laptop the entire time, though it would have been better to have stored all these blog entries over the course of the vacation instead of putting them all together after the fact.

Time for a little dinner. We chose Bistro Benito as I had seen it a couple of times, and had wanted to go, but never managed to get the team to go, since it was all about Wimbledon Village when I was working. The site I found doesn't really do them justice. It was traditional Italian, run by a traditional Italian family, and the food was awesome! We ate well, though I am not sure that it was worth the 55 pounds we paid. I didn't care. It was worth the experience.

While we were walking to dinner, we saw a ton of people, even some drinking in the street. As we sat down to dinner, we discovered that the Red Hot Chili Peppers were playing at Earls Court Exhibition Centre and were finishing up 4 nights there. Now, we probably could have bought some scalped tickets to actually go see the show, but I wasn't really in the mood, and I really just wanted a quiet evening. Besides, we got out of dinner well after the show had started. So, we popped into the Prince of Tek pub and had a few pints (I have switched to Staropramen when in London, warm flat beer is out for me!) and on the way out, I told Colleen I wanted to see if we could find a t-shirt for the band anyway. I was amazed as we turned the corner to see the throng of people heading out of the show, so we quickly turned back. However, as we got back in front of the tube station, there were vendors setting up, and I managed to get my shirt. That was in itself a very cool deal.

We got back to the hotel, but Colleen wanted to have a couple more rounds. There was a bar, so we definitely made use of it. They offered a 5 pack in a cooler that we could take back to the room, so we got the 5 Stella Artois and headed back to the room to finish those. Crashed late (again) and knew we'd be moving fast to make the train in the morning. Another travel day, this time back home!!!

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 25

Awoke feeling markedly fresher than the previous night. We got out and had breakfast immediately, and told ourselves that under no circumstances would we miss lunch again today. We also swore on high that we'd not be on the road for 13 hours or more today. Our plan was to see Blarney Castle and then Waterford for the Waterford Crystal plant. We were spending the night in Dublin, and before we left Belfast, I had booked another Holiday Inn room near the Dublin Airport. The completion of our loop around the island. I did give Colleen the option to drive, but she hasn't driven a stick since we traded in her Mustang, and the left hand shifting made her feel a bit nervous about it, so she handed the keys back to me and we were off once again. Cork to Waterford was 76 km and Cork to Dublin was 156 km total, so whether or not we intended it, we were going to be on the road a fairly large part of the day again today.

Blarney Castle..............I am not sure what really to say about Blarney Castle. Everyone around us was American, with the exception of a few English, and the Irish that worked the site. It was a total tourist trap. We had to queue to walk up to the top of the tower, and that was at least 45 minutes. When we got to the top, we saw why. The line was slow moving as each tourist was leaned over a hole, asked to grab the iron bars, and kiss the blarney stone. Now, I found on the Internet an article that at least gave me pause for concern. Whether or not the legend was really true, Colleen pointed out that even if the workers hadn't relieved themselves on the stone, there had been several million pairs of lips on the rock, and there was no way she was going to kiss it. So, in the end, we took a picture of the stone, and got some decent shots from the top of the tower. Back in to a queue heading down the stairs, and we were out of the castle. We did take advantage of the Rock Close that was built supposedly on top of an old Druid site, and saw some pretty interesting rock formations that had been sculpted to look natural. A couple souvenirs, and we were out the door, on our way to Waterford. We missed the chance to see Desmond Castle in Kinsale, but it was due South on a regional road, and I didn't want to miss the crystal tour.

We did, however, stop at Barryscourt Castle which was on the way from Cork to Waterford. It was more a large house, and was not considered either a defensive castle or a show castle. The place was mostly deserted and when we got there, we were the only ones on our tour. That allowed us some really quality time with the tour guide, and she shared that the castle ended up being owned by two Australian sisters who had no idea they had lineage with nobility in Ireland. She also said that they got very few visitors to this castle, as it wasn't signed well. Considering it was on the touring map Sacha gave us, and did have an exit marked on the road, I am not exactly sure what that meant to her. Still, it was a fascinating look at a 16th century tower house and to hear its history in relation to Cork and the surrounding area. Colleen and I agreed of the two castles, this was the better tourist experience.

We drove past Midleton, where Jameson Irish whiskey is actually distilled now. We didn't go in. I knew I was a convert. :-) We stopped for lunch in Dungarvan, and ate at a quaint little greasy spoon that reminded me of Greek diners in NYC. It was very tasty, though I missed the chance to try the garlic fries, which is a garlic sauce poured over freshly fried chips. I had an egg burger, which was essentially a sausage McMuffin, only on a bun, and I didn't ask what the sausage was actually stuffed with. I didn't really consider it, but after thinking about it, Ireland called them fries, not chips. Interesting. We passed by Dungarvan castle, as the more than two hours at Blarney, and the just over an hour at Barryscourt had put us well after 1 PM. I had no idea when the Waterford factory tour would end, but I knew it would be earlier than later, and it was a real priority for me.

We managed to have our own little Cannonball Run moment, as I was trying to get past a semi as the passing lane ended, and wound up actually having to go into the other lane just a bit. That in itself wasn't bad. What was bad is that the Guarda (the Irish Police) were in the other lane just as I swerved back over into my lane. I know I saw them slow down, but I did never see them turn, and no one ever stopped us. I wasn't speeding, but I may have been doing some things that were questionable in terms of Irish road law. I was following precedent, however, as I saw several cars do the same thing around me on roads that were two lane, and they made them three. Just glad I didn't wind up in jail. :-)

We pulled in to the Waterford Visitor Centre and got our tickets purchased for the last tour of the day that did not involve a tour bus. A tour bus went just ahead of us, and I was glad to watch them go. We had a group of about 8 total, so it was once again a bit more intiimate. Yes, we did cut it close, as we had arrived just before 4PM, but we did make the tour, and that was the important part. Colleen and I took a ton of pictures of the process, and the finished product. It was incredible. We even shot some video, but the size of that kind of thing is hard to post on a web site, so unlikely we'll be posting that out here. Afterward, the most important part, the store. We browsed around, and we agreed on three items, since we were shooting for 200 euros to get free shipping and not have to take the purchases on the plane with us. We got a pretty solid deal, honestly. I went all goofy on Colleen, and we ordered two wine glasses just because the pattern was named Colleen. It is now special order on their web site, and the price listed there is about 25% higher than we paid at the store. I also purchased two Ryder Cup shot glasses. With the return of the Ryder Cup to Ireland, Waterford Crystal had created some items. Most were not sold directly in the U.S. and neither are they on the web site. 65 euros is probably steep for shot glasses, but then again, we got back a decent amount of the VAT since we direct shipped. We only ended up paying a minimal US Duty and didn't have to declare them on the flight home.

It was now after 6 PM. We were still 98 km from Dublin. We had another haul on our hands. We decided to stop for dinner in Carlow and found an Indian restaurant that was outstanding. We ate greedily and felt very full at the end of the meal. Back on the road, and well aware that we wouldn't be in Dublin until after dark, and that we'd probably not be in the hotel until after 10 PM. So, I pushed a little, as the road was much better between Waterford and Dublin that those we'd encountered around the West coast of the island. We missed Carlow Castle somewhat because it was closed, but also what became the running joke. Instead of "Hey look kids! There it is Big Ben, Parliament!" it was "Hey look kids! There it is a castle, gorgeous countryside!" It was like we had seen as much of that as we could over the last several days, and we just wanted to get to civilization. :-)

Getting to the hotel ended up being another adventure. The GPS once again betrayed us, that bitch! There was a listing for a Holiday Inn Airport, and so I chose that in the system. Simple enough, right? Well, turned out that was a different Holiday Inn, and it had been purchased by Clarion. When we get to the hotel, it is heavily under renovation, and is not the right hotel. Confused, we circled the airport twice thinking we'd turned the wrong way. We stopped at a gas station, and once again we knew we were in Dublin, as the three workers were all of slavic descent, and didn't speak adequate English to be able to help us figure out where we were. In steps another Irishman to help out as best he could, looking up the hotel in his GPS as well. He gets the same address, same location. We were literally across the street from it, but that was the Clarion. We were looking for Crowne Plaza hotels which in Europe is only quietly affiliated with Holiday Inn as a chain. At least I had the address from the reservation, and I finally swallowed my pride (and had to walk away after blowing up unecessarily at Colleen) and walked into the Clarion to see if I could find where our hotel was. Unfortunately, apparently the other hotel adjacent to the Clarion had sent its overflow to the Clarion, and now there was a large queue of people that were without rooms for the night. I started out in one of the queues, but then opted to go to the bar and see if someone working there could help. Another slavic guy that didn't know the area well enough to answer, and then the Irish bartender who did know where it was, and we weren't really as close as I thought. He guided me in the right direction, and then chided me for not staying with them. I just said based on that line, I'd never get in, and that I had already made the booking at the other hotel. We got there, and it was quite lovely. It had A/C, it had a good shower, it had a mini bar, and a lounge downstairs. We were in heaven and we got into the room, made up for my being an ass again, and headed down for more than a few pints. :-)

Got to bed a little before midnight, and knew that once again, we had driven ourselves 16 hours since we'd gotten up that morning. We were exhausted, and tomorrow was a travel day as we flew out of Dublin back to London in preparation for our flight back home. At least we felt cozy and ready to be done.

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 24

Got up fairly early, hoping that our laundry would be back. We found out that they didn't expect it until after 10 AM!! That meant we'd be leaving Belfast pretty late, in our opinion. Today was the day we drive the length of the country, hoping to wind up in a Bed and Breakfast in Cork. Basically, driving from the Northeast corner of the island to the Southwest. Laundry came, fortunately, at about 9:30, so we were able to get packed and out by 10:30, but it was still pretty late and we had a long day of driving ahead.

Since the cell phone was back in a UK country, it was able to pick up Vodaphone in Belfast, and we were able to use the phone. Colleen called her mom and they talked about the Cliffs of Moher (Colleen pronouced as Mohair, but I believe it was closer to Moore) and she found them on the map, but we couldn't locate them in the GPS. So, we keyed in a nearby city, and knew that we'd find the signs to the tourist destination once we got close. That was supposed to be a 6 hour drive, give or take. Now, the Pugeot had no A/C so we had to ride with the windows down, and of course the sun beating in on us. Things started out reasonably well. Belfast to Galway is listed at 180 km, and that was pretty much the last major city before we had to get to the cliffs. From there, we estimated it would be an additional 60 km or so to get to the cliffs. What we didn't count on is the phenomenon I will call the Ireland road system.

There are several classifications of roads in Ireland. The first is major. This represents an Interstate. It is 3 or 4 lanes in each direction, and the speed limit is 110 km per hour. The next is a national road. This is similar to many U.S. highways like route 66, US-1, or something like 167 in Arkansas. It is mostly two lanes each direction, but goes through every small town, and has the speed limit drop to as low as 50 km per hour. While going through a small town, it may also have a variety of stop signs, signals, roundabouts, and one lane construction that mean traffic moves very slowly. The next is a regional road. Definitely only one lane each direction, and through small enough towns that you may have farm equipment on the road slowing the pace. The last is the 'other' road, which means it is one lane each way only in spirit, and may have livestock on the road, farm machinery, and is likely to be unmarked and have loose paving in some places.

So, once we got near Galway, we had to get off of the national road we were on and onto a regional road. That ended up actually being the same road name, but it was not the same kind of road. :-( We were slowed even more by the traffic, and suddenly it was approaching 3 PM and we hadn't reached the cliffs yet. Colleen suggested we get onto one of the 'other' roads as a more direct route and I was losing it. There were times I felt I was being pushed off the road as cars approached, and more than once I slapped foliage against Colleen's side of the car as I tried to make sure I didn't hit rear view mirrors with the oncoming car. I got so nervous at one point about a car behind us that I pulled off the road to let them pass, though the shoulder was very soft and we quite a bit of bouncing to get back onto the road. At least we hadn't done any damage to the car. We finally reached the cliffs, and we were only midly disappointed. As the site I listed indicates, the section with O'Brien's tower is closed for the 2006 season until the new visitor's center is complete. That was disappointing because the tower was at the pinnacle of the cliffs, and would have been a spectacular view. Still, we did walk to the official end of the park and out into the unmanaged area that was right against the cliffs with no security railing, etc. I was of course freaked out, but Colleen did get some good pictures. We had been there a little over an hour and then decided we better get back on the road. Galway to Cork was 128 km and while we had dropped down some of that, the distance East we'd have to go in my mind was roughly a wash.

We did avoid the 'other' road this time, and thought we had a good sneaky route to head out slightly North to Lisdoonvarna. That was fine until we got into Ennis. In Ennis, we had the worst experience of our lives in terms of driving, at least it was for me. We covered 10 kilometers in 2 hours. Basically, the national road cut through the heart of Ennis, and it had (literally) a roundabout, a signal, a roundabout, a signal, a roundabout, a roundabout, a signal, and then a one lane due to construction. With the Cliffs dumping folks out into this lone artery, we were stuck. I wasn't sure we were going to survive, as neither of us was prepared to deal with that.

Finally got through that nightmare and onto a national road that was a decent size again. We drove past what is most commonly known as King John's castle. I don't even know what time it was, but we guessed it had to be closed, as it rapidly approaching 7 PM. We ate dinner at a fast food chain named Supermac's and was surprised to see that the restaurant also had an arcade, a ten pin alley, and skee ball. We of course didn't participate in any of that. We were tired, and had once again not eaten all day. It was odd, though, as I swore that the woman at the counter asked me for my order in Gaelic, though it could have been that her accent was far to strong and I just was too road weary. Cork to Limerick was only 65 km but by the time we left the restaurant, it was dark. That put the time at well after 9 PM. We pushed on, feeling the rush of the food, the ache of the sunburn, and the general malaise at what was already 11 hours since our departure.

This is where the next saga began. We hadn't booked a room in Cork, hoping that we'd find a Bed and Breakfast. Most of those shut down around 9 or 10 in terms of new guests checking in (some even earlier) and we knew we'd arrive in Cork well after 11. That meant we were going to play hotel scramble again. No problem, right? Think again! The GPS this time abandoned us (we had established it was a real person and she was getting satisfaction from our plight, and had begun cursing loudly at the device) and said that it knew of no services in Cork. No gas stations, no restaurants, nothing. Now, we know that is wrong, but the question became now what? So, we thought we had the right idea. We chose to have it take us to Cork Airport. That's the other side of town from where we were, and I managed to turn too early, or too late when the GPS indicated and we spent quite a bit of time churning through downtown Cork. We finally reached the airport area, and sure enough, there were hotels. It was now almost midnight. We pulled into the first hotel, and the front desk was out smoking as we walked past him to the desk. He finished his smoke and came in to tell us that he had no vacancies, and we'd have to find another hotel. Desperate, Colleen asked (just as I was about to) if there was another hotel nearby that would have a vacancy. He suggested Great Southern Hotel adjacent to the airport. He even provided us with some basic directions. We stumbled back to the car and drove on, hoping the hotel would have room.

When we got to the desk, the gentleman did indicate rooms were available, but that they'd be 100 euros for the night. I said no problem. Colleen had heard him say 800 euros and was not about to pay for that. I explained it was his accent, and the rate was well within our allowance for hotel. We got into the room. No A/C here either, but it was otherwise a wonderful room. It even had a mini bar, and Colleen and I had a drink prior to collapsing in the bed. It was now well after 1 AM, and that meant we'd been up and on the road effectively since 8AM that morning. A very long day.

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 23

Up early, and down for breakfast at the hotel. I didn't see how much the price was, it was included in the room rate, and I was just glad of the food. Traditional Irish breakfast is odd. Eggs, sausages (here more like hot dogs), mushrooms, and tomatos. At least there was good coffee, and whole meal bread to toast with Marmite. :-) We dropped our laundry off at the desk, and got ready for our day's adventures.

First stop was The Giant's Causeway, which actually was the far end of our day trip loop, at least that was our plan. :-) The legend tells that the giant Finn McCool built the causeway as a way to get to Scotland from Ireland, to fight giants in Scotland, and also that he created the Isle of Man by flinging a chunk of Ireland at his opponent and missing, having it crash into the Irish Sea. The formations were spectacular. There is even one formation called the Giant's boot, that is supposedly a boot he left behind after losing a battle against his Scottish foe. A lot of walking, and some of it down a staircase on the cliff side. It wasn't bad, though the heat had the bugs up in arms, and the nats seemed to bite here, so Colleen was a little annoyed with the swarms. I was too busy sweating profusely. Thankfully, handkerchief is always in tow, and I managed to mop it the best I could.

More Italian students!!! Now, I don't have anything against them individually, but combined, they are self centered, loud, and generally show a lack of concern for the environment or their fellow man. That meant we had to watch as they littered the park, trod through our picture attempts, and just pushed through some areas when we were moving slower than they liked. I won't say it got in the way of our vacation, but it did seem to happen more often than either of us preferred.

We decided to drive down the coast on our way back, somewhat because I had originally thought we'd try to stop at Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge but Colleen knew I'd never cross it, and she wasn't going to go across without me. :-) So, we were already driving down the coast, and there was a "main road" that got us to our next intended stop, and I liked the views as we drove near the Irish Sea. We were driving through Ballycarry, a small coastal town, with a couple of golf courses along the road. In the middle of one, there was an old abby ruin. We literally pulled off the road, and walked onto the course, hoping to find a way in. We found a gate, but it was closed, and Colleen and I took it to mean we couldn't get in. As we were walking out, we saw someone inside the wall, so we were somewhat confused. A golfer on the course stopped and asked if we wanted to get into the abby. We said yes, and he said the gate wasn't locked, just not open. We felt somewhat embarassed, but walked back down and into the abby. It had a ton of old headstones. A lot of them were quite weathered, but we saw dates going back into the middle 1600s. It seemed somewhat odd, because there were also headstones as recent as 1980, but we guessed that they were effectively family plots and the rest of the family was being buried there throughout the years.

We finally made it to Carrickfergus Castle. Now, it is a pretty castle, and was used until well into the 1800s, but it was a bit touristy for our tastes. It had fake statues of "castle folk" throughout and that just seemed somewhat cornball. Still, it was an awesome display, and had a lot of very well preserved rooms in a castle that survived more than one siege. We did have another friendly local experience while getting to the castle. The closest parking was a pay and display lot. That means you walk up to a machine, but in some money and it spits out a ticket indicating how long you can park in the lot. I didn't have any pound coins, and had to find a store to purchase something to make change. A gentleman and his wife were in the lot and they offered to give Colleen a few coins to pay to park. She laughed, and said it wasn't that we didn't have money, just no change and that her husband was on the way to get some. The Irish are truly very friendly people.

Finally back into Belfast, and we had not managed to eat again all day. The trend of the trip. We walked down to a Chinese restaurant, and had some pretty tasty food. We then walked to a grocery store and picked up a few supplies (mostly junk food) and headed back to the hotel. We decided to settle in early, as we had a pretty full day with all the walking and the heat. We still ended up past midnight, but it seemed like we were more relaxed. All we knew was that tomorrow was a driving day, and that we had to wait to pick up our laundry.

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 22

A travel day! We are checking out of the hotel and driving to Belfast, Northern Ireland. Another breakfast at Lemon Jelly, and a walk with our luggage to the car park (not close, and quite rough sidewalks makes for lugging a 22 kg suitcase a real chore after 6 hours of sleep and had I mentioned the 50 Euro parking charge?) we were ready to get out of Dublin. At least, that's what we thought. LOL Now, first let me say that I don't condemn the Hertz Company in general, or the GPS navigation system specifically, but damn was it tough to follow. I got us lost in Dublin, and the downtown area is rife with one way streets. All too often, the GPS, which has a audio component in an English woman's voice, we'd hear the GPS tell us "calculating route" as I tried to get us out of traffic, out of downtown, and well on our way to Belfast. I had no idea how long it was going to take, and we didn't have a room reserved in Belfast at all. I was more than a bit on edge, though I tried to not show my edginess too much to Colleen. (Can you spell failure?) We did finally get out of town, and onto a main artery up the East coast of the island.

Once again, we're mostly meandering, and we know it. We look at the map Sacha loaned to us (she had just come from a tour of Ireland, and had a map with notes and paths, and the like) and saw that Trim Castle was on our way. So, we took the mild detour, and dropped in for a visit. It was a very interesting castle, and we have some reasonable pictures, but I suspect I'll be pretty slow on getting those posted. LOL We are averaging more than 40 pictures a day so far, and I suspect it will only increase based on some of our plans. The tour guide was biased, and claimed this castle was the best preserved of those in the Heritage project (through the Office of Public Works), and claimed that quite a bit of Braveheart, though I can't find any real referencest to that. Still, it was a very large defensive casle, built on a hill, and with a keep that had stood since the 13th century, so I was duly impressed.

We hit the road once again. We found a little tiny castle, that was really just a single tower ruin that had been closed off, in a small coastal town. It was listed as King John's Castle but it was a pretty old building, and there are debates that it is actually a castle of Hugh de Lacy. We still thought it was cool, and it was right on the coast, so if nothing else it was pretty. The map scale gave us the impression that from the point we'd be able to see Greencastle but heat haze, and no real clue where we were supposed to be looking on the horizon, and we didn't manage to see it. The Carlingford Lough was fairly long, and while we could have driven around it and actually seen the castle, I was getting antsy about not having a room for the night in Belfast. So, we walked down, to discover that the town of Carlingford was having some sort of travelling carnival on that day. We could have gotten on some rides, but we were both leery about the safety requirements in EU nations. So, we got back in the car, and headed up the lough toward the main road and on to Belfast.

Now, this is where things in my mind got surreal. We passed through a small town, Omeath, and suddenly, we were in Northern Ireland. Now, I had no idea really what I had expected, but my only real memories of Germany travel involved a lot of border posts. Since the Cold War was over, I understood in Contintental Europe why that didn't exist, though I still had hoped I'd get a passport stamp from each country as we passed through. Here, however, a lot of people (Americans) are under the impression that Northern Ireland is some kind of war zone. There was nothing. We just were suddenly in Northern Ireland. I honestly didn't even know until I saw the sign indicating all posted speeds were in miles per hour. A bit of background on that is in order, I suppose. Northern Ireland is still part of the United Kingdom, so it is on the imperial measuring system, and the pound sterling. So, here we go. I now have to get some pounds (still had a few from London) and had to start paying closer attention to speeds. Of course, one problem.......the rental car only has a speedometer with kilometers per hour. That would mean I'd be doing ballpark math in my head until we were out of Northern Ireland, and that I'd be getting honks and other annoyed responses from folks on the road. At least they didn't also change sides of the road. My head probably would have exploded!

Now, there were several castles along the road to Belfast once we were back on the main road, but I managed to show my ass. I was hungry (we hadn't eaten since breakfast early) and I was still annoyed that we didn't have a hotel room for the night. So, Colleen humored me (how much do I love this woman!) and we drove straight into Belfast. She admitted she was hungry anyway, so I knew she wasn't too much in the mood to argue with me about it. On the way, she used the handy, dandy, GPS system to locate a Belfast hotel. We chose a Holiday Inn Express, thinking that it would be fairly close to one here in the states. It was in the University District, and seemed to be nice on the outside. They had a room, and free parking for guests, and so we checked in. We got up to the room and discovered that we both needed some laundry done. We discussed going to a laundrette so that we could do it ourselves, but in the end, we decided to extend our stay in Belfast for two nights instead of one. The room had no A/C (what is wrong with these people?) and their idea of an ice bucket was a 22 ounce plastic cup, but it was a clean, comfortable room and a place we could crash for the night. But, staying two nights meant handing laundry off tomorrow morning to the hotel, and not bothering with it ourselves, and that meant more time for vacation.

It was after 8, so we decided it would be best to grab some dinner. We chose a trendy little place the name of which escapes me. It was overpriced, and underportioned, but it was a good meal. I got some roasted asparagus as a side, and it was of course massive (I guess I am not high society enough to understand the premise of everything being ala carte, but ignore that) but Colleen helped and it was really very tasty. We read in the phone book that there was supposed to be a Barclay's Bank in Belfast, somewhere downtown, so we took a bit of a walk to try to find it. It is partnered with our bank here in the states, so ATM does not cost us a transaction fee on either side. Banks not on the partnership end up costing us 5 US just from our bank. It wasn't there, so we broke down and used one close by. We tried to walk to a historic pub in downtown, but it was closed for a private party. In the end, we found a bar in a hotel walking back, and stopped in for more than a few rounds. We even got to sample Tennent's beer which was not one we'd seen in Ireland proper. Colleen wanted to have a shot of Jagermeister, but I had to remind her that refrigeration, like A/C was a precious commodity around Europe, and that we'd probably have to drink it warm. We passed, and instead had a shot of a strawberry flavored vodka. After that, we strolled back to the room, stopping in for some Cadbury chocolate and sparkling water. It was just after 11, and the sun had only set what seemed less than an hour ago. And, it was warm in the room. Another rough night of sleep and up early for the next day!

Cheers!

Wimbledon - Day 21

Breakfast this morning was at a little place called Lemon Jelly. I didn't ask how they got past the trademark infringement (there's a band named Lemon Jelly though I don't know which was really first) but they did have some pretty tasty eats and a much more reasonable price than the hotel breakfast "deal." And, of course, wonderful coffee. I packed Splenda for this trip, and found it to be a very good decision, as there were not many locations that actually carried the stuff. On a slight diversion, I am not sure when I became a coffee drinker. I generally find myself too high strung to take on lots of caffeine but I have had coffee almost every day when on vacation. I think part of it is the wonderfully strong coffee I find in other countries, and the enjoyment I get out of sitting with Colleen and having a cup. Either way, I do enjoy good strong coffee. Black with two Splenda please! :-)

We started our morning heading toward Dublinia which was a Viking and Medieval Heritage Center for Dublin. I sort of lied to the ticket office, as they sold a discounted ticket to do both Dublinia and the ChristChurch cathedral, telling the agent we had already visited the church first. So, he discounted our ticket one Euro for the visit. We didn't actually pay to go into the church, so that meant I should have paid full price for the ticket, but I wasn't going to argue with his decision to discount the ticket. :-) Dublinia was mostly replicas and manequins, but Colleen and I still found it interesting. Dublin is an ancient city in that regard, and just experiencing some of the old Viking and pre-Saxon heritage was very educational.

We were then heading off to the Guiness Storehouse tour. Now, the Internet indicates this is mostly a tourist trap, and maybe that is true. Based on the numbers of tourists, it definitely is busy. The tour is highly stylized, and mostly self guided. The building still does serve function, but no brewing is done here. It is just for corporate meetings and training. Still, we did get to see the brewing process used (much like some of the others we saw in Australia) and you could smell the hops and barley. We got to go into a "tasting room" where we got a small shot of Guiness (tasty as ever) and then our admission ticket (which was actually a paperweight with a drop of Guiness inside) got us into the Gravity Bar for a free pint. We could have stopped and learned how to pour our own "perfect pint" of Guiness, but the queue was WAY too long in our opinion to really be worth it. Besides, when would I actually have the chance to use that skill? The Gravity Bar is a circular bar at the top of a tower on the plant. It has a large viewing window which affords an incredible view of Dublin from one of the (reportedly) highest points in town. Based on what we saw, that's reasonably accurate. Now, it was fairly early to be starting on the consumption of alcohol, admittedly, but that's what vacation is about. :) We ended up spending almost 4 hours in the storehouse altogether, because of course we had to go looking for some Guiness merchandise. I found a stress pint, which I loved. That's one of those squeezy toys like a stress ball, but it was shaped like a pint of Guiness. We also purchased some Guiness flavored chocolate and dark chocolate, though I wondered how we'd get it to survive in this land of no A/C. We did get my picture in front of the large gate that is seen in the commercials, so that was goofy, but still cool.

I should also mention that on our walk to the Storehouse, we popped into a place for some take away coffee. I don't quite understand why it is so hard to get coffee for take away, but I suspect it is just a cultural difference and one that is based mostly on Americans being too "on the go" while the pace of towns like Dublin is much more relaxed. Why would one get a coffee to go, when they could sit and chat over a wonderful brew? Well, we were tourists, and we had things to do. :-)

From there, we walked toward the Irish Museum of Modern Art. On the way,we popped into a discount shopping outlet. It was stacked high with clothes of all sorts of styles, and in the end, we did find Colleen a pair of white linen pants she really liked. Of course, we also discovered that she hadn't packed any white undergarments, so we weren't sure if she was going to be able to wear them on the trip. Still, it wasn't a bad deal at 22 Euros as long as the quality does hold up.

One more distraction, as we are prone to do on any of our vacations. We saw a very old church ruin rougly across the street from the store we were shopping in and chose to drop in for a visit. Tickets were free, which seemed novel, and so we wandered into a church that had gone through several incarnations since the Saxon conquest. Parts of the church were simply dismantled as they were no longer needed, so some parts were exposed to the elements (the roof had been taken down,) some were just housing models of the church through its history, and then the still working church itself. It was short, and we didn't choose to stay for the guided portion, but we did find it very interesting stuff to read through.

Finally, onto the Musuem. Modern Art is an understatement to say the least. We saw some very odd artwork. There was one display that was a pair of slide projectors, alternating between each in what seemed random intervals. the projectors themselves were miked, so that the room was filled with the chunk-chunk noise the projector made when it switched slides. A timer of some sort was on the two, so that one displayed an image, then the other, though as I indicated the intervals were not equal, and there were some times that one projector would show two slides in a row before moving to the other. Very odd. We did see some good art as well, but for the most part it was piles of sand, ropes in wave patterns, and hunks of metal that did not look like anything resembling what the artist said it represented. While we were on the second floor, we saw a large gate that we thought was another castle ruin. Turned out to just be the old gate to the formal gardens outside the museum, but we chose to walk down that way to see what was there. When we got to the other side of the gardens, we saw Kilmainham Gaol so we went over to take a look. It was too close to 5 to get in. We ended up taking a couple of pictures, and then thought we'd try to walk around a bit more. However, we were both tired, we had missed lunch (a theme for this trip) and decided to head back toward the hotel. We walked a lot today, and I don't think we really knew that. It definitely was farther than I had anticipated and the walk back seemed VERY long.

After getting changed and cleaning up a bit (very hot and sweaty day again) we decided to head to Quays Restaurant and Bar since the menu looked very tasty. We were not disappointed, though we did spend 85 Euros for dinner. :-) It was a treat for sure, and we definitely felt it was worth the price.

We stopped in the Temple Bar Trading Company and had a look around, and of course, purchased a couple of things for souvenirs. It turns out this pub in the middle of the Temple Bar district is one that does play traditional Irish music and folks gather around in a circle, etc., but it was horribly crowded, and we chose to not go into the bar. I guess that means we missed out on some traditional Irish music and drinking, but we usually like things a bit more intimate (or just quieter) anyway.

WOW, we manage to do a lot every day. We are getting up early, and going to bed late. I think this will be a vacation we're going to want a vacation from!

Cheers!