a few more trinkets

From Venice
a glass gondolier

From Vatican City

Icon of Jesus

And a nativity scene from Galway

fun stuff...

Rob

Christmas abroad

We are now in our second holiday season in Ireland.
We went to the Gaiety Panto Peter Pan last night. Definitely a bow Troy Irish form of entertainment, cross dressing, musical, comedy, satirical show.
Today we got our tree. Last year we bought a tree and they said they don't doesn't shed needles here so no need to water,. We didn't believe it, but turned out to be fairly tire. Our Irish tree unwatered shed less needles than the ones in Oregon we watered. Hopefully this tree serves us equally well.

 We decided that we would by ornaments from each of our trips so

we have mask from Venice

Fleur de Lis from Wales

Titanic from Northern Ireland

Dragon from Wales

Ball from Paris

Sardine from Lisbon

Pinnochio from Rome

We are off to Christmas markets in Cologne this weekend so likely more to add,

but with that I am off. 

Nollaig Shona Daoibh

Irish wedding recap

We had the opportunity to enjoy our first Irish wedding yesterday.
First  unusual thing was a Thursday day wedding. Not something you would see in the US ( maybe night but not day)

Now for the timeline of the days events:

approximate times since I was wearing a watch with a dead battery (story for another day,,,)

12:30-2:00 (for us) met bride at her house. The bridesmaids and brides  mom and sisters were at the bride's house getting hair and makeup done. Tea, Coffee, snacks (cookies, sambo's (small sandwiches) , scones...) all there for bridesmaids.

2:00    leave for wedding (venue was 1 hr away)

3:30   Wedding (civil ceremony)

4:30    Post ceremony cocktails (champagne, coffee, tea, small dessert treats)

6:30    move in to reception  (take food orders)

            best man, father of the bride, groom give speeches

7:00     food arrives

9:00    bridge/groom have their wedding cake (note- cake was made by the grooms mother)

           dessert was actually not the wedding cake but some tapas size desserts to finish meal 

9:30    dinner complete, kicked out of reception hall so they could pull tables put in dance floor

9:30-11:00 hang out at bar, socialize

11:00 and on dancing in reception

11:40   They delivered some food to keep us going (sambos, wedding cake, sausages) 

We left at 12:45 or so .... Band was set to finish at 2am

So how does it compare to the american norm?

Long gaps between wedding and reception dinner, reception dinner and dancing. This was actually great. Gave lots of time to socialize without having to shout over music .

Wedding band- this is probably mixed in the US. We prefer DJs, but music was decent for a band (albeit loud for us old folks)

Pace- With the long gaps above , it seems like the irish wedding is in no hurry. In the US there seems to be big rush to get in all the traditions (cutting the cake, first dances, toasts, bouquet tosses...) . In this wedding that all happens but doesn't feel nearly as rushed. There isn't any pressure to finish the party and leave the venue like there would be in US.

Alcohol- not an open bar like the US, but the champagne pre-reception and dinner wine was included, plus coffee and tea. Drinking didn't seem to be excessive though the night was young when we left...

We had a grand time and if we hadn't had work and friends watching the kids, we would have made the effort to stay to the end whenever that may have been (my guess 4am ish...) We felt very welcome despite the fact that we didn't really know anyone other than bride and groom.

Rob

Correction to 5 and counting..

Need to work on my world geography, make that 6 because Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. So we have matched in a little over 1 year what I did in 5 years...

go team

5 and counting...

Okay yes 2 blog posts in 10 minutes... kids quiet for now...

So we have now been in Ireland for 15 months and have made it to 5 countries (Portugal, France, Spain, UK (3 times), Italy). Pretty impressive considering that I loved in England for over 5 years and made it to 6 countries give or take.

Next up on the list is visit to Cologne (Germany) early December to see the Christmas markets ( there are 7 in Cologne...) . We will then have visited all the EU leaders than we can just fill in the gap countries for the rest of our visit...

Those passports are going to run out of pages at this rate.. We are grabbing ornaments from each country, so far sardines from Portugal, welsh dragon, venitian mask, titanic ball... More to follow from Germany

Before our Germany trip we have 1 birthday party ( Audrey's), Disney on ice, late late toy show, an Irish wedding ( will post a review after..,)
After Germany pre Christmas we have 2 panties, Peter Gabriel concert, Jack's birthday party....

Will be a busy month

Rob

Random stuff

So some things that need mentioning

Ireland -
1) not sure why but they seem to have rampant inability to pick up dog poop

Italy -
1) the taxi drivers follow the stereotype of Italian driver., crazy! And in case you weren't concerned they are pretty much looking at their phones the whole trip
2) chihuahua - who knew this seems to be the dog breed of choice, they were everywhere
3) pope - popular dude, everyone likes pope Francis

That's it for random thoughts

Rob

Trip report - Italy

Well unlike the last post I will this one is pronto...

Kids have their fall midterm break every year in the last week of October. The last Monday in October every year is a bank holiday, so kids are always out of school during Halloween. Last year we went to Wales pre-Halloween, came back for Halloween (Thursday) and then to Northern Ireland after.  This year I decided to book the whole week away instead of trying to constrain ourselves with Halloween  (kids not so happy with my ambitious idea).

After some research I decided on an Italian holiday. I was able to find flights to Rome and return from Venice for €160 per person. 

We landed in Rome Sunday afternoon. No big plans for the day, so we went to the Time Elevator. A 40 minutes movie with effects (moving seats, air jets, etc...) Not as good as the Gaudi 4D experience but kids enjoyed. We also had our first of many Gelato treats during the week. For dinner we dined next to the wall of the Vatican. Kids had pizza , adults pasta. I also decided to order some foccacia with rosemary and sea salt , this was spectacular.

Monday, we were off to the coliseum  We had pre-booked tickets (see lessons learned from Barcelona). Almost no wait and we were in. Spectacular views all around. After lunch (more pizza, pasta- best food hear was bruchetta with balsamic reduction, bacon, arugula) we were off to the forum. Audrey enjoyed this somewhat, Jack was getting a bit squirmy.  After the forum we were off to gladiator training. This had received mostly good reviews and we thought kids would enjoy. I'd say they would give it a B. Audrey thought instructor was a bit harsh. I enjoyed the comedy of the kids training.

The next day was our planned vatican day. The morning we spent wandering around. We went to the bone church where Cappuchin monks had made crypts with over 4000 bones

 In the afternoon it was off to the Vatican. We splurged on a private guide. It turns out if you have a guide you get to skip lines, so entry was painless. Guide was pricey. She did provide some good info, but a 3 hr tour through the Vatican was not Jacks idea of fun . There was tons of great artwork , but with so much to see 3 hours can end up feeling rushed.

Wednesday was our last full day in Rome. No scheduled activities, so a chance to see some of the stuff we missed. We wandered through Rome center to a great Gelato place I had read about (Fridgidarium) , it was as good as the hype. We then went to the pantheon where we ran into some people we had met on the airplane (with their kids). After the pantheon we went to a Leonardo DaVinci machines exhibit. Kids were excited for this after watching Sherman and Mr Peabody movie recently. The exhibit was quite good with many hands on exhibits.

We then went to Il Parco Scuola del Traffico (traffic school park) for the afternoon. This is a park with a full driving course with roundabouts, stop signs, cross walks, etc... The cars has proper accelerator and brake bedals and kids were taught to use properly with one leg. This was good fun and educational.

That pretty much wrapped up Rome for us,  

Thursday we took the high speed train (155mph) up to Venice.

Venice was a whirlwind trip. We stayed out on the lido, an island next to Venice island. We ended up arriving there late afternoon, so just had time to unpack then head out to dinner. The venice trip was full of water bus rides, walking, shopping and to finish a gondola ride.

Venice is truly a beautiful city. The gondola ride was a nice memory to close out the trip.

lessons learned in italy

-study menus before committing 

-portion sizes can often feed 2, we went from ordering 1 pizza per person to 1 for two, same with pasta.

-be watched for nickel and dime charges. A bottle of still water with dinner was €4-5. A basket of bread was €4 at one place and the would keep bringing more unasked. A single espresso shot cost anywhere from €0.80 to €2.50

-ask taxi cost first (we asked 2 different drivers a block apart the cost of a ride to the gladiator school. One driver €40 , the next €25)

-gelato is cheap (€2-2.50), but portion sizes are large ( would have been happy with half the size)

and there you have it Italy in 6 days. According to the phone that was 36 miles walked, and not a single complaint about walking from the kids. Maybe if you had gelato stops during a marathon people might do better

link to pictures

Google+ Italy Story

until next time

Rob

Trip report - Barcelona

I realized on our recent trip that I had been remiss in a recap of our last holiday. We decided that we should try and fit in a holiday before school starts, and not just make it the summer of camps.

After some research I decided on Barcelona, fun in the sun, 

Tickets, booked, apartment near the beach all reserved....

The flight was an evening flight so late arrival. We had to pick up the keys to apartment at apartment office . So we grabbed the keys and headed to the apartment. First impression, smaller than the pictures, dirty floors... Wait 10 minutes just starting to put on p.j.s then we see a roach stroll across the floor. With screaming children we quickly vacated and back to the office.

The person in the office did give us a refund but would only give us name of a hotel (not make any calls), so we were sent packing at 11pm at night to find a new hotel. We did find one which had 2 neighboring rooms (not cheap) but worked for 1 night. So moved in got kids to sleep, then frantically searched phone for options for the next day,

 We found a self catering apartment available in Castelldefels , Masd Mediteraneo apartment 22 (same as out house in ireland) . 

Turns out this was a big win. Great pool, close to beach. We did get to visit the beach for a couple of the days. Got to see what the locals wear or don't (nudity, James Bond swimwear, speedos,...) 

We did do 1 day in Barcelona via bus. Unfortunately we hadn't planned well and many of the attractions had huge lines >2 hours. In hot weather (30C) with kids waiting was not an option. We happened upon the Gaudi experience 4D movie. Kids loved this (moving seats, water spray, 3D glasses) . The Gaudi architecture throughout the city was amazing , we only really got to enjoy the Casa Bastllo because ti didn't have huge lines. We did try the hop on hop off bus, sicne that was really good in Dublin, but unfortunately in Barcelona it wasn't nearly as good. Buses were crowded, the audio headset commentary  was underwhelming.

Weather was hot , but being on the coast was great, Food options were decent , better than Paris. 

 I got to sample tapas, paella, cerveza clara (beer with lemon). Prices were mixed, some meals ended up surprisingly expensive (Tapas) , others were fine. 

Lessons learned in Barcelona...

Check if attractions can be pre-booked 

Read reviews carefully

Keep parent friendly touristy stuff to 1/2 day

Kids love pools

Barcelona pictures

Google+ Story - Barcelona

on to the next trip

Irish dictionary redux

A return to the Irish English words to help you survive your day to day life in Ireland.
handy for all you visitors (yes we have a room ready...)

takeaway > to go
ready-made > prepared meals at grocery store, or frozen/tv dinners
lift> elevator
jumper >sweater
coach> bus
estate car> station wagon
saloon car> sedan
film > movie
maths > mathematics
trainers or runners> sneakers
Series > season on tv
Revise > to review
car park> parking lot
multi-storey> parking garage
plaster > band-aid

thats all for now

Rob

at the grocery store...

As we have said before, it is the little things. Here are some insights on how a grocery shopping experience is different here

Shopping carts : you need a €1 coin to unlock / use (you do get coin back at the end)

In the bread section
     Pancakes ( precooked in an 8 pack)
     Waffles ( precooked, smaller)
     Brown soda bread
     Wholemeal bread
     Brown and white bread (labelled best of both worlds)
     White pan bread
     Wraps (tortillas)

Eggs
      usually in the baking section, refrigerated

Produce
      A whole aisle of potatoes. In big sacks, labelled by purpose ( frying, baking, roasting, etc...)
      Local and seasonal vegetables
              - countries of origin prominently labelled

Alcohol
       restricted shopping hours due to blue hours, but they sell beer, wine and liquor at all the grocery          stores

Drugs
      no prescriptions at grocery stores. Ibuprofen only available behind the counter at grocery stores.         Paracetamol would be their pain killer of choice

At checkout
       Bring your own bag or you have to buy bags, or just carry what you bought.
       Bag it yourself (so race the cashier game, can they sscan items faster than you can bag... hint they             always win)

it seems like most foods have expiration dates that are only 3-4 days after purchase so small grocery runs are a little more common.

that's all for now

Rob

Can opener not required

Day to day life is about the little things, here are some of those that are different

In the kitchen:
cans: the cans all have pull tops so no can opener required

yogurt: not fruit on the bottom, its fruit on the side. The upside is you don't get the handle of your spoon covered as you try and mix

coffee: as maybe mentioned in previous posts, instant is king. Upside no coffee maker
potato crisps (chips): They don't have big american bags. When you buy a big bag it is just a bag containing 6 mini bags (the US snack size)

Elsewhere:
newspapers: All magazine style (1 fold on side), I have heard the Oregonian recently switched. Once you get used to it it does make for an easier to handle the paper.
kids magazines: like National Geographic Kids, Highlights, etc... every one has a toy. Will kids not read without a toy?
shopping carts: all require coins to use, (you get back, the coin is like one of those locker room locks)
Taxis : only Ireland will you a taxi line at the mall
floors: first floor is the second floor. Ground floor is the first
Front door knobs: in the US knobs are on the side of door, in Ireland the door knob is right in the middle of the door
Inside rooms: In Ireland every room has a keyed door (including most closets and bathrooms). we have a key at our house for every room door that is 12 interior keys. Key is on both sides (not a key on 1 side switch on the other ).

there are many more , but of course they are all mostly natural to us now.

Rob

I know a Lady...

Today I had an amazing experience.  I was given a private tour of Dunsany Castle in County Meath by none other than the Lady Dunsany herself.  Just the Lady and myself spending two hours in a leisurely stroll through her family's current home.  I described it to Rob this way:  "you know how we get tours through great houses and castles and see all the beautiful furniture and artwork behind the velvet ropes? Well, in this tour there were no ropes."

Original artwork from the 17th century, weapons used to defend the castle against Cromwell's attack, and family photos of Lady and Lord Dunsany and their two sons all mixed together in amazing rooms with 20 foot ceilings and hand carved wood and plasterwork.  In the dining room I asked Lady Dunsany if she ever ate there.  "Sure," she said and pointed to a slightly smaller square table in the room "this is the breakfast table".  At which point she rubbed at a teacup ring on the wood.  Sadly, because of the staggering collection of priceless pieces, I could not take photos of the interior.  Lady Dunsany said that security was an issue for them. She doesn't want pictures of what is there to be stolen posted all over Facebook.  Seemed silly to me until we got past the foyer.  Then I understood.  Standing next to an original Van Dyke from the 17th century I understood why she wouldn't want photos all over the web.  This is what the place looked like from the outside.

Lady Dunsany invited me to return next summer and to bring Rob and the kids next time.  She's so nice.  

Sarah

our stay in Ireland, broken down

Added a few more list to the blog site to track our stay.

In our 11 months to date

• We have made it to 23 castles in Ireland and Europe so far 
• We have visited destinations in 12 counties (out of 32) which makes for 37%...
• We have been to atleast 8 houses/estates (this one is harder to track since some castles are actually houses , decorated to look like castles)
• We have been to 5 countries (or 3 if you count Wales and Northern Ireland as part of UK)
• We have been to 4  beaches (Skerries, Howth, Grange, Sintra (Portugal))

We will be starting or second 12 months with a trip to Barcelona in 2 weeks (beaches, castles, ...),  A trip to Kilkenny for a hurling challenge match (Maynooth U8 GAA hurling vs Black and White GAA in Kilkenny) (yet another county to the list)

Should count the number of pictures taken, that is probably quite a number...

until next time

Rob

Of Ice Cream Trucks and 99's

First, the 99.  It is the UK and Irish national treat as far as I can tell.  It is perfection.  It is ice cream. Specifically, a soft serve sweet cream flavored cone with a small chocolate bar called a "flake" sticking out of it.  A search for the origin of the rather odd name left me flummoxed.  But it is delicious.  It can be served with sprinkles or other bits and bobs on it, or it can be served with strawberry sauce drizzled all over it.  Any way you have it, it's lovely.

Now, on the Irish Ice Cream Van.  Just as in the US, it shows up in your area on any warm day with music blaring and temptation in it's wake.  It plays, here on the Emerald Isle, just one song.  La Cucaracha.  No others, just La Cucaracha.  Now I can't say what a song about a cockroach has to do with food products, but it seems to be the siren song of the Ice Cream Van driver nonetheless.  Here the ICV does have one distinct advantage over its US cousins.  When the Van approaches, the driver pulls into a safe spot - in our case along side the green space directly in front of our house, and stops.  The music of the cockroach continues for a minute or two, then the driver turns off the music.  He waits a few more minutes to see if the bait is going to be taken, and if no potential customers approach, he moves on. In silence.  So, a more judicial use of the music sets the Irish ICV on a pedestal high above the US equivalent.  

If I were a rich man...

turns out there is a website for historic properties
http://www.formerglory.ie/property-rathville-house.html (€595,000 )

http://www.formerglory.ie/property-ballindooleycastle.html(€599,000)

http://www.formerglory.ie/property-rathclare-house.html (€595,000)

http://www.formerglory.ie/property-creaghhouse.html (price on inquiry)

fixer uppers are a little cheaper

http://www.formerglory.ie/property-belvelly-castle.html

only €275,000...

a little out of my pocket change level, maybe after this years raise

Rob

What is a holiday?

What makes a holiday or vacation...
holiday: an extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or in travelling.
vacation: a period of time that a person spends away from home, school, or business usually in order to relax or travel
A little distinction between the 2 terms. For a holiday the goal is leisure and recreation. This would match up to a typical Irish holiday where they will often rent a self-catering cottage at the beach in ireland or in one of the easy sun countries (Spain, Portugal). I suppose that a vacation doesn't have to be leisurely, as long as you are away from work.
Also saw somewhere that holiday is a day off chosen by others (work, school , government) while a vacation is a day off chosen by you..

So far our holidays while living in Ireland have been focused on seeing things (tourism) .
We have been to UK (Wales and Northern Ireland), France and Portugal,also many sites in Ireland. A list of a few sites seen on holiday
Beaumaris Castle, Conwy castile, Penryn Castle, Caernafon Castle, Llechweld Slate Caverns, Belfast Castle, Giant's Causeway, Dunluce Castle, Carrick Fergus, Innis Oirr, Cliffs of Moher, Burren, Hook Head, Moors Castle, Pena Palace, Sao Jorge Castle, Monument of the Discoveries, Santa Justa Lift, Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Athenry Castle, ...
The busy tourist calendar does not leave a lot of extra time for the relax and leisure components. Do we need a new term for time away from work spent touristing and educating kids?

Might be time for a relax, leisure holiday.... though as Sarah say that is a little more challenging with 2 little people in tow

Rob

Where have we been, where are we going

Summer is upon us, the Irish holiday season. The last day of primary school (elementary school for the americans out there) is today.The summer break for the kids is shorter here , only 2 months, end of June to end of August. Most of the Irish will take their holidays in the summer when the kids are out, usually week or 2 week long trips. Portugal is one popular choice

What will we do this summer?...We have lots of camps scheduled- hurling/camogie, gaelic football, football (soccer), art, etc... Camps are usually 10-2 so not all day affairs like they would be in the U.S. We will probably do 1-2 day trips around  Ireland and maybe UK on the weekends. We are also planning to do a barge trip though ironically some recent good weather (almost 2 weeks of sun 60s-70s) may make that not work due to too many weeds in canal.

The map below red represents some of the places still on our to do list. The blue represents places we have already been. We will see if we can make the Ireland map more blue.

For the big picture, here is Europe. The blue is where we have been so far, Red are some of the to do's.
Still need to add some more red targets , such as Italy, Greece, Germany, etc... Will tackle some of these in the fall and spring

that's all for now...

Rob

Crime in Ireland , a dichotomy

As some of you may have "heard" on facebook we got robbed the other  week.

Our neighbor said this is the 4th time this house has been robbed, a nice little tidbit that would have had us more diligent.
The house does have an alarm which we hadn't been using. It turns out that most houses in ireland have alarms .I would say over 80% of the Irish  houses have alarms for sure. This is start contrast to the US where alarms are a rarity . The alarm systems are usually sound only.
According to the garda even with the noise as a deterrent the criminals may still go on just due to these incidental alarms making people not care.


as to the dichotomy
The irish may lock the door during the day at all times, but they still feel comfortable letting their kids walk into town. We have seen various neighbours letting their kids walk into town:
family 1- 2 girls (10)
family 2- boy 7, girl 10
Not uncommon to see young kids unsupervised hanging around the town.
so they may not feel their house is safe but they trust the people


Rob

Genealogy 101

So one of the side projects here in Ireland is family trees...
On my side my mom did some great work developing here family tree using Ancestry.com. The software is nice enough but they do charge for access to records and what not. More over US based is one fee, UK/Ireland another, worldwide another.
I did find a free website Wikitree that can take file from Ancestry as input. Using this I was able to find the missing link in my Dad's moms tree which is a name change from Hirrell to Harol when moving from Ireland to the U.S.
This led to finding that my grandmother Thompson's family hailed from Donegal, Ireland. We did a scouting trip during Christmas and likely met some distant cousins.

Recently, I got hold of Sarah's family tree. With the help of Ancestry.com I was able to link Sarah's tree with others and others... This led to over 28 generations of ancestors on her side.

The observations from this research
Ireland ancestry is hard to track- whether due to bad records, the turnover from English rule, name changes, it is unclear but it is hard to go very many generations back. I see 2-3 on my dads side, 3-4 on my moms side , 1-2 on Sarah's side before trail runs cold.

Canadians do great job with Ancestry, this led to tracking Sarah's ancestry to mainland Europe. Well over 6 generations of French on Sarah's side

We have turned out to visit many of the countries of Sarah's ancestors- Wales, Portugal, Ireland ... Will need to knock England off the list. Due to the lengthy tree for Sarah there are quite a few nobles (counts, countesses) and possibly the King of England. Quite entertaining stuff

Some stats to stew on

Rob's tree
Oldest American
Oliver Leonard 1749, Springfield ,Mass

States
Ohio, Kansas, Tennessee, Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Illinois, California, Florida, South Carolina,Oregon, Virginia, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kentucky,

Oldest non-American
Daniel Joseph 1709
Yorkshire, England

Countries
Canada 2, German 5, England 8.France 1, Ireland 7.

>5 generations

Sarah's tree
Oldest American relative
John Davis 1643 , Massachusetts

States
Connecticut, Massachusetts, California

Oldest non-american  relative
Ega Leutharius
 Alsace, France  B 565

Countries
Belgium 13, approx 110 canada, England 22, Germany 20, Ireland 10
Italy 4, Netherlands 2, Portugal 31, Scotland 7, Spain 5, France approx 190
, Switzerland 4,Wales 1

>28 generations

Even more fun when we actually get to meet some of these distant cousins...

Rob

Cooking in Ireland

Or maybe I should have said baking in Ireland...

Recipes in Ireland will typically list the dry ingredients in grams, unlike the US (typically cups).
The problem is that they don't sell measuring cups that measure in grams.

Back to science class folks ...
Cups, ml, oz, fl oz are all volume measurements.
Grams, lbs are weight/mass measurements

For most recipes in the US for baking they will say 1/2 cup sugar, 2 cups of flour etc....
1 cup of flour =128 grams
1 cup of oats =85 grams
1 cup of sugar =201 grams
clearly the volume method in the US is much more convenient. The typical Irish way would be to use a scale to weight the dry goods.

After having no luck in store I found this on amazon

Hopefully this solves the cooking frustrations, and makes for some happy baking in the household




Rob

The Portugal post

Our trip was Tuesday to Saturday. Just like Paris we rented an apartment. This apartment was in the Alfama district which is one of the 2 districts not damaged in the 1755 earthquake.  Lots of old homes (apartments?) all attached.  Sun each day; 15C never felt so good (around 60F) the weather was quite pleasant (a little chilly in the mountains but we still made it work in shorts...)

The Portugese love tiles, and the building facades were covered with them.

The streets and sidewalks were also better than your typical asphalt. Small pavers/stones often in black/white patterns.

The buildings are amazingly colorful, pinks, purples, yellows, blues. Tiles and no tiles.

and due to the hilly nature of the region there were tons of places with amazing views, the Castelo de Sao Jorge, The Monument to the Discoveries, The pantheon, etc... a few panos from said locations

We arrived on Tuesday night so only had time for check in and dinner. Wednesday we went to the Castelo de Sao Jorge. We then tried the recommended tram 28; however, it seems like every guide book says this so while the tram was cheap it was packed and with no seats we couldn't see out the windows...
Thursday we were off to Sintra. If we had known what Sintra had to offer we would have spent more time there. A beautiful Moorish castle on one hill and the Pena National Palace on another. There was one more palace we didn't see plus parks, museums, etc... We had decided ahead that we were going to try and get to the beach in Cascais. Unfortunately, it turns out the bus from Sintra to Cascais is slow especially as you close in on rush hour. We did briefly stop at Cabo da Roca (westernmost point in Europe). Eventually we did make it to Cascais, but it was just before sunset. The kids still troopers played on a beach for an hour before the sun went down and bladders gave way.
A nice fish dinner in Cascais and then back home.
Friday, our last full day we walked the town, went to see the Santa Justa Elevator, had some Portugese pasties. Then a tram ride to Belem to see Padrão dos Descobrimentos (monument of the discoveries) which has 33 explorers on it with Vasco de Gama at the front. The view from up top is great .
Saturday was the last day, Stacey had an early flight , and we had a late one We went to the Fiera da ladra (flea market , which supposedly translates as thieves market). We loaded up on momentos - charms, tiles (from 1880s), backpack, linens,... then went to the National Pantheon. Another tall structure with great views of Lisbon.

and so ended our Portugal vacation.
I quizzed Audrey on her rating and she said 9 out of 10 then 10 out of 10.
She says so far 10/10 Wales and Portugal and 9/10 for Paris

 I will upload a plethora of pictures soon
https://plus.google.com/photos/103368911484787026594/albums/5993962619475722465?authkey=CNzZ-IakzMPQMg

Vacations are for sharing...

A vacation is like a fine wine, best shared. Our favorite third wheel joined us in Portugal.
Kids loved having Stacey along (as did the adults).

Here is a montage of Stacey moments
The stacey collection

Rob

St Patrick's day weekend in Ireland

The weekend started with wear your greens on Friday at the schools. The kids came in more than just green, there were tri-color wigs, fake beards, bishop costumes (presumably St Patrick), and many other assorted oddities. We then noticed at night the local church highlighted in green

Saturday of the weekend was business as usual. 2 morning soccer matches then afternoon Gaelic football and hurling practice.

Sunday it was off to the Belvedere house in Westmeath. There we saw some trad music and irish dance, also walked the grounds and of course visited the house. The house was designed by the same architect who designed many of the other great estates in Ireland, so it was interesting to compare.

Monday the local parade. The locals had said it was modest, but it was actually quite good.
There were 2 pipe bands, 4 irish dance schools and all the other local organizations. A good 20-25 groups participating.
We had a quick bite, then grabbed some sweets at the local sweet chop, then a pint of Guiness and some trad music at McMahons. Quick break at home then off to the GAA club. There were Gaelic football challenges (hot the shamrock. kick the ball in the tire, beat the goalie), bouncy houses, and lots of friends. Jack ended up playing almost 2 hours of impromptu soccer which mom settled into the club and had some stew. Then she and Audrey learned to the shoe the donkey at Ceili (impromptu dance session) at the club


all in all a great day and worth being here for

Rob