Ireland - The Burren

Sunday - July 26

* Posting from a laundrette in Dublin - (We finally found one!) - check back later for pictures*

* I have posted some pictures for now that I borrowed from the internet, but will place my own later when I get back to the hotel*

We left the wind whipped Cliffs of Moher, following the hairpin turns down to the next little town - very little! The Stonecutters restaurant and pub was our oasis for lunch this day, an adorable yellow cottage holding strong against the winds near the edge of the ocean. The wind was really blowing, and the waves broke so far out from shore that the whitecaps rolled in for at least 300 feet. I'd say it was a surfers dream, except I don't surf! But I thought of Julie and Doug and wondered if they might like to give it a try. Hopefully I took a decent picture of it and can post it when I get to a place where I can reach my pictures.

Lunch was finally the closest to pub cuisine since our meal in Kilkenny. I had lightly pan fried fish cakes on a bed of mixed greens, Austin had seafood chowder (not as good as our night in Kilkenny at Fields' pub), Emma had a panini (ok, not so ~Irish~) and Mike had Guinness beef stew - amazing! The restaurant uses only Irish beef, so you can't get more authentic than that, right? We were stuffed, but topped it off with a traditional bread and butter pudding, complete with warm custard - YUM! I also had my first cider - a Bulmer's pear. Loved it. Regular cider comes back to haunt me, but this stuff was good! I had another one today... (Monday).

With our bellies full, we wound our way to the Burren, an area of Ireland that is of vast wild and rock. The formations are amazing and very different from anywhere else in Ireland. Nestled in the nooks and crannies of the rock are darling little plants of all kinds, with delicate flowers of yellow, white, and purlple to name a few. It's the most amazing rock garden you will ever see!

Stopping along the route, we saw the Poulnabrone Portal Tomb ruin, the most recognizable dolmen ruin outside of the druid Stonehenge, and it's actually much older, by a couple of thousand years.

Thinking back to the first time I saw this amazing man-made formation, me and the same girls who piled out of the tin can car at the Cliffs of Moher, pulled up to the side of the road and walked out over the rocks and right up to the dolmen, without even knowing it's significance. We weren't even looking for it, we just happened to see it and think it looked pretty cool. I do remember thinking at the time that anyone could come along in this vast empty, quiet place and do something to ruin this unique formation. Now it is only protected by a small rope which rings the tomb with the signs that request no entry. There is now a parking area and a designated historical park, complete with kiosks that explain the history and formation of the area, and the significance of the tomb. I found it all extrememly interesting. The kids of course, just enjoyed jumping across the rocks and crevices.

We beat it out of there just as we saw the rain coming (at least we can see it coming!) .

Of course we saw the stray castle and church in various states of crumble, with cows grazing among the ruins like it's no big deal.

Ireland - Sunday July 26

We arrived in the town of Ennis on Saturday, and will be leaving on Monday for the trip back to Dublin. (That's for my bro, Scott!)

Today we visited the Cliffs of Moher - spectacular of course. My how it's changed since I was here 20 years ago. It was just a gang of girls piling out of a car and walking up to the edge. Not any more. There is a whole visitor center and all sorts of steps and railings, which although likely necessary, takes away from the awesome feeling that you've just discovered where the edge of the world really is.

All the railings do help with the agrophobia, I will admit. I've been having anxiety over this day for a while. Mike likes to tease me with that, getting close to the edges of things and even pretending to fall, when he's really jumping to a lower ledge that you can't see from your vantage point. Being anxious about it was reasonable, under the cirucumstances!

All was well until 3 members of team Baxendell decided to go beyond the designated area. Eventually I joined them, figuring this was my Travel-Dare Pit Stop Challenge! Thankfully I wasn't there for Mike scootching up to the edge on his belly and hanging the camera over the edge for a couple of shots. But they weren't expecting to see me over the barrier at all, and so I got a little video of them as they walked back from the edge. Travel Dare completed, as far as I'm concerned!

Yup, that's really THE edge... 725 feet above the crashing waves...

Observations...

Ok, before I forget, here are some observations about our time in the United Kingdom - in no particular order!

• All of the outlets have on and off buttons - this is not specific to hotels either. If you plug in something, like your TV, then you still have to turn the outlet on. I'm confident that there are zero deaths by electrocution in the UK each year. Even the outlets in the bathrooms will only fit the plugs that come on the end of an electric razor. Forget trying to dry or curl your hair in the bathroom - not going to happen.

• Speaking of electric, in hotels you have to keep your room key card in a slot by the door in order to make the outlets and lights even work in the first place. If you take the key card out, the lights will go out after so many minutes. On the outset this seems like a good idea - not only do you save electricity if you're not using it, you don't usually misplace your room card! After a while, it gets annoying when combined with the observation above.

• NOTHING is open on Sunday, except the pubs and restaurants. Oh, and the Churches.

• Hotels do not have ice buckets, and if you ask for one, it's because they think you want to chill your bottle of wine. If you want ice, you have to go to the hotel bar and ask for it. Most hotels do not have ice machines, and if they do, it's by the cup, not the bucket.
  

• The bathtubs are much higher, or maybe it's that they're deeper. Either way, it's quite a step up to get in.

• The bathroom trash container is the same little silver bin in all the hotels, and they're a pain because you have to step on the little pedal to open them. Convenient! But annoying because they are so small and light that when the top opens, it springs back a little too far and ca-changs into the wall. Did I mention it's' metal? Silly, I know... I've started taking the plastic liner out and just using that.

• There aren't McDonalds and Starbucks on every corner - refreshing! There seem to be more Burger King's than Micky D's.
  

• Pubs stop serving food after 6pm. Restaurants are not as plentiful as pubs. Did I mention there aren't McDonalds on every corner? Sometimes you can find the occasional fast food joint open late in areas that accommodate the pub crowds (aka: drunks) when they let out - like KFC in Camden. When you're hungry, you'll eat anything...

• Shops close at 6. If you want to do any shopping for local trinkets, do it before 6pm. Some "bigger cities" might keep their shops open until 8, depending on how much foot traffic is around. Needless to say, it's been tricky to get any fun shopping done, since we're always looking for food first!

• There are no laundraumats in Ireland, except in the big cities like Limerick and Dublin. If you have clothes you need cleaned, you take them to a dry cleaning and laundry shop, where you drop off your stuff, they wash it, and the you pick it up....the next day. They close at 8 pm, and they're not open on Sunday's. Today is Sunday and we're doing our first load of laundry in the hotel bathtub. Thank goodness this hotel has heated towel racks!

• And speaking of electric and heated things, the hotels have these really weird pants press contraptions. They work great for drying the clothes you just washed in the tub! The only problem is, in order to cut down on the number of electrocutions in the UK (wink, wink), they are set on a timer of 15 minutes, and that is only after you figure out how to: turn on the power at the outlet, turn on the presser, then turn on the timer. If you can get past those 3 things and still get electrocuted, then you must want to die.

• They have these great hot pots in hotel rooms to make tea or coffee with - I wish I could get these at home. They plug into a base that automatically starts the pot heating - superfast and super hot - you'll have a boil in the matter of 1 minute (not that you want boiling water for your tea or coffee). At home you can get something similar, but it would never get this hot this fast. It's surprising to me, what with all the electrical safety measures in place over here, that the heat on the pots aren't "regulated" (a word used quite often on the news).

Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle - Friday

Started raining as soon as we arrived, and poured (luckily) just before we started up to the castle, so we were able to stay (relatively) dry at the gift shop.

It's a harrowing climb to the top - the stairs spiral and get smaller the higher you get. The only railing is a thick rope running the length of the spiral from top to bottom. There are many cubbies and small rooms you have to weave in and out of before you make it to the top portion, and the "inside" of the castle is hollow - meaning there are no floors in the center. Once you get to the top, there is nothing but the outside castle wall on the one side of you, and a sheer drop down 3 stories on the other side. With all the cubbies and rooms, it'd be a great place to play hide and seek!

I've read there can be up to an hour wait to "kiss" the Blarney Stone, but luckily (again!) for us, there were no crowds and we more or less just walked right up to the kissing spot. Emma started to get anxious, but not because you have to lie prone and bend backwards 4 stories high with your head through a gap between the floor and the wall of the castle to reach the stone with your lips, but because she was afraid of... getting swine flu!

I finally persuaded her that she wouldn't get sick, after all, is anyone in line coughing or sneezing? And so she joined the rest of us with getting the "gift of the gab". I have to admit it was scary, both leaning back like that and the thought of catching swine flu, but we didn't drive all the way there to chicken out at the last minute! (check out that gap! There may be bars down there, and some guy holding on to you, but everything in your brain is telling you that this is not right!)

Ireland - It's Green Because It's Raining!

(Internet is ever elusive and very slow when I can get it, so words will most likely make it to the blog before pictures do - check back and hopefully there'll be something pretty to look at)

Two trains, a ferry ride, a rental car and 12 hours later, we finally arrived at our first destination in Ireland - Kilkenny. I think my teeth are worn down to nubs however, as riding on the left side of the road with Mike driving is infinitely worse than when he's driving on the right side! But we made it in one piece. All joking aside, Mike is doing a great job driving. As tiring as it is for me to grip the seat cushion, it's that much more exhausting to be the driver!

Kilkenny is an adorable town with it's own castle. Our hotel was right across the river from the castle, which was closed by the time we made it to town, and not open before we left today!

After checking in, the first thing we did was look for food. As a matter of fact, think all we do is either look for food, buy food, think about food, and eat food. By the time we find the food, we're so hungry that everything tastes great and we've stuffed ourselves silly. Two hours later, we're looking for food again - snacks, water, ice cream - food in any form. I'm going to rename our trip The Baxendell's Amazing Hunting and Gathering Tour.

The problem with finding food is that although pubs may be open, they don't serve food after 6pm if they're not also a restaurant. Naturally, this is a problem when you're hunting and gathering at 8pm! What we think of as grocery store, they call Supermarkets, and are only in the bigger cities. Adding to the thrill of the hunt, most of the little shops that sell snacks close at 6pm, which makes for lots more hunting than gathering. Hopefully this will benefit my waistline in the long run!

We had an awesome dinner at a restaurant/pub called Fields. Mike had his first Guinness, complete with shamrock foam. I had an amazing seafood chowder, and Emma had Hobo Hash - in case you're wondering, Hobo Hash is basically homefries with sausage, canadian bacon, cheddar cheese, topped with a fried egg, and very yummy!

The B's Have Landed

We made it to London! and with our last 12 hours in this town I finally found free internet to blog with - although we've been able to update our status and make comments via FaceBook, I have been desperate for some real internet. So where do we finally find it - not at Starbucks, but at the game arcade, of all places!

We were staying in Camden Lock until today, when we moved hotels because we added a day way back when and couldn't get the same hotel for another night. Camden is a very unusual and eclectic place - I call it Punk Bohemian, in that most everyone has one or more combinations of the following: hair with two or more colors, black leather clothing with studs, fishnets of some kind, and copious piercings. Needless to say, I would've loved this place in high school, and can appreciate it now, but most of the peeps seem to be under the influence of something at all times. But the people are really harmless, and the place has an overall carnival feel (I mean that in a horrified curiosity kind of way...)

So here is our adventure so far, working backwards from today - feel free to scroll past the drivel and just look at the pictures!


Wednesday July 22 - The London Eye and Madame Tussuad's:
It's just after 2 pm our time and we just got off the London Eye. They call it a flight, and it's pretty cool. The ride is sweet! - Smooth and roomy! Nice views of Parliament and Big Ben (which is really just the bell inside the tower), and Westminster Abbey, among many other sites.

This morning we went to Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum, which was a lot of fun despite the crowds which seem to be clueless as to any sort of order or manners. Pretty much par for the course here in London - since everyone seems to be from out of town. The figures are just placed about in different rooms based on themes, and people just wander willy nilly up to one to have their picture taken. Imagine this though with hundreds of people... Most of the celebs look really good and realistic, like Samuel Jackson, Tom Cruise, the Queen... Nicole Kidman's is really amazing, and Jim Carrey was picking Emma's nose. I got to whisper my phone number to George Clooney...we'll see if he calls or not!

Tuesday - Windsor Castle
Missed the 7:45 am alarm, so got a late start to Windsor. The weather was drizzling on and off, starting as soon we got off the train and to the castle. They give you an audio tour, in which you enter the stop number you're at and it gives you all sorts of good info. Prince Charles even welcomed us to the castle - via audio, that is!

It is gorgeous there and the castle is at the top of a hill of row shops. St. George's Cathedral is just stunning (no pictures allowed) and the Queen's parents are buried in a small chapel off the knave there. King Henry VIII is also there, and surprisingly, not in any fancy burial vault of any kind.

Saw a changing of the guard at a guard shack, and although it wasn't all the pomp and circumstance of the guard changing at Buckingham Palace, it was still interesting and amazing to watch the precision of this seemingly ordinary military maneuver.


Monday Buckingham Palace Changing of the Guard and Tower Bridge -
Our first full day! Operating on fumes ... and only 3 hours sleep in 36 hours...
First off; the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. We procured our place at the front of the golden gates early enough to get front row, only to be smashed like mushy peas (mashed green peas - yummy!) against the fence when the crowds started to build. Poor Emma was really smashed, but she held on long enough to get a good view.

The military band played, and that was quite a sight to see the changing of the guard band. Once they were in their general place in front of the gates, they were put to company rest and ordered to get their music stands, which happened to be directly in front of us. It was quite funny when the soldiers approached the gate to gather the stands, and the crowd gasped with oooo's and ahhhs! How the soldiers must feel like they're in the zoo at times - being the gorillas that break out of their normal behavior to beat on the glass and startle the masses. They must secretly roll their eyes at us.

The lead tuba player walked up to the conductor and told him the song to perform, at which time the tuba player walked the inside of the horseshoe formation to tell each musician which song to prepare for. Of course it featured the low brass section, and I'd like to think they chose it especially for Austin! The band sounded AMAZING, and with only one flutist (a woman!) I was amazed at how well I could hear her playing above all the brass. It was quite a spectacle, indeed!

We booked it right to the Tower of London and went on the Beefeater's tour - that was pretty cool. So much historic death and mayhem, I'm surprised the walls don't bleed!

The Yoeman Warders are all retired military service men, and had to have served at least 15 years in one the Queens forces and be of a certain rank; our guide having served 18 in the army (and not looking old enough!).

Get this for perks: you get to live in the Tower with your family, and when you retire, the Queen buys you a house in the country! The yoeman's only have to conduct a tour once or twice a month; the rest of the time they have security service elsewhere - either in the Tower or "Wherever else the Queen deems our service."

Every day a secret password is issued to the guard workers and they can get into the Tower any time up until midnight. Good luck trying to leave the Tower after midnight if you don't have the password... Like our guide said, it's the safest place in Britain to raise your 16 year old daughter!

Toured the Tower Bridge (that's the FAN-cy one that most people call the London Bridge) - you go in one tower, walk up a ton of stairs, cross over the pedestrian bridge on top, and walk down the other tower. The bridge opened up for a tall-masted sailboat while we were up there. Couldn't see much of that, but we got to see it lift again to let the sailboat back out when we back down to street level and looking for the Tube stop.

Found dinner someplace (don't ask me where because I can't remember!) but it wasn't pub food; as we have yet to have any authentic pub grub yet! Boo!

"Order early to avoid disappointment"

These words rang all to true to me recently, after anxiously awaiting my many-pocketed "Spy Jacket", which was going to all-but-replace the need for a purse. The phrase first made me chuckle having read it when applying for the Ceremony of Keys tickets; oh-so politely urging me to send in my dates of request, and to "Order early to avoid disappointment." How charming, those Brits, and so polite!

Well, we all know that the British have a different way of saying things than we Americans do, and the epiphany I had that fateful day last week upon opening my package was the American translation of that phrase to mean; "Get your sh** together, or your going to be sorry!", because sorry, I was.

I've had my eye on this jacket for many months, and in my effort of trying to be prudent about spending $120.00 (crazy, I know!) on a (really cool!) multi-purpose pocketed jacket (it's slimming, and the sleeves zip off!), I waited and looked around for something like it. After reading numerous reviews, deciding there was nothing like it (and there really isn't....), and after measuring myself three times, I finally bit the plastic bullet and ordered it. Now I couldn't get the brick colored one, so I settled with the cement color, but the good news is that after searching for a coupon code online, I saved $20 and shipping! I was feeling so ahead of the game, that is until it showed up last week.

"Order early to avoid disappointment" is an understatement, and charmed, I am not. This thing is HUGE! A smaller size is not going to help this situation, and of course I didn't order early enough to get a replacement, thus major disappointment on top of regular disappointment. I understand that you have to take into consideration the pockets and the items going into them, but really, this jacket could make an elephant look pregnant. Needless to say, I am very disappointed (I can hear you laughing from here, Lori!). This is not how it looked on the website - and they claimed it was slimming!

I have decided to put all vanity aside and post the pictures for you to see for yourself; just in case you're having one of those days where you need a good laugh (and just for the record, I am not pregnant...!). There was no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks that I was going to trek around Europe even ONE day in this thing! After having already looked all over Tarnation for something like it, I knew then and there that it was time to institute Plan B. My pink two-pocketed Nike wind breaker would just have to do. Maybe I can add pockets? Nah, mesh inside. Oh well.

And so, like my bathing suit top that finally arrived on Tuesday with a nice big hole in it, my advice to anyone ordering items online is, "Get your sh** together early - very early!"

What exactly is slimming about this jacket?
My pregnant looking bottom half makes my arms look like sticks!
(just to reiterate, I am not pregnant!)

Packing...and Re-packing

I've packed my suitcase a total of 15 times now. Just to be clear, this is all by design - call them 'test-packs', if you will. That's when you throw in some stuff with the thought that you are going to need it on your trip. A few days later when you open your suitcase to add some more stuff you're going to need, you see the stuff you already need, then decide that maybe you don't really need it after all because now there is no room. I think that's where the term 'pack-rat' comes from. I knew one carry-on was going to be a challenge!

The challenge is the weather. I don't like to be cold. I HATE being cold. London and Dublin are predicted to be the low 60's this week - and this is during the daytime, people! Ok, maybe not bad for traveling, but by contrast, Italy is in the upper 80's, and Tunisia, a scorching 95! I feel test-pack #16 coming on...maybe a pair of jeans after all...

Kimmie was nice enough to let me borrow some skirts. She went to Europe last year, including Italy where she said, "Only tourists wear shorts. Everyone else wears skirts." Ok, well it can be pretty hot in Italy, so maybe a skirt would be a good thing. Plus, I have to wear something more fancy for the dinners on the cruise - a two for one! Not being a big skirt fan, I decided to do a 'test-wear' for the day. Well, suffice it to say, I'm still not a skirt fan, at least not for every day casual wear. Although I got compliments from Karen's daughter Sierra, (who told me to "pack it!"), It's just not my thing. So count those two out. But the reversible organza-ish one, now that looks promising! And so it's been packed in my suitcase...until today. Realizing that although it's reversible and is essentially two outfits, I didn't want to have to wear the same top with it each time. So instead, I found a black skirt for which I can wear the many shirts I already had packed, and viola! 5 or more outfits, easily!

So with that decision made (again), I've closed the suitcase for now. I'm sure I'll rethink it all again when the clothes I have in the wash are ready...

The Route

From red, to blue to purple...

Anticipation - almost

We've made some progress in our trip planning - just check out that calendar! If you look closely though, you'll notice there still are some blank spots. One would think that everything should be in place by now, what with only just over two weeks before blast-off! Ha ha! That's the beauty of planning it all yourself, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

My immediate goal however, is to get to the place in our planning where all we have to do is excitedly wait; much like the many weeks you spend as a child pouring over the toy catalogs, writing your list, visiting Santa at the mall, and then WAITING for the presents on that Christmas morn. The days seem like weeks, and you can't sleep with the anticipation. This is all very ironic, of course, given that Mike never experienced this annual childhood angst trip. I'm sure he must've experienced something like that...but maybe not. Lucky! (also very ironic...)

Although there still are many more holes to fill, I'm feeling a bit more on track now that the hotel in Vernazza is booked, AND twice confirmed - at least through email. No fancy online booking going on here. Just a simple, "We're booked for those dates, but I have a friend who rents his house" kinda reservation. Which explains why we still have to call 4 days ahead to confirm (again!). NOT a real confidence builder there, but oh well, that's why it's an adventure! Just look at this place - gorgeous!