Adirondacks - 5 days 4 nights - August 2006

Monday August 21, we threw together our clothes and cleaned up the Perryville condo and were on the road around 9:30. We drove through Elkton so we could stop at a Jiffy Lube, a drive-thru coffee place, a Wachovia, and finally on to 427 E. Allens Ln where we loaded Monty up with camping gear. Vee had to run upstairs to retrieve a few things but luckily managed to avoid any awkward encounters. We were on the road by 12:30 and were detoured by construction on Rte309 but made it onto 276, then NJ Turnpike to 287 and 87 with a stop for gas and pizza at Sbarro then on to Warrensburg where we stayed at the Dagget Lake Campsites for $27. I called earlier to make sure they'd have a tent site for us and when we arrived, we had the pick of 3 sites. Jeanine was real sweet and explained all the rules to us. We unloaded, built the tent, and then took a walk around the grounds and discovered the beautiful lake where we hung out for a while listening to the silence. With the sun going down, we left to explore the area some more and find something to eat. Having seen Warrensburg on the way to the campsite, and already picking out a place for breakfast, we decided to drive out to Bolton Landing on Lake George and see what that was all about. It was about a 25 minute drive but well worth it as it was a nice little village, with a handful of restaurants and shops that were open late. We walked the length of the strip and decided on an unassuming little homey restaurant that had the Cowboys-Saints game on. We weren't hungry enough to order separate entrees so we ordered a bunch of apps: spring rolls, bbq riblets, and chili. They also had ice cold Spaten, so I enjoyed two of those. Happilly stuffed, we made the trip back to our tent. Using the spotlight, I tried finding the bathhouse, but couldn't do it in the pitch black night. We both must have fallen asleep pretty quickly. Tuesday August 22, I woke up early, and couldn't get back to sleep, but felt fairly well rested. Only my back was beginning to hurt. I waited until almost 9am before I shined the flashlight in Vee's eye to wake her up. We made our way to the bathouse, showered, tore down the tent and packed up the truck all within an hour and then drove into town for a hearty breakfast in the local diner with a mounted wolf-fish-head on the wall. Vee had blueberry pancakes, and I had the Hungryman breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, pancakes and we each had coffees. We agreed on heading towards Blue Mountain Lake so we could stop at the Adirondack Museum and then continue on to Tupper Lake for an overnight. The museum was excellent and had all kinds of fantastic exhibits, a film and numerous buildings to explore plus a wonderful deck view of the lake below and beautiful pond and landscaping. Uncle John called on the mobile phone just as we finished up and were perusing the gift shop. We pointed ourselves to Tupper Lake which was another 32 miles away and travelled a newly paved picture perfect Rte30 through the wilderness lined with lakes and mountains and bogs. Using our newly acquired Adirondacks map, we pulled into the Blue Jay Campground and had a pick of any tentsite we wanted. We decided on #53 and built our tent, more quickly than last night, but for some reason, not as well as last night. It was raining a bit so maybe that caused us to lose focus a bit. With the tent built, we drove up to the town of Tupper Lake and found a restaurant that looked just right. It had neon beer signs in the window and "Smokehouse" in the name. There was a pool table and electronic dart board and we shared a gigantic plate of nachos topped with smoked pulled pork, and a house salad. I enjoyed a Saranac Pale Ale and another rather bland local Ale. We were stuffed and drove back to the campsite where we unloaded our bedding and got comfortable. The spotlight was losing power so Vee wasn't able to read, but I was able to blog. The drips from the trees above us are pelting the tent, but at least it isn't raining anymore, or if it is, it is very light. Wednesday morning of August 23, we both woke up around 7:30, showered, packed everything and were on the road by 8:30. We drove through Tupper Lake and pointed the truck towards Saranac Lake where we ended up parking and walking around for a while. It was a cozy authentic little Adirondack village with all the conveniences. We had breakfast in the Blue Moon Cafe where Vee got a bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese and I got a flour tortilla layered with scrambled eggs, monteray jack cheese, pico de gallo, tomato salsa and a dollop of sour cream. We picked out our own coffee mugs and coffees, which were bottomless. We were quite impressed with the food, coffee, and friendly family service, especially the little girl who couldn't, have been older than 5 years who was bussing tables. After breakfast, we walked around town some more and ended up in the gallery of an artist whose paintings of the Adirondacks we really enjoyed. We talked with him for a while, learning that he went to school at Temple in Philly, then moved to West Palm Beach with his wife for 17 years where he taught art in elementary school. His wife worked at the Tupper Lake Adirondack natural science museum and said that it was an amazing place well worth a visit. We both really enjoyed the town and continued on toward Lake Placid. The morning views were beautiful and at one point, I pulled Monty over onto the shoulder, and started backing up to get in better view to take some pictures when we started to slide off the shoulder at a steep slant and came close to rolling over. A park ranger in a Jeep and another guy in a pickup truck pulled over within seconds to make sure we were okay. Once in four wheel drive, Monty had no trouble getting us out of danger, but it was a bit hairy for a few seconds there. Once in Lake Placid, we parked in the municipal parking lot for one doller per hour prepaid. We walked around for another few hours, visiting the conference center and skating rinks where the Miracle on Ice happened in 1980 where the U.S. beat Russia in hockey by one point, and we got to see alot of kids and adults practicing their ice skating skills. Vee really liked Lake Placide, and so did I, but it was a tad bit too touristy. Beautiful though, especially right there nestled alongside Mirror Lake and amongst all the mountains. In the tourist center we picked up some more brochures and learned about a hike up Mt.Jo nearby so we drove there and made the somewhat challenging ascent to a breathtaking 360 view of the high peaks including Mt.Marcy, the highest peak. At the top, we snapped some pics and then made our way down, again passing almost everyone we encountered since Vee is quite the trailblazer. At the bottom, we enjoyed the beautiful Heart Lake where Vee finally "got" the Adirondacks. No development, just pure crystal clear water with a soft bottom surrounded by large forested mountains. This was the kind of place Vee could love, and me too. The water wasn't even that cold so I got in up to my calfs and it felt wonderful, and we shot some more pics. We were hoping to find a campground on the way towards Elizabethtown, but no luck, so we had to head north a bit past Lewis and found the Magic Pines Campground where we had our choice of any tent site for 16 bucks. We pitched tent and with the help of our campsite manager, found the Mountain Shadows restaurant and enjoyed a delicious dinner. Vee had the baked salmon and I had the NY Strip special, wings and two Labbatts. The little busboy was fun to watch as he too couldn't have been more than 5 ot 6 years old and told us we could sit anywhere we like. After dinner, we drove into Westport where the views across Lake Champlain were amazing. The varying grades of blue-gray mountain ridges were gorgeous, and the boats moored in the little inlet set quite the scene. I forgot our camera cover here though, so that was a bummer...I left it on top of the truck and didn't realize it until we arrived back at the tent site. We took a different way back, using route 10, so that was fun. We washed up in the bathouse and called it a night. No rain, and total silence except the wilderness and distant cars. Thursday the 24th of August, we woke up around 7, quickly showered and packed, but still did not know what we would do for the day. After spending a bit of time in the truck looking at maps and proposing ideas, we decided that we'd spend another night camping out, rather than heading home. With that agreed upon, we chose an itinerary that would take us up to Plattsburg first, and then Southward ultimately into the Ticonderoga area. The weather was perfect, cool, blue skies with some fluffy white clouds. We left the Magic Pines Campground behind and quickly found ourselves in a not too impressive Plattsburg, where we got out to explore, but within a block or two found that we had already covered what there was to see. Across the street from where we parked there was a rustic looking coffee place called Camp Coffee, and we were greeted by the proprietor, a nice middle-aged woman alone inside at a table reading. She fixed Vee a capuccino and I had an organic blended coffee, each delicious, and we shared a wonderful warm cinnamon roll oozing with a molten white sugary sauce. While we continued enjoying our drinks, we sat on a large couch and read through some magazines and books that were there on the shelves. We left before completely finishing our drinks, with just enough left to take on the road for a few more sips. We stopped to re-fill the gas tank, and use the surprisingly clean bathroom facilities at a gas station before getting onto 87 South. We didn't stay on the throughway long because of a sign describing something called the Ausable Chasm, which I was convinced must be something interesting. I had seen references to Ausable river in many of the beautiful photos we saw in the Adirondack Museum and thought maybe there would be a connection. Though it was very pricey, at $16 per person, the chasm was a fantastic way to spend a few hours. We got to learn about the interesting rock formations and the horrible flood damage that devastated the chasm in the mid-90's. Vee took alot of pictures, and we walked the full length of the lower and upper trails out and back. At one point, we almost stepped on a snake in the path, but high-stepped backwards until the snake had moved to a safe distance away from the trail before we proceeded. There were beautiful falls, rapids, shear cliffs and amazing views all around. From there we continued South, passing through a number of towns including Keeseville, Port Henry, Willsboro, Westport, Hague, Ticonderoga, finally ending up in Schroon Lake. The topography during the drive along Lake Champlain through all these towns was absolutely astounding. The Green Mountains of Vermont in the distance, with their alternating layers of blue and gray frame the silvery water of the lake on the East and to the West, the magnificant rolling lush green mountains of the Adirondacks, and in between a patchwork of lakes, rivers, farms and fruit/veggie stands, and vast meadows of green, yellow and purple. The dark rain clouds rolled in and threatened to spoil the evening, but the rain didn't last very long. We tried a few campgrounds before finally pitching our tent in the Paradox Lake Campground, site#10, near the bathouse and nicely secluded with heavy foliage and tree cover and a gravel floor. It took us no time to get the tent up, use the facilities and head back into the nice little village of Schroon Lake where we had dinner at an Irish pub. I had a local IPA that was quite tastey and another local ale with a slight smokey flavor. For dinner, Vee had a chicken sandwich, we shared a dozen excellent hot wings, and I had a delicious french dip sandwich. Afterwards, we caught the 8 o'clock show at the theather across the street of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" which we had been wanting to see for some time. It was very well done, and horrifying. We're so screwed. Then in a sort of sad guilt-laden silence and intermittant exhasperated conversation about what the heck we could do about the looming environment crisis we were just reminded of, we drove back to the tent to try and get some sleep. A perfect day; even with the near fatal snake attack:-) Friday August 25th, we were up before 7 and on the road by 7:30. There was no one at the campground entrance, again, so we ended up not having to pay for last nights stay. We stopped in Lake George at Cafe Vero for coffees and pastries before continuing southward. The rain was heavy at times but despite that, our driving time to Philly was 5.5 hours and 365 miles. Dropped off our stuff and continued onto Perryville to meet up with Mom and Dad for a nice dinner by the Bay.

Dublin - A History Lesson Before Going Stateside

Tuesday June 27th, we had an extremely engaging conversation with a nice Irish couple during breakfast and learned more about how and why things have been booming here in the last decade. They also told us about a movie to see, called Ryan's Daughter, part of which was filmed at the Inch, where we were just this past week. After our delcious breakfast, and paying Mrs.O'Conner, we loaded the car in the light mist, and made our way back to Dublin. The drive was uneventful except for the atrocious traffic in the city, and we quickly found our hotel which was right close to the airport so we could easily drop our rental car off in the morning. For the third time now, the hotel did not have a record of our reservation, and I had to print off our confirmation from email. However, they got us into a room, even though we were quite early. After dropping off our bags, we took the #4 bus into the center of Dublin, visited a large department store, and then relaxed in an Insomnia Cafe where we talked, sipped our drinks and read our books. Our goal for the afternoon was to find a movie theater showing a new movie called The Wind That Shakes the Barley, which was about the divisive and sad history of Ireland's fight for liberation from England. We found a theater closeby that was showing the movie, and it was excellent. We then decided to stick around and also see "Thank You For Smoking", another excellent film, a satire about the sickening world of lobbying. In between movies, we grabbed a few goodies to eat, and did again afterwards, then took the bus back to the hotel and checked the World Cup scores. Brazil beat Ghana, and France beat Spain. Tomorrow is our final full day in Europe. Unbelievable.

Wednesday June 28th, our final full day in Dublin Ireland, and the last full day of this entire European experience, was most significantly spent learning more about the history of Ireland through a guided walking tour of Dublin. But first, in the morning, we drove the rental car to the airport and dropped it off at Eurocar no problem. We took a bus from there to Connolly Street in the city center and stopped into the tourist information center to get some ideas for walking tours, then made our way to or usual hangout, the Insomnia Cafe, where we looked at our brochures and made a plan for the day. We read and had our coffees, then walked to the Trinity College campus where we met up with our friendly tour guide, a young lady from London who was finishing up a PhD in history at the College. For the next two hours, we followed her to various important places in the city, amongst our group of about 15 people, while she explained the complicated history of Ireland along the way. We visited the main square in the College, then a large bank across from Trinity College, that once served as the parliament building, then on to Dublin Castle, Christ Church, and ultimately to the Temple Bar area where we paid up for the tour at another information center. We inquired about some plays and found one that sounded interesting, but first we needed something for dinner. First trying a really cool microbrewery, we left after about 15 minutes of sitting there with no service, tried an Italian place across the street with no tables available, and finally, just down the block, another Italian place where we had a delicious dinner, wine, dessert, and excellent service is an authentic quiet romantic setting. We then took a long walk to find the theater where this play was going to be put on, and found out that they offered no same-day discounts, and decided not too spend the money on tickets, and instead took the bus back to the hotel, filming the ride from the top level along the way, and pretty much called it a night.

Thursday June 29th, our last day, we woke up around 5:30 checked out and took a taxi to the Dublin airport. The driver was super-friendly and we chatted the whole way. On AerLingus, we flied into Shannon airport, where we waited a bit before re-boarding our plane that flew us ultimately into JFK in NYC. Once there, we got our bags and asked the information desk person how we could get from the airport onto a train to Philly. We took the "AirTrain", then the subway, then an Amtrak train, then a SEPTA train to Mt.Airy where we made the strange walk back to the house, thinking how just 4 months ago, we had had made the same walk in reverse, full of excitement, anxiousness and anticipation of the unknown. This time, it was a mix of sadness, melancholy, and nostalgia plus excitement to see family and friends and the Bay. We didn't bothered to look around the house much, and just grabbed a bunch of stuff, threw it all into the truck, and drove straight down to Perryville, stopping at Weavers to select some tastey brews, for our first quiet night along together back in the States. We toasted our arrival with a cold beer and stayed up late going through our huge box of mail. So it ended. And begins again. A fantastic life abroad so quickly morphed back into life at home, and the inevitable yet welcome near regularity that it brings.

Ireland - Kilkenny, Kinsale, Glengarriff, Dingle and Killaloe

Friday June 23rd: In the morning, I enjoyed a delicious full Irish breakfast and Vee was quite happy with the continental. We needed to get cash to pay for our room, and therefore needed to find an ATM in town. It was far enough away for us to decide that we'd go ahead and tour Kilkenny Castle too since it was just right around the corner. We waited for the first tour of the day to begin, and were shown a short video about the infamous Butler family who lived there for generations, and a good background about the castle restoration before we were lead through the castle for another 40 minutes or so. After the tour, we stuck around for a bit and took pictures in the gardens and huge lawns, then went across the street to the old stables that have since been converted into artisan shops, as well as another Butler estate, enveloped in green ivy, its grounds and gardens. We walked back to the B&B and paid John, one of the hosts of the B&B, and had an insightful conversation about how so many people come back to Ireland from the U.S., Canada and Australia, hoping to trace their roots. He had many interesting first-hand stories to tell. And one was that his mother is the last living person to have worked for the Butler family in the castle that we had just toured that morning. They allowed us to park the car in a small spot on the sidewalk adjacent to their B&B, and we walked back into town to explore some more and find a cafe. The night before, it seemed like every other shop was some soft of cafe, but in the morning, we didn't come across as many, but we did find a nice little one where we shared capps and pastries. I asked our waitress where we could go to get a music CD, and she said there was a music store right next door...duh. After we finished, we went to look at CDs, but the prices were outrageous, with most of them being at least 18 EUR. Quickly giving up on the idea of buying a CD for the road, we went across the street to a huge department store to load up on some snacks and water for the next few days of driving. Bags in hand, we hiked back to the car and pointed ourselves to Kinsale, a cute fishing village with a marina and huge multi-colored rusty old fishing boats. We parked the car in a lot up the hill a bit, and walked around trying to find our b&b. We asked a lady in the pharmacy, and she pointed us back up the hill, where we asked another gentleman for help, and he told us exactly where we'd find it, and we did. We met John and Carroll of the Golden Gate as soon as we pulled in, and Carroll showed us to our room. They were real nice, and John seemed like a character, like a kid in a man's body. We unloaded our stuff and since Vee wasn't feeling well, I went into town to walk around some, and came home with some goodies too enjoy while watching World Cup.

Saturday June 24th, Vee felt better in the morning, and after a hearty breakfast, I went into town and got some cash to pay for our room, and while I was gone, Vee overheard another couple checking out, and the guy was explaining to John and Carroll how Bolivia was his favorite place to travel in the world. This got Vee quite excited and she ran out of our room to tell them that she was Bolivian, but the guy could hardly believe it. When I came back, Vee was still all wound up, and when we checked out, we had a really nice long conversation with Carroll and John about Bolivia and all kinds of other stuff, including the Irish sport of hurling. He even got into his truck and pulled out his old hurling stick to show me what it looked like. Its alot like field hockey, but rougher. He said there was a huge tournament going on the next day and that it would be televised. We said our goodbyes and parked the car in the lot down the hill, and walked around the little village of Kinsale until the afternoon. There were so many cool little curvy streets and funky shops, and we walked all the way out along the water by another boat marina, and back again where we stopped into a cafe to watch some Irish rugby and share some coffees. It was a beautiful morning and the sun was shining warm through the cafe's large windows. After we had our fill of rugby and coffee, we continued wandering around town a bit, then hopped back into the car to continue our journey to Glengarriff. As we got closer, the terrain got more interesting; much more craggly and rocky yet deeply green. We found the turn-off to our b&b before getting into town, and this place was AWESOME. The owner, Kathleen was a little angel, syrupy sweet, and showed us to a room that absolutely blew us away. Not only was it huge, and have an amazing view of the mountains and bay and pastures and gardens, but it was beautifully decorated with all the comforts of home. We could hardly believe it, especially given the price. We watched Germany win their match in the very nice common area, and had a nice conversation with a super nice and reserved older German gentleman who was a regular visitor of the b&b. We needed to get more cash to pay in the morning, as well as something to eat for dinner, so after the game, we drove into the tiny village of Glengarriff and found a convenient parking spot right in front of a little Celtic shop. We looked for an ATM, and found none. We stopped for dinner at a little pub, but they didn't accept credit cards and the waitress said that the only place that did was an Inn across the street, so that is where we went next, and had a delicious pub meal. The waitress there explained that we had two options for getting cash, 20 minutes in one direction, or 35 minutes in the other. So, after paying, we drove back out past our b&b to another town, and got money out there, and looked for an off-license to get some beers, but none were open. Back to the b&b for the night.

Sunday June 25th, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast and spoke some more with our German friend about where he was going for the day, and what our plans were. We still had not made reservations to stay anywhere, and were hoping to get some input from Kathleen and/or some other folks so we could make a decision on where we should plan to go for an overnight. Our German friend reiterated that Killarney would be virtually impassable because of a huge motorcycle rally and parade. So, after breakfast, we spent some time analyzing maps and our b&b directory and decided to drive an indirect route to Dingle, by taking the long way out and around the peninsula on N70, instead of the direct route on N71 which would take us right through Killarney. We packed the car and said our goodbyes to Kathleen, who was such a sweetheart, and as we pulled out, we all frantically waved at each other, like family, as we made our way up and then down the long gravel driveway. It was a wonderful start to our day, and it just kept getting better. When we left, we decided on today's travel plans mostly as a way to avoid the anticipated congestion around Killarney, even though we really wanted to see the city, as it comes highly recommended. But, what we didn't know, and would soon find out, was that the driving route we chose was actually one that people do on purpose, and is known as The Circle of Kerry. Absolutely amazing!!! Glengarriff itself was amazingly beautiful, and as we made our way through a number of really nice looking towns, especially Kenmare, the terrain through the sweeping green mountains, and alongside bays and inlets, was breathtaking. I couldn't help but to keep stopping alongside the road to take pictures, probably 5 or 6 times. We stopped for a little break in a small waterside village called Waterville, where we took a nice walk on a sidewalk alongside the water, and then popped into a little cafe for some capps and Internet access. The town was loaded with Harley riders, from all over, including the U.S., France, Italy, Germany, etc. We also called a b&b in Dingle, and made a reservation at the Ard-Na-Mara house with Mrs.Ann Murphy, and got some directions on how to get to her place once we arrive in Dingle. We jumped back in the car, and continued on our way, continuing to take video, photos, oohhing and aahhing at all the green splendor. Another stop, at the last second, was at the "Inch", a strange but awesome stretch of beach among the surrounding moutains where you can drive your vehicle onto the wide flat beach, and do all the normal beach activities that we would do at home. It reminded me of what the Outer Banks might look like, minus the huge green mountains and the Red Cliffs. After enjoying some beach time, we continued onward and long before our expected arrival time, we landed in Dingle. It was not immediately that we found the b&b, but after a few attempts, we found it, and Mrs.Murphy was a sheer delight as she showed us the rooms we could choose from; we chose the one with the view to the Bay, instead of the larger room with a view of the pasture. Tough...heheheee. After unloading the bags, we drove back into town and took a nice long stroll throughout, stopping in a few shops, and then wandering up the hill around the backside of town, into a new development, and back along the water into town from the opposite side. For dinner, we looked at a number menus, and walked into one with definite "criag", but there were no seats or tables available. Finally, into a pub called Murhpy's where we had a delicious meal, where Vee had an opened face chicken sandwich and I had a cajun chicken and vegetable dish. After dinner, I tried to find an "off-license" for a few beers, but they were all closed. Back to the b&b for a nice early night of reading and downloaing our pictures.

Monday June 26th, we arose in the quiet solitude of Dingle, cleaned up, and headed down for breakfast, where we ended up having a really nice conversation with a really sweet young couple from Turino Italy, Simone and Guliana. Having been in so many places has opened up opportunities for connecting with people so much more easily than before. Guliana and Simone shared all the things they knew about Philly (The movie "Philadelphia", the "Philadelphia" cream-cheese, "Rocky"), and we in exchange told them about our impressions of specific parts of Italy. We exchanged contact information and offered our homes for any future visits in Italy/U.S.. Mrs.Murphy made sure we were well fed and happy, and we were, as I had scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, and Vee had smoked salmon over toast. With the car packed, we paid Mrs.Murphy, and got some last minute advice on where to stay for the night, and decided on Killolee, rather than Limerick or Adare. Our road trip in the morning took us around the Dingle peninsula, where we stopped a number of times to enjoy the spectacular views. One was at a super long and wide beautiful beach where cow pastures had the best ocean front location and the development was sparse to almost non-existant. Another was a view from above, of another wonderful beach. Another spot was at the top of the Conner Pass, where we climbed to the peak and stood on a pile of rocks from 360 degree views, including Brandon Mountain and Brandon Bay on one side of the mountains, and Dingle and the Dingle Bay on the other side. From the top, we rang a b&b in Killolee and were successful on the fourth dial. We had to shimmee the car down the one lane pass, avoiding a few oncoming cars and a bus or two, but luckily, it opened back up to two lanes and was actually quite a nice road beyond the construction. We stopped in a little town called CastleIsland for capps and pastries in the late afternoon, then on through Adare and Limerick and lots of other smaller towns before arriving in Killoloe. We mistakenly crossed the bridge into the adjacent town, after sitting in traffic forever, then had to reverse coarse, and sit in traffic again, but were able to right ourselves, and found the b&b soon after. We were greeted by Bryan, the owner's son, at the front door, and he showed us our room, gave us the keys and explained what the keys were for. We dropped off our bags and on the way out met the very friendly owner, Anne O'Conner, on our way out for a walk into town for dinner at Gooser's where I had a burger and Vee had a veggie baguette and we shared a scallop app and a chocolate mousse dessert. We walked back to the b&b where Vee showered and I washed some clothes in the sink with the Switzerland-Ukraine game on the tele. Probably just do some reading before bed.

Dublin - A Full Day in the City, and Then on the Road

Wednesday June 21st would be a full day in the city center of Dublin. Fighting the rain, and very nasty wind, we walked down into town where we found the tram. We ended up running into, and talking with a guy from Lancaster, PA who does website design and was here in Ireland to visit his deceased wife's grave. We talked for a while on the tram into the city, and after parting ways, we made our way to an Insomnia Cafe for some capps, sandwiches, etc., and then continued onto various city destinations including the Dublin castle, a tour of St.Patrick's Cathedral, many of the shopping districts and into the Guiness St.James Storage tour which was very fun, informative, and tastey. Outside, the wind and rain continued it's abuse, but we persisted, and continued walking and exploring alongside the river and back towards some of the shopping areas where we stopped to get some refreshments to take back to the hotel, and then took the tram back, ordered a delivery pizza from Four Star, and watched World Cup football. We would both agree that Dublin is a really cool, vibrant, unprecoscious, young city with tons of energy and bustle. We are amazed at how tied people are to their mobile phones and their iPods, but that just seems to be the way things are going, and these young folks are leading the charge.

Thursday June 22nd, we began embraced the open roads of Ireland. In the morning, we checked out of the IMI Residence, missed the bus by about 5 seconds, and rather than waiting 45 minutes for the next one, we hiked down to town and caught the tram into the city center of Dublin (St.Stephens Square). We walked towards O'Connell Street, from where the airport bus runs. After locating the stop for our bus, we walked back to Henry Street and found an Insomnia Cafe where we enjoyed some capps and eats and a lively conversation about globalization, it's impact on the U.S. versus Europe, as well as how identifying oneself with a religion and/or political party influences one's paradigm of the issues of the day. Soon after a waitress accidentally dumped a mug full of hot chocolate down the steps right next to us, we gathered our bags and walked back over to the bus stop. A taxi driver pulled up and said he'd charge the same rate for a ride to the airport and so we and another couple took him up on the offer. At the airport, the young lady at the Europcar rental desk got us all set up and before long we were outside getting into our little light blue automatic Ford Focus hatchback. We took our time getting prepared before I pulled out onto the highway, but once we both got familiar with the roads we'd be taking, we went for it. I was jittery, and Vee was apprehensive, but after a while, we finally escaped the worst of the traffic, and found ourselves cruising the highways without issue. Driving on the left side of the road became less of an issue as more time went by, but the roundabouts, intersections, exits, and narrow streets were nerve racking. We got a bit screwed up in Kilkenny, but with Vee's navigation skills, we righted our way and found the Celtic House B&B without too much trouble. Traffic is bad though. We were greeted by our hosts and we pulled the car into their gated parking area. We brought our bags inside, and soon went out to find a bit of dinner. We walked this fabulous town for a while, and eventually went into a great little family pub for a delicious meal; I had a beef and Guiness stew and Vee had a chicken in creamed mushroom sauce plate. Our waitress was fantastic, and after we paid up, we walked around town some more, admiring the old buildings, pubs, cafes, shops, churches, the castle, etc., and popped into and off-license for some beers to bring back to our room for the night. We caught the end of Brazil's 4-1 win over Japan, and that would pretty much complete the day.

Dublin - Through Glasgow from Edinburgh

Monday June 19th,
(Vee reporting): This was our last day in Scotland. We left our Euro-hostal bedroom by 9am, and headed inmediately towards St.Andrews Square (next to the scottish monument), where the visitors center is located. After speaking with one of the agents we learned that the bus station was only 2 blocks away. Thirty minutes later we were seated on our Bus with destination to GLASGOW.
The trip was very short (only 1 hour), and the glasgowian bus station was conveniently located in the heart of the city. After locking our bags in the station, we headed inmediately towards the main streets of Glasgow, and despite all the comments we heard about it being a not-so-nice city, we were gladly surprised. Glasgow is probably the biggest shopping city we have seen so far, surpassing Milano, Seville, Barcelona, Rome and Berlin. It is filled with wide pedestrian streets full with busy stores of all sizes, prices, brands and types. Glasgow (like every other big city we have visited) was crowded with people in the middle of the day (we keep wondering if people actually work!), which gave the city an energetic vibe.
After a quick Costa-Cafe break we continued our walk south and then east, covering the main areas of the city.
By 3 pm we felt ready for lunch and decided to stop at an italian restaurant where we had one of the best bruschettas we have ever had. We also shared a delicious pizza and a tasty dessert. The waiter was especially nice. He was a very friendly italian gentleman who recently visited Philadelphia. He was very excited to learn that we were from Philly, and made sure to give us his full attention and service.
A nice tip and 2 full bellies later, we were back on the streets of Glasgow. Cliff and I have not watched a movie since early February, and after confirming that we had in fact covered most of what Glasgow is known for (with the exception of its beautiful National Museums), we felt guilt-free to enjoy a movie at the theather. "The Da Vinci Code" was better than we thought it would, and did the trick. Luckily it finished right on time for us to take the bus to the airport, where we were flying off to Dublin.
The flight to Dublin was only 45 minutes! However the waiting line for inmigration took close to 2 hours! We were happy when we finally picked up our bags and were on our way to the Hotel that we had booked for the first night in Dublin.
The taxi-driver was super friendly, and made sure to recommend a few places to see and visit while in the city.
The Hotel was such a nice relief. It is an almost new construction and our bedroom was beautiful, and super comfortable...a nice break from the euro-hostal we had been enjoying in Edinburgh.
Cliff had to have a guiness, but shortly afterwards (around 2:30 am), we were in bed and very much asleep.

Tuesday June 20th, since the hotel was fully booked, we had to check into another one, and so spent the day making the transition from one to the other. Our intentions were to spend the majority of the day exploring the city center. But, with the time and effort it took to get from our hotel, into downtown, onto the next bus and to our new hotel, and then finding our room hooked up to free always on wired Internet, we decided to use the rest of the day as a work day. And besides, the weather was windy and rainy, and that wasn't exactly a motivating factor. We actually REALLY needed a down day since we both had sore feet and were a bit tired of the hustle of having to check in and check out of a different hotel room each night for the past two weeks or so. Vee worked on videos, I wrote postcards, did laundry, and then ventured out to find a store and a post office, with complete success, and then while Vee worked, I continued to read and watch World Cup football. We nibbled on bread with nutella, and chips. Not much else to report.

Edinurgh - Road Trip to Highlands, Loch Ness, St.Augustus and Inverness

Saturday the 17th of June,
(Vee reporting) We got up quite early compared to what we are accostumed by now (6 am), but we had a tour-bus to catch at 7:45 am to begin our 2-day "Highland Experience".
Our bus arrived right on time, and so we met our guide for the trip: "Big John", a tall, very friendly, animated and funny scottish guy around our age who obviously loves his job. "Big J" has 3 passions which he made sure to share with us for the following hours: Scottish outdoors sports, scottish history, and scottish whisky. This was just fine with us, since Cliff and I have come to LOVE learning about the history of these beautiful countries and treasure when this information comes freely and in such a fun way. With 15+ people or so comfortably seated in the bus, we began our ride north driving through the famous "Forth Bridge" to pass by St. Andrews (this is the very famous and privileged private university from which Prince William graduated last year!). After a 30-minute breakfast break in Dundee, we continued north driving through Pitlochry until reaching Dalwhinne where we were allowed a 45 -minute lunch break. We skipped lunch, but enjoyed the free-whisky tasting that was strongly recommended by big J. We also picked-up a very tasty and authentic scottish whisky for Dad, AND some "walkers" cookies as a snack. Once again in our bus, we continued our journey to the end of the first part of the trip for us: Fort Augustus, more known as the small little village next to "LOCH NESS". As most of you know, Loch Ness is mostly known as the official residence of "Nessie" the scottish dragon-like monster that some people believe to have seen in the waters of this lake for centuries. This is also the village where John dropped us off not before explaining us where our Bed & Breakfast is located.
Our B&B was only 2 blocks away from the lake, which I guess is quite far, considering that the whole village was 3 blocks long! The "Caledonian B&B" is a gorgeous 3 story-victorian home with a beaitiful garden, and lovely en-suite bedrooms full of character. Our host was a SUPER-friendly lady from London who had moved to this small area a few years back with her husband. She inmediately showed us our rooms and made us feel very comfortable and at ease.
After leaving or bags, and with still a half day ahead of us, we walked down to the center of town (all two blocks) and headed towards the tourist information center to inquire about the bus scheduled to "Inverness" (the town at the other end of Loch Ness). Thirty minutes and 22 EUROS later (ouch!) we were seated on the Bus to Inverness. The trip was only 1 hour long, but the views were all worth it....Sctoland is a BEAUTIFUL land, covered with green valleys, hills, mountains and lots of red-haired "hairy-coos(cows)". Inverness was a nice town to see, but for some reason it wasn't quite what we expected. We walked through most (if not all the city) and before we knew it, we arrived back to our bus station. We had only been 2 hours in town, yet we felt ready to go (we also wanted to catch the USA-Italy soccer match on time).
The trip back home felt quick, and so after quickly buying our beverages and snacks for the night we headed back to our B&B where we watched the incredible match that ended with 9 US players against 10 italians, AND with an impressive 1-1 score.

Sunday June 18th,
(Vee reporting) We tried to get up early for breakfast, but with our very late nights it's not an easy task to accomplish. I finally got out of bed afer hearing a small knock on our door. It was 8:30am and apparently we were expected for breakfast at the table by 8am.
Breakfast was simply DELICIOUS!! You should've seen Cliff's eyes when he saw his authenthic scottish breakfast arriving to our table. Our host was very entertaining as well. She asked where we came from and where we had been so far, then she told us more about the small village, and what people were like. Her hilarious sense of humour kept me laughing all through breakfast. When we finally asked her why scottish people were so openly against the british soccer team, and therefore against anything english; she told us about a unique answer she got from a scottish friend of hers :"If we didn't hate the english, we would kill each other!". Her perfect imitation of the scottish accent made it even funnier, and pleased our curiosity.
We still had an hour before catching our 11am FREE Loch-Ness boat cruise, so we decided to walk a little beyond the village. Only a few yards beyond town we found a beautful farm right next to the channel that connects Loch Ness with another Loch (lake). This is where we met "Henry the horny horse". Henry is a very good-looking blonde-haired horse who was happily eating some grass a bit far away from the fence where we stood. We invited Henry to approach us by offering him some grass in the hopes of catching a close-up picture of him. Henry did come towards us, but suddenly stopped before reaching the fence. I kept trying to persuade him to eat the grass out of my hands, but apparently I wasn't trustworthy. This is when Cliff and I exchanged roles by handing him the grass and me holding the video camera instead. Well, this proved to be a succesful idea. Right when Henry was approaching Cliffs hands, the close-up lense of the camera showed me something else that was quite unexpected and made Cliff retrieve his hands inmediately: Henry had suddenly grown a fifth leg; 5 (yes FIVE) legs, instead of four... when I told Cliff, we both retreated. Henry the horny horse, needed some time alone...
After laughing our way back to Loch Ness, we got there right on time to catch our cruise. If you ask us if we saw the monster, then you'll have to wait to see the pictures and videos of our cruise....for now, lets just say that we had an "interesting" experience.
Back on land, we inmediately met big J who had just arrived with the new group of people that came with his bus to complete the 2nd part of our "Highland Experience". The bus was a bit fuller than the day before, but we had no problem getting our seats, and the ride back to Edinburgh was pretty much uneventful, bus still very beautiful and interesting. We drove by Forth William while learning some interesting facts about this area, we later stopped in Glencoe and once again learned some fascinating (and tragic!) stories about some of the old scottish clans like the McDonalds and the Campbells. The McDonalds in particular, have many stories that are still remembered and celebrated in scottish history. The views at this point were absolutely incredible. The mountains of the highlands are so beautiful that I won't even try to describe them, and will only hope that some of the pictures and videos will do them a bit of justice. From here we continued our way south to Stirling, which is mostly known for the famous battles of Stirling that William Wallace lead and WON against the english of Edward the 1st. This is Wallace land, and after seeing it I can assure you that it is a place that I will not forget. The trip until this point was pretty much perfect, with the exception of one little annoyance we experienced in the bus on our way back to Edinburgh. Out of all the passengers, there were only 3 americans: Cliff, a girl and her boyfriend. The "boyfriend" kept interrupting John's stories by telling some of his own stories about the US and how much "cooler", "bigger","better", "expensive", "glamorous", everything in the US is in comparisson to what he had seen so far. Cliff was soo embarrased, since we assume that probably the rest of the bus thought that we either were with them, or we were just like them. Our guide (big J) showed his annoyance as well, but was able to handle the interruptions with class and peacefully.
An hour before arriving to Edinburgh we made our last stop on the road. It was time to meet "Haimish" a 13-year old hairy-coo(cow), who was hard at work ready to entertain the newcomers who were there to see him.
Shortly before 8pm we arrived back to Edinburgh, completely exhausted and very much ready for bed.

Edinburgh - Harry Potter, Braveheart and Rosslyn Chapel

Thursday June 15th, we got cleaned up, extended our stay for a few more nights, and went over to the Elephant Cafe for coffees and something to eat. The Elephant Cafe is where J.K. Rowling was inspired to begin writing the Harry Potter stories. Also, according to the brochure that we received, it has consistently been voted the number one coffee shop in Ediburgh. We think that Vee sat in the seat that gave her the same view to the castle that Ms.Rowling must have had when she began writing her billion dollar books. We shared a massive croissant and a tuna sandwich, and coffees while I pecked away on the computer, and Vee caught up with the news. We took our time and enjoyed ourselves, then went to the Internet cafe where we made reservations for our first night's stay in dublin, and bought tickets on AerLingus to fly from Glasgow to Dublin. We tried to make reservations for our Megabus trip from Edinburgh to Glasgow, but my credit card was giving me a fit, and we decided, since there were so many scheduled departures, to just buy our ticket upon boarding on Monday morning. Once finished with the computer, we walked down the Royal Mile to the Edinburgh Museum, and toured it's entire exhibit from prehistoric times to last century. From there, we walked up the hill to the observatory and adjoining monuments for some really nice views of the city. Then, we crossed the city, walking over to Princes and Rose street to the FOPP store and bought the Braveheart DVD on sale, then to the grocery store for a little salmon and cucumber on wheat sandwich that we ate sitting outside in the gardens near the visitors center. Since it was still fairly early, and we felt that we had pretty much seen all that we could that was still open, we walked Princes Street all the way down into the residential areas, and then back up the entire length of Rose Street. Along the way, we popped into a pub and caught the end of the England vs Trinidad Tobago match which England won 2-0. The behavior of the cheering English fans in the pub put Vee in a foul mood, but that eventually dissipated by the time we stopped in the grocery store again to collect a light dinner of smoked salmon, cheese, and bread. Back at the hostel, we discovered the fully stocked kitchen facility which made our dinner scraps easier to eat, and we fully enjoyed our little meal before settling in for a night of Braveheart.

Friday June 16th, we had to pack up and check out, because they were moving us again into another room. Once cleaned up and out, we got Vee set up at the Internet cafe, and I came back to do the laundry and finish reading a little book I picked up called "1914: Why the World Went to War". Two nights ago, upon learning that Robert Louis Stevenson was from Edinburgh, I read his tale of Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, which although I found the vocabulary and dated figures of speach a bit difficult for me, I did enjoy. Anyway, with clean laundry folded and packed, I collected Vee at the Internet cafe, and we walked over to another location of the Elephant Cafe where we enjoyed capps, stuffed bagels and a muffin. From there, we stopped into the office for the company that runs the tour we would be taking this weekend up to Inverness and learned that they cancelled the trip. So, they put together a custom trip for us, patching together a half-leg of their Saturday trip, an overnight in a cheaper B&B, and a half-leg of their Sunday trip, and a free boat ride on the Loch Ness, so it seems as if it will all work out fine anyway. Just kinda bummed about not getting up to Inverness, but maybe we'll find a way yet. From there, we descended upon the Visitors Center, and confirmed our information about how to get to Rosslyn Chapel via public bus, and then caught the 15A bus for the ride. It dropped us off pretty much at the entrance of the Chapel grounds, and we found quite a crowd already there, in addition to the large group that travelled on the bus with us. There was the usual hefty entrance fee to pay first, and then we got to catch most of the guide's explanation before we turned ourselves loose on the place. This is the now infamous destination for Da Vinci Code fans. It is a Knights Templar chapel founded by William St.Clair in the 15th century, and is said to contain an as yet unopened underground vault containing possibly the holy grail, the mummified head of J.C., and/or some other treasure. At the least, it is a wonderfully beautiful place, covered completely in ornate carvings, and is in the process of a long restoration. We walked the scaffolding above for nice views of the hills, and the chapel below. The bus ride back to the city was fun, and brief. We stopped in the Rose Street Brewery for a delicious pub meal (Vee=grilled salmon, Me=rarebit chicken) and then back to check into our new room at the hostel. Then, lastly, a short walk up to the quickie mart for our nightly refreshments and back to our room for the night.