Sacré bleu!

I won't go into all the details other then to say France has NOT won any allegiances from us. Everything in relation to that country has been a problem - getting there, finding things, getting out of there. The city of Paris itself IS pretty but it is so crowded and everyone smokes and the subway is jammed packed at all times of the day and night and, with a few exceptions, the people ARE rude. In the UK and Ireland, if I had any problems, people were so helpful, but not in Paris.

And along with all the issues we had, I was not able to get WiFi anywhere. The only place around that seemed to have it was....McDonalds..which was also packed all the time. And the one time I tried there, it said their internet was down! We've had to rearrange some plans because we couldn't get the overnight train we wanted out of Paris tonight to Milan, so instead are going to Brussels (only 1 hour 20 minutes away) and will see Brussels and Bruges tomorrow before returning to Paris and hoping on the overinight to Milan then onto Venice.

This nice train has WiFi (which the announcement in English pronounced wee-fee) so I wish the ride was longer! I really have been annoyed by the lack of internet access as so much depends on be being able to get online and make reservations and look things up. Hopefully I will have some time when I actually can connect long enough with a good connection to upload my pics.

In general we are having a great time - wearing ourselves, and particularly our feet, out every day with lots of walking and seeing. All three of us are still well despite almost continuous close contact with millions of people on trains, subways, buses, in museums, etc. And for that I am VERY grateful!

Scotland - at long last, my ultimate destination

Day 7 I ferried over to Scotland and took a train on into Glasgow. I arrived right at rush hour and it is a very big and busy station but beautiful with dark wood shops and glass overhead. There was a large mosaic on one of the walls - and I love mosaics - of the city with a burning train(? odd choice for a train station?).

I walked around town for a little bit and took in all the statues and monuments in George's Square. Here's a little rhyme they teach the school kids here:
Where is the bird that never flew?
Where is the tree that never grew?
Where is the bell that never rang?
Where is the fish that never swam?
The answer is - in the cities emblem which is everywhere.

For dinner that first night in Scotland I had - what else - Haggis. It actually was very good. It came along with Tates (mashed potatoes) and Neeps (mashed rutabagas) plus a whiskey gravy.

The next day I took a hop-on, hop-off tour bus ride around town. Glasgow is very proud of its Charles Rennie Mackintosh history and I visited his house on the grounds of the University - it is very simple but aesthetically pleasing. Really weird on the outside as they moved it here from another place and the external building was not moved with it - it looks like a typical concrete office building except there is a door part way up the wall with no steps or balcony. Then inside it is just as it would have looked.

I also spent a bit of time in the beautiful Glasgow cathedral. "Glasgow Cathedral is the only medieval Cathedral on the Scottish mainland to have survived the Reformation unscathed". And then walked across around the adjoining Necropolis looking at all the many tombs .

The building at left is the Winter garden building - it has a large glass enclosure full of plants. I didn't make it to the Botanical Gardens but I guess they have even more of these interesting glass structures.

Day 6 - Belfast

Day 6 saw me spending the day in Belfast in Northern Ireland. I been a little apprehensive about being in this previously conflicted city but it turned out to be a wonderful city and I would highly recommend it.

It had a wonderful mix of old and new - I toured the (mostly political) murals, saw where Titanic was built (they are VERY proud of that) and wandered the old Shankill Goal (Jail). They have the "Belfast Wheel" like the London Eye - at right next to Central Hall and the largest Celtic cross in Ireland plus numerous new public art works.

Most of the new buildings are all glass since they didn't use glass in any of the buildings prior to the Peace 10 years ago for fear of bombings shattering it. The locals I met all seemed to have a wonderful sense of humor about the past and were all very glad for the peace and the prosperity that came with it.

Ian and Sean have joined me

The boys arrived in London 2 days ago and we've been exploring London. Today we are off to see Stonehenge and Bath then returning to London to catch an overnight train back up to Edinburgh and then on to Stirling before heading to the continent the next day. I'm hoping to catch up with my blog as far as describing where we've been and then have them help me keep up to date but its hard as we don't always have access to WiFi and then when we do, we have lots of trip planning to do - figuring out train routes and where to stay. We may not have any access for the next several days but rest assured I've taken plenty of pictures (several thousand already) that will eventually be posted. CHEERS!

Day 5 - Giants Causeway

I took another tour with Railtours up the East coast of Ireland to Giant's Causeway. Like the Burren in the south of Ireland, this is another amazing site if you like interesting geology. There are thousands of 5 and 6 sides columns of stone. All fitted together like a huge puzzle. It was caused by volcanic eruption.

Then we went to the Carrick-a-rede Rope bridge - that joins a small island off of the coast. It was a very secure bridge but it was also a very windy day and they had had the bridge closed all day until right before we arrived. The whole area was spectacularly beautiful. On the way back, I left the tour in Belfast in Northern Ireland and stayed the night there.

And now..back to my 4th day - Dublin

I went on a fantastic free walking tour with Sandeman tours. They do it strictly for tips. We walked for over 3 hours and Connor, a Senior at Trinity University who was born and raised in Dublin, told us all kinds of interesting facts and stories (notice anything odd about this statue of Justice?). The offer these free walking tours in a dozen cities in Europe and we hope to catch them in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Edinburgh, London, Munich, Paris and Prague.

After the tour, there wasn't much time left to actually go into anything, so I used the free bus pass for one of those hop-on, hop-off buses that RailTours had given me to see the further reaches of the city that had been too far to walk to. As it got dark, I took a walk along the river and the Temple Bar area (which is what most people come to Dublin for - the drinking).

One nice surprise was the smoking was not allowed in public places including hotels and bars. In a way though, this was a negative for me because I didn't go into any of the bars - I just walked around outside and all the smokers were relegated to standing outside and smoking!

I am off to meet Ian and Sean at the airport but will leave you with one more picture - At left is the oddly painted royal quarters of Dublin Castle which give it an appearance of being fake.

New photo album is having issues

I am removing the link to the photo album until I figure out what it wrong with it. Its on Web Albums so shouldn't be a problem.

Finally off the highlands...my lifelong dream

Still working on catching up with my photos - will continue to add to the albums a limited number from each area (I've take around 1500 picts so far, so I don't think you want to see them ALL!).

Toured Glasgow yesterday and a little the day before (it was about 4:30pm when I arrived on Monday). It has a lot of beautiful architecture but not as much interesting history as Dublin and Belfast. Also, everything is very brown and gray - stone - cement. Could easily imagine what it was like to live here in Victorian times as so little has changed. It hardly seems like I am in Scotland as I could be in any busy, big European city.

But today I leave on a coach (Bus) tour up through the Highlands, stopping at several castles and other sites and then staying the night in Fort William. Tomorrow we continue on to Eilean Donan - a small ruin of a castle on a jetty out into a loch - but it is one I saw a picture of ages ago and fell in love with it - so it is where I have always wanted to go. Afterwards we come back south for a few more stops and end in Edinburgh where I will take the Caledonian Sleeper train (where I have a berth reserved all to myself) back to London overnight. To meet Ian and Sean in Heathrow that afternoon.

Arriving in Scotland as I type this

I am extremely behind on my photo uploading, since I like to go through and crop them and make them look all pretty - and hence I am really far behind on my blog notes. The Last post about SW Ireland was what I did on 5/14. I will catch up later (hopefully) but wanted to let everyone know just generally how its going. I spent the 15th touring Dublin then on the 16th headed up to Northern Ireland - spending that day along the coast and then staying Belfast. Yesterday I toured Belfast and then caught the ferry around Noon today (18th) to Scotland. The ferry had free wifi but I spent the 2 hour trip just working on the pictures! I am landing on the coast and will take a 2 hour train ride to Glasgow where I will be staying tonight.

Over all EVERYONE has been wonderful. The people are friendly and glad to help. I have felt very safe in both Dublin and Belfast. There is very little sign of the past troubles in Belfast and I would highly recommend it as a vacation destination. Here's an interesting fact about each place before I de-bark. In the Republic of Ireland - all public signs are in Irish and English. Kids are all taught Irish in school. In Northern Ireland, some people have an extremely thick accent - different then the regular Irish accent. The public bus driver said whole sentences to me where I couldn't even understand a single word!

Cheers, Tricia

Stairs and Stones in SW Ireland

A pre-arranged tour with RailToursIreland took me to south-western Ireland via Train to Limerick, then by Bus to Bunratty Castle and Folk Village. Bunratty was wonderful - just what every kid thinks of as a Castle. It had 2 main rooms - One above the other - and 4 turrets, each having a tight spiral staircase with a little room coming off at each level. There was also a lovely little folk village where authentic buildings had been relocated.

For lunch at a pub in Doolin, I had a real Irish Coffee and a large wedge of deep-fried Bree. Then we went onto the Cliffs of Moher - getting there just in time to see them before the fog closed in. Although they were beautiful, I was more impressed by the Burren, which I had never heard of. The pictures don't do it justice...its stone that looks exactly like half-melted ice!

We continued onto Galway and caught the train back to Dublin. The countryside looked just as you expected - very green, no trees, stone fences everywhere and the occasional abandoned stone house. They call the stone houses "famine houses" because they were abandoned either by migration or death during the great potato famine. We saw many stone churches that were "deroofed" by King Henry VIII to discourage Catholicism. And cemeteries with scattered stones marking graves from the famine.

Mind The Gap

"Mind The Gap" is on most of the rail platforms in England. It's a warning to pay attention to the void between the platform and the train when loading and unloading. It also was my first lesson-learned about trains - I was trapped, not by the physical gap but the timing gap. After much time wasted by my confusion and the gap between trains and the number of train changes needed, I arrived in Liverpool at 22:20 - missing my 22:00 overnight ferry to Dublin. I knew there was a faster ferry that left from Holyhead at 2:40 in the morning (there aren't any other ferries out of Liverpool except the 7 hour ones). I made it to Holyhead at 2:20 - fortunately the ferry office is connected to the train station and even though it was past loading time, they let me on.

I arrived in Dublin at 6am and took a taxi straight to the train station for my 6:40 tour to Bunratty Castle, The Cliffs of Moher, Burren and Galway with RailTours. Arriving back in Dublin at 9pm and gratefully making my way to my B&B. Other then my own folly in planning, there weren't any problems...well, there was one incident...

I had switched trains in Chester (between Liverpool and Holyhead) and settled down for a nice 1 1/2 hours sleep (I only slept for small snippets of time until I was in the B&B last night). The train was very empty - there was 4 of us in my car and then 2 drunk young men (early 20's) got on. I had just fallen asleep when one of them opened a can of beer (they brought a 6-pack on with them). He managed to spray it over his seat, the seat facing me, and the table and drench my shirt! I guess you could say I've "had" some beer in England ;^)