We're Home!

Great flight, even the food was better.....already planning for next year...possibly Morocco?

Day 14 - London, England

Final day....we fly out tomorrow. Good weather.

We took the tube and train to Windsor and found out more than we ever wanted to know about royalty and the palace. We had a personal guide, we're not too sure if it was a good value. Oh, but we also got to see the changing of the guard at the Windsor Palace!

We did the usual tea time and evening champagne.....dinner was a big disappointment.

Now we're ready to return to our homes, eat way less, do some exercise, and see the rest of you!

Day 13 - London, England

Started with sunshine but chilly weather...then things turned. Not the weather, but we got stood up for our tour! The major bummer is this is the only day we could have seen the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace (they only do this on even numbered days in September) and we missed that because we were going on the tour. So now what do we do? Shop!

We learned how to manage the Tube and buses....people are so helpful and pleasant here.

We did make it back to the hotel in time for tea, which is just so civilized, with our cottled cream, scones, and whiskey.

Got a great recommendation for dinner and had a fabulous meal. The entertainment was the two older Japanese gentlemen at the table next to us wearing wedding rings and dining with their two young "nieces".

Off to Windsor!

Day 12 - London, England

Okay, now you know how we hate to complain, but the weather took another turn to the cold side! One of the locals said "we have all four seasons in one day"! So out came the sweaters again and the socks. We did leave the umbrellas in our rooms, but it did sprinkle today.

We did the hop on/hop off bus tour through the city and saw all the big things.....Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Tower of London, Parliment, and a river cruise. Boy, are we tired.

We had tea with scones and cottled cream and whiskey again....took a nap/read again....and regrouped at 7 for champagne and little bites to eat....then off to dinner where we talked to a couple and may have a scenario for next year.

Tomorow we tackle the Tube!

Street vendor that Edie bought a stamp for crafting, the others were kind but were really not that interested in looking at every one of his many stamps, go figure. Odd thing, Sabrina has not purchased a thing....yet.

Picadilly

Guard at Buckingham Palace

Michael and Sabrina in front of the gate at Buckingham Palace

Big Ben

Tower Bridge

There is so much to do and so little time so we're using cabs sometimes. They are quite reasonable, very clean, and the drivers are so professional.

Day 11 - London, England

Okay, you are not going to believe this, especially after the wettest week in Ireland history, but it is so hot here! First, everybody is wearing shorts and tank tops and the men are walking around with no shirts!

We checked in to our most favorite hotel, ever. This place is so cute....a boutique style hotel located in Kensington. Good beds, turn down service with chocolates (unheard of in most of our travels). We took off to find Harrod's, took a wrong turn and went out of our way by 2 miles (in the heat....did we tell you how hot it is here?), back tracked, found Harrod's, we were covered in sweat (we did tell you it was hot, right?), used the bathroom, figured out we can't afford anything (although Sabrina did look at a couple of MOTB dresses but Megan still hasn't picked out her colors), and then decided to go back to our hotel (we did tell you we love our hotel, right?) via taxi because the girls had headaches from heat stroke (because you know it is really hot here).

Came back to the hotel and had afternoon tea, showered and took a nap/read and then met at 7 for champagne to discuss our dinner plans. We ended up dining at this really cute restaurant just past the Ferrari and Maserati dealership. Edie didn't eat because she had a horrible headache from the heat (it was at least 85 degrees, but we are not wimps because we did just arrive from the wettest week in Ireland history).

Our first stop...Harrod's

The girls can't take the heat

Complimentary Afternoon tea, scones, cottled cream (which we all adore) and whiskey

Complimentary Evening champagne and canapes (salmon, capers, cream cheese on rye crackers)

Day 10 - Dublin, Ireland

After a good night of sleep we were so pleased to wake up to partly cloudy skies. It just was a bummer to spend all the days in the country and not be able to hike around and enjoy the beautiful scenery because it was pouring down rain with gale force winds. But with the new day and sun we rebounded nicely and adjusted our attitudes and decided to walk all day.

This being Monday, the museums were closed, so we decided to take advantage of the great weather and walk around and perhaps find Dave a replacement double D black leather belt. No luck but he did find a shirt. We then heard about the street market, but it ended up being produce, flowers, and meats.

We toured around on the double decker buses with live commentary. The Irish are witty and love to spin a yarn. We heard many versions of the same story. The Irish are also a fiercely independent people that are still battling to maintain some independence.

We ate a fabulous dinner at Marco Pierre White, he is the chef that made Gordon Ramsey, Hell's Kitchen chef, cry.

YEAH! A sunny day!

Paddy, a true Irish man....he sold us tickets which was like a whole comedy show and he made sure we got on the correct bus.

We spent the day on the "hop on hop off" city tour bus. Very entertaining.

We've been seeing people with Penneys bag on our entire trip so we went in to take a peek. Not sure how to describe it. The quality is like Banana Republic but at Target prices, or Ireland's H&M. Dave bought a shirt for 3 Euro.

You wouldn't see "oriental" in the States

This is what we found in the street market. What you can't see is the fly!

They don't change diapers, they change their "nappy"

This is another Irish cathedral

A walk around Christ Church looking for Carolyn's fish and chips joint which was not to be found anywhere so we ate at O'Neill's. They had a black light in the ladie's toilet! And then the guys told us they had a black light in the men's toilet at Burger King (no we didn't eat there, just used the facilities). We're dying to know why they have a black light in the toilet. On second thought, maybe we don't want to know. We continue to find clean toilets readily available.

R & M Treated us to Starbuck's with the international card.

Michael ran a 10k on the treadmill while the rest of us napped/read.

Here's one more look at a sunny day.

This is how we end our day....the guys have an Irish coffee, the girls drink tea and blog...the guys do some dictation and we type.

Day 9 - Dublin, Ireland

Our dinner restaurant

Grafton Street for a wee bit of shopping. Please note that there are no umbrellas! The sun actually came out for a few moments.

Today is not a blog worthy day. We drove in the pouring rain for four hours to Dublin. We ran in to a 45 minute traffic delay on the freeway due to a Rugby match, got honked at twice, and received the international single digit salute once. Had a rough time finding our hotel, but finally stopped for directions at a gas station...we started with asking an Asian woman who worked at the station for directions but she referred us to an Asian guy who got confused and then enlisted the aid of an Irish man to tell us how to get to our hotel....Real Men do ask for directions.

Our hotel is like the Winchester Mystery House. You have to walk through the bar/restaurant and go to floor two, then go down a flight of stairs to get to room 400 & 401 which are located in the "attic". But it is a really good location to things.

We're getting a little tired of pub food so we found an Italian restaurant with Irish flair??? It was probably the best meal we've had so far.

Early to bed for the seniors.....

Day 8 - Killarney, Ireland

Today is a good value day because we did a self guided tour of the Dingle Peninsula in the car with Edie reading from the Rick Steves' guidebook, Michael driving, Dave navigating, and Sabrina hollering at Michael to stay on the correct side of the road. It was a joint effort.

The Dingle Peninsula is a little like driving Highway 1 north of Stinson Beach....but wetter! And Edie had to Google "dingleberry" because the others would not tell her what it meant.
It was not rainy but a bit windy! We laughed that the Irish needed a sign with instructions on what to do if the sun shines! Can you tell that Sabrina's hair is blowing straight back?

Beautiful Coast

Cute dog...and really smart too! We watched two guys try to get their sheep out of the trailer and in to a field. Not too successful until they gave verbal commands to the dogs and they herded them in to the proper direction. The guys grabbed the sheep by their horns and helped to direct them in to the proper field. We didn't have time to take photos because it happened really fast.

The "upside down bridge", it has never had a real bridge over this road and it is really a ford.

This marks the western most point of Europe.

Our favorite pub, Murphy's

Tomorrow we leave for Dublin, where there's a huge rugby match being played, so this should be interesting. The drive should take about 4 hours and there really isn't a great place to stop but we're sure we'll find something. We had talked about going via the Waterford Crystal factory but thanks to Andy we found out it is closed. It seems that Americans are no longer purchasing this style of crystal and the unions didn't give any concessions, so it shut down.

Right now we're going back to the earlier posts to respond to all the great comments from our friends and family.

Day 7 - Killarney, Ireland

This posting is going to be a little different than our usual because today was a bit unusual for us...today was all about "good value".

Ring of Kerry crossroads

Sheep with branding.....red dye. And yes it does spoil the wool, but it seems the price of wool in Ireland is pretty much worthless....thanks to New Zealand where they seem to produce better wool at a lower cost.

Pigs in a blanket?

Our dinner for tonight?

Michael and Sabrina in front of their retirement home...one bedroom no bath!

The backyard of Muckross Manor

The sunken rose garden at Muckross Manor

Dave and Edie's retirement home! aka Muckross Manor.

Ross tower house

Today was devoted to culture, enrichment, and learning about the history of Ireland. We began at Ross tower house. This is a style of home built for defensive purposes with rooms built on top of each other and a teeny tiny spiral staircase. There were about 3,500 of these built all over Ireland. But mostly we were totally grossed out (or impressed, depending on who you talk to) about the dry cleaning of their clothes. It seems that about on the 3rd level of the tower they had a ledge that they sat on (three wide) to do their business. The waste dropped down on the ground and accumulated and decayed releasing ammonia which rose up. They would then hang their clothes on a peg at about the 2nd floor level so that when the wind kicked in it would sweep the ammonia up and it would disinfect the vermin hidden in the seams of their clothes. Not to worry about the odor because everyone smelled the same!

We learned that this season has been so wet, they're at winter water levels and rainfall is measured by the hour!

Then we were off to Muckross Manor where we took a tour of the place once owned by the Californians who owned Filoli Gardens in Woodside! The house was furnished with the original period furniture. The kitchen tour had a cute low height sink that a five year old servant would wash dishes because that's the age they started working. Michael and Sabrina said they could not see J-Money washing dishes, maybe on guard duty with a sword.

We continued to be pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness of the toilets here.

Now off to the Farm. This is a "working farm" where people are dressed in period costumes, using tools of the times and a sampling of the various size farms. There were many animals...horses, chickens (that attacked Sabrina for food), cows, sheep, kittens, Irish Wolfhound dogs and the cutest family of pigs. We ate homemade bread with hand churned butter and jam, and watched a blacksmith make a spoon.

We were at these places all day for less than 45 Euro total.....we discovered that the guys could qualify for a senior discount! And our lunch was less than 20 Euro total! So not only are they cute, but they're cheap!

We ended our day with Michael driving us down part of the Ring of Kerry. This is a very twisty narrow drive with tour buses coming at you and weaving around cyclists. He did a great job with Dave navigating and Sabrina reminding him to stay on the correct side of the road.

Now we're in the pub blogging and drinking Irish coffees...what a life!

Day 6 - Killarney, Ireland

Editor's Note - All postings are a collaborative effort of all four members of Team Red.

The men took their "P___ses" and departed Ennis around 9:30 and hit the road to Killarney. We made two stops, one in Adare and another in Tralee. The rain actually subsided for a while and we barely knew what that big yellow thing in the sky was!

Adare is said to be the cutest town in Ireland. They have cute thatched roof houses and an old Abbey that is now used as the local Catholic church. We missed confession time.

Dave and Edie in Adare.

Edie and Michael in Adare.

The Abbey in Adare.

We read about the country market in our Rick Steves' book and inquired at the Tourist center. Boy were Edie and Michael excited when they heard it was home baked goods market day. So we scurried over since it was close to the opening time. We were a little perplexed as we approached a bus station and figured it had to be right behind the building. As we rounded the corner we saw a long line of elderly people holding sacks standing outside of this door. It actually looked like a food line. Then the door opened and they started pushing their way in. After Sabrina almost pee'd her pants laughing, we entered the building after them. We were not prepared for the site! There were tables full of eggs, produce, and baked goods. We later found out the wives of the farmers bring all this stuff in to sell at this market once a week. Well, those old people were moving around the rows of tables grabbing and stuffing things in the little baskets they handed out as you entered. Dave and Sabrina stood back laughing as Michael and Edie clawed their way through to grab some lemon bars (which ended up being dry with the frosting sticking to the top of the plastic wrap....and Michael had to buy a coffee and water to wash them down) and cookies shoved with raisins. And we were lucky to get that!

The tail end of the stampede of Irish shoppers, with an average age of 85. Don't be misled, they are vicious shoppers.

We then continued on to Killarney and found our hotel, The Best Western International Hotel which is centrally located right smack in the middle of things. We may be experiencing bad hair days because the blow dryers are the kind that look like a vacuum and already Sabrina is copping an attitude about the whole thing.

We had dinner at our new favorite place, pubs. This took us a couple of meals to appreciate because we're walking in to a bar and having a full family meal. The food is simple, hardy, tasty, and reasonably priced. Tonight we had poached salmon, shepherd's pie, and Irish stew with fries and washed down with Guinness and wine (and water). Then for dessert we had chocolate fudge cake with ice cream and apple pie with cream.

Now we're blogging and deciding if we'll have a spot of tea.

The comment competition is at a tie, so get busy people!

Good night from Killarney!

Day 5 - Ennis, Ireland

This morning we had breakfast "with" Mike Holmgren. He appears to be traveling with a tour group and is looking good, at least much thinner than last season. That was the best part of our breakfast....we just weren't feeling it...but we ate anyway. We still like our hotel, the Old Ground. The furniture might be older than the grounds. Plus there are lots of old people, like us.

Then we jumped in to our mighty chariot, finally getting in to the correct side...we're still not used to the opposite driving system here. What should have been a half hour trip, Dave took us on the scenic route which took us 3 hours. But we did see a whole lot of the Irish country side. Edie and Sabrina did take a little nap. All the while it was pouring down rain.

We arrived at our destination, the Cliffs of Moher. We're pretty sure this is an awesome place, but viewed through torrential downpour and fog, with soggy feet and pants, it loses some of the awesomeness. But the most amazing thing was the visitor's center! We had our best lunch there....delicious homemade pureed vegetable soup and homemade brown bread.

Then we toured through the Burren. Michael got a close up experience and wanted to test the water.

We came back and had an authentic fish and chips dinner at the pub with a Guinness, Sabrina had water.

Tomorrow we're off to the Best Western in Killarney!

If you look real close you can see Michael Neu's head sticking up as he climbed down to pee in the Galway Sea.

Michael walking along the Burren on his way to the sea to pee. The Burren is limestone area that was once the sea.

Michael, Sabrina, and Dave huddled under the Irish liquid sunshine over looking the Cliffs of Moher.

The Cliffs of Moher.