Ireland - Dublin Second Time

Hello Green Isle!!

Things are great, and always getting better.
 
  We were happy to be back in the "cheerful city".   We love the Irish and their good moods.  Sure, you'll get a sour apple once in a while, but they are a rare breed over here.   We took the bus to our hotel Fitzsimons Hotel Temple Bar and asked if we could get any free upgrades.  Alexandria gave us 3 keys and said go check them out and take your pick.  We definitely liked the 3rd floor corner room looking over the river so we "took" it,

 
got ready, and I headed down to post Interlaken and enjoy a fresh Guinness from the tap.  Live music soon started playing and I listened while enjoying the excellence of fresh Guinness in Ireland.  Remember, from second post on the blog, that over here it's an entirely different animal that the Guinness drinkable in the USA.

  

  I silently thanked the Guinness Brewery a few miles away by grabbing another Guinness and we shortly were heading off to dinner at a place Alexandria recommended - O'Reilly's of Temple Bar.

  Candace had a great risotto with curry vegetable and I had a good beef and vegetable Irish pie.

 

  We noted the "19th centrury" cracks in the wall, more because of the note that they stuck up there than because of the crack itself, which we thought was funny :)



  Also funny was all the Guinness advertising in Ireland.  A picture here of a guy with a Guinness in one hand, lifting a building with the other arm and a phrase on the ad saying "Guinness will make you strong".  Or a smileface in the foam on top of the pint glass and a saying "Have a nice day, have a Guinness".   We thought this one was funny too -



  We were soon off, walking along the cobblestone Temple Bar area passing live music left, right and everywhere.  Sometimes people were just playing guitars on the street singing and we'd join in with whichever small group had also stopped and was drawn in by Wonderwall or some other cool song that was being played.



    You could catch people playing Johnny Cash and some other legends as well. We heard even more music wafting out of the bars that we passed, which is how we repeatedly were drawn into places!  We sometimes happily enjoyed listening to the music, while at others we would end up singing along to some the tunes or silently listening to the upbeat Irish music that alternated through the songs.  I'll tell you though, the Irish didn't silently listen =)  It was fun listening to the girls "Yip" and the guys "heeeYO".



  One place that was particularly cool was a bar on the north side of the road that had multiple levels.  A guy downstairs with a guitar sang some great oldies, classics, and Irish tunes, while a group of three gentleman played great and more traditional Irish music upstairs.

  We soon continued our walk along this party area and came to the Hard Rock Dublin.  You can't resist the great classic rock they play there so we chilled for a few then headed back to the street.  Along the road back we hit up a cool spot with amazing live music which we listened to until they gave up.

  With our Hotel stay, we got free entrance to the club below the hotel so we went on down and checked that out.  It was dead as we had kinda expected because it was still only around midnight so we then proceeded upstairs where some great live music was being played at the bar area near our reception.  They were playing some great old-school alternative songs like some Red Hot Chili Peppers as well as some Irish tunes.  Alas, that too was soon wrapped up around 30 minutes later. 

 

  Off we went to the 80's club that we had went to when we were in Ireland at the beginning of the trip.  We were soon back to the hotel and the club downstairs to close out the night at which point we headed upstairs to crash!

   Sadly, but ready, we headed to the bus in the morning and to the airport, noting some cool stuff along the way.



  Soon we were on the plane and into line for takeoff.



  On the plane ride right now,



  and I just finished organizing a bunch of "Background" pictures for my computer: about 250 shots out of the 4300 pictures taken on the trip.  We visited 11 countries, 22 cities and were gone for 65 days from Arizona.  We strengthened our relationship together, as we always do when spending time together, and we didn't get tired of eachother! haha.  Alhough there might have been a couple arguments, for us it's not about having an argument, then simply taking time to cool off and saying "OK lets move on now".   It's definitely more - OK what was the cause of that? And then figure it out, and now we know so we can make each other happier in the future, rather than have repetition over and over.   The understanding too that happens when spending every day and moment together for two months is just beginning to dawn on us as we go about our every day lives as a couple just a few days after getting back to the US (as I'm reading through this and adding a couple things before posting.)  Communication is great.

  We learned a lot about travel, trains, languages, customs, food, ways of living, and more.  My favorite places were Interlaken, Amsterdam and Cinque Terre with Paris and Barcelona a close fourth and fifth.  I also enjoyed the value of the "Bang for your buck" of the fine dining in Budapest and Prague as well.  Candace loved the scenery of Interlaken and the sites to see of Paris and Barcelona.  Overall we have no regrets (except Maybe I'd like to drive a bazillion hours on the Audubon in Germany) and were glad to have taken the plunge into the Europe scene.  Along the road, we found some more places to go visit like Croatia and another place near the Czech Republic, etc, so more is to be done in the future in the Europe area.  Other trips on the dream list are hiking part of the Great Wall of China, doing Australia and the surrounding area there, taking a 10+day Alaskan Cruise, some parts of Africa, and more.

  Though the initial creation of the Blog was to have a journal for myself and Candace for later viewing, it turned out to be so much more and better than a journal.  With pictures and videos going along with the writing, we organized a bunch of things along the way that might never have gotten done later.  It also helped to make the "pages" come alive more than any written journal could have.  It's also an easy tool to give to someone for ideas about Europe in the future, and a great way to keep friends, family and customers alike informed on what's going on and hopefully entertained a bit along the way.  Thanks so much to everyone who said "it was awesome" or "I felt like I was there", or "it inspired me", or "I loved the history in the posts", etc, all the generous comments.  I don't know if I write that well, but it made me happy that everyone seemed to think so!  If you have been reading, and I haven't heard from you, I hope it was worth the time as well. 

  I actually will most likely post about the "reentrance" to America in about a week, and maybe even the challenge of the completion throughout August of a 100k summer, the ultimate summer goal for a sales rep in Cutco yielding an extra day at the CSP retreat for free, even though I've been gone for most the contest period.  I hope this can inspire others to see what is possible.  Though either way, here ends the info on Europe and begins life back in America.  As a wise man once said to me - "I wish you health, wealth, and abundance in all areas of life", I also wish that to anyone reading this. 

Jason & Candace

France - Paris Second Time

  Shayne's place was in a 300 year old building - "As old as the ancient tree outside" he said.  An enthusiastic older gentleman, he loves Paris and wants to share his awesome location where he lives with the world.  He began telling us of the magical currents of energy that flowed in lines throughout the world and that many run through cities, which were built along them.  He said that in the area in Paris that we were in, 4 of the laylines converge in his neighborhood and why there are 5 churches within a block or two of each other and built around this area.  He said he hadn't seen or heard a fight out front of his place (one of the busiest party streets in Paris 7 days a week) and also mentioned that it's a reason why people are so happy and live so long in the area.


  After more interesting conversation, some history of the area in regards to Romans, the story of the hill and so on, he gave us a super awesome map that he put together himself and sells normally for 2.5 euros.   The three of us then headed downstairs for dinner together!  Shayne is an American who moved to France chasing a girl 30 years ago.  He has been a teacher, a playwriter and actor, and does tours of the city of Paris, among other things.  He takes people in for a month at a time for $1200, making them fluent in French.  They stay at his place and he teaches them French every day in his special way, even using movies to help learn the slang.


  Dinner was at a Greek restaurant downstairs and was very good, filling, and costing only 18.50 euros.  Shayne did an opening scene for us from one of his plays he wants to put on and we were impressed.  I hope we can someday see it in a theater.


  Candace and I grabbed our chilled wine from the flat and headed for a walk, swinging by Shakespeare & Company





 and along the river to once again check out Notre Dame, only moments away.





  Some of the same performers were there doing their thing and it was fun to stop and watch for a bit while we enjoyed our Muscat wine.





  Eventually wanting to get away from all the people, we snapped a pic of Notre Dame and headed to walk along the river.





  Stopping at various spots, we talked about stuff and enjoyed the surroundings.





  We hit up a couple spots that we had wanted to see the last time we were there and didn't get a chance to, ending up at the point of the island west of Notre Dame (google maps it and you'll see exactly the area we were in).  We headed up to a bridge with a view of the Eiffel Tower





  and hung out while the rest of the "hour" ended and the Eiffel Tower lit up in sparkling glory for it's 5 minute show.  (It does this in the evenings each hour on the hour)


  Heading back home, Candace found a little guy through the window





and we then stopped directly across the street from the apartment/flat and went into the Jazz club which was in a cool downstairs, cave-like room.  This place has been around a very long time and every night there is live music here and dancing until 2 or 3am.  It's also cool because you could barely hear anything from the street, but they have plenty of volume downstairs. 





  We had some fun and then it was a night!


  The next morning we took a walk to Notre Dame and enjoyed the inside, which we had never been in.





  We hadn't been in a Cathedral in a bit so we were glad we didn't see it the last time that we were in Paris, because it would have been right after going inside the Louvre, which is ridiculous in its art and beauty.





   It was a beautiful walk through and we took some pics before heading outside





to walk around to check out the garden in the back that Shayne had told us about.





  Eating a little picnic, we relaxed in the great scenery and watched a couple get their wedding pictures taken. 





  We then walked back to the place a different route, crossing a "bridge of locks"





  The idea with the bridge was that you and your Sig. other would come together with your lock in hand, attach and lock it to the bridge, then throw the key into the water as a symbol of your commitment and staying locked together forever.  Cool idea.





  We attached a piece of tissue paper securely to the metal frame because that's all we had.  Besides, if I don't have an adamantium lock, its all or nothing because it could be cut off so tissue will have to do! ;)




  We passed another garden across the river and on the way back.





   One more pic of Notre Dame and a 300 year old tree, supported by a tree made of stone.


 


  Soon it was time to push on and to catch our flight to Dublin, Ireland!


Jason & Candace

France - Munster

  We checked in and started our tour of Verte Vallee Resort in Munster, France.  The view from our room on the 5th floor was great and the rapids from the river below could be heard as soon as we opened our window.  To the right -

To the left -

A little ghetto panoramic for you ;)

  The outside area was awesome to walk around in and enjoy the sun, the flowers, and the bench right on the river.  I sat on the river and wrote a blog entry, while Candace went in the hottub and pool area, and layed out in the sun.  Thanks Drew for reassuring me about bringing the Labtop.  It's been invaluable and allowed me to write my blog with some pretty cool scenery.

Checkin Video - 

  The resort/hotel also had a Sauna, Steam Room, and "cold pool" where we could utilize the method that we learned in Budapest.  We didn't get to do that yet though because we headed out front where they had a barn full of mountain bikes that you could just take for free whenever.  Grabbing a couple, we headed out for a pleasant bike around the town of Munster.

  Several times bigger than Eguisheim, we had fun biking down the main shopping area and grabbing Candace a light sweater plus eating blueberry and munster Crepes at a table alongside the road.  We saw some cool houses along the way - decked out in flowers like Eguisheim

  As well as some great views of the surrounding country -

   We also visited a couple parks where I got a close-up of the birds that were making huge nests all over the town.

  We followed the river back and soon were in the square in front of the Cathedral, tasting various cheeses and jams from the vendors who had setup to represent the local businesses in and near the town.  This tempted our appetites, and since we had eaten our picnic already at that bench along the river at the resort earlier in the day, we again biked through the town searching for a good place to eat.  Though we found several restaurants, something kept tugging at me to go back to the resort and so we headed back there for dinner instead.  We picked up a bottle of Muscat wine that we could enjoy along the riverside in Paris the following night (always thinking ahead) and Candace guided us back to the resort where she continued on showing me a path she found earlier that ran along the river at our resort -

Taking us to a bridge -

And to a beautiful lake area -

Where "gods" viewed over their sanctuary -

  Scooting back over to the hotel, we got changed and were down to dinner in no time.  I wanted to post a picture of everything we were getting, because I knew it would be a special meal, but I forgot for like half the things!  There were 6 items that we had as well.  The first two were just gifts from the chef - 

A fig with mango and cured meat  concoction -

Then came our Veal/ Lobster appetizer 

and Risotto, which was our second favorite thing of the meal and a "specialty" of the chef.

  The other "specialty" of the chef that night was rabbit, our favorite dish of the evening.  It was unlike anything I'd had before. 

  The meat was fall-apart tender, and was layered above some sort of spongy-potato-like food.  To the side were Cabbage-wrapped mashed potato balls with blueberries…

  For dessert we had the "chef's choice" rice chocolate soufflé with chocolate ice cream on top.

  We had one glass of wine each from grapes we had never heard of, plus our Dessert wine, which was a Spanish wine from the year 1979.  It was a very dark, sweet and unique wine.  Though the bill was about the cost of a room at the hotel for the night, it was a special meal to remember to go with a special time!

  Heading up and changing, we elevatored down to the hot-tub / sauna area.  

  Unfortunately it was closed, so we walked around outside a bit by the river and then I was able to get us into the pool area through a door that I found.  Wandering around in the dark and closed pool area, we checked out the sauna and steam room but they were powered down.  Heading back upstairs we also powered down ourselves so that we could get up early and get into the sauna before we had to leave for Paris in the morning.

  Which by the way was awesome (the sauna)!  Nice and hot, Candace kept pouring water on the rocks.  I moved from the cold pool, to the warm pool, to getting a jet massage, to a bubble massage, then to the hottub, and then finally into the sauna where Candace was.  She was the first to leave the room and enter the "coldtub" which was as cold as the one in Budapest and invigorating.  We will be having a sauna and coldtub combo where we live soon enough.

  The steamroom was eucalyptusy nice and we were soon off to Paris from the tracks at Munster -

  Candace found a friend at the station while we waited for our delayed train - 

  Then we were off to Paris, making it there after our train broke down and the French charged us 70 Euros for a 3 hour train ride and we just thought that was interesting since we'd been paying nothing for trains that were 8 to 10 hours long over the course of the last few weeks.  Oh well, they must be desperate so if they need the $ no big deal, lets just hope they are not greedy because that always comes back around.  Ready for a night on the river in Paris, we were excited to check in with our host Shayne who lived in view on the river and a 2 minute walk from Notre Dame in the heart of the city, DANG, how can you even get that type of deal for $70 a night!  Air BNB Baby.

Jason & CandySue

France - Eguisheim

France!!  We had wanted to do some wine-tasting in some small town France at some point.  We had thought about Avignon during our little "plan out approximately the rest of the trip" session in Prague





  But ended up going taking advice from Brittney and Jon from Interlaken to head to their little town near Colmar on the eastern border of France close to Germany.  When we arrive in Eguisheim we basically entered into a fairytale town that looked like it was still 500 years old.





  We checked into our hotel and then headed to the hotel that Brittney and Jon stayed at for dinner (They said the food was good :)  We sat down to a menu where we couldn't find a thing on it that we either understood or wanted besides some vegetable mix!  The food was definitely different and, which makes things more fun.  Its also interesting because Americans rarely get out this way to the undiscovered wine lands at the border of Germany and France.  This means that very little English is communicated here and and often the servers would have to go to get someone else who spoke English to serve us.  This can be cool though because the servers in a lot of small towns like this rarely have to deal with it and thus are nicer and more patient with the process.


  The food we got was great!  I had a meat and cheese salad thing, Candace had a vegetable platter and then we split an awesome steak meal that had a great sauce.  The town is known for its "fine food and wine" tradition, and so throughout the meal we had started ordering all the glasses of wine we could find that had the grape names that we had never heard of.  Great wine!  The rose and the Gewurztraminer were our favorites and we were ready to view them at the winery tomorrow in more detail!


But we definitely didn't want to go to the Disgusting one -

Just kidding, its spelled differently, but we both thought it said that at first when we saw it and so joking around we kept saying in deep tones "Degustation!"


  The next day I posted Prague on the blog, then we had lunch at the hotel we were at which was delicious - an awesome shrimp dish and Duck over hash browns next to a vegetable pie.





  We ordered another Gewurztraminer that was a little older than the one we had the night before and it was excellent.  Candace was surprised with the excellence -





Hahaha, That really is her "thats awesome" face.


  We started our walk around town with our map of everything in town





  It was funny how big the city looked on the map but how small it was in reality.  We quickly found this as we went from one point to another in a matter of sometimes 30 seconds.  Often the walk was literally almost in view, so we started having fun with it and it became "oh no, I don't know if we can make it to #7, its so far! =)".   The town was very majestic.  It has won each year a "flower" award and the people that live there are very proud of it so flowers adorn many of the buildings.  The buildings themselves are very old and have a unique, fairy tale look to them





  Around the 1st few stops we found a winery and entered into their "wine barrel" room to check out the huge barrels of wine down in the cold "cellar" like area.





I climbed up one to get a closer look through the cobwebs





And Candace took pictures of the parts along the barrel





  Back up in the sunlight, we grabbed a seat and tasted some wines, buying a bottle of Gewurztraminer for the rest of our walk.





  We spotted a cool store and went inside to find a great score - those coconut ball things that get baked somehow and end up soft and pastry-like.  We grabbed a bag of those to munch on and soon were at the prettiest small church we'd seen on our trip.

  Most of the smaller churches we had seen were also smaller in elegance.  Usually they would have less decoration inside or perhaps they just haven't been upkept like the bigger and more important ones.  Well that was definitely not the case with this church and it was great to walk around inside and out of it admiring the beauty.





  We moved on, checking out little "courtyards" labeled on the map.  Each one generally had a small story to go with it or a unique name, so we imagined those things as we entered each one and let the town take us off to fantasy land. 


  Passing by a restaurant, we saw some kids eating pizza at one of the tables so we grabbed a seat and asked for a pizza.  The French woman replied "we don't have pizza".  So I pointed and said I'll have that then.  When it came, it tasted just like pizza, haha.  But thats cool though, we enjoyed the two different kinds of "pizza" that we had and the nice outdoor seating that we were taking advantage of.





  Earlier in the day I asked my waiter at the Hotel what type of wine was her favorite.  She replied that she didn't like wine, and preferred beer instead.  I asked what kind of beer and she stated that there was "only one kind of beer."  I then chuckled and thought to myself "That's right I'm in France again".  So later, at this pizza joint, I had to try the "only beer" and I ordered one and it turned out to be OK.


  It turned out to be a bit chilly as the sun went down so it became a game of "finding the sunlight" to walk through for Candace.  Sometimes there were little strips of warmth for her =)





  Continuing our tour of the city, we passed a bigger church where we went inside, checked it out, and I went into one of the confessionals to see what it was like.


  By now some of the courtyards we were passing were closed off, and I actually couldn't have even climbed over the walls if I had wanted to…


  Passing by some beautiful fountains,





 we saw 3 decent sized and round castle tops on a hill in the distance as proceeded to finish the numbers on the map and therefore complete our tour of the city.





  Candace found a little friend along the way and we thought about Sputnik and how we missed the little guy.





  We hopped on back into town to a place that we passed earlier that was very busy because we knew that it usually was a good indication of a special place when its packed and the other restaurants are empty or slow.  We weren't all that hungry, but we did enjoy the environment, our Escargot, and the Trout dish very much





  We then wanted to find a place to stay for the following day with a hottub.  Since Candace had seen one through her research, and we weren't too far away, we decided to walk north towards it to check it out while I read Fight Club to Candace from the Kindle.  She guided us to the Hotel and were confused when they said that they didn't actually have a Hot Tub, but they had a room available if we wanted.  We started walking back through town and later found out that the place DID actually have one, but that person didn't understand the English word "Hot tub"!  Everything happens for a reason though and we are very glad that the person didn't know English and that we didn't stay there and you'll see why later.


  As we approached our hotel we sat down across the street in front of a small fountain that was sprouting water out in a unique pattern and we passed some time watching it before heading up for the night!





  In the morning, breakfast was great with kiwis, apples, chocolate croissants, bread, meat, cereal, fresh jarred yogurt, and fresh jarred applesauce.  We made little sandwiches for a picnic for later.


  We decided that we wanted to spend the night in a nearby town called Munster, which we later found out is home to a great cheese but NOT the Muenster cheese, the more famous one that's from Germany, and further away - 7 hours.  Candace asked me what I wanted for lodging, her being our expert lodging booker, and I told her to book "whatever makes you happy."  So she booked the place that turned out to be a super awesome location and amazing value that I almost wish we had went to sooner.  We were soon in a Taxi heading to Munster, France!


JJ & CJ