The Rest of Our European Vacation

Dave and I returned to Cali last night after being gone for 18 days! It was nice to be back in our own bed again. I was unable to update the blog after Edinburgh so I’m including a recap on the rest of the trip.

Edinburgh, Scotland
We really loved it here. The city is so amazingly old with wonderful charm. Once we arrived I immediately noticed a sweet smell in the air. I couldn't quite place it but later found out it was the smell of beer being brewed. It was quite strong at times. If you’ve never been to Edinburgh I do suggest it. The city is quite neat and the locals are very friendly. Our first day was spent touring Edinburgh Castle and walking the Royal Mile. Holyrod Palace was closed to visitors so we could only see it from the outside. We also hiked up a hill to the ruins of an old church that overlooked the city. We wanted to go to the top of Arthur’s Seat but it was very windy and it looked like rain so we decided to not venture up to the top. Instead we headed down to seek out some local pubs.

Our Second day was spetd seeing Stirling Castle and Loch Lomond. We had beautiful weather for this journey and had a magnificent time seeing yet another castle. It was amazing to see all the lakes in Scotland. They were so plentiful. It seemed like there was a lake around every bend in the road. Plus I got to compare it to the Ireland Country side since I‘ve already been there before. The third day we made a last minute decision to go to St Andrews (the home of golf). This is a coastal town where golf was born. So we got to see the Old Golf Course and Dave just watched in awe. While in St Andrews we visited the ruins of a seaside castle and church. Dave shopped for golf souvenirs before we had to be on our way. We also visited a small town called Falkland and some coastal fishing villages. It was really neat to see this other side of Scotland. In the evening we headed by train to Glasgow.

Edinburgh overview: I loved it!!! I loved the pubs, I loved the castles, and I loved the bagpipes! We had an awesome time here. The city was great and so were the people. We had two great experiences immediately upon arrival. First some random Scottish man helped me carry my bag up the stairs at the train station and two another random guy stopped to ask us if we needed directions when he saw us looking at a map. Everyone was so nice! Our hotel was nice too. I came complete with a rubber ducky!!! (I'm serious about the rubber ducky).

Glasgow
If there was one part of the trip we would have done differently it would have been to skip Glasgow altogether. It turned out to be a more relaxing day but not very exciting. Glasgow doesn’t really have anything the pooped out as a must see. So we took a short train ride to a country park to see the Burrell Collection. On the way out I noticed a sign for Highland cattle. We had seen these hairy cows (coos) along the road but one of my galas was to see them in person and get photos. So off we went in search of the Hairy Coo. We found them! Actually a couple of them came right up to the fence to see us and we got to to pet their noses. They are so incredibly cute! The rest of the day was spent meandering around Glasgow as it proved to be a rainy and gray day. About 4 pm the sun finally came out. That night we at at DiMaggio's and had a fabulous dinner complete with a shortbread caramel sundae.

Glasgow Overview: Not overly exciting. They basically have a bunch of museums. It was worth it to see the Hairy Coos! But don't stay at the quality Hotel at the Train Station. This was the only hotel I had complaints about the entire trip.

Onward to Ireland
Since we only had one day in Glasgow we were quite content with that. The next day we headed by train and ferry to Ireland. The ferry was so neat! It was huge. The seats were so comfy and it didn’t seem like a ferry at all. They even had movies on the ship, restaurants, and cafes. When we arrived in Belfast we decided to not sightsee there and just to head straight to Dublin. This part of the trip was more for Dave. It was his birthday trip and he wanted to see horse racing and drink a Guinness in an Irish Pub. So we made the trek to Dublin. Since I had already been to Dublin I was pretty much Dave’s tour guide. It’s amazing that even after 5 years how much you remember of a city. I barley needed a map to navigate the streets. After we checked in to the hotel we headed over to Jameson for a tour and tasting. Then it was off for a pub dinner and some pub hopping for Guinness and Bulmer’s Cider.
The following day Dave an I did some shopping and also toured Newgrange. This was quite a site. No one truly knows why it's there, but basically it is a catacomb. The doorway allows light inside but only around the 21 of Dec every year. Otherwise it is completley dark inside. I did enjoy taking photos here. We also toured the ruins of an old monastery then it was back to the city center. After finding some dinner we were off to the Musical Pub Crawl. We met more people from Cali here. This time they were from Thousand Oaks. I really love Irish music so even though I had already been on the Pub Crawl before it was still lots of fun. Our last day in Europe was spent touring the rest of Dublin including Guinness. Then it was off to top the trip off with a horse race at Leopardstown. It was night racing sponsored by Miller!!! (why not Guinness, I have no idea). We both had a lot of fun at the races. Dave enjoyed trying to figure out how to bet in Europe while I took lots of photos of the horses. Ireland Overview: What more can I say. I mean its Ireland! Maybe it's the red head in me but I love this country. Even though I had already been to Dublin it was still fun to be there with Dave and showing him the town. Plus I got to do some things I couldn't before. The hotel here was great too. Terrific location at the end of Temple Bar, good size room, and a hot breakfast was included every morning.

Thursday morning it was time to head back to the states to attend Brenda’s wedding. We left Dublin at 11am and arrive in Pittsburgh at about 5pm EST.

Trip Overview: The whole trip was a lot of fun and I alway love Europe. I couldn't have thought of a better way to celebrate Dave's 30th Bithday with him! We both had a ton of fun and wish it wasn't over. But now its back to reality. My Favorite part was definalty Paris. Dave, he loved each city for its own reason. But I think his favorite was Edinburgh,

More From Europe

Okay, so here's a brief synopsis on the rest of our trip so far. Dave and I are currently in Edinburgh, Scotland. We arrived this morning via Sleeper Train. Although we had a slight issue with that, we did make it at 7:30am this morning. But first we spent 3 days in London. While in London we did the normal sightseeing such as Kennsington Palace, Hyde Park, Kennsington Gardens, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, London Tower, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace (changing of the Guards), and the Mews (horses) at Buckingham. We also toured Stonehenge and Bath. So we managed to see and do a lot in 3 days thanks to short lines! Stonehenge was awesome. We took a guided tour so we were actually able to go out and touch the stones and play around for an hour. Dave and I had a blast there. Bath was pretty neat too. I really loved that town it self and anyhing to do with Roman times is always amazing to us!



Now we are in Edinburgh. Today we saw Edinburgh Castle which was really neat. Then we walked the Royal Mile and also through Holyrod Park up to a point overlooking the city. Tomorrow we are off to do a day tour of Loch Lomond and Stirling Castle.

A Very Long Journey

Today is the first day we have had free Wifi service so this post will be long. Here is our blog so far from the trip.

Thursday/Friday- It seemed like we were never going to get to Europe this time. The journey to Paris from LAX was a long one. We did not have a direct flight this time. Instead we flew to Philly, had a 3.5 hour layover, and then a 7 hour flight to Paris! Wow what a day. We only got about 3 hours of sleep Thursday night. Since the 16th was Dave’s official 30th birthday we went out to happy hour at Outback then back to Arielle’s to play some Mario Party. We finally headed to bed at around 12am and we got up at 3:25am!!! We did manage to sleep a few hours on the flight to Philly. But we spent our hours in Philly charging our electronics (IPODS), eating lunch, and resting.

Dave trying to sleep in the Philly Airport

We boarded our fight to Paris at about 5:45pm and arrived at 7:45am! We were exhausted, but we made the most of our first day and enjoyed the sights of Paris. Our first stop was at the Arch de Triumph. Then we took a stroll down Champs Elyses and ate lunch outside at a sidewalk bistro. Next we went to Notre Dame and there was a bread festival going on. It smelled so good and we tasted some great bread. Of course we really couldn’t understand anyone but it was still lot of fun. Our final stop for the day was the Pantheon where we took a tour and got to see more views of Paris. It was a great day in Paris but by the end we were totally exhausted. At least we have a really comfy bed at our hotel.

Road from the top of the Arch De Triumph

Saturday – Today was again spent enjoying the sights of Paris. It was looking kind of gray in the morning so instead of sticking to the original plan we headed to the Louvre. This place was soooo big and amazing. I’ve never seen so much artwork in one place. Here we got to see 2 pretty famous items…the Venus DiMilo and the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa was much smaller than I had expected, but still awesome to see. Next we decided to take a stroll through the park at the Lourve. Then it was off to catch the train to go to Monmarte and Sacra Couer (sp?). This area was really neat. Lots of personality and the cathedral that sat up on top of the hill offered amazing views of Paris. At the base of the cathedral was another little fair going on. This one had some local French wineries; of course we bought 2 bottles of wine to take home. We just couldn’t resist the French wines. For the rest of the afternoon we headed to Luxembourg Gardens and walked and had some sorbet. Saturday evening we decided to head over to the Eiffel Tower. We had dinner at a cute little French bistro then took night time photos of the Tower. We were going to go up but decided the line was pretty long and that we would wait for the next day. So instead we headed to Champs Elyses to have some wine.

Eifel Tower at Night

Sunday – well we woke up today and Paris was pretty much socked I with clouds and rain. How unfortunate since we did the Louvre yesterday. We decided to start the day our with a Nutella and Banana crepe along with “American “coffee” (meaning big coffee). Then we headed to another small area of Paris to see the Picasso Museum Oh, I really loved this area of town. It almost reminded me of Italy with all the small streets and cute buildings. After the museum we stopped at a cute Patstry/choclatier shop and bought a Chocolate Mousse torte…oh it was so good! After wards we walled around and then headed back into the main part of the city to catch a tour on the Seine River. Next we headed to the Eiffel Tower. The weather still was not great so we only went up the second level. I liked it here thought because you were still outside and had great views. Sunday night ww ate dinner somewhere near the Latin Quarter (at least we think so). Dinner was so amazingly great and we shared a bottle of white wine and sat outside overlooking the crowded streets of Paris. To end our visit in Paris we walked around by the Seine and then headed back to champs Elsyses for desert

Me along the Siene River

My wrap-up of Paris: I loved it!!! I was as comfortable in Paris as I was in Italy. I found everyone to be super nice and willing to try and understand us. The culture is wonderful and I especially loved sitting at the cute outdoor cafes. IIate horrible, but I’m on vacation. Everything I had was suberb..Salmon, beef, Crème Caramel, Crepes. But the Crème Brulee was to die for. My comparison was like drinking Guinness in Ireland…it was so much better in Paris. So anyway, I would go back to Paris in a heartbeat. It was amazing and an experience I will never forget! I only learned the basic French words but we were fine getting around.

Au Revoir for now!