Diary Archives - Page 2 of 4

Galway to Killarney via Cliff of Moher

Today started out not so great. We had asked for a 7:00 wake up call, but it didn’t happen. That put us two hours behind schedule. We got up and going and left as soon as we could. The breakfast room was much busier and noisier at 9:45 that at 8:00.

we got on the road with Brenda driving. We didn’t drive at all yesterday so it took a little adjusting. No problems though. We headed south to the Cliffs of Moher. We stopped at Dunguaire Castle for a photo shot. It was very brisk outside and we didn’t stop long.
Continuing on to the cliffs, we arrived about two hours later than originally planned. (See notation above) and paid our entry fee. It was incredibly windy there! So much so that they closed O’Brien’s Tower for viewing. It was so windy that you could lean forward into the wind and not fall over. It was still quite foggy so the views were not as spectacular as they could have been. It was more than made up for in the excitement generated by the wind and the spray. Yes, spray. The wind was so strong that the surf was up over the cliff walls to where we were. One visitor we saw said it was like an upside saltwater waterfall. Accurate description. We saw all we could there, stopped in the gift shop and then grabbed a cup of tea to take away. We had places to be.

We drove south and decided to skip the auto ferry crossing of the Shannon and go around Limerick instead. This resulted in us driving under the Shannon River. That was fun. The toll was 1.90 euro.
We were so behind our time that we headed straight to the Randles Hotel for our overnight. What a beautiful hotel. It is so quaint. There are original oil paintings all over the place. Fireplaces all over the place. It reminds me of a very upscale Faulty Towers. After checking into our room I had just enough time to meet Michelle’s request for interior photos of St. Mary’s Church of Ireland. This is a very cute little church. I drove up there by myself to get it done before they closed. (Funny to think of a church closing)
Brenda and I went down to the hotel bar for a pint and sat by one of the fireplaces. We relaxed and chatted. Afterward we walked into the city center. I showed her Quills Woolen Shop and since it was open we went in. We each made some purchases. The ladies on staff recommended The Poterhouse for our dinner. It was a great suggestion. There was a single guitar player singing Irish tunes. The food was very good. Brenda greatly enjoyed her Irish Lamb Stew and my Fish and Chips with a side of mushy peas was just the thing to go with a pint of Guinness.
We then wandered over to Sheehan’s Pub for a pint and to hear some more local music. There was a group of five musicians playing. The atmosphere was grand. We shared a table with some locals, and then we shared that same table with a nice young couple from Boston. Tom and Rebecca were here in Killarney with friends, one of whom was born in Dublin. The friends were back at the hotel with the wee ones.
We are now back at the hotel for the night. Up bright and early for breakfast at 8:00 and then to try and see part of the Dingle Peninsular that we missed today.
Three days down, three to go.

Connemara and more – by bus

Today we woke to the sound of the crashing surf. It was wonderful. Again, I was too warm with the heavy comforter. Brenda was very comfortable and said she slept great. She loves the pillows! We got up to our wake up call at 7:00 a.m. to be ready for our pickup at 8:40 a.m. for our scheduled tour.
Breakfast was wonderful. The staff very pleasant. The space is roomy and open. After breakfast we headed up to the room to pack up for our day trip. The tour was booked on Viator.com and the confirmation said it was with Spirit of Ireland Tours. I had not received any reconfirmation from the local operator as indicated by the Viator documents, so I called last night before bed. It seems they never received our request? I forwarded the email with the confirmation and Damien assured me he would work it out. John picked us up right on time and we headed to the drop off location. Arriving there we discovered that they tour wasn’t going. They offered us a free Cliffs of Moher tour for today and then we could go to Connemara tomorrow. That didn’t work with our itinerary, so he moved us to Lally Tours. John dropped us at that location and gave us cash to pay for the tickets. Well…. that tour didn’t go either. We had woke to rain as well as the ocean sounds, and it continued to rain all day. Connemara in the rain is not a popular tour. Lally ended up passing up to Galway Tour Company. This was a large 40-passenger bus, with only 14 people on it. Paul Norton was our driver. (Director is his title on his card) He was a wonderful driver/guide. His commentary was informative, funny, though provoking and more. This tour didn’t go exactly where the other one was, but we were very happy with it.
We went to Ross Errily Abbey, Cong Village, Lough Nafooey, Leenane/Killary Harbour, Kylemore Abbey and Inagh Valley. Brenda said is was the “best day ever” even though it rained. Paul asked the small group if anyone was in a hurry or had a schedule to maintain. Since no one did, he extended parts of the tour. We arrived back at our hotel. (Yes, he dropped us off even though we didn’t book with them originally!) about 6:15 p.m. It’s been a long day, and isn’t over yet.
We are off to find dinner, more music and a pint in town shortly. Pictures to follow.

Slán go fóill

The first full day in Ireland.

It actually started out in Germany. We landed in Frankfurt at 6:20 a.m. in Terminal A/Z. It was a very long walk to Terminal B. We were both glad for the walk though after sitting for so long. We got to the gate and found some benches nearby. I think we both took a bit of a nap there while waiting. Brenda exchanged some USD for Euro at a rate of $1 to 1.29. This ended up being high due to the commission, but she was glad to have some Euro.

The flight to Dublin was full. We had exit row seats with lots of leg room. The flight attendant’s jump seat was in our row. Stephanie was very nice. Even though this was a short flight they served drinks and sandwiches. We arrived in Dublin just about on time. The line for immigration was very long for the non-EU passengers, but went quickly. There was not proper customs procedure to speak of after they stamped out passports. The luggage arrived quickly and we found the rental car desk. That process went very quickly as well. The agent for Enterprise was pleasant and easy to work with.

The car is small, which is good! We got out of the lot and onto the highway system right away. After a little directional issue we got on the correct road and headed to Galway. The highway system is very well marked, it was more of a user error. We made a stop about halfway across at Clonmacnoise. This ancient Christian site is well worth the stop. The short movie that is included in the cost of 7 Euro to enter is worth the time. It was Brenda’s turn to drive when we left Clonmacnoise. The narrow country roads were thankful fairly empty on Sunday. She got the hang of the left side driving quickly. We returned to the highway and continued on to Galway. I made a misdirection and sent up through the city proper. That was an experience! Traffic was heavy, but we made it through. There was a circus tent set up in the Salthill area. By the time we returned to town for dinner at night, the tent was down. The Salthill Hotel is beautiful. We have an ocean view! I can see why this hotel is a great one for our groups. There is plenty of room in the restaurant for a large group to have breakfast and the lobby area is nice and large.

We took a taxi into Galway city (10 euro) and got some great recommendations from the driver. We walked High St., which is pedestrian only, have saw so many great places to eat, drink and shop. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant we had dinner at. We each had the Guiness and beef stew. It was very good. Just prior to dinner we had went into Taaffe’s as they listed food on their sign. Unfortunately the kitchen is not open on Sunday. There was some music there so we stayed for a pint and listened to the music for a while. I danced with a gentleman after he saw us tapping our feet to the music. That was interesting, to saw the least. After we had dinner, we went to Tig Coili for music and a pint. We arrived just as the music was about to start. We got our pints at the bar and found stools to sit on. Right near us was a young couple that looked about to leave. We planned to take their place, but they decided to stay. We asked them if they minded if we moved our stools closer to the music. Joe and Allison, here from Philadelphia, were very pleasant to talk to. And guess who we should run into but Eugene, the dancing man from Taaffe’s. After all this we hailed a taxi back to the hotel and went to bed. The end of a very long but fun-filled day.

Ireland Here We Come!

Sunday, February 27 we were up and heading to Detroit for the flights to Dublin. The drive was great and getting let out right at the departure terminal was a real plus. Big thanks to the husbands for taking us to the airport!
Check-in at the Lufthansa counter was quick and efficient, as was the security line. We arrived at the airport just shy of the three hours before and that was plenty of time in this case. The flight departed about 30 minutes late. This caused us no concern as we had a long layover in Frankfurt. The plane was very clean. Brenda and I were not assigned seats together, but very close. We worked with the cabin crew and I was able to move to sit by her. The food was good and the cabin crew very friendly and helpful. The display screen closest to Brenda didn’t work and the crew was not able to fix it. We were sitting in a three seat row directly behind a four seat row, so there was an extra screen for her to see. She was very excited about the whole trip.
Sunday ended with us in-flight to Germany.

Berlin – 5 miles of walking

Today we have a whole day in Berlin. It is our last day of the trip. We decided against breakfast at the hotel. The night before we had made a loose plan for the day. We needed to see the Musical Instrument Museum (to make use of our Museum Pass) and I wanted to see the DDR Museum and get some photos. There was a listing for a Neue National Gallery that had German Expressionists included on our pass as well. Armed with maps, camera and a plan we left about 10:00 am.
In hindsight I would stronger recommend the Welcome Card. We have use of the S trains as part of our Rail Pass, but not the bus, tram or underground network. Having spent 24 Euro per person on the Museum Pass we didn’t want to purchase another 30 Euro pass for the Welcome Card.
Today was filled with walking, and more walking. We did take the S train to the Alexanderplatz stop though. We stopped to get a breakfast sandwich and coffee for fuel.

DDR east german kitchen — East German era kitchen

DDR museum car — Actual modified Trabi car that you could “drive” with passengers in the car. The history of these little cars is incredible.

From there we walked to the DDR Museum. Admission was 7 Euro per person. That was an experience. It has a lot to offer, but the space allowed for it is so small. I got lots of photos, so I am pretty sure I will have some we can use. If all the material there were spread over an area twice the size it would be much easier to see it. The replica of the apartment and the actual Trabant car were fun. There was a video game type interaction with the car so you could try to “drive” it. Of course, the line was very long and it was very crowded so we didn’t wait for that.

Berlin Wall_2 — Section of the Berlin Wall that features photographs of the people who died attempting to cross the wall.

A wide variety of topics are covered from propaganda, sports, jobs, education and fashion. Most student groups should find something of interest there. It was funny to think that the wall went up in 1961 so I never knew a world without it, and my son was born in 1989 and has never known a world with it. The wall fell on November 9, 1989. From the DDR museum we continued to the Berlin Wall Memorial. There are several sections of the wall still standing. We walked up to the memorial. That was moving. The sight it well documented. We chose to walk the wall routing. Different parts of the route has information you can read pertaining to the history of the wall. That the wall went up almost over night is amazing.

Berlin Wall Tower — This guard tower in along the route of the wall. It is all that remains of the all in this residential housing area.

As we were walking, it took longer to get places. We walked the route of the wall all the way to the Bandenburg Gate. This time we came at the gate from the opposite side. It was after 3:00 pm when we go to this area. We had not had lunch yet and our feet were tired. We stopped in an apothecary to purchase some ibuprofen.I ask the pharmacist about the restaurant nearby. He said the food was not so good. He directed us to a Chinese restaurant. It was very good. Had we not been so tired, we would have walked back to thank him for the recommendation.
It was getting on past 4:30 pm when we were done with our meal. There was no way to make it to the Musical Instrument Museum, which closed at 17:00 (5:00) so we looked into the art museum. I double checked online and found that it was closed for “refurbishing” for two years. Bummer. It is now 5:00pm and we are dog tired. We walked to the Typography of Terror. This is free. It is located on the grounds were the SS and the Gestapo were housed. The original buildings are gone, but the legacy remains. This museum presents the rise of the secret police from 1933 until its end. Lots of photos with documentation in both German and English. We left there drained both physically and mentally. We started the trip out with a visit to Dachua Concentration Camp. Today we read and saw photos of several accounts referencing Dachua and the evil that was done there.
We have made it back to the hotel using the very efficient German train system. There was a very nice grocery store in the train station, so we purchased some snacks instead of having dinner since lunch was so late.
Tomorrow we depart the hotel at 6:30 am to be at the airport by 7:00 am. Our AirBerlin flight is scheduled for 10:00 am. Let’s hope the Lufthansa strike doesn’t affect us. We did purchase travel protection though, just in case.

Good bye Germany. Definitely want to come back and spend more time in Berlin, as well as see more of the country. Berlin deserves much more that one-and-a-half days!

Riechstag Building — View of the Reichstag Building along the river Spree. Near the end of our very long walk.

Berlin

We got up in Leipzig after sleeping in somewhat. I heard it rain all night, sometimes quite hard. When we got up about 8:00 and headed downstairs to breakfast it was done raining. The breakfast buffet at the Best Western Leipzig was really nice. There were lots of options to choose from and the staff was very friendly.
We decided not to go into town and headed to the station to catch the train to Berlin. That was easy. We had to wait just minutes before it arrived and we could board. The train travelled at speeds of up to 220 kph. Arriving in Berlin a little after noon, we navigated the central train station and found a S-line train to near our hotel.
We are staying two nights at the Hotel am Steinplatz – a Marriott Autograph Collection hotel. It is very nice. We have a view of the center garden. The only problem I have had with all the hotels rooms on this trip is that the beds offer a heavy comforter and a pillow, no sheet or blanket. We have both been very warm at night.
We dropped our stuff off in the room and headed out with the intention of taking the Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour of the city. That didn’t work. We walked to the place where we were to meet the bus and purchase the tickets, but the man there said he was told not to sell tickets after 3:00 pm. There was “30,000 things going on” and the tour couldn’t go the regular route. He told us to come back tomorrow.

Kaiser Wilhem Detail — Detail of some of the damage the church received during the bombing raid in 1943.

We decided to walk past the Wilhem Kaiser Church and on to the Tiergarten. We walked along the garden and ended up the Kultural Forum. There are several museums on this campus. We wanted to see the old masters’ painting and went into the Gemaldegalerie. There was a long line to purchase tickets. This was due to the special Botticelli exhibit. We chose not to see that exhibit as it cost extra and were not that interested in it. Because of the special exhibit, they had the center of the space reserved. This required the viewer to go through the whole permanent exhibit then back track and see it all again to get out. Not a very good layout. The lighting in there also wasn’t very good for the very large paintings. Quite a lot of light was reflecting off the paintings making it hard to see some of the details. Overall a good collection of works and worth the time. We chose to purchase the Museum Pass that would let us see the Musical Instrument Museum as well. That museum, however, closed at 5:00 – unlike the others that close at 6:00pm. This was disappointing. We decided to see that tomorrow.

We continued to walk down the side of Tiergarten and then crossed a path into the park. This part is very large. The Brandenburg Gate is at the east end of the park. As we walked we began to hear cheering and a voice over a loudspeaker. There was a rally going on near the gate. We couldn’t tell what it was about, but overall it seemed peaceful. We wandered around there for a bit and decided to take the S train back to the hotel area. There was a restaurant that we had passed earlier and we went there for dinner. It featured traditional German food. It was very good. We each got something different and then shared them. After dinner we walked back to the hotel to rest up.

Tonight we had planned to go to a jazz club. There were four to chose from and we ended up walking to the A-Trane Jazz Club. What we didn’t know was that the Berlin Jazz Festival was going on. We got there only to learn that the first was sold out. We waited around a bit just in case there were some no-shows for the tickets. While waiting we met two young women and a young man. They were each there on their own and didn’t have tickets either. Once the 9:30 pm show started without any of us getting in, we all walked across the street to a cafe/bar owned by the same people that owned the A-Trane. Ollec, Grodal, and Andrea were great fun. Ollec is from Russia, Grodal from Tunisia and Andrea from Germany. That we all met at a jazz club in Berlin was very cool. We had a beer and talked while waiting to see if we could get into the next show that night. By the time we went to check back it was getting closer to 10:30 pm. Tim and I decided to pass and said goodbye to our new friends. I hope they got into the show.

German Train Travel

View from our hotel Rothenburg — The view from our hotel window. We were on the top floor.

We managed to sleep in until 8am today. We got up and found the breakfast location that was part of the hotel. It was off site. I am not enjoying the German breakfasts. Tim does though. I am not big fan of meat and cheese for breakfast. I am making do though; when in Rome. We did not know how to check out of the hotel, so we just left the key in the room. The place is very small. There might be 17 rooms in the whole place. It was cute though, and unique.

We got to the train station in plenty of time and boarded our train. Today we were to travel by train from Rothenburg ob der Tabuer to Steinach, then on to Wurzburg, to Fulda and finally to Leipzig. The train from Steinach to Wurzburg was late. (Which was the only train our whole trip that was late.) This moved the rest of our schedule back. Instead of getting into Leipzig at 14:46 we didn’t get here until 16:20.

Our hotel, the Best Western Leipzig, is just across the road from the train station. This hotel is very nice, and our room is quite large. We have a sitting area, sleeping area, a hallway and a bathroom. We checked in and then quickly went out to see the Bach Museum before it closed at 18:00. We got there just about 45 minutes before they closed. We went through it anyway. It was small but very enjoyable. The old instruments were very cool, as were the actual Bach manuscripts. It was too dark to really see the Thomaskirke, so we may go out in the morning before we head to Berlin. The city has a younger vibrate vibe, much like Dublin. There are streets closed off to traffic with lots of pedestrian usage.

German Trains — We found the German train system to be clean, efficient and easy to navigate.

The train to Berlin will be about an hour and ten minutes. It is a direct train as well, which will be nice after all the changing we did toady. Again, big thanks to Tracy for the schedules. It made me much more comfortable navigating around.

I wish I had thought to bring a pedometer. It would be interesting to see how much walking we have really been doing. Our feet sure tell us that we’ve walked a lot. Though today not so much, since we had five hours on the train.

All in all I am very glad we got the rail pass and took the rain system. It has been a learning experience for sure.
Next stop – Berlin!

The Burgs

Today we managed to get up early. After having our last breakfast at the Hotel Dolomit, we left for the train station. The information that Tracy provided was great. We got to the station and found our train. We didn’t have reservations, so we had to surrender our seats, but that was okay as there were others we could sit in. We didn’t see the need for reservations for such short rides. The hour flew by and we got to the station for our change of trains. The whole thing could not have been move smooth.

Albrecht Durers House — Since 1871 the Albrecht-Dürer-Haus has been a museum
dedicated to Dürer’s life and work.

The first train stopped in Nurnberg. We choose to put out luggage in a locker. The cost was 5 euro. We then walked around Nurnberg. It was a very nice city. Tim really enjoyed it. We were both glad that we decided to make the side trip. The city walls and the medieval building were a treat. We managed to work our way around to the Albrect Drurer house. After about two hours of walking around town we went back to retrieve our luggage and find the train.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber from tower — One of the views from the top of the tower.

We arrived at Rothenburg ob der Tauber about 1pm. We walked from the train station to the old city. Our hotel, Das Gastehaus am weissen Turm, is in the old town. They let us check in at 2pm, which was very nice. This guesthouse is 800 years old. We are on the third floor, with no lift. I managed to fall on our walk to the hotel. The cobblestone streets, the luggage, and being tired all combined to me losing my balance. The only damage was a tear in my pants. No big deal. After checking in and unloading our stuff we went out exploring. This is a very cool place. The building are so cool. You are definitely not in Grand Rapids.

We walked all around the city today. I climbed to the top of the tower. The 241 stair climb was rewarded by great views of the city. Tim passed on the climb. The platform was very small at the top. Only five people were allowed out there at a time. I took lots of photos of this spot, but they just didn’t do justice to the great view.

Medieval Torture Museum diorama — There were many dioramas and pages to read. The materials were all presented in English as well.

We toured the Medieval Crime and Justice Museum that I had learned about in the Lunch and Learn DVD series at Witte. It was very cool. There was lots to see related to the middle ages other than torture. The emphasis is on the justice system and how it evolved in Medieval times. It is well worth a visit. (5 euro per person to get in)

We found the shop that held the German Christmas museum. We chose not to go into the museum part, but we did some shopping in the store. We skipped lunch entirely today, so by dinner time we were quite hungry. We stopped at a hotel/restaurant that had a menu that looked good. We have done fairly well on our spending on meals. We are opting for bratwurst, sauerkraut and potatoes and beer of course. No being sure, we are including a cash tip to the server of about 10%. They seem happy with that. It is necessary to check to make sure that a service charge hasn’t been added to your bill though.

After dinner it was almost dark. I had hopped to take the Night Watchman Tour at 20:00, but as we were walking back we heard him out doing the tour in German. We did not know if he would go again in English and we are both very tired. We called it a night about 8:15 (20:15 local time) and have another full day of train travel and sights to see.
Off to Leipzig tomorrow to catch up with J.S. Bach.
Happy Guy Fawks Day.

Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau

Today we got up extra early and took the 7:53am train to Fussen. The train ride was very pleasant and the scenery was great. We got to Fussen and discovered that they are rebuilding the train station, so the toilets were not there. We decided to walk briefly around the town and found the Fussen Heritage Museum had a WC. The cost was .50 each, but they were very clean and much appreciated. It was agreed that we would walk to the area where the castles are. It was a very pleasant 3.2k walk. The path was well marked, level, and traveled a lot by bicyclists. The weather has been great. Today was a little overcast, but it was still quite warm after the walk. The walk also afforded glimpses of Neuschwanstein Castle through the trees.

Arriving at the business area around the castles we choose to walk up to the Hohenschwangau first. This one was an actual residence. The coloring looked wonderful against the fall foliage. Taking one path up, we walked around the outside of the castle and saw the gardens. We took the other, longer path back down and then started up the trail to Neuschwanstein Castle. That was a long, very steep, hike. You can pay for a bus to take you most of the way up, or there is a horse-drawn wagon you could hire as well. Neither of these options will take you all the way to the castle. For the off season, there were quite a few people there. We had decided not to go inside the castles, but to just walk up to and around them.

View of Neuschwanstein Castle as we entered the castle area.

Our walk through the town area also afforded us nice views of the castle. The Marienbrucke (Mary’s Bridge) was closed for maintenance. We did have some nice views of the waterfall coming down the side of the mountain. We took yet another path down from that castle. We decided to take the bus back to Fussen as we were both quite tired. The bus ride is 2,20 per person one way. The ride back was much quicker than our walk there! We wandered around the little town of Fussen and had a late lunch at Ristorante La Perla. The food and the beer were great. The server was very funny. He showed my Rick Steves’ travel book to the owner. That book was our reference for where to eat. After some shopping we headed to the temporary train station to catch the 16:05 train back to Munich. I think we both nodded off on the ride back. We got back to the hotel and decided to go out after dark for a walk around the hotel area. Not the best area for families. Lots of import shops. Lots of sports betting places. There is a Euro Store right across the street. Tomorrow we get up early and start our journey north. Our final destination tomorrow is Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Since we have to change trains in Nurnberg, we may take a couple of hours to walk around there as well. It will depend on the time schedule for the trains. It will take four connections to get to our final destination.
Guten Tag