The Voyage Never Ends

Andorra

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 21:39:00 +0000

I'm doing a very bad job of keeping up with our blog posts.

On Friday, October 10:
From Bilbao, we drove to the small principality of Andorra, which is governed by co-princes -- one from Spain, the other from France. It was a 6 1/2 hour drive, largely in the rain with a LOT of tolls. We did get to drive a bit through the French countryside on a very narrow, winding road. Scott would have loved to have had his Lotus on those turns. Fortunately, we had a break from the rain during that stretch of the trip.

Andorra is beautiful. We both think it looked a lot like the Argyle Forest in Scotland on the drive in -- steep mountains, Scot pines, and a few trickling waterfalls and brooks. There were a number of cows on the sides of the mountains, some right along the roadside. I think it's the first time I've seen cows actually wearing cowbells.

Once we were amidst the small towns sprinkled along the mountainside, it was typical ski-towns with buildings made of stone and timber. It's all very pretty!

We're staying in the very small town of Erts, which is in the northwest part of Andorra -- very near the Spain and France borders. The capital (Andorra la Vella) is a big shopping mecca. We did lots of walking and looking but no shopping. Most of it was brands we could get back home and wasn't worth the exchange rate or lugging it back in our bags. It's tough to compare prices with those at home since I don't shop a lot, but they were supposedly discounted and I believe tax free.

We left on Sunday -- staying in each city/town on our trip just 2 nights -- and exited through Spain to Barcelona. That drive was pretty as well although not as dramatic as the one to Andorra from the French side.

I haven't downloaded photos from this part of our trip yet, but will update the posts with photos at some point.

Today, we arrived in Seville -- after Barcelona, so I have at least 2 more posts to complete before we return home.

Bilbao

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 18:36:00 +0000

It rained much of our drive from Madrid to Bilbao yesterday and was still drizzling when we went out to explore last night. But today was very nice -- mostly sunny and highs in the 70s.

The Guggenheim Museum - Bilbao

We slept in late and went to the Guggenheim Museum. The entire 2nd floor and one exhibit on the 1st floor were closed as they prepared for new installations, so tickets were discounted. The famous Puppy out front was also covered with scaffolding as they replaced the previous flowers covering the sculpture with pansies.

And, of course, we walked, and walked, and walked as we often do when on vacation -- exploring Bilbao street by street. We stopped in one of the many bars/restaurants along the street for the obligatory tapas (in Basque: pintxos -- pronounced pinchos), a beer and glass of red wine.

Then we went to the grocery store for a few drinks and snacks for our drive to Andorra tomorrow. It's a 6 1/2 hour drive. We'll go along the coast of northern Spain through San Sebastian and through France to get there.

We'll begin our nightly quest for dinner soon. It's currently 8:22 p.m. here, and no one eats before 8 -- although some articles say not before 9 or 10 p.m. It seems mighty late to us, but I'm sure we'll get used to it by the time we leave Spain. :-) Here's an interesting article about it from the New York Times earlier this year.

Beginning our vacation in Spain

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 15:30:00 +0000

We arrived in Spain yesterday - taking a direct flight from Atlanta to Madrid. I wasn't able to sleep on the plane at all; the flight seemed to go quickly even though it was approximately 8 1/2 hours. So, we spent much of our 1st day in Spain napping.

We did go out and walk around a bit, grabbed a quick snack and drink at Starbucks to take advantage of the free wifi. Then had dinner at an Italian restaurant just down the street from our hotel. It was just what we needed -- simple and casual. Neither of us felt like dressing up or waiting for a table.

Granted we didn't see much of Madrid, but I wasn't overly impressed. Nice, metropolitan city, but nothing really stuck out about it.

Today, we took a taxi to the Hertz rental car location nearest our hotel and drove to Bilbao. With traffic, it was almost a 4 hour trip. That's almost 2 hours shorter than the train because the train makes so many stops along the route from Madrid to Bilbao. That was the biggest factor in our deciding to rent a car.

It rained on us a good bit of the way. Most of interior Spain was dry, brown and dotted with rocky mountains. It reminded me of New Mexico. The closer we got to Bilbao, the greener it got -- more like the Argyle forest of Scotland.

We haven't ventured out to explore Bilbao yet. Scott's resting after the drive and I'm catching upon email, online news, etc.

Hopefully we'll have photos to post tomorrow.

Mount St. Helens & Mount Rainier

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 04:38:00 +0000

A stop along the drive

From Portland, we drove out to Mount St. Helens. It was a 2 1/2 - 3 hour drive because we chose to go all the way out to the Johnston Ridge Observatory. There were other visitors centers that were closer to Portland and closer to our final destination (Packwood, Washington), but we couldn't resist the view Johnston Ridge offered.

For those who do not know: At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted and blew down or scorched 230 square miles of forest.

At the observatory / visitor's center where you can start you hikes

We didn't hike much around Mount St. Helens. We just went up the trail a bit to a higher view point - taking photos of some of the wildflowers along the way. We watched the 15-minute movie and meandered through the exhibitions.

After a couple of hours, we started our drive to Packwood, Washington where we were staying for our visit to Mount Rainier. It was another 3-hour drive to get there. As a crow flies, it's less than 60 miles away, but because of all the mountain ridges and rivers / streams, we had to drive almost twice that. There is a shorter driving route that takes the exact same length of time because of the winding roads -- all "forest roads." We had hoped to take that scenic route, but it was closed.

Packwood is a tiny town -- with 2 gas stations, 2 coffee huts, a grocery store and a few restaurants to accommodate the "tourists" but not much else. After checking into our motel, we went to the local pizza place. It was pretty good. After dinner, we went to the grocery story to get some drinks and snacks for the room, our drive and our hikes.

The motel was really nice. The Mount Rainier area was the only place we had a hard time finding a vacancy since we were booking so close to our actual trip. So, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the room. The complimentary breakfast was okay. The eggs and sausage were blah and the sausage gravy was pretty horrible. But they had a make-your-own waffle station, so that made up for it!

Mount Rainier - near Myrtle Falls

After breakfast, I had a quick work conference call. I was surprised to have such clear phone service because we didn't have service in most of the areas around Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier. It certainly teaches you not to rely solely on technology (i.e. Google Maps on my phone), but we were prepared.

We got to the main visitor center and trailhead at Mount Rainier via a lovely drive through the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. We stopped at a number of scenic viewpoints along the way and then opted to hike some of the "easy" trails around the Paradise area. Perhaps I'm out of shape, the altitude was getting to me or we accidentally ventured onto some more strenuous trails...or all three, but the hike certainly got the better of me. The mountain ascends to 14,410 feet above sea level; our hike started at about 5,500 feet and seemed to be straight up.

The mountain was beautiful though along with the waterfalls, patches of snow and newly bloomed wildflowers. And it was a nice warm, sunny day although it started out a bit breezy. It definitely paid off to dress in layers. Despite putting on sunscreen, Scott and I both ended up with slight sunburns on our face and necks. Fortunately, it wasn't too bad.

After hiking for a few hours, we hopped back in the car, drove west through the remainder of the national park and forest area. It was another 3-hour drive to our hotel in downtown Seattle. We arrived at rush hour, but it wasn't too bad, especially since we could use the HOV lanes once we got close to Seattle.

I'll post soon about our time in Seattle -- perhaps tomorrow evening.

Two Days In Portland

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 05:27:00 +0000

For this year's vacation, we're largely staying in the U.S. -- gasp! We figured it was about time to see more of our own country, and with our varied schedules, we weren't able to find a time frame when our calendars aligned until less than 2 weeks ahead of time. So, planning for a mainly U.S. vacation made the most sense. Our journey started in Portland, then takes us through Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier before heading on to Seattle. From there, we spend the weekend in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (not to be confused with Vancouver, Washington). And finally, we spend a few secluded days on Orcas Island in Washington before taking a red-eye back to Atlanta.

So, here's a summary of our time in Portland:

Day 1 -- Our 5-hour flight landed in Portland around 3 or 3:30 p.m. We picked up our rental car and drove to our hotel in the city center. After getting settled into our hotel, we walked just across the street to the river walk. We had an early dinner at Little River Cafe. Scott had a burger with blue cheese and caramelized onions. I had a burger with brie and apples. We ate outside looking over the river with a beautiful view of Mount St. Helens [correction: Mount Hood] in the distance. It was a gorgeous, sunny, warm day. Very little humidity and a high in the upper 70s.

Believe this was Peaches and Cream

The food gave us a bit of fuel, and feeling more energized than we expected after a long day of traveling, we explored the walking path along the river and ended up at the Oregon Brewers Festival, which we hadn't planned on attending until the next day.The Festival is an annual event (the last weekend of July each year), and it was only by coincidence that our trip coincided with the festival days. There were more than 80 different craft beers from around the country. Purchase a glass ($7) and you could buy a full glass ($4) or sample ($1) from the ginormous selection. The festival area was huge! And there were tons of people there! I'd love to see the attendance numbers. It was crazy...almost overwhelming. I wish we had taken a picture of the crowds, but we were too busy trying to get in the right lines. Over the 4 days of the festival, they had more than 80,000 people from around the world. I'm not sure how they were counting. If it was just by the # of bracelets they gave out, there are likely some doubling up going on because of people like us who got a bracelet on Saturday and another on Sunday. There was no price for admission, and they just gave you a bracelet to make it easier for the beer pourers to know your ID had been checked.

After trying a few beers, we walked back to the hotel and vegged.

Day 2 -- We were up early (still on Eastern time). It was a very overcast and chilly morning. We had a great late breakfast at Mother's Bistro & Bar. The wait time was about 40 minutes. From what I understand, that's pretty standard at this popular place -- especially brunch time on a Sunday. Fortunately, they take your cell phone number and text you when your table is ready, so you can walk around if you'd like rather than idling around in the crowded waiting area or outside.

So, we did opt to walk around a bit while we waited, which is a good thing, because after all that we consumed we certainly benefited from walking off a few calories first. We started with a large pecan cinnamon roll that we shared. Then, Scott had one of the daily specials -- eggs benedict with a phenomenal homemade hollandaise sauce. I had a pork apple sausage and cheddar cheese scramble. Both came with incredibly delicious roasted potatoes. Yum, yum!

From there, we walked off more of our breakfast and went to the Portland Saturday Market, which takes place on Saturdays and Sundays. It was okay, but not particularly impressive. A lot of booths, but most of the crafts weren't that high quality. We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to amble about.

The sun came out around noon just as we were headed to the Brewers Festival again. There was a MUCH lighter crowd on Sunday. When we first arrived, there weren't ANY lines, and while we only stayed a couple of hours, the lines didn't get very long at all. Really only 2-3 of the most popular choices had any lines.

What we tried over the course of the two days:

Swill by 10 Barrel Brewing Co. - This was voted the favorite at the festival and was ours, too. We didn't taste it until the end of the 2nd day we attended. Otherwise, we might not have even tasted anything else. It was that good, and I'm not a beer drinker.
Traverse Cherry Wheat by 13 Virtues Brewing
Raspberry Wheat by Cascade Brewing
Oddland Spiced Pear Ale by Elysian Brewing Co.
Peaches and Cream Ale by Fearless Brewing Co. - Another of our favorites. Ranked #2 by festival goers. It smelled even better than it tasted.
Grandma's Pecan Brown by The Dudes' Brewing Co. - Scott really liked this one, but I'm not a fan of dark beer anyway, so this one was much too bitter for my taste.
Copperopolis by Lucky Labrador Brew Pub
Portmunder by Old Town Brewing Co.

Voodoo Doughnut sign
(original location)

After the festival, we went to Voodoo Doughnut, which has a bunch of crazy toppings. There was a long line, which is typical, particularly on Sundays. The Anthony Bordaine show "No Reserversations" and a number of other travel and food shows has made it famous. They have opened a couple of other locations in Portland and will open one in Denver later this year. It was worth it for the entertainment value alone. But the doughnuts were yummy, too. We got half a dozen so we could munch on them for a few days and try as many varieties as possible.

After a couple of long days of walking, we chilled for the rest of the day and had a light dinner at Chipotle.

Day 3 - (This morning) After a couple of doughnuts for breakfast, we checked out of our hotel and started early with a walk around the International Rose Test Garden. Probably not the best idea for Scott's allergies, but I enjoyed it. There were lots of roses, of course. They all started to look the same after a while, but there were a few standouts -- in appearance and smell. Photos below. Apologies for the wonky formatting.

Rock n Roll

Chris Evert

By 10 a.m., we were off to our next destination -- Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier. More about that tomorrow.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 18:43:00 +0000

Last night we had a little adventure. As we were preparing for bed, I tried to turn off one of the power switches and apparently flipped a breaker. Instead of just the one main light going out, all power went out including the plugs running the TV, everything (at the time, Scott also thought power was cut out to every room on the floor). It was around 11:15 or 11:20 p.m., and of course, the hotel and restaurant staff leave at 11. After trying to switch the light a few times, Scott went downstairs to see if he could find anyone still around, but they were gone. We tried to dial the emergency contact number for the hotel. When someone answered, Scott started telling her how our power was out only to discover that we had apparently dialed someone’s home phone number. Needless to say, the confused lady was unable to help resolve our dilemma. Eventually, after a bit of looking, Scott found the breaker box outside in the hallway. All was well, but it was an eventful 30 minutes.

Heidelberg Castle in the background.
Our hotel is the yellow building, second from the right.

Today was a relatively mundane day – a nice way to wind down before our return to the U.S. We started with breakfast at our hotel, something light for a change: no eggs or sausage. (I’m so over sausage.) We did have a Berliner (a ball-shaped doughnut – think: an extra-large Munchkin from Dunkin Donuts – with sugar coating and raspberry filling) along with our fruit and cheese…and Scott’s daily yogurt, of course.

After checking out of the hotel and putting our bags in the car, we spent the morning walking Heidelberg again. We bought a couple of trinkets, pretzels and gelato, of course. We probably walked for 2 hours before deciding to leave for Frankfurt. As we were leaving the market square, we saw a couple that had just married and were about to head off in their decorated convertible. A wedding on a Tuesday afternoon seems a bit unusual to me, but we’ve seen brides and grooms several times during the week while we’ve been here.

Side note: We looked into some potentially short sidetrips to fill more of a day, but ultimately decided that we’d just go on to our hotel and prepare for our return flight – mainly repacking our bags in a better manner. It will be interesting to see how much weight the bags have gained during our trip. So far, Scott and I seem to have maintained our weight on the trip, balancing out all the rich food and excessive amounts of German sausage with plenty of walking. I probably shouldn’t get my cholesterol checked any time soon though.

So, off we went to Frankfurt after a little misdirection. I apparently selected the wrong airport in the GPS, but fortunately, it wasn’t far off base. All in all, we tallied more than 1,200 miles by car and approximately 125,000 steps on foot while in Germany. Returning the rental car was pretty easy as was our walk through the airport to the hotel. We opted to return the car tonight so we didn’t have to deal with that in the morning before our flight. We had to return our car to Terminal 2, then took the Skyline train from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 and walked past the long-distance train station to the Hilton we’re staying at. It’s very conveniently located for airport travel, along with a newly opened Hilton Garden and an older Sheraton. The building is called The Squaire, and there are a number of restaurants, shops and at list one business (KPMG) here. The Squaire building looks like a glass boat / space ship. It’s neat to think that if you work at KPMG, you can hop downstairs to take a regional or long-distance train or flight so easily.

Well, that’s enough of my ramblings. We’re off to bed and should land in Atlanta by 3 p.m. Eastern U.S. time on Wednesday. A couple of days of rest, then off to Auburn for the Auburn – Arkansas football game.

Auf wiedersehen!

Rothenburg ob der Tauber & Heidelberg

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:57:00 +0000

It's been a great vacation. Since we last wrote, we've visited two more cities -- Rothenburg ob der Tauber (not to be confused with Rothenberg) and Heidelberg.

A walk around the wall

First, we backtracked to Rothenburg ob der Tauber -- known as the best preserved Medieval town in Germany. You can walk around the city wall -- it's sort of an elevated covered sidewalk; the whole loop takes about an hour and a half, but there are a number of places where you can climb up and down, allowing you to walk only small sections if you want.

Our hotel room

Our hotel (herrnschlösschen) here was probably one of the best of our visit. Each place we've stayed has had some superlative about it (from our perspective anyway) -- best location, best breakfast, etc. Our hotel in Rothenburg definitely wins the prize for best service. Beyond service, the room was very spacious and pretty.

One of the many pretty windows
around town

Rothenburg o. d. Tauber almost verges on Disney-like within its walls; it's so surreal, yet charming. It's definitely worth a visit and we heard good things about the Nightwatchman tour, but we were too tired to participate in that one. In fact, we're quickly fading -- a good sign that it's about time to come home.

The town square
and some "typical" German buildings

The view from our room in Heidelberg
Over Marketplatz

This morning, we drove to Heidelberg. It's less than a two-hour drive from Rothenburg. This hotel (Goldener Falke) wins the prize for best location--although it has some tough competition with our hotel in Boppard and Prague. It's located right on the Marketplatz (the old town square). A public parking garage is close by, and it's practically at the foothill of Heidelberg Castle.

Tomorrow, we'll hang out here until afternoon, then head to Frankfurt. We may find a small town to stop in between; we'll see. We leave Germany Wednesday morning (local time), so we're staying at an airport very close to the hotel.

A Relaxing Day in Boppard

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 19:52:00 +0000

Today was a much needed relaxing day. We stayed in Boppard -- no driving and not too much walking. We slept in a bit, ate breakfast downstairs, then took our time getting ready before heading out to enjoy the wine festival.

We did a little souvenir shopping on the town square, ate crepes, enjoyed a couple of glasses of local wine and watched the bands play -- bands of the more traditional nature, more marching band than contemporary music groups. It was very lively and there were a number of large tourist groups in town today -- including one Japanese group and one English-speaking group that included a number of older Americans.

Then, we took a mid-afternoon nap.

Moon rising over the Rhine.

And woke up to stroll along the Rhine and mill about town some more before buying a bottle of wine, two bratwursts in buns and coming back to our room to watch the evening fireworks.

The market square was incredibly crowded tonight and folks began snagging their spot along the Rhine more than an hour before fireworks were scheduled to start, so we considered ourselves very fortunate to have a prime seat on our balcony.

Couldn't ask for a better seat for the fireworks.

We were directly across from the fireworks on the opposite side of the river. We had our wine and food, a warm blankie and all the conveniences you could ask for. It was a pretty impressive fireworks display. I only captured some of the early fireworks on camera and video. Per usual, they grew in scale and complexity as the show progressed, but I wanted to enjoy the show not be behind the camera lens all night.

So, that was our very relaxing, do-nothing day. Tomorrow, we hit the road again -- backtracking to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Boppard

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:52:00 +0000

We drove to Boppard yesterday. It was a 6-7 hour drive from Prague. We arrived at the hotel around 6 p.m., ate dinner at a restaurant a short walk away and went to bed. As we were getting ready for bed, we discovered we left a small gift we had bought in Prague; we're not sure where we left/lost it, but our best guess is that we sat it down when we were trying to pay/validate the parking garage ticket and failed to pick it up when we walked out to our car. We were incredibly disappointed, but at least it was a very inexpensive gift. There are much more valuable or sentimental things we could have left behind.

The view from our balcony in Boppard

Boppard is a cute little town in the wine country, in the Middle Rhine region. Our room overlooks the Rhine River.

The weather is supposed to be sunny and in the high 50s or low 60s all weekend. That's about what it was today. It was rather chilly out tonight, but comfortable during the day.

Lotus Evora S in Wiesbaden

We drove to Wiesbaden today. It was a rather uneventful trip other than walking and seeing another city. The most exciting thing was probably having our 2nd and 3rd Lotus sighting. Scott saw one on the road in the Czech Republic; I missed that one. Then, there was an orange Lotus Evora S at the Wiesbaden City Fest where they had a bunch of new cars from various manufacturers. That was the only Lotus. Scott talked with the guy that was there and sat in the car. The other Lotus we saw was an older yellow Elise. We passed it going the opposite direction on the way back from Wiesbaden.

There's a wine festival going on this weekend. It started today, so we had a glass of Reisling from one of the local vineyards this evening. We'll stick around Boppard tomorrow for the wine festival as well, no more driving--until Sunday at least when we head to Rothenburg.

Day 3 - Walking (of course) around Prague

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 20:45:00 +0000

St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle

Each day, I think, "Wow, I'm so exhausted, but in a good way." That couldn't be any more true than today. Not only did we walk a lot as usual, but we went to the Prague Castle, which is up a rather steep hill. We didn't walk through much of the castle / palace interiors opting instead to walk through the Royal Gardens, which were very pretty. It sure seemed like a quick walk back compared to the trip there -- ah, the beauty of going down hill. We walked home via the famous Charles Bridge and saw three different couples taking wedding photos.

Scott's semi-dark lager

For lunch, we stopped at a local brewery and restaurant called Il Tri Ruzi (I'm guessing "The Three Roses" based upon the logo). Scott enjoyed their semi-dark lager, and while we enjoyed all the food we ordered, I was particularly impressed with a salad that contained beets and a delicious grilled goat cheese. It was so simple, yet so good.

Other than that, we didn't do much eventful -- just lots of walking and window shopping, which was a perfect day for us. We took a mid-afternoon nap before heading back out for more walking and window shopping, plus a little actual shopping. Now, my legs are so sore that it hurts to get up. That should make walking back to our car with our luggage in the morning fun.

Tomorrow, we head back to Germany for the remainder of our vacation. Our next stop: the small town of Boppard, on the Rhine River. It's a 6-hour drive, so I'm sure we'll break it up a bit along the way at least to eat a bite and stretch our legs. Boppard will be our hub for a few days while we explore other nearby towns as well. More walking and more eating I'm sure.

Day 2, Nuremberg & Prague

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 20:58:00 +0000

My apple breakfast

Wow, I'm so tired! In a good way, but exhausted nonetheless. I can barely put together sentences -- in English much less any other language although I did break out some pretty fabulous Spanish tonight. More on that later. So, here's a fragmented, bulleted version of our day.

We started the day in Nuremberg. Got up early. Walked around a bit before most stores opened (at 9 or 10 a.m.). Grabbed some breakfast -- a sugar-coated apple. Yum! Explored a few parts of town we didn't see yesterday by foot. Bought a few souvenirs -- including some scrumptuous Elisen gingerbread for ourselves, which of course, we had to "test" right away. Headed back to our hotel. Checked out. Drove to the Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds, an incredibly moving, somber and educational accounting of Hitler's rise to power and resulting atrocities. The museum is on the site of unfinished site where the Nazi party rallies took place in Germany.

The view of Tyn Cathedral from our room

Then, we headed to Prague. It was supposed to be a 3-hour drive to our hotel, but we left Nuremberg a bit later than expected and hit rush hour. Then, our hotel is located in a pedestrian only zone. We passed the parking garage where we intended to park and getting back around amidst heavy traffic (cars & people) and one-way streets took forever. We finally got settled in around 8 p.m.

It was difficult to get up and moving again, but we knew we'd be grumpy if we didn't eat soon, so we went out to explore the city. We're right next door to Tyn Cathedral and one of main squares in the old town where there's an astronomical clock (the 3rd oldest in the world, and the oldest still working). We grabbed a bite to eat -- proscuitto di praga (Prague ham) -- from a street vendor along Wenceslas Square.

Tyn Cathedral from the Square

There, a couple from Mexico City with their grown daughter joined us at our high-boy table, so we chatted for a bit. This is where I got to use my Spanish. They had just arrived today as well.

We walked and walked and walked some more to explore the city. It's such a lovely place. I'm looking forward to a full day tomorrow. I'm sure we'll log a significant number of steps on the pedometer; we've got to balance out all the food we're indulging in.

We've arrived - Germany day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 19:33:00 +0000

It's been an exhausting 24 hours. We left Atlanta -- out of the new international terminal, which opened in mid-May -- Sunday afternoon Atlanta time and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany just before 8 a.m. local time. It was about a 9 1/2 hour flight, which went relatively quickly thanks to free inflight movies and a couple of meals. We tried to sleep a bit, but didn't get as much sleep as we would have liked.

We rented a car at the Frankfurt airport. We had reserved an automatic, but they only had manual's left when we arrived. I hear that's pretty common here (to not get an automatic even though you've reserved one). We typically take trains between locations when we travel, but with relatively limited time here, we didn't want to be reliant upon train schedules. Anyway, Scott drives manual, so it wasn't a problem. And they drive on the same side of the road as the U.S. and the steering wheel is on the same side, so it was a pretty easy transition. Our car is a 4-door diesel Ford C-Max, which I don't think they have in the U.S. It's a little bigger than the economy size car we reserved since they gave us a manual.

With the car rented, we headed to Nuremberg. It was rainy the first bit of the trip, but cleared up about have way. It was just over a two-hour drive, but you could probably do it in two hours if you aren't driving at rush hour which we were this a.m. We took an autobahn most of the way, with the exception of a scenic detour through a small town and forest area, which were very pretty. The autobahn is a lot like U.S. interstates. Despite the myth that there are no speed limits on the autobahn, there are speed limits in many places and speed limit "recommendations" in others. Most of the time the posted speed limit was 100 or 120/kmh (60-74 mph), but we certainly saw plenty of speed deamons on the road.

Our private balcony at the hotel

We arrived in Nuremberg around noon; checked in; put our luggage in our room; parked our car; then went for a brief walk. We grabbed a bite to eat -- a Nurenberger Mit Sauerkraut (a few, small Nuremberg style sausages with sauerkraut on a hamburger bun size role) -- from a street stand. Yum! Then, we headed back to the hotel for a nap. After our nap, we walked around the Old Town again. The autumn market (Herbst Markt) is going on here now - September 13-30 - as is the Nuremberg Old Town Festival (Alstadfest) - September 13-24. The market has some foods and handmade items as well as other miscellaneous goods for sale in a series of stalls. The festival is like a scaled down Octoberfest with lots of tables set up under tents around restaurants serving sausages and various German food...and, of course, beer! We ate more Nuremberg style sausages, sauerkraut, potato salad and cole slaw. Scott got a beer and after we walked around and shopped a little, I got an Amaretto crepe.

Cute restaurants on the way to the Alstadfest

Shops close up around 7 or 8 p.m. here, so we headed back to the hotel a bit early to rest up. It started raining on us just as we were heading back -- reinforcing our decision to call it a night. Scott's pedometer says we took more than 6 miles of walking today -- pretty good for our first day in country, with very little sleep.

Tomorrow, we're going to check out a few more things in Nuremberg, then head to Prague, Czech Republic. That should be about a 3-hour drive. We'll be there for 2-3 days. We'll do our best to provide daily updates.

PS. I've discovered I can't easily upload photos from my camera, but can from my cell phone. So, today's photo selection is rather ppor.

2012 Vacation Planning: Germany & Prague

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:56:00 +0000

We've finally booked our 2012 vacation. This year, we're headed to Germany and Prague. Croatia was also high on the list but because we are going in late September / early October, we opted to forgo Croatia this year and wait until a year when we go a bit more in the summer season. Maybe next year.

It's been a bit more challenging and frustrating to book this year's trip for 3 reasons:

Because of various other activities, work schedules, vacation days, etc., it took us a while to pick a date and we had to fit it in between a couple of other activities we have planned in the U.S.
There were a couple of festivals that we want to attend. If we were to plan our trip without this in mind, we could make a nice logical loop through Germany to Prague and back. Instead, to make these festivals, we are back tracking a bit along the way and not going in the order that makes the most sense geographically.
The day before we had locked in the exact dates for each location, I selected one to two top hotels for each spot. The next day when I went to book, every single one was booked for the dates we wanted. To make it worse, at least one of the online booking sites tells you when the last available room was booked. All were booked within the past 24 hours, so it was even more annoying to discover that some locations we had selected were booked just 7-10 hours prior. I think I could live without that feature.

I hate getting my heart set on something or making a plan in my head, then having to redo everything. We've now booked all our hotels and all would be absolutely perfect if I hadn't seen the ones we originally selected. :-) But I'm getting over it. And focusing on the fact that we'll be on vacation for two weeks. I can't wait.

So, that's my vent about vacation planning. More next time about where we plan to go.

Wrapping up the trip

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:42:00 +0000

Originally written 10/13/11, but just now posting:

We got back a week ago, so I figured I'd do a concluding blog post to report on the trip back home since I haven't written since we left Glasgow.

We flew from Glasgow to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam to Atlanta with a 3-hour layover in Amsterdam. With no direct flights from Glasgow or Belfast to Atlanta, we had to fly the "wrong" direction to get back home. So, it was a long travel day.

So, we started off our day at around 7 a.m. (local time, 2 a.m Atlanta time) and got to the Glasgow airport around 8 or 8:30, where it began to hail while we were dropping off the rental car. Our flight wasn't until 10:50 and there's not as much advanced arrival required when flying between European countries, but we weren't sure of how long it would take to get to the airport, the check-in process, the airport layout, etc., so we figured better safe than sorry. The rental car return took a bit because the family in front of us took forever, but everything else was quick and smooth.

The Amsterdam airport was phenomenal--lots of shopping options, a free mini-art museum, even a casino. We grabbed a bite to eat and milled about for a while. We had to check in at the gate an hour before boarding there, and it's an airport where you go through security again before being let into the glass-enclosed gate area, where you can't get out to go to the bathroom or anything without going through security again. As we waited at the gate for the hour before boarding, I noticed several guys in dark suits all with the same or similar lapel pin follow the pilots onto the airplane, and I thought, "Boy, they're serious about security here!" It turns out they were U.S. Secret Service detail and former President Jimmy Carter was on our flight. He came around and shook everyone's hand before we took off.

The flight back was long 9-10 hours in flight, but it passed rather quickly thanks to the personal TVs on the plane. KLM is great. There were tons of movies, TV shows, video games and such. I think I watched 4 movies on the way back. We landed around 8:30 p.m. (local time) in Atlanta, but by the time we got to the terminal, went through customs, walked to baggage claim after the airport "train" broke down, etc., it was after 10 p.m. And traffic to and around the airport was tough, so it took Scott's brother Tim a bit to get to us after we picked up our luggage. So, we were glad when we finally got home.

Almost our last day

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:11:00 +0000

We woke up this morning and after picking up coffee and scones headed to Edinburgh. We spent most of the day at Edinburgh Castle. The weather was very windy, but mainly sunny. It began to drizzle a bit just as we left. It was an easy drive to get there, but we had a bit of trouble getting out. After a few turns and turnarounds, we finally got on the highway.

We stopped along the way back to Glasgow to get a small bit of gas, but apparently not enough. We almost ran out of gas. All sorts of signals started going off in the car as we got really close to our hotel. Fortunately, the guy who manages the car park was very helpful in pointing us to a gas station. He gave great directions, then we filled up a bit more than we wanted to since we'd pre-paid for gas at the rental car company, but better safe than sorry.

We made dinner again at our "apartment"--gnocchi and salad. (Lunch was another great soup--Scotch broth this time.)

Tomorrow a.m., we head to the airport for a 10:50 a.m. flight to Amsterdam then home to Atlanta by the evening. It's going to be a long travel day. Something tells me we'll crash pretty hard the moment we get home.

Kintyre & Glasgow

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 19:15:00 +0000

Our flight from Belfast to Glasgow on Sunday was canceled due to mechanical problems, after we tried to take off a couple of times, so rather than departing at 10:30 a.m., our 30-minute flight left at 1:05 p.m. But at least they gave us meal/refreshment vouchers.

Once we got to Glasgow, we picked up our rental car and drove to our hotel in Tarbert on the Kintyre peninsula. We drove along Loch Lomond (the largest lake in Great Britian) and through the Argyll Forest. Both were gorgeous. It was an incredibly beautiful drive! I don't think our pictures will do it justice. We passed our hotel because we were distracted by some sheep that had escaped their pen and were running down the road. Another great sheep photo opp! ;-)

The Stonefield Castle Hotel was very stunning as well, particularly as it seemed to pop up out of nowhere as we drove along a narrow drive. It overlooks Loch Fyne, and we took a stroll around the property Monday morning after breakfast and before heading on a drive further south on Kintyre. The drive along the coast was very pretty (on the west coast on the way down and on the east coast on the way back, with a stop at Westport Beach and in Campbeltown midway).

Campbeltown was once home to more than 30 whisky distilleries and once proclaimed itself the whisky capital of the world, but the industry has died down. No, we didn't do any whisky tasting here. In fact, we haven't yet tasted any Scotch/Scottish whisky and likely won't before we leave. All tasted out, I suppose.

Anyway, the trip south was very smooth and while I thought the roads were a bit narrow, they were pristine compared to the trip back north which was on a one-way road that had passing spots periodically along the way. At least it was daytime.

We stopped in Inveraray on the way back to Glasgow today. I bought a couple of wool scarves in the woolen mills there.

We had a bit of an obstacle driving through the one-way streets of Glasgow today, but found our hotel without much trouble. The place we are staying (Glasgow Lofts) is different than a typical hotel. It's more like an upscale Residence Inn in the U.S. It's a modern-design apartment with two bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen, dining area, living room. In fact, it probably is the size of my former apartment, and it has a great view of Glasgow.

We're near a pedestrian shopping district, which has tons and tons of shops including a number of clothing stores popular in the U.S. (Gap, Diesel, Abercrombie, Urban Outfitters, etc.) and others that we've seen in our time in Ireland and the U.K. Good thing our suitcases were pretty much full from the get-go or I could have spent the day shopping. It was a chilly, drizzly day, so what better to do than shop, right?!? But, I resisted. We picked up some food for dinner tonight and tomorrow--simple pasta, sauce and salad. We about over eating out. We'll still grab coffee, tea and a scone in the coffee shop within our building and lunch out, but dinner in will be nice.

We're likely heading to Edinburgh tomorrow. We feel as if we've seen much of Glasgow already. Despite historic buildings, one city seems much like another after a while. It's only about an hour drive to Edinburgh, and while we've been driving quite a bit the past several days, we think it's worth a hop to the other side of Scotland while we're here.

It will be nice to have a few days at home before having to return to work.

Driving around Northern Ireland

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 20:24:00 +0000

Today was a driving day--just checking out the scenery in Northern Ireland for the most part, except for a snafu with our hotel reservations in Glasgow the final two nights. Fortunately, we got that sorted out and got booked in a different hotel. What a fun start to the day learning that news. Fortunately, we had internet and cell phone to help get it worked out while we ventured around the country.

Once again, I'm tired after a long day of driving, so here are a few highlights:

Went back to Dunluce Castle. It wasn't raining but was rather chilly. We took a number of photos there. The castle is built right on the edge of the cliff, so you have to wonder how many people fell off the edge over time.

Then, we drove along the coast and ventured to a spot were tall trees come together over the road. I spotted it on Google maps using the photo overlay. Some call it the Dark Hedges; I don't know if that's an official name. We got a couple of photos, but didn't travel all the way through as a wedding party was getting their pictures taken there. We didn't want to disturb that, of course.

We took a mid-day break in Ballymoney and ate at a small pub called Molly's. A cup of soup sure hit the spot. It's a very cute town.

Then, back in the car we went--driving through the Antrim Hills, past Slemish Mountain, then along the coast from Glenarm to Larne before heading to our hotel in Templepatrick, which I booked thinking it would be near the airport, but then we ended up flying out of the Belfast City Airport instead of Belfast International and couldn't change the reservation. So, we have a 10 mile drive to the airport in the morning. Fortunately, it's Sunday so there shouldn't be much traffic as we cross through Belfast (or at least the northern end of Belfast). Hopefully, I didn't just jinx us by typing that thought.

That's about it.

Tomorrow, we fly to Glasgow then drive to the Scotland countryside where we'll stay for a couple of days.

It finally rained in Ireland

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:10:00 +0000

5 days into our trip, and we finally saw rain today. In fact, it rained all day, often heavily.

We started the day with breakfast in the hotel restaurant. It sure was hard to get out of bed this morning. The room is so cozy, and I'm fighting a cold. I guess yesterday's exhaustion was a little more than exhaustion. By the time I went to bed last night, I was completely stuffed up and sneezing, and my ears were burning. Of course, Scott made me take my temperature at least 4 times to confirm I didn't have a fever. I didn't. I'm feeling a bit better today thanks to Mucinex.

After breakfast, we went to Giant's Causeway and hiked around a bit. The formations are incredible. There's plenty of folklore to go with the strange shapes rising from the ground, but geologists have noted that it's the result of a volcanic eruption from the 4th millenium BC. These polygonal columns of layered basalt are the only World Heritage Site in Ireland.

After exploring Giant's Causeway for a couple of hours, we headed toward Dunluce Castle, but went the wrong way. We stumbled upon the small ruins of Dunseverick Castle instead. And just across the road, I finally got a prized picture of a sheep. :-) I can't post it until we get home though. We can only upload Scott's photos while on the trip.

We then turned around and headed to Dunluce Castle, but when we got there it was pouring rain. We stopped in at Wee Cottage for coffee, tea, soup and a cake to bide our time while the rain died down, but the rain never died down. We didn't want to pay to tour the castle ruins in the rain, so we took a couple of quick photos and vowed to return tomorrow morning if it was less rainy.

Instead, we spent the rainy day inside at Old Bushmill's Distillery, another whiskey making facility. The tour was much different than the one at Jameson because it's an operating distillery. At the conclusion of the tour, we got the obligatory tasting. Scott opted for a Black Bush; I took a special whiskey made for the company's 400 year anniversary that crystalized the barley by heating it to a higher temperature than usual (I believe it was the Bushmills 1608). Boy, was it strong! I preferred the Jameson, but then again mine was mixed with cranberry juice there.

We walked around the very small town a bit and just rested until it was time for dinner tonight. This time, we made it down to the restaurant for a nice meal.

Tomorrow, we explore the countryside a bit more and stay in a hotel nearer the airport in preparation for our flight to Scotland on Sunday.

From Dublin to Bushmills

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 18:27:00 +0000

Today, I'm exhausted. Poor me, right?!? All this international travel has worn me out. Yeah, I know you feel sorry for me. Nonetheless, I'm exhausted, so forgive any ramblings below that don't make sense.

After a hearty breakfast, we headed back to the Dublin airport to pick up our rental car. There were some rental car places in town, but the ones at the airport seemed to be more accustomed to picking up in one location and dropping off in another, especially since we are leaving the car in a different country. Just let me say, I hate the rental car process. It's never simple, and it's so tough to tell what you really need and what they're trying to upsell you on just to make extra money. A fee for this, a fee for that. But, once that was over and done with, we were on our way from Dublin, Ireland to Bushmills, Northern Ireland (UK).

Scott had driven on the "wrong" side of the road on the "wrong" side of the car when we were in New Zealand, so it was relatively easy for him to pick up again. We got an automatic because shifting gears with the "wrong" hand was just one too many elements to add to our navigation. I'm sure he could have done it, but why bother when you don't have to. There are a lot of roundabouts here. Practically every intersection on our route was a roundabout. They're easy once you get used to them, but at first going the "wrong" way and yielding to the right can mess with your head.

Anyway, we could have made it here in under 3 hours if we'd taken the quickest route via highway for more of the trip, but we wanted to explore the countryside a bit and try to find a church that was just off the road we were taken where some of my distant relatives were married, buried, etc. Dilworth, Cross, Hazelton (and various related spellings). It's St. Andrew's Church (Church of Ireland) near the town of Moy in a small community called Killyman. We actually found it rather easily and fortunately just after a wedding had concluded. There were a few folks there packing up lingering decorations and the bridesmaid bouquets. I thought it was rather odd to have a wedding ceremony in the middle of the day on a Thursday, but I don't know the customs here.

So, the route we took (which would have been approx. 3 hours without any stops) became a 5 or 6 hour journey after we stopped for lunch, got cash at an ATM (the currency changed when we crossed the country line), took a detour to the church, took some photos, etc. It was a pleasurable trip, but now I'm exhausted. Not to mention the past 3 days of walking in Dublin. I think we tallied almost 15 miles.

As expected, we saw lots of sheep (and cows) once we got into the country. I don't have any photos yet, but I'm sure we'll manage a couple in the next few days...although I never managed to take a stellar photo of any sheep while in New Zealand.

We're staying at Bushmills Inn for the next couple of nights. It's a very nice hotel with structures (the old coach house and stables) dating back to 1608. Our room is very large yet homey, there are cozy reading nooks down the halls, a fine dining restaurant downstairs and plenty of amenities--including the room service that I'm so glad to have tonight otherwise it might be a feast of gummie bears and Dr. Pepper because I don't have enough energy to make it out to even the most low-key restaurant tonight. You may notice the American flag flying over the restaurant in the photograph to the right. I asked the receptionist why that was and she said they rotate it out and try to fly the flag of the home country of the guest that flew the farthest. Not sure if that's us or not as there's at least one other American couple here as we heard their voices in the lobby after their round of golf.

So, with that tidbit, we're off to look at the room service menu. :-)

Dublin Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:30:00 +0000

This morning I visited my company's office in Dublin. It was an easy walk across St. Stephen's Green to get that. What a nice commute that would be each day! It was interesting to learn a bit about the office, the similarities with my office in Atlanta, the differences, etc.

I got back to the hotel mid-day, and we headed out to lunch. As I noted earlier, vacations revolve around food. After lunch, we continued our walk to the Old Jameson Distillery. We took a tour where we learned about the whiskey making process then enjoyed a sample. Scott had his neat (i.e. plain, no ice). I had a Jameson and cranberry juice. We bought a few souvenirs, then started our trek back to the hotel. (Tomorrow, we head to Bushmills; pretty soon, you'll think we're lushes.)

We did a bit more window shopping and took a number of photos of cute alleyways with flower-lined balconies, including those in the Temple Bar area. Then stopped in at a coffeehouse for coffee and cake before getting back to the hotel.

As I'm typing this, it doesn't seem that we've done much today. Yet, it was a full 7-hour excursion. Again, tons of walking...but we gotta work off our meals somehow.

Tomorrow, we leave Dublin for Northern Ireland. We're renting a car and will surely explore lots of country backroads along the way.

Dublin Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:50:00 +0000

It was a very warm day in Dublin--approximately 75 degrees Fahrenheit according to an outdoor temperature sign we saw...and I'd believe it. It was considerably warmer than yesterday and almost too warm for my thin longsleeve shirt, especially to be walking as much as we were. The sun was out as well, and it was a very pretty day.

We started with breakfast in our hotel, then a nap before venturing out to the Guinness Storehouse. Along the way, we saw several historic sights, including Christ Church Cathedral (founded in 1030 and located in the heart of medieval Dublin). We also stopped at Dublin Castle, founded in 1204.

But most of our day was spent at the Guinness Storehouse--touring the old storehouse (the fermentation plant for the brewery from 1904 to 1988), learning about the brewing process, eating lunch, sampling the beer, etc. There were great views of the city from the Gravity bar at the top of the building (7th floor).

All total, we walked about 5 miles, so we're back at the hotel room resting for a bit before heading out to dinner. Funny, how on vacation it seems that it's always time to eat.

More tomorrow...

Day 1 in Dublin

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:43:00 +0000

We arrived in Dublin around 10 a.m. local time today and took a taxi to our hotel--Stauntons on the Green. It was constructed in 1750 and was originally the terrace of 3 Georgian houses. The room wasn't yet ready for our check in when we arrived, so we left to walk around a bit.

The hotel is immediately across from St. Stephen's Green, a 22-acre public park. So, we strolled through the park, then walked along Grafton Street, a popular shopping area to do a little window shopping and pick up a couple of items we forgot at the drug store. We ate a late breakfast just before noon (our 2nd breakfast since we ate on the plane as well). We had a breakfast sandwich--sausage, bacon, and fried egg between two thin slices of white bread. Healthy! ;-) Yea, right. At least we walked some of it off.

The weather is a bit chilly when the sun isn't out, but I'm generally okay wearing a long sleeve shirt and hoodie. I did have to put on a scarf when we sat down to eat because it was a bit breezy in the outdoor area we were sitting, and it's naturally warmer when you're out walking. The sun would peak through every now and then when we were sitting in the park watching the ducks and other birds. The park was rather crowded when we walked back through on the way to the hotel around 1:30 p.m. Lots of families, tourists and nearby office workers enjoying their lunch outdoors.

We took a nap when we got back to the room because we didn't get much sleep on the plane and what we did get was a bit uncomfortable. With free internet at the hotel, we were able to check in on e-mail, Facebook, etc. and provide this brief update on our blog. Now, time to start thinking about what we'll do for dinner and where we'll explore tomorrow.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 15:21:00 +0000

Global phone is set up...missing my Droid X already (sorry Blackberry). We depart in approximately 8 hours.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 15:18:00 +0000

Test

The next voyage begins in

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:58:00 +0000

The next voyage begins in T minus 2 days! Ireland and Scotland here we come.