Trip Photo's

Click the my photo's link (off to the right) to viw more photo's from the trip. I don't have them all posted yet, but I do have a bunch!!! Or Click here!

Paris! Paris!

We flew from Dublin to Paris the morning of the 3rd. Our lovely friend B (who was living there at the time) met us at the airport, and we all took the train back into the city. I have to say right now that B was the best part of our time in Paris, she was so much fun, and was willing to be a silly tourist right along with us, plus she spoke the language... she was our Parisian savior!!! Our hotel was not quiet ready yet so we dropped off out luggage and went to get some lunch...we were all starving! We had a fabulous crepe lunch. afterward it was tourist city!!!!

*this is us acting "french"
First we took a bus over to the Eiffel tower. We did not go up, even though there was not much of a line because it was raining off and on all day, but we did take the time to take all the cheesy eiffel tower pictures. The rest of the day we just wandered around the city to see all the sites, arch de triumph, the louvre, and a bunch of other cool old sites I can't even remember. For dinner we went to a French chain restaurant (I can't remember the name) who's specialty was mussels. I got my own huge pot of mussels...they were soooo good.


The next day we did more wandering around the city, and a bit of shopping. We were outside the pompidou (paris' modern are museum) and there was this guy with some really cool art work. B ended up getting a piece of his, and a bit latter after a coffee, and some thinking I went back and got a a painting for myself, because I knew If I did not I would regret it. We had to get back to our hotel by 5pm so we could start our "tour".

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the tour group I was about to spend two weeks with were not all fanny pack toting, black socks with sandels wearing people. They were mostly families with children ranging from, 15-26 and a couple of girls who were about to start medical/optometry school. They ended up being a great group of people. After a meet and greet we took the metro to a wonderful restaurant, and all had out first dinner as a group.


The next morning the whole group went to the Sainte Chapelle. It was very beautiful, and the stained glass windows were just amazing. We walked from there over to the Notre Dame which was also amazing. After our walk and site seeing, we broke for lunch, and had the rest of the day free to do what we wanted. We had a museum pass that would get us into a mess of places, so we chose to go to the pompidou (the modern art museum) There was so much great art to see.

There was this great exhibit called Détours d'objets Hijacking objects by Claude Courtecuisse. If you know me at all you will see why I like it so much. It was actually a children's exhibit. The artist took objects, toys, containers, blocks, anything you can think of, and stacked them up, and took photo's of them. There was also this room set up where you could go an sit on a plat form, and push a button, that took a picture of you, you then went over to a monitor and could choose from a list of images, including your photo, and make your own stack. You then printed out a receipt so you could go to a website and print out your stack. IT WAS SO COOL.

The next morning we went as a group to the louvre on out way out of town. We only spent about 3 hours there so we only had time for the highlights. One of which was the Mona Lisa, which frankly was a bit of a let down. It is an amazing piece of artwork, but there is something that 6 inches of bullet proof glass just takes away. All in all the museum was pretty amazing, and I'm glad we just got to see the highlights, because it is so huge it would really take weeks to see everything. ur

Thats about it for paris....Stay tuned to the next installment Beaune (bone) France!!!!

Beautiful Ireland

Matt and I are back safe and sound, despite our 30 plus hour ordeal on our trip back from Rome. We had so much fun, ate a lot of food, drank a lot of wine (and beer thanks to Ireland, Switzerland, and Austria) and did a lot of walking.

Since we went a lot of places, and had so much fun in each place I thought I would break the trip up into several posts. I also plan on posting more pictures on Flickr so keep yours eyes peeled for those.

FIRST STOP--IRELAND!!!!

First things first, Guiness does taste better in Ireland.


Full Guinness=Happy T


Empty Guinness=Sad T


We flew into Dublin on the 27th of June. We had rented a car so as soon as we got there Matt got to learn very fast how to drive in the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road. He did very well, and I'm so glad we rented a car because it gave us so much more freedom, even if back roads in Ireland are barely big enough for two cars, and both those cars are going way way to fast. After going to get some lunch we headed back to our B&B which was so very cute. I felt so bad, because all I wanted to do was go to sleep, and our super cute hostess wanted to talk. After a great nap we woke up and went to find some dinner, but nothing around where we were was open, so for dinner we had a pint of Guinness, and I have to say it really does drink like a meal.

The next morning we headed off to the dingle peninsula, which is on the SW corner of the country, in the county of Kerry. Our first night we stayed just five minutes outside of town. It was just the cutest little town, full of shops, and pubs, and surrounded by the most beautiful country side I have even seen. The Next day we moved on to a B&B in downtown Dingle right in the middle of everything.

Our first day we rented bikes, we could have ridden the whole peninsula (about 25 miles) but ran into some problems. After about 2-3 miles into the trip Matt's bike tire popped, so we had to walk our bikes all the way into town to get him a new bike. We set off again, this time in the other direction, rode about 5ish miles, took a break for lunch, in a wonderful cow pasture, and decided to call it a day. Who were kidding 25 miles...

That night we decided to take advantage of the local dingle night life. Most pubs after 9ish have Irish music jam sessions. There was a big pud right across the street from our B&B so we went there first, had a pint, then decided to move along because it was so loud and crowded that we could not hear the music. We walked up the way a popped into a great little that was not crowded or, loud at all, and the band KICKED ASS!!!! They were an Irish bluegrass band that did covers of, the White Stripes "hotle yorba", Johnny Cash, and Violent Femmes "waiting for the bus" (J--I thought of you when they did this one). They were awesome!!!


After one more day of site seeing, and shopping we headed back to Dublin. We stayed again at the first B&B, it was about 30 minutes from Dublin. In the morning we went into Dublin but only stayed for a few hours. We liked the smaller out lining cities much more so we decided to spend our last night in one of those instead of the city. We went to Skerries which is on the beach, a beach the reminded me a lot of the Oregon coast. We went for a nice walk, and had a wonderful seafood dinner. It was the perfect end to what I hope will be the first of many trips to Ireland.


Stay Tuned for the next Fun filled installment....Paris! Paris!