Another Hague trip... but first, Amsterdam!

I've been thoroughly chastised by my wife for not posting pictures, so to keep the house a little calmer, I've decided to start adding pics to the blog. I'm not the photographer in our family, so if you're planning on complaining about the subjects of the pics, (or telling me that there are too many or too few pics) I'll save y'all some time and just point you in the direction of the manager. "We" have evidently made an executive decision. Now, on to our irregularly scheduled blog post.

So, I know we just got back from Ireland, but the wife needed to make a quick trip to The Hague, and asked me if I wanted to go along, or just stick around the house. She was planning on traveling Monday, working Tuesday, and returning Wednesday. I told her that for such a quick trip, I didn't see the need to go, and could take it or leave it. She suggested leaving on Saturday and driving to Amsterdam, staying in Amsterdam on Saturday night and Sunday night, then driving to The Hague on Monday afternoon. 

Looks like we're going to Amsterdam!

We drove in on Saturday and checked into our hotel. To save money, we stayed out past the airport - only about 15 miles out of town, but around 45 minutes out via bus and tram. After we checked in, we found the bus stop and figured out the "best" way to get into town. We caught a bus to the airport, then switched over to the subway / train system and got out at the central station. We wandered around for a while, eventually finding a street with bunches of restaurants on it. We picked an Italian restaurant.

Fun thing we found out about that specific restaurant - our waiter (might have been the owner, not sure) was an Italian immigrant, from Rome. We talked with him a little bit about that, and our time in Rome. Also... the boss discovered that the napkins at this place had translations for common Italian phrases. Interestingly enough, though... they weren't translations to Dutch... or even English... but German! We thought that was pretty odd, and the wife kept (an unused) one as a little souvenir.

I'm gonna go ahead and mention this now, so I won't have to bring it up in each separate paragraph: there's a lot of pot in Amsterdam. On the more populated streets, you can almost see clouds of smoke wafting through the air, and the smell of marijuana permeates the whole (tourist area of the) city. We talked with our tour guide a bit about the legality of pot... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

After dinner, we wandered around and explored a bit, with the wife taking pictures of the picturesque canals. We managed to find the big town square that we'd need to get to the next day for our tour.

On our trips to The Hague, there's one specific cheese shop that we usually visit, and while wandering around Amsterdam we found a massive store from the same chain - about 5 times the size of the one we go to in The Hague. So, of course we went in. They had a lot more to choose from, so we bought a bunch of stuff from there that we couldn't possibly live without.

Also took some of the standard tourist pics...

The wife insisted on taking some selfies next to one of the canals, and shared it with the daughter. Daughter showed it to one of her coworkers who was standing next to her, and the coworker said that I'm "old man cute." I'm not sure what that means, but I'm morally outraged nonetheless. I've never even met that coworker, and I've already called her a record number of names in my head.

In our wandering, we passed by the Anne Frank house. Evidently, it's one of the more popular tourist sites, and our trip was too last minute to be able to get tickets, so we didn't get to go in. We'll try to plan better next time. Wife snapped a pic as we walked by.

After that, we continued wandering... I have to share this part - sorry. On the banks of some of the canals, they have outdoor urinals. They're just a metal spiral shaped fence with a metal grate on the inside.. if you look at it from above, I guess it'd look a bit like a poorly drawn number 6. The fence starts at about knee height, and continues up to about shoulder height, with a screen that extends a couple of feet higher. I'd assume that it's mostly for guys to use, but who am I to judge?

After wandering some more, we walked back to the train station and took a train to the airport. While waiting for the bus, we saw a shuttle bus for the hotel, and hopped a ride with him instead. Little bit less walking for us, since the bus stop was around a 15 minute walk from the hotel.

Next morning, we caught a different bus into town - it dropped us off right next to the Van Gogh Museum, which we'd be visiting later in our trip. This day though, we caught a tram back up to the more touristy area, and went for breakfast to a restaurant that the wife had heard good things about: The Happy Pig. The Dutch are pretty serious about their pancakes, and this was a restaurant devoted to just pancakes. Not American pancakes, but a little thicker than French crepes. Rolled with your choice of filling and topping (sweet, savory, or some combination of the two). The boss had lemon juice and powdered sugar (for an old twist on Dutch Babies, that I have fond memories of in Texas), and I had bacon filling with caramel syrup on top. Both were delicious.

After our late breakfast, we wandered for a bit, then stopped on the main square for coffee. We finished our coffees just in time to meet our tour guide for our walking tour - funny how the timing worked out, huh?

Our tour guide's name was Phillip, and he was outstanding. He was from Brazil, but had lived in Amsterdam for 5 years, and gave us all kinds of information that we wouldn't have stumbled upon ourselves. We talked about the history of the city (including the famous "Red Light District") and the history of the tulip, and its importance in the history of the city, among quite a few other topics as well. Quite entertaining and informative 2 hours.

We were looking for something to do next, so we (the wife) decided to do a canal cruise. 

The canals weren't too busy, but even outside of the main tourist season there were quite a few boats touring around. I tried to imagine what the canals would look like if all of the boats were in operation, and I can't even picture it. We saw a dock where 15 or so boats were tied up, unused. As it was, our boat was following 2 or 3 others, and we had a handful behind us as well. All the boats had to slow down at every corner because the boats are pretty long, and they take a long time to turn those sharp corners.

I decided that I wanted some of the famous french fries for dinner (healthy, I know!). I waited in line for my food while the wife went next door to a restaurant that sells their food out of vending machines. Real food, cooked by real people, just in vending machines. All sorts of foods. The folks in the back cook them, then put them into the vending machines from the back. She got something called "Bami," that was a vegetarian, vaguely Indonesian noodle dish, served inside what appeared to be a fried spring roll wrapper. I didn't try a bite of that - I was too into my fries at that point. She also got something called "kaassouffle," which was basically an extra thick slice of cheese that had been breaded and fried. Now that - I had a bite of that. Pretty good as well, especially to have come out of a vending machine.

We wandered around for a while longer then made our way on foot back to the Van Gogh Museum, and caught a bus there that took us all the way out to our hotel (still with the 15 minute walk on the end, of course).

Next morning, we woke up and packed everything up, loaded the car and walked to the bus stop. For some reason, it was incredibly windy that day. I have no idea how hard the wind was blowing, but the boss had a hard time walking up the stairs to the bus stop - the wind was blowing hard enough that she was having trouble keeping her feet under her. The wind was trying to blow her faster than she could walk. We agreed that that was the hardest wind we could remember being in. 

We rode the bus to the area with the Van Gogh Museum, and went to the pancake restaurant that's rated number one in the city on Trip Advisor, The Pancake Club. It's basically a little hut on the banks of one of the canals, with seven tables in it. I know that there are seven tables because there's a sign on the door with a light on it; if the light is red, all seven tables are full, so please wait outside and they'll come get you when there's an available table. Cue the jokes about eating in a 'Red Light District' - you know I couldn't let an opportunity pass without taking a few swings at a softball like that!

The pancakes were pretty good. I got lemon and powdered sugar, the wife had ham and cheese with mushrooms - both were excellent.

After breakfast, we had a little while before our reservation at the Van Gogh Museum, so we walked over to a street with a lot of antique stores on it that the wife had found the previous evening. Turns out, in addition to a well developed taste for Westerwald Pottery, she's working on a thing for traditional Delft porcelain as well. I've really gotta stop letting her go to antique stores so often, huh?

She didn't find anything that she couldn't live without at those stores, so we walked back down to the Van Gogh Museum in time for our tickets.

I've mentioned it previously, but the boss has developed an appreciation for Van Gogh's work. Since there's an entire museum devoted to him in Amsterdam, there's no way she'd let me leave town without going through it. We learned more information about Van Gogh than one of us was interested in, and he (your oh-so-reliable narrator) tapped out after an hour and a half. The wife stayed for a while longer, then we stopped at a grocery store for munchies for the road, and rode the bus back out to the hotel. 

After battling the wind to get down the stairs at the bus stop, we hit the road for...... The Hague.

This was just going to be a quick trip, so not much was on the list. Our next morning was a little yucky, so I didn't wander around too much while the wife was working.

We'd found a restaurant that we wanted to try (The Big Green Egg), so we'd made reservations for that night. When the boss got done with work, we took off walking, and stopped by the Hat Lady - I got a new hat, because of course! The wife finally got to meet the Hat Lady - one of them at least. Turns out, "my" Hat Lady evidently doesn't work on Tuesdays; at least, this is the second visit in a row that I've gone on a Tuesday and talked with the other Hat Lady instead. I need to start scheduling it a little better... or maybe I just need to acknowledge that I have two Hat Ladies, since I've gotten 2 hats from each of them.

We wandered our way up to the Big Green Egg restaurant, and had dinner. The wife had a rib eye (and a little bit of my grilled shrimp), I had grilled shrimp (and a little bit of her steak). Pretty good, but I have nothing to compare it to, since I've never had anything else cooked on a Big Green Egg.... (hint, hint to the boss!).

On the way back from The Hague the next day, we stopped in Delft, so the wife could take a factory tour of the Delft Pottery Factory. We've always enjoyed factory tours, so to combine a factory tour with the boss's latest obsession seemed like a no-brainer. They had a couple of movies and presentations on the history of the pottery and how it's made, then a display with hundreds of years of pottery represented. Evidently, in the past, there were around 30 different pottery makers in the city, and now, there's only one - Royal Delft. They've been running for around 370 years without interruption, and are the official pottery manufacturers for the Dutch Royal family.

The displays were..... cool, but didn't do much for me. Whee, old pottery, right? When we got to the actual factory tour, I really enjoyed that part. There wasn't an actual tour, just taped off lines on the floor with arrows, and an occasional TV monitor with a video that displayed the steps that were going on around you. We were walking right beside where the work itself would actually be done, with the racks of half finished pottery waiting for the next step:

The painted lines guided us right next to the artisans themselves, for us to watch while they worked. The only person who was working next to the tour area was this lady, putting the final touches on a tulip vase:

The design on the items in the foreground is black right now, but after being fired in the kiln, it'll change into the blue that you see on the pieces in the background (technically called "Delft Blue").

Additionally, we learned that all of the pottery that comes from the factory isn't hand painted; some of it is created with a simple transferring process. If it's hand painted, the mark on the bottom (or back) will look like this:

Just the portion inside the red outline - this is just an example, part of a larger display. The trademark for their hand painted stuff has a vase, with the initials of one of the guys who helped reorganize the company and keep it afloat, and the word "Delft" in cursive underneath. Interestingly enough, the company was started in 1653, and Joost Thoof bought the factory in 1876... but those are his initials that are on the trademark symbol, with the J and T superimposed on each other. 

After spending way too much money in the gift shop, we caught a bus back to the hotel area, battled the wind for 15 minutes to get to the car, and hoofed it home, arriving around 8:00 last night.

So... what lessons did we learn in this latest installment?

1. Driving to The Hague lets us stretch it over a weekend and add other cities to the front or back of our itinerary. Probably cheaper for multiple people to travel there too - HINT, HINT!
2. Amsterdam smells like pot.
3. Amsterdam has lots of canals, and urinals on the sidewalk for guys (and adventurous ladies).
4. If the boss says "I'm not planning on spending any money in this shop," don't believe her, and hold onto your wallet. Exhibits A & B: The cheese shop and the Delft gift shop.
5. If the wife shows interest in pottery, immediately redirect her attention in a different direction.

TTFN, and stay tuned for our next adventure!

Dublin!

 Warning - LONG post coming up, but I'll do my best to keep it entertaining for you. Grab your choice of beverage (hot or cold, alcoholic or non) and buckle in!

So - the wife's <REDACTED> birthday was coming up, and she was waffling around about what to do for it. I finally goaded her into making a decision, thusly:

While Frankfurt International Airport is a major international hub, there's also a local regional airport that escapes a lot of people's notice. About an hour and a half away, Hahn airport is located in the southern Rhine valley, and serves smaller airlines, most notably Ryan Air. Looking at Ryan Air's web site, I learned that tickets from Hahn to Dublin can be had for as low as €10 each way, per person.

When I pointed this out to the boss, she decided that her <REDACTED> birthday would be the perfect opportunity to check "Visit Ireland" off her Bucket List. We booked plane tickets and traded in a pantload of Hilton points on a 5 star hotel. Then, the wife got to planning - her real wheelhouse.

The 25th, we left town and drove to Simmern, a little town about 15 minutes from the airport. We checked into a local hotel there and walked into town to find something to eat. Settled on an Italian place, then walked back to the hotel afterwards.

We woke up bright and early the next morning and drove to the airport. We paid extra to be able to check luggage - for the €10 fare, you can only carry on what will fit under the seat in front of you. We'd be there too long to only take that amount of stuff.

Hahn airport... it's a little bitty airport. Security and passport control were both fine. The waiting area... didn't have nearly enough seating for the people waiting. There were probably 10 - 15 seats total, and there were a couple hundred people in the waiting area. Additionally, our flight was late, with no explanation from anyone on what was going on - no announcements, no nothing. At this point, I really need to talk about Ryan Air.

Do you need a refill? I'll wait.

Better? Good.

I came up with a pretty good analogy for Ryan Air that I'd like to share with you.

I love Taco Bell. It's my favorite fast food restaurant. Sorry if we can't be friends anymore, I understand. You always know exactly what to expect. The food always tastes the same - it usually doesn't even matter too much what you order, since they only have a handful of ingredients back there, and it's incredibly cheap. If something's wrong with your food, they usually look at you and shrug: "What'd you expect? Your burrito was a quarter. Here - I'll give you another one. Now go away." If you want more than that, you should be going to a real restaurant.

That's how I've come to view Ryan Air. If you're paying €10 for them to fly you 650 miles, what are you really expecting? They'll get you on the plane, they'll fly you there, they'll get you off the plane. If you're wanting more than that, you should probably be flying on a real airline. If you want to take a real carry-on, you have to pay more. If you want to check luggage, you have to pay more. If you want more legroom, you have to pay more. If you want a beverage, you have to pay more. If you wanna select your seat, you have to pay more. Becca came up with an additional revenue stream that they're missing - letting you upgrade to be able to get off the plane first. I think that might be the only money they're leaving on the table.

Ryan Air flies 737's - we've all flown on those, right? Turns out, there's an option for a staircase at the front and back doors of the plane. Ryan Air went for that option - a little fold-out staircase that slides up into the plane when they've got everyone loaded. Hahn airport doesn't have jetways, or anything silly like that - when it's time to board, you just walk out on the tarmac, follow the signs for your destination a couple hundred yards, and board at either the front or back stairway, depending on your seat.

At a little less than 2 hours, the flight was relatively short and thankfully uneventful - I guess we're lucky no one on board paid more for the "turbulence experience."

We arrived in Dublin and deplaned the same way. Evidently, it's not just a Hahn Airport thing - Dublin Airport is a major international hub, but we had to climb down those same sets of stairs, and wander across the tarmac to find our way inside. Turns out, Ryan Air is a REALLY CHEAP airline - in all senses of the word. We will be taking more flights with them - again, Taco Bell is my favorite fast food restaurant!

We took an airport shuttle bus to the hotel. Turns out, our room wasn't available yet, so we left our luggage and went out exploring.

Our hotel was a block down from Saint Stephen's Green, a famous local park. Nice area, a 10 minute walk or so from Grafton Street, the famous shopping area. That's where the boss dragged me to. We wandered around gawking like newly arrived tourists for a while, and discovered the famous statue of Molly Malone, "The Tart with the Cart." Fun story, fishmonger by day, "lady of the evening" by night (according to some versions). According to other versions, she was one of the few fish peddlers who wasn't peddling other things as well. I'll let you choose which story you'd like to believe, but the statue has bright shiny breasts from being rubbed so many times for luck - I think it's obvious which story Dubliners and tourists choose to believe.

We wanted to stop for a quick snack, and happened to be standing across the street from a place that Becca had heard about, Laduree. Evidently, they're a French chain, famous for their hot chocolate and pastries. So, of course we had to stop there. Their hot chocolate was good, really thick, with just a hint of bitterness from the chocolate. I'm no food critic, though.

We returned to the hotel and wasted time until time to leave for our dinner reservations. The boss had found reviews for a restaurant that she wanted to go to for her birthday dinner, located in an old church (and called, ironically and unimaginably enough, "The Church"). The cornerstone of the building was laid in 1700, and Arthur Guinness was married in the church in the 1760's. In the late 1980's it was sold, and converted over to a restaurant. Beautiful inside, and it's known for their musical and dancing performances during the meals. Wife took lots of pictures, and enjoyed her birthday dinner muchly.

On the way back to the hotel, we crossed the river via the Ha'penny Bridge. This was the first pedestrian bridge over the River Liffey, the main river which bisects Dublin. There was one guy who provided a ferry service across the river, and he charged a half a penny fare. His boats got to be so decrepit, the city asked him to build a bridge for the public to use instead, and he agreed - as long as he could charge people a half a penny to use it, for a hundred years. it was originally built in 1816, and the toll was finally dropped in 1919.

Our route back to the hotel took us through the famous nightlife area, Temple Bar. We spent a lot of time in this area, lots of restaurants and pubs. That night, we just walked through.

So, now we're through the planning of the trip and our first day on the ground in Ireland. I told you this was going to be a long one. Do you need a refill?

The next morning, we started with breakfast in the hotel. Supposedly, the hotel offered a "Full Irish Breakfast," and I saw a couple of things on the buffet that I couldn't talk myself into trying. They had "black pudding" and "white pudding," which I chose not to try - especially after reading about them. I stuck with eggs, bacon, and sausage each morning. The wife ordered from the menu a couple of times, but she just ordered normal food - sorry to disappoint.

After breakfast we went over to the Little Museum of Dublin. Wonderful place. It's right on St. Stephen's Green, just an unassuming row house. It's a guided museum, and our guide (Aemon) was quite knowledgeable and entertaining. It's truly a little museum, with only a couple of rooms, but they cover the 20th century of Dublin and Ireland very thoroughly. There was a little room upstairs devoted to the band U2 as well. Quite entertaining, I'll be posting a 5 star review for them on Trip Advisor too.

After that, we wandered back over to the Temple Bar area and went to the Irish Rock & Roll Museum. This was a guided museum as well, and our guide, Brian, was quite entertaining too. The museum is affiliated with a local venue and a recording studio as well. They structure the tour as if you are a member of a band, going through all of the different areas of the facility (rehearsal, green room, stage, studio), and have a movie about Irish rock & roll as well. Quite heavy on Thin Lizzy, U2, and The Pogues, but that may be different with other guides. Brian was (understandably) a huge fan of Irish rock & roll, and had encountered most of the "Who's Who" in the industry, so his stories were quite entertaining. I'll be leaving them a glowing review as well.

Afterward, we walked through town, stopping to tour through Dublin Castle. The castle was erected in the 1200's on the site of an early Viking settlement, and serves as the ceremonial seat of the government. While researching for this entry (not while we were there, ironically enough), I learned that the site of the castle is is actually the source for the name of the city as well; the Viking settlement was near a dark pool, and in the Irish language "dubh linn" means "black pool." Interestingly enough, "Gaelic" refers to a family of languages (which include Scottish), and not to the Irish language itself. The more you know, huh?

We stopped for a quick bite to eat at a nearby restaurant after the castle. Afterwards, we went through Christ Church Cathedral, the official seat of both the Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. Construction of the cathedral began around 1030.

Next, we walked down the street a few hundred miles (felt like it, anyway) to the Guinness Storehouse. In 1759, Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease for £45 per year for his brewery, after an initial payment of £100. Turns out, the lease is no longer in effect - when Guinness expanded the property, they purchased the land outright. It's a fun story though. The boss had her first Guinness beer there, at the storehouse. She's never been a fan of dark beers, but didn't seem to mind it too much. She also drank Guinness at various pubs while touring around town - not sure if she's been converted, but at least she approached it with an open mind!

We walked back to the hotel afterwards and had a quiet night after so much "go go going" throughout the day.

As part of our Dublin Pass.... lemme back up for a second.

Looking at all of the things we were planning on doing in Dublin, and the prices for admission to them, the family accountant did the math, and it would make financial sense to buy those tourist passes. In addition to admission to the majority of the attractions that we were interested in, we also got a day pass for the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus, and a free afternoon costal tour.

The next morning, we hopped on the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus, and rode it all the way around the city to the EPIC Museum. This museum is devoted to the history of Irish Immigration around the world, why they left, and what they accomplished. Ireland takes its role in world history very seriously, and is quite proud of the people who left to find more opportunity, but who still embraced their Irish heritage. We were given "passports" when we entered, and at each of the 15 or so stations, we had to stamp our passport to show that we'd been there. Areas like "State & Society", "Discovering & Inventing", "Changing the Game", "Music & Dance" - quite a thorough examination of Irish immigration.

We had a tour scheduled for later that afternoon, with nothing to do until then, so we took off walking and found ourselves in the oldest pub in Dublin. There's some dispute on how old it actually is... local stories claim that the first date was in 1198, but there's no evidence to support that date. There's an article that suggests that it first received a license to sell ale in 1661, and the first mention of it as an inn dates to 1668. Regardless of the real date, it was an old place. We happened to be sat next to a family that toured the Rock & Roll Museum with us, and one of the kids mentioned that her favorite stop had been Marsh's Library, which wasn't on our original list.

After our late lunch, we headed over for our tour at Jameson's Distillery. They're quite proud of their whiskey here. Couple of fun facts I've discovered about Jameson... the distillery dates to 1780, not the oldest in Ireland. Back in the 80's Jameson wasn't the highest selling Irish whiskey, but it was selected specifically for export because of its green bottle - as a result, it's the highest selling Irish whiskey in the world. Also, John Jameson was the great-grandfather of Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the radio.

We took the city bus back to the hotel that night. Another quiet night in. 

Our first stop of the next day was Trinity College, and the Book of Kells. Trinity College was first founded in 1592, and is evidently well known in academic circles. We toured the beautiful grounds, and ended our tour in the Long Room, one of their research libraries on site, which dates back to the 1600's. After our walk through the Long Room, we got to the display area for the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript dating to around the year 800. We learned the history of the book... turns out it was moved from Kells to Trinity College in 1654, because Oliver Cromwell's forces were quartered at the church in Kells, and it was sent to Dublin for safekeeping. Pretty book, with a nice display that explains quite a bit about it, but a bit underwhelming, in the same way that the Mona Lisa is. Interesting historical tidbit about the college: women weren't allowed to study at Trinity College until 1904. George Salmon was the provost at the college around that time, and was reputed to have said "women will be admitted to Trinity College over my dead body." He died in January of 1904, and the first woman to be accepted to the college had her entrance exams delayed... his funeral was the same day as her exam. She got in, but unfortunately had to attend her classes "remotely", as she wasn't allowed to attend the all male classes for her first two semesters.

We grabbed a quick lunch, then headed to the Whiskey Museum, right across from Trinity College. The museum isn't affiliated with any specific distillery, they talk more about the history itself, then they offer tastings of different brands and types of whiskeys.

After our tour, we walked across one of the bridges and made our way to the bus stop for our afternoon costal tour of a neighboring harbor town, Howth. It's just a little ways up the coast, quite picturesque. It was originally settled a long time ago (not sure when), but was plundered by Vikings in 819. Now, it's a suburb for Dublin's well-to-do. There are some quite pretty overlooks on the peninsula, including a parking area at the top of the hill which overlooks the (now automated) lighthouse. After a short-ish stop at the top to hike around and take pics, we loaded back onto the bus and went down to the harbor. We got around an hour to explore the harbor and get a bite to eat before loading back on the bus for the trip back. On the way out, our driver pointed out the house owned by the drummer of the band U2, Larry Mullin, Jr. 

We caught a city bus back to the hotel that night.

You're probably going to need a refill for the next part. I'll wait.

Better? Good. Better buckle up for this next day.

The next morning, we got up early and caught a taxi outside our hotel at 6:30. There are two main train stations in Dublin, Connolly Station and Heuston Station. If you're heading north, you'll catch your train at Connolly Station. For trips south and west, your train will leave from Heuston Station. We were heading almost directly west, so we headed over to Hueston. We met our tour guide, Paddy, at the station. We were the only two people on the tour, so we got to know Paddy fairly well. Evidently, the tour company that we happened to use is affiliated with the rail service in Ireland, so Paddy was able to reserve pretty much however many seats he wanted. He reserved 8 seats for the three of us, two four top tables across from each other. The three of us sat at one table (with the other table empty), while Paddy chased off people who asked if they could sit at the other table. 

A quick note about Paddy: He was a charming older gentleman in his 70's, a wealth of information that he would share in his charming Irish brogue. He was a widower, his wife passed away last year.

Paddy chased quite a few people out of the reserved seats (that we wouldn't be using anyway) until one passenger in particular caught his eye - a young lady in her (about) late 20's who he (Paddy) judged would be an entertaining traveling companion for our trip. The boss and I talked about it afterward, and we both noticed his very purposeful choice of to whom he offered the seat.

Paddy and our new companion pointed out sites that we were passing. I'm not going to try to relate all of those, as I've forgotten most of them, and I don't want to do the follow-up research on all of them (to bring you tidbits like "Who is Marconi's great-grandfather?").

We got to Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, at around 10:00, and our bus had been delayed by traffic, leading Paddy to get quite concerned. The driver finally got there, and the wife and I loaded up for the next leg in our tour, while Paddy caught a train back to Dublin. We drove west along the coast, for about 15 minutes. We finally got to Connemara "Airport"... I capitalized the word "Airport" in that last sentence because it's a formal place name, but I'm not sure that it needs to be capitalized... or even referred to as an airport, to be honest (and that was the reason for the quotation marks). There were two buildings, and a... taxiway (for lack of a better term), then a strip of tarmac that they optimistically called a "runway."

We checked in, and stepped on a scale, and started having serious doubts about our choice of tour activities for that afternoon. There were a few others who would be flying with us.

The plane arrived, and we all went out to the plane. It was a little, itty bitty plane. A 10 seat plane. There were 4 bench seats for the passengers, and 2 seats for the flight crew. There were 2 doors for the passengers to use, one on the left side, behind the wing, for the last two bench seats, and one on the right under the front edge of the wing for the front two bench seats. There was no central aisle. You crammed into your seat, buckled in, and just nibbled on your knees until you were able to shoehorn yourself back out of the plane. There were windows, and we took some interesting pics. Our pilot taxied us out to the runway, and after the requisite shaking and rattling, we lifted off for our 12 mile journey to Inis Mór, the largest of the Aran Islands.

We flew at around 500 feet above the ocean, at around 140 miles per hour... for 8 minutes. Then, our trusty steed set down (quite gently, I might add). We pried ourselves out of our seats and traipsed over to our waiting bus - we were the only ones on the bus (except the driver, of course), and were ferried across the island via twisting gravel roads. Once we got to town, he dropped us off at the bus stop, told us what time he'd be back for us for our afternoon return flight, and told us where to go to catch our next bus - about a hundred yards down the road. We were supposed to look for a black bus and talk to John O'Donnell. Well, alrighty then.

There was another couple who journeyed with us for this next portion; I believe they were with the same company, but they had gotten to the island via ferry instead, those filthy commoners. Our driver told us about the history of the island and the places we were passing, and we stopped at an old church, dating to the 8th century. As near as we can tell, the name of the church is "Na Seacht dTeampaill," which translates to "The Seven Churches," but there are only two churches on that site. The first church was built at that site in the 7th or 8th century. There are several old graves on the site, as well as much more recent ones of recent residents, all the way up into the 2020's.

After wandering around the grounds of the old churches for a few minutes, we loaded back into the bus and drove to the other side of the island to a parking lot near the cliffs of Dun Aengus, the location of an old fort dating back to the stone age. The parking lot was a little bit of a hike from the visitor's center, which itself was about a 20 minute hike up to the edge of the cliffs. The fort was constructed on the top of the south facing cliff, looking out over the cliffs from about 300 feet high. Quite pretty - just as pretty as the Cliffs of Moher (from what I've heard and the pictures I've seen), just not quite as tall.

We hiked back down and headed for the little tourist shops. Evidently, Aran Islands wool goods are known far and wide, and all kinds of wool garments were available at the shops, all locally knitted, from what we could tell. The wife got a sweater, and I got a scarf. We spent too much time on the cliffs to be able to eat at that stop, so we loaded back up onto the bus, and journeyed back into town. There was a restaurant in town, so we had a bite to eat there, then went across the street to another tourist store. Didn't find anything there that we couldn't live without. We walked around the corner for the bus back to the airport.  

We caught the bus, got back on the plane, and took the transfer bus back to Galway. We had a little bit of time in Galway before our train, so we wandered around the shopping area, didn't buy much there though.

Our companion on the way back was a different gentleman, by the name of Brian. He was just as friendly, but we didn't interact with him as much. All the lights inside the train were on, and it was dark outside, so we couldn't see anything. Brian told us that he was supposed to be pointing out the sights to us, but since we wouldn't be able to see any of them, he'd just be available if we had any questions. He pointed out the Shannon river, and told us something about the castle, but I don't remember what it was, and I couldn't see it anyway, so I won't bother trying to remember what it was.

Upon arriving back at Hueston Station, we jumped into a cab for the trip back to the hotel, arriving a little after 10. Long day, but quite eventful.

You might want a refill after that last part. I completely understand.

We took our time getting moving the next morning - we were definitely a little worse for wear from our trekking the day before.

As we were getting ready to head out, I got a call from the tour company. Our tour for the next day (Saturday, for those of you keeping track at home) had been cancelled. They offered us another trip that day instead, and after bouncing it off of the boss, we accepted. Our original tour was to be through Kilkenny and Waterford, with Paddy. I'll tell you about the trip we ended up on when we get there - hold your horses!

We didn't have anything planned for Friday. We'd specifically left it empty, so that we could find other things that we'd missed, or things that had been added to our list throughout the week. We'd heard about Marsh's Library on our Hop-On, Hop-Off tour, and from the family that we did the Rock & Roll museum with, so we decided to go there.

Marsh's Library is the oldest public library in Ireland, dating back to 1707. The original books are still on the shelves, with restraining bars across them to keep them in place. Additionally, there are cages built around some of the reading areas - scholars would be locked into the cages to peruse the books, to insure that they didn't steal any books. Those came into use in the 1770's to combat theft.

Afterward, we walked around the corner and went into Saint Patrick's Cathedral, the National Cathedral of Ireland, dating back to 1191. Another cathedral? Yeah. Another one. Evidently, way back when, there was no precedent for a city to have two cathedrals, and this caused quite a unique conundrum for the Church. They had to divide up the duties and responsibilities for the two cathedrals, formalized into an agreement signed in the year 1300, and followed until 1870. More than that, I really don't understand, and I'm not gonna research any more. My blog, my rules.

Frequent readers will remember my predilection for barbecue, and how I try to arrange to have barbecue in whatever city I'm in. Well, guess what! There's an American style barbecue joint in the Temple Bar area. That's what we had for lunch. Honestly, it was passable. Little bit of a weird flavor - mostly noticeable in the beans, but present in all of the sauces too... some sort of licorice flavor. The wife thought anise, I thought fennel... not offensive, just different. 

Temple Bar is a specific section of Dublin, but it's also a famous pub. So, of course we had to go there. I had an Irish Coffee, the wife had a Guinness. We hung around there for a while, then moved on. Next stop was Quay's Bar, another famous pub. The wife had another Guinness. I'm beginning to think she might actually like them. Ask her about the Guinness Challenge, if you want to hear a fun story.

After that, I was ready for a break. I walked back to the hotel and relaxed for a while. From what I understand, the wife stopped at a few other bars and listened to the musicians on Grafton Street on the way back. 

For dinner that night, we walked to a local restaurant called Juanito's. I'd been wanting fried shrimp, and they had it on the menu. Some sort of Asian-fusion place. Pretty good, actually.

We cut the night pretty short, because we had an early departure the next morning.

Another 6:30 cab ride to a train station... but to Connolly Station this time. You may remember from earlier that our original plan was to go south and west, but Connolly serves trains heading which direction? That's right. North. Our travels today would take us to Belfast, in Northern Ireland - part of the United Kingdom (which means different money).

We got to the station in plenty of time to grab a cup of coffee, and encountered Paddy again! He was going to be our guide to Kilkenny and Waterford, but when that trip had been cancelled, he switched over to this trip instead. On our trip today, we were joined by a family of four, so there were 7 of us total. Paddy pointed out a lot of the sights to us as we rode mostly along the coast.

We pulled into Belfast, and walked down the street from the bus station about a block or so to get to our bus and meet our driver. As we approached the bus, Paddy told us that we'd have a "woman driver," and hoped that we'd be okay with it. It was quite obvious that he was kidding. Evidently, he makes this trip pretty frequently, and knows all of the drivers that take care of that end of the trip. Our driver today was Gabby, and she was quite knowledgeable and personable. At one point, I told Paddy, loud enough for Gabby to hear me, "Paddy, she's not nearly as bad a driver as you told us she was!" We all had a good laugh. The two of them were a fun combination - she did most of the narration during the driving parts, but Paddy kicked in information when he had it as well.

Our first stop was a place called Carnlough Harbor - just a random little seaside town. The only reason that anyone would stop here on purpose is... like a lot of other places in Northern Ireland, Game of Thrones.

There's a scene in Game of Thrones where Arya is planning on leaving Braavos, and encounters an old lady on a bridge. The old lady turns out to be the blonde bully, and stabs Arya, who jumps into the river. By the magic of movie making, the bridge that she jumped off of was somewhere in Spain, while the staircase she climbs out of the river is in... Carnlough Harbor. The wife took a picture of me standing at the edge of the harbor, on the staircase - you probably saw it on Facebook.

Next stop was a place called the Dark Hedges. There's a random road that was originally built to allow access to some guy's house back in 1775, and he planted 150 beech trees along the sides of the road to create an imposing approach to the house. Some PA on Game of Thrones discovered it, and they decided to use it as a shooting location for the show. They shut down the road for a few months, covered it with dirt and gravel, and shot a single scene - of Arya and Gendry leaving King's Landing on the King's Road. 8 seconds of that shot made it onto the show. Now, it's a big tourist draw for that area.

We stopped for lunch at a place called Fullerton Arms, in the town of Ballintoy. We had given Gabby our lunch orders, so that they could be ready for us when we got there. The other group sat together, so the boss and I sat with Gabby and Paddy. The wife and I had Guinness, Gabby had water, and Paddy had... milk. He explained to the three of us that when he was 14, he decided that he would never drink alcohol. He didn't tell us what had driven him to make that decision, but told us that he was lucky that he had good friends back then, and they'd stick up for him. Interesting facet of his personality that wouldn't come up in normal circumstances. Gabby had known him for a while, and she'd never heard that from him. 

The pub had a room devoted to Game of Thrones, with siguls for each of the houses hung on the walls, and a mockup of the Iron Throne. Little cheesy, but the wife made me sit in it for a picture. Seriously, I was already in the bus, and she sent Paddy out to get me and bring me back in.

After lunch, we headed over to the Giant's Causeway. I'm sure you've seen pictures of it before, but it's really bizarre looking in person. Evidently, lava was extruded through layers of chalk, and formed generally hexagonal columns, which then cooled over time, separating into (what are legitimately called) "biscuits." The stones are a little over a foot across, with the erosion putting them all at levels pretty close to each other. There were only a couple of sections with big differences in height - most of the time, the tops of the columns were within about a foot or two of the ones around it. Almost surreal to look at - very impressive. We walked the half mile or so down, and rode back up to the parking lot on a shuttle bus.

We had one more quick stop to make... Dunluce Castle. It's just ruins at this point, and we couldn't approach it - only could take pics from the road, but it's quite picturesque, and looks off the north side into the Atlantic.

On the way back, Paddy asked Gabby if she could drop us at City Hall. We got out there with Paddy (the other group continued on to the station - they were catching another train to somewhere else). We were a little early for our train, so Paddy wanted to give us a little taste of Belfast. He told us about City Hall, and showed us just a little about the city.

The trip back was uneventful. We said our final goodbye to Paddy and walked back to our hotel, arriving around 8:30 or 9:00.

The next morning, we woke up a little later than the day before, had breakfast in the hotel, and caught a cab back to the airport. The flight was uneventful, and we had a reasonable hour and a half drive to get home.

All in all, I'd call it a success for the wife's <REDACTED> birthday, I'm glad that she got to check an item off of her bucket list, and glad I made the cut to accompany her!

If you have any interest in seeing Dublin, remember - flights are cheap from Frankfurt! One caution though... if you're wanting to see the Book of Kells, you might want to get on it. The Long Room is being closed for renovation, and they've already started taking the books off of the shelves and moving them elsewhere for storage. The Book of Kells will be displayed in another location on the campus, but you won't be able to see the rest of the library once it closes.

As always, let one of us know if you have any questions... ask the boss about the Guinness Challenge, and let us know when you're coming to visit!