Braveheart

Yes, William Wallace was Scottish, however the movie was filmed, at least in part, in the Wicklow hills of Ireland, where I was this afternoon. Actually it is the middle of the night so it was yesterday when I was in Dublin and the surrounding area. I succumbed to exhaustion last night, ate an early dinner at the buffet and was in bed at 7:30PM and I'm sure well asleep by 7:31PM! So now I'm somewhat rested, but it is still the middle of the night. Ahhh, the down side of being on the other side of the world. But the upside far outweighs my trouble with the times!

Dublin was a nice city, Diana, Alec and I went into town this morning and since it was a Sunday, not much was open so we took the hop on/off bus and saw an overview of the city. So many famous people from Ireland! Even Bram Stoker went to college here at the famous Trinity College. The famous Book of Kells is there, but I was told that it is currently not on show so we didn't visit there. Another trip another time! We saw the grave of Lord Weston, the man who invented the crossword puzzle. The driver did a great tour, filled with Irish humor. Quite enjoyable!

Then I took the shuttle back to the ship for my afternoon tour and they stayed and enjoyed the city. I was on a tour to the Irish countryside and Glendalough. It means the 'valley of 2 lakes'. The drive was beautiful, green hillsides and spots of cattle and sheep roaming. Just like you might picture Ireland! I became bored with all the history of the monks in Ireland so I left the tour as they roamed through the remains of Glendalough and I talked with local people at the stands of 'wares'. Met an interesting couple who told me about the real story of what is going on with religion in Ireland. I had hoped to learn more about the Celtic background, but that wasn't mentioned at all on the tour. I walked through the ruins of the ancient monastery of St. Kevin and did find it fascinating. There were two stone archways and right inside the 2nd one was a large stone with a cross carved on it, and if someone looking for safely reached that rock they were safe from the outside world, as long as they lived and worked inside the monastery. That is mentioned in a lot of historical books, so it was moving to stand by that stone, knowing the history. I don't usually buy jewelry, but loved a pair of earrings, with the Celtic symbol for the seasons on them, so they are now mine.

Tomorrow will be exciting because my friend Peter will be picking up Diana, Alec and I from the ship when we dock in Liverpool and taking us on our own private tour! We will be heading to Wales and to the charming English town of Chester. So more beauty and fun awaits! There is even a 'Walk in the Steps of the Beatles' tour here and you can actually take a 'Ferry cross the Mersie'! It is supposed to be a beautiful place, developed in the Victorian era. And so, the journey continues!

Moby Dick??

Moby Dick? What in the world does that mean? Well, my day in Ireland started in the town of Youghal, pronounced yo'll, with a long 'o'. And it just so happens that Moby Dick was filmed there in 1954, I have pictures to show to prove that! So now on the 'have to see' movie list for the end of this trip, is now Moby Dick, along with My Fair Lady. Those are extremes!

Ireland is beautiful! So green everywhere you look! After a little rain at Youghal and some time to browse through the town, we drove through the countryside, through several little towns that were beautiful! We drove by where Sir Walter Raleigh lived, the town where William Penn came from and the town where the namesake of Berkely University came from. And that is just the people I remember! We ate lunch at a hotel in Cork, having some Irish music and dance to entertain us. It was not my favorite meal, although I will say the salads I've had in each place have been delicious. But the stew was not my favorite meal, by far.

Next we drove to Blarney castle. I have to admit that I did not kiss the Blarney stone, the climb up might have been okay, but lying on my back on metal rails to scoot out and kiss the stone upside down just didn't sound like anything I could do and walk afterwards. Our cute Irish bus driver told us that if we couldn't get up to the top of the castle to do that, we could kiss him and be gifted with eloquence by proxy, I think he was surprised when I decided to do this instead! What a fun man, told me we could go out dancing if I were staying the night, I know I would have laughed a lot with him. I think of what a fellow teacher said on her blog, "Disneyland is not the happiest place on earth, Ireland is" and I believe that is true. However I asked a store clerk why the town was so quiet this morning and she said that it was a Saturday morning in Ireland, NO ONE got up unless they had to go to work! What a lot I've learned!

Shopping at the Blarney Woolen Mills was a delight, so many beautiful things to look at! And I was lucky enough to meet a children's author and got a book autographed by him! What a nice man and he seemed full of Blarney too!

Tomorrow is another day in Ireland, Dublin this time. A year and a half ago the internet didn't work in Dublin so I think this may be the last entry for a couple of days. On Monday we will be in Liverpool and Peter will be meeting Diana, Alec and me at the ship for a fun day of sightseeing with friends. Not sure which places we will go, but wherever will be fun!

Moby Dick...

Greetings from Guernsey!

Finally, today I feel human! After 11 hours of sleep, I arose to look out on the beautiful island of Guernsey. I was going ashore with Alec and Diana but woke up at some point and told them to go without me, I still needed more sleep. I'm glad I made that decision so I could enjoy the island when I did go ashore. So once again, I headed to shore alone. We had to tender in, which means a wait until it is time for your ticket to be called. I have been a little spoiled in the past, when on César's ship he always let me go on the tender when I wanted, it pays to have friends in high places. Now I have to wait my turn just like the other 3,000 passengers. Once ashore I didn't want to just walk around the little town, I wanted to see the island. I'd read the "Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" and wanted to see where the characters lived. I waited at the taxi stand and finally a man came up and I was able to take a taxi ride around the island for about an hour and a half for 30 pounds. Les, my driver, was from Manchester, lived here for 26 years and moved to France 2 years ago but comes back every year to see his son and drives a taxi for his friend. He hadn't read or heard of the story so didn't know where to take me to see that part of the village, but what a delightful ride it was and what a kind man. He fought in the Falkland war and is quite happy to not go near either of the Americas again. His parents live in Warrington, Terry and Peter, it is a small world! He took me to the first mail box in guernsey, one of the scenic places here, which tells you about the island I think. We went to the home where Victor Hugo lived when he was exiled and where he wrote "Les Miserables". There was no time to take a tour of the home, but on peeking in the door, it was amazing inside, things were so old! I did go out in his garden and tried to imagine a famous writer sitting there creating, what a lovely place it was, although small and green, quite unlike Monet's garden in Giverny. We went up to the top of the cliffs to look down at the area where Renoir painted, but we were met with thick fog, so that sight will remain a mystery to me. We drove to the other side of the island and there was a group of kidsat the Guernsey Surf School, waiting for the tide to come in. This is a charming place and one to put on the list of places to return to! I even saw a Guernsey cow along the way. There is a little chapel, which is quite small and made of broken plates and other pottery, built by a monk. My thought, they must have been clumsy to have broken that many things to be able to build a miniature chapel with pieces. After the wonderful taxi ride I walked through the main part of town. I was in a little store and asked the lady if she had bookmarks, and a young man said he'd seen them at another store so he walked through the town with me to find the store. He saved me a lot of work by taking me there. What a nice young man, he was from Canada visiting a friend who lives here. I stopped at a market in town after buying the bookmarks and got a little snack. I asked the server what he recommended and he suggested potato wedges with bacon and Guernsey chedder cheese. How could I resist? Bacon here is not like bacon in America, it is more like what we call Canadian bacon, and it was delicious! And that, my friends, was a day in Guernsey, the 2nd largest of the Channel Islands, occupied by over 90,000 german troops in the 2nd world war. The sun shone the whole day with just areas of fog in places, which is quite normal I was told. And in about an hour we sail away to Cork, Ireland, where I will have a tour for the entire day around the area, including the Blarney castle, where the Blarney stone is.

Small world, last night in the elevator going to dinner there was a young boy and it turned out he is from Aurora! The first person on the ship I talk to, all the way in England and he is from my home. Amazing! Having dinner with Diana and Alec and other table mates was quite an enjoyable experience. I am going to love having friends to share this adventure with!

My day in London was a delight. I saw the concierge who I have known since my first trip here, so that was a nice welcome, what a kind man he is! I took the tube all alone to Covent Garden and walked around the area where "My Fair Lady" was filmed. that was exciting for me, one of my favorite movies when I was young. When I arrived in Southampton, Pat and Ernie picked me up from the terminal and we went out and had a nice lunch, and Diana and Alec joined us when they got to town. We were all on the Antarctica cruise together, so it was a nice reunion! We missed Terry and Peter though.

Well, time to nap. Tomorrow, Cork, Ireland.

On the Road,oops, SEA Again!

True, I'm on the sea again, this time I have sailed away from Southampton, and this time in the company of friends! Diana and Alec have joined me for this exciting British Isles cruise and the fun has begun! However no more time to write now, time for this wimpy American to go to bed! Maybe more tomorrow when we arrive in the Channel Islands, Guernsey to be exact. 10 ports in 12 days, not much time to write, but maybe a few things will make it into print. Our last stop is in Le Havre, one of my favorite places, France again! And then I added a short trip to Portugal at the end, and then I return home to become a member of reality again. Until then, more adventures await!

More???

Yes, it's true, more travel is on the way. I start my new job near the end of July and I just needed ONE MORE TRIP before that! Okay, maybe I didn't NEED it, but what fun it will be!

I have booked the wonderful British Isles cruise and will visit many new places and experience many different aspects of the countries. I'm very excited about it. I was lucky enough to get a nonstop flight from Denver to London Heathrow, seems like a piece of cake after the connections I usually have to make! An easy commute to reach the ship! And my friends Alec and Diana, who drove to Dover to meet me and then watched the ship float past without docking, will be joining me on the cruise! Everything fell together so easily, it was just meant to happen!

It's a short trip, this time, only a 12 day cruise, stopping at 10 or 11 ports. I'll spend an extra day in London at each end of the trip and try to see a little more of London that way. Now that I've been on the tram alone in Belgium with only Flemish speaking people, I can probably handle the tube alone!

And so in a little more than a month, I will be heading out on a new adventure! Any suggestions of what to see on this trip?

Ciao for now!

Hasta Luego Europa

Saying goodbye is never easy for me and it seems to get harder, the older I get. How does one say goodbye at the end of an adventure like this? And so instead of goodbye, I decided to use the Spanish term for ¨"until later" with the hopes that it won't be long before I am back in Europe again. Travel, as I have experienced becomes an addiction and before one adventure is over, I am hungry for the next! But for now, this is it, no future plans have developed and so leaving is a little harder I think!

But what a wonderful stay I had in Copenhagen, made so by the kind young man I met exactly 2 years ago on this same trip when it ended here. Travelling alone does have it's challenges, but as one absolutely beautiful lady told me the last night, so does spending 30 days with one's spouse! It was cute, and her much older husband looked on in disbelief as she went on and on about the challenges of being in such close quarters with anyone, no matter how much you love them. But the joys of both situations on a trip like this definitely outweigh the challenges.


I was in no hurry to get off the ship when it arrived and that in itself was a nice change. The busses began leaving for the airport at 5:30 AM I heard. I had a nice leisurely breakfast and disembarked about 8AM, knowing that Tue wouldn't be at the hotel to greet me until after 8. When I walked in he smiled and welcomed me and it was so comfortable. The lobby was lovely and I was immediately happy to see the hotel had elevators, my suitcases weigh a lot, and I know some hotels don't have lifts and what a long walk up that would have been! He checked me into my lovely room and I realized I was exhausted so I crawled into the comfy bed to rest and found it was wonderfully comfortable, just as was the bed in Rome! Tue had explained I had free pay tv, but there was no way to block the adult tv. So cute, I assured him I was an adult and could handle it! Later I told him that it was a good thing I had the 'adult' tv because most of the stations were in Danish but those I could understand. He laughed at that. Actually it was similar to Portugal in that some of the shows are in English and subtitled in Danish which makes it fun to try to learn some of the words as you watch.

The day was cold and rainy and so plans to visit the Tivoli Gardens were traded for a trip around the city in the hop on-off bus. I've seen a lot of it before, so I decided to rest again for the afternoon. I went into the store next to the hotel and they were unable to use my visa so I went back to the hotel and told Tue my dilemma, I didn't have any Danish kroner. He managed to give me some and put it on my room charge and was so sweet. He told me that was why he wanted me staying at his hotel so that he could take care of me and help me with any thing I needed! How sweet of him and how nice it felt to be taken care of! So I went back and purchased the dog magazine in Danish. I have bought something in every country in that language to share with the kids at my new school. Tue's girlfriend met us at the hotel and we had an incredible dinner and sat and chatted for almost 3 hrs. The food was excellent and he was happy to take me to dinner although I fought that the whole time! The creme brulee was the best I've ever tasted anywhere! Copenhagen is quite expensive so at least he got the half price discount for being a supervisor there. They are a delightful couple and so young to have accomplished so much!

While I was in the lobby I was listening to a group of people talking and told them I wasn't eavesdropping, but just loved hearing their accents! They asked if I knew where it was from and of course I did recognize their Irish accents. They started talking to me and one lady was amazed that I travelled alone and loved my stories. They were the historical society of Ireland and are here on a short trip. They had a reception at the embassy there. They meet and travel once a year to different places. We had a delightful conversation and they left for Tivoli Gardens. This morning the main lady I talked to, insisted I get her address and phone number so I could call her when I make it to Dublin. I told her I show up when people invite me so be sure about that. She said she loved my stories and the way I travel and would love to have me as a guest at her 14 bedroom home in the countryside of Ireland. And I had just been thinking I was returning home with no new friends to keep in touch with. And now I have Therese of Ireland. Tue laughed that I'd made a new friend in such a short time in the lobby of his hotel. One never knows what will happen on an adventure!

And after a great night's sleep and a deicious breakfast, who can top having a danish in Denmark, I said a fond farewell to my dear friend of 2 years and he helped me to the taxi with all of my things and here I am at the Copenhagen airport waiting for my flight home. It is a long journey ahead and I know that I will arrive home safely with many memories and over 1,000 new pictures to support them.

And so, once again, hasta luego Europa!

Safe Journey Ahead

And so, the trip is almost over. Hard to believe that 17 days has passed and I've once again seen such amazing places around the world. Such mixed feelings, sad that it is over and glad to be headed home once again. Everyone is hoping for a safe journey and I can remember the fear I experienced 2 years ago at the end of this cruise when I was facing my first transatlantic flight. Now I know I will be safe and only dread the airport hassles, which are just a part of flying these days. I remember the fear I experienced when I was left all alone at the big white tent near the airport, when the kind kid, Tue, stuck his head in and offered to help me. Now he will be at the hotel to greet me tomorrow when I arrive there. This will be the first time I stay at a small hotel, but he promised I would like it and he would give me a very nice room. We will be going to dinner tomorrow night and he will have some suggestions for my day of sightseeing when I get there. This is the first time I've taken a taxi at the end of the cruise, but I am confident that all will go well and I will arrive at the hotel with no problems. The next morning I will head to the airport and the long flight home, but at least will be rested and ready. And then late on Sunday night I will be home, back to reality.

Today was a wonderful last day! We were told it would be the coldest port but to everyone's surprise and pleasure, it was a warm, bright sunny Norwegian day. I loved the ride into the countryside and enjoyed the beautiful setting of Hadeland Glass Factory once again. The Viking Ship Museum is amazing, even after having visited there several times. So much history here, so much beauty! The 'royal' yacht was in the water, near our ship but we had no sighting of the royal family. A beautiful day in Oslo is over once again.

And home sweet home is waiting!