I am the first to admit that I am by no means a fashion maven. Hell, I don't even know where the Brighton store is located and living in Dallas I really should know that...but I don't.

Anyway, while we were waiting for the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, a number of "well-dressed" people started arriving for some sort of social event at the palace. I caught some images of what they were wearing that I really think need to be seen to be believed.

Notice the black feathers on the blond lady's head? Here's another blond lady with feathers...there was an interesting choice made by a male member of her party. I call him "kilt guy".

Wasn't it considerate of the "kilt guy" to ensure we all saw him in his full glory, drawing attention to his sock tassels...and...ahem...other "bits". More feathers on other female heads. "Kilt guy" continued to adjust as he strolled through the courtyard:

Here are some other people "dressed" up for the occasion. More hats...more bird feathers.

Ah yes...London fashion. Feathers, hats and kilts seems to sum it up.

So said Peaches on the topic of "Travels" & "Weird Stuff"
Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Keep in mind that day three was dreary, cold, and at times it was sleeting. So we did the best we could with these pics. I'm amazed they are in focus as all our hands were shaking for the better part of the day. But we were in London and we were NOT going to waste the day - cold and rainy or not.

We started out the day back on our bus, headed toward the London Eye (a.k.a. "The Wheel"). It is the world's largest ferris wheel and was built for the Millennium celebrations. You can find no better place for sweeping panoramic views of the city and The Thames. Here's a picture we took of it the day before when it was actually sunny:

We did get some pictures. Sorry they're so gray but you can get an idea of the fabulous view. I was happy in The Wheel...it was WARM.

You can't really take your child to London without getting them over to see the newly rebuilt Globe Theater. This replica was built based on a hodgepodge of information garnered from letters and other notes from the time of its heyday during which Shakespeare's famous plays were performed. It is built totally in the old ways, held together by wooden pegs. Very impressive.

Here is what it looks like from the street. It is the only structure that has been built with a thatched roof. Damn that pesky fire they had during The Plague....luckily they were able to get a waiver for this building.

Here is what the stage looks like:

And the stage ceiling. Notice all the very detailed design.

Here is a first-hand view from what they call the penny seats. The "unwashed masses" could stand here and watch the play for a penny. They fit up to 1,000 of those poor unwashed souls in the SRO area before the stage each evening.

Here is a view from one of the upper balconies. This is a working theater so they had school children in that day doing a workshop and they actually performed a scene or two for us. Notice the seats with chairs to either side of the stage...this is where the VERY well to do members of the nobility and other rich folks sat for the performances. They needed the chairs as they could not sit on the balcony benches in the stiff, cumbersome fashions of the day. It wasn't so much about seeing the show in those days, but rather to be seen at the show.

Here is a view of the balcony seats. Notice the open roof...yes it is as near to an exact replica as they could get. Thank GOD we were under the balcony overhang when it started to sleet.

After The Globe Theater, we crossed back over to the other side of the river, stopping along the way at a pub to warm up (if you can call it warm - it was 55 at best in there) and eat beef and ale pies. Man, those pies were good....or maybe they were good because it was warm?

After lunch, we headed back to our bus stop and caught a ride to The Tower of London. Here's a picture of it Tommy took while it was sunny out the day before:

All the convicts which lived in the tower were for the most part what we call political prisoners. They were brought in through Traitor's Gate, walked up the stairs, and placed in whichever tower room or Yeoman Warder's house they were to live in for the duration of their stay.

Here's a picture of a room from The Bloody Tower, named after "alleged" murders of two young princes which occurred there upon the tower stairs. Anyway, doesn't the gentleman in the painting seem to have rather nice prison accommodations? Prisoners were allowed to bring their families and even their servants to stay with them...as long as they paid for everything.

Here's a good picture of The London Bridge from inside The Tower:

After The Tower and a very long wait for our very late bus, we stopped off at KFC (yeah I know...very lame but we were very cold and The Boy was very hungry) and finally took a taxi back to our room to WARM UP and pack.

Oh - it was actually sunny on our second day so we rode up top on our tour bus and got some pretty good pictures.

Sorry, no pics of us. Privacy thing and all that. Hope you enjoyed looking at these as much as we enjoyed being in the city of London. Well worth all the shivering and long travel days. If you ever get a chance, do go and do go see as many of the attractions as you can.

I have some other silly pics from Buckingham Palace I'll post in the next few days. But that's all for now.

So said Peaches on the topic of "Travels"
Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

But I have been travelin' quite a bit. (h/t to Jimmy Buffet).

We started our travel day at 11:30 p.m. Dallas time on Thursday night, and we just got home at 5:30 a.m. this morning. Yes, when we landed we got in our car, changed clothes, and drove the 11 hours home with only very, very short stops.

But we are home. We almost didn't make it back home...you see a red sports car cut across four lanes of traffic, cutting off each lane in turn, to get where HE needed to go...at 90 mph on the already busy 635 loop at 5:00 this morning. Thank God nobody got hurt because of his unbelievable stupidity. Probably some college kid still out for St. Patrick's Day.

Off to showers and bed for us.

More on London maybe later today, maybe not. We'll see if I'm awake at all.

It's cold. I mean it's really cold. It's like in the 30's and sleeting. And if you're from Dallas and you have spring jackets and are walking around in said sleet all day long, you're damn near frozen to death.

Today we did the London Eye, The Tower, and The Globe Theater. And we ate beef and ale pies for lunch. All really neat, but it was cold. So cold that as soon as we got off the bus we had waited for for 40 minutes all we did was duck into a KFC, eat a quick dinner and head back here to the hotel.

Did I mention it's cold? Oh, and we're about to run out of Internet time. So pics will have to wait for this weekend...sorry.

More Saturday or Sunday. We'll have pics for you by then.

it's 10:30 p.m. London time according to the clock on the T.V. We just got cleaned up after a day of seeing neat things and finishing up at Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. We try to go to a Hard Rock when we travel if there is one in the city.

Anyway...started off the day with full English Breakfast buffet at the hotel and headed off through Hyde Park toward Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard.

First let me say that I kept asking Tommy during the LONG walk to the palace if he was sure he knew where we were going. Needless to say, I shut up after I saw this:

After we got there it was a really long wait since we wanted a place up front to view the goings on. Then a few guys starting marching around here and there and after a while one of them started marching up to the gate and back several times.

The guy actually gave everyone a lopsided grin and said "Morning" when he marched up to the gate and paused a moment so people could take pictures. I didn't know those guys were allowed to talk. Can they talk? Is that allowed?

I was fascinated with the "magic wand guy" as he came to be called by me. All he seemed to do was march around the drum corps and smack the magic wand thing on the ground once in a while and turn this way and that. Occassionally he'd yell something to the drummers - I'm not sure what. But he kinda creeped me out with the magic wand staff thingee.

Then during all the marching and yelling, all of a sudden a bunch of guys with special blue feather things in the tall hats grabbed some stands for music...formed a circle...

And played....American show tunes. I'm not kidding...."America" from West Side Story, "Tonight" from My Fair Lady and a couple others. Then they gathered up their stands, put them back, and marched off. I found out later that was the Irish Guard with their medly of tunes for our listening pleasure. But American show tunes? Very weird.

There was more yelling, posturing, marching around, etc. During all this, I thought we should document why one should arrive an hour early and stand at the gate to wait.

I'm convinced that nobody in the crowd has ever given anyone around them ANY personal space. WAY too much togetherness for me. WAY too much. But I was in front and that's what counts.

On the way back we walked past Speakers Corner in Hyde Park. This was set up to let any British citizen have a spot to say what's on their mind whenever they like. I guess nobody felt like speaking today.

Did I mention that I woke up at 1:30 this morning with a headache? Well I did. And I had it for most of the day except when I drank beers and ate dinner. Tommy says that means I need more beer. I'm not so sure so I'm gonna go for the water and Excedrin instead. Have these people not ever heard of water? None at breakfast, none at lunch, and none at dinner...even when we asked for some. Oh well...

We started the hop on hop off bus tour today and will continue that tomorrow. Maybe Tommy will post some pictures from there, maybe he won't. He had the only charged camera at the time so he was in control of the pics. We'll hop off at The London Eye and The Tower tomorrow at least...probably more places. Probably more pictures tomorrow. Then Friday it's back to the states. Quick trip, but very well worth it.

So said Peaches on the topic of "Travels"
Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

I got mooned by a duck today - several times - in Kensington Garden. None of the other ducks mooned me, just that one. If you want to see the duck mooning me, go look here.

Whilst walking through the drizzle at Kensignton Gardens across from our hotel after riding business class to London and a short train ride into the city, we did see a few more refined things.

Like the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, for instance...

We couln't get it all in one shot, but basically it's just a circular stream with greens in the middle and outside the walking path with little dips and fountains within the stream. Still, a serene spot that we saw quite a few people at...even in the gray drizzle.

Also, they have this thing called the Albert Memorial. Built in the Victorian times and recently restored. Here's a long shot:

More pictures and information on the Albert Memorial here.. They only have tours on Sunday so we just have our dreary spring pictures.

So much more to see at Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. We will go back tomorrow. They have these tube passes and travel passes for the attractions you can get, but we're not sure we'll do that as we're close to some stuff and a short cab ride away from others. I do know that Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace are on the agenda, as are The London Eye and Shakespear's Globe Theater. But only two more days. Who knows what we'll see?

Tonight we saw The Swan, a nice little pub down the street from where we are where we had fish and chips, bangers and mash, and some beers. Very nice. There's a tour group of teenagers at our hotel also. Not so nice. But that's OK we don't plan on spending too much time here.

More tomorrow. BTW - in case you haven't guessed...London is cool. No matter what the weather.

So said Peaches on the topic of "Travels"
Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Mr. Average is off to South America for back to back trips over the next week. So Scytheboy and I have decided to attempt a trek to the great white north to see my side of the family (most of them anyway).

We leave really, really early in the morning (if we get on that first flight) and we should be in Wisconsin before lunch if all goes well.

We're staying with my sister who is on dial-up. So chances are I will not be able to post while we're away. So I hope while we're gone that everyone has a very happy holiday.

With any luck we will be able to make it home before the new year and I can check in with all my blog friends to see how their holidays are going.

In the mean time, be safe and take care, everyone!

As promised, here's a wee word about the food in Dublin. First it should be noted that you don't have to go with Irish food while in the city. There are plenty of fancy eatin' places which feature gourmet food on the menu throughout the Temple Bar District as well as near Hell's Corner and other locations. These are interspersed with the older establishments that feature a pure Irish menu for the most part. And also there are restaurants that do a little bit of both, in order to serve the whole of their local and tourist clientele. Tourism is one of the largest industries in Ireland.

One of the things I noticed that sort of surprised me is there are a lot of eastern European and oriental types working in the food establishments. I guess like anything else....the jobs go to those who are willing to do them. To be honest, I felt a bit cheated whenever I was waited on by a non-Irish accented person.

That said, here we go.

Our first meal was had at The Oliver St. John Gogarty bar in the Temple Bar District. This is one of Tommy's favorite places to go on his trips over there, but he mainly is there for a later dinner and the live music that ensues after the bar gets hopping at night. We got there just as it opened, so it was strictly eat lunch and go for us as we were headed down to Trinity College that afternoon.

Irish food can be really bland, or it can be outstanding. At Gogarty's, I had the Trinity chicken and I have to say it wasn't all that great. Sounded fabulous on the menu, but clearly enough spices were not used for my taste. Now the stew and casserole, however, were different stories. Tommy and his parents had those and they were outstanding. Lots of meat and vegetables in the stew, and the casserole was more like a thick beef stew whereas the stew was more like what we consider soup. But they were good.

Scytheboy wasn't too thrilled with his beef appetizer salad either, so we opted for dessert. He had chocolate mousse and I had strawberries with ice cream. The ice cream was like nothing I've ever had...it was a vanilla bean mixture that included brown bread. This gave it a really unique flavor and texture that was to die for.

Later that night, we found O'Shea's...a quaint little storefront eating establishment with a few tables in side and outside on the patio. Tommy had a sausage plate that looked really good while his parents had some fish. I opted for the lasagna...um....don't get lasagna in an Irish restaurant. It tasted like the stuff you can get from the can here. But they gave me fries on the side so that was okay. Scytheboy had the burger so he was happy. I think by that point we were all so tired we would have been okay with anything.

The next morning, we ate at the hotel buffet. You could get everything from a traditional "proper English breakfast" (including sausages, beans, tomatoes, eggs, bacon, toast) to a typical continental breakfast or a straight-up eggs, bacon and toast American style meal. Can I just say that the yogurt is way better over there than it is over here? Probably something to do with a higher fat content...I don't know. But it was better. I had the bramley apple Yoplait and it tasted just like custard.

I've talked about The Castle Inn by Dublin Castle. We had lunch there on day two and it was really, really good. Here is a picture of the outside of the establishment (It's the blue and gold sign second from the left) so you can find it if you go:

Here is a good picture of the bar, across from where we sat:

And here is the food. You can see Tommy's Guinness beef pie in the foreground, and our fish and chips and of course Scytheboy's burger are also on the table. Finally, the Smittick's is what you see in the Guinness glasses. A perfect, perfect meal all around. Although I must say were all a bit jealous of Tommy's pie....

Looks damn good, doesn't it? He gave us all one bite each, but that was all he would allow. It was just TOO good.

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, we finished our Irish eating at the Hard Rock in Dublin. Nothing special about the food, but it was still good to go.

The morning we left all we had time for was a small scone and some coffee from the hotel barista. Then it was off to the airport for more airline food during the trip home.

So there's your post on the food we had in Dublin. Mmmmmm.....Guinness beef pie and brown bread ice cream.

So said Peaches on the topic of "Travels"
Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

After everyone got some much needed rest, we ate our $55 Euro breakfast buffet at the hotel and headed out to purchase tickets for a bus tour that would take us by most places of interest, a few of which we would hop off at to take a closer look. Here is a link to the tour site. We started out on the City Tour (the red line) and it was okay, but the narrative was done by tape and you had to use headphones.

If you buy one ticket you are able to hop on and off both the red and yellow lines (yellow buses have "Dublin Tour" on the outside). I highly recommend you go on the yellow bus because they have actual live Irish tour guides and you will get a much better flavor of the city and personal little stories that can be very funny. The red bus will take you to a couple of extra parks in the city...but to me, a park is a park. I want to hear the actual live guide tell me stories and see more of the architectural and cultural stuff in the city. But that's just me.

So to summarize....red bus is okay....yellow bus is much better....go on the yellow bus.

You can see from the route shown on the site you go about 20 places. The first place we hopped off was Dublin Castle. I always wanted to see an old castle in Ireland. We walked the grounds, visited the gift shop where I got some things with our family coat of arms on them (way cool), and then later took the tour after lunch at The Castle Inn (this was the best meal we had while in Dublin, and I'll tell you about it in the food post).

By the way...did you know that Dublin was named after the black pool of water near the castle that would seep in everywhere? It was originally two names....Dub Lin (not sure of the spelling there) and eventually the names were combined to Dublin. The water is mostly all gone, but when we took the tour of the castle and went down into some of the original stone facings dating back to 1204 you could see brackish black water way at the bottom of the stair well that some claim is the remnant of the black pool. But who knows? Neat story anyway.

The Irish tour guide was most excellent, and he weaved stories about the Irish revolution in with details about the palace. Here's a link with more information in case you're interested. And following are some pictures we took during the tour.

Some images of the street facing side of the castle:

Here is the area where the black pool once resided. It's now a green field with walking paths.

Must be too tempting for the young lads when they visit so they posted this sign:

Here is one of the main palace hallways. At some point the palace was rebuilt after a fire so this isn't the original architecture from 1204 but it's still quite old. The lighting fixtures are Venetian.

Here is the ladies salon. The fixtures here are pure Waterford. Very pretty. Also notice the mirrors along both walls. Back in Victorian times the ladies had to sit "just so" and keep their skirts straight so they needed the mirrors to aid them in this endeavor.

Here is the original stone facing from the outside of the castle. Back in the 1200's they didn't have mortar so they used horse hair, ox blood and egg shells to hold the bricks together. And they were quite good at creating a smooth surface so the walls could not be scaled by enemies.

When George II visited and held court, they had to build a special, extra large throne for him. This chair is HUGE. But anyway, it was kind of neat to see it since it does date back to George II.

I hope the above gives you a flavor of the castle grounds and the rebuilt palace. The tour was about 50 minutes and quite interesting. I highly recommend taking the tour.

We also visited Christ Church Cathedral. It dates back to 1038. See?

Here is the outside. Remember, these walls date back to 1038. Pretty damn impressive.

And here are some images of inside the cathedral. There are all sorts of nooks and crannies with remembrances, and the main prayer hall is quite spectacular. Enjoy.

Underneath the church they have some catacombs built with the original structure that house some rooms they might have used during the crusades for some, shall we say, "face to face" conversations. Below is one of the devices left from that era:

All right, then. That's all the pictures I have from the bus tour. We rode by some other places but of course we were too busy listening to the tour guide and enjoying his stories to grab some images when we stopped for lights. Sorry. I can say that when we passed by the Guinness factory they were actively brewing and the aroma was everywhere.

If you go, do the bus tour. You won't be sorry.

After the tour we went and had some beers at the hotel, and then grabbed a cab over to the Hard Rock Cafe Dublin for our last dinner in Ireland. Not Irish at all, but still kinda need to have eaten there. I always try to visit a Hard Rock if there is one wherever I travel. And Tommy's parents had never been to one so that was nice for them to experience.

So that was day two of our stay in Dublin. The next morning we were off to America. It was hard finally catching a flight home, and we got coach seats from Dublin to our first stop in the U.S. But we didn't care. We had been to Ireland and it was all worth it. If you get a chance to go to Ireland, go.

I'll put together some information on the other restaurants we went to and put that up probably tomorrow.

So said Peaches on the topic of "Travels"
Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

I got quite a few really good pictures during our short trip to Dublin so I suppose the best way to do this is to split them into a few posts. This post will cover travel over to Dublin and what we saw on Saturday after landing. Then I'll cover our bus tour stuff on Sunday in the Day 2 post. Finally, I'll do a post about the food and show some images of menus and business cards as sort of an FYI.

Pre-brief completed. Here we go. We left on an early flight out of Dallas and had responsibly called for a cab to arrive quite early so we could get on the standby list for our trip to the international hub city. Well....the cab....was more than thirty minutes late. So much for planning ahead. We drove ourselves but we still made the flight OK so that was good.

We spent many hours in the hub city waiting for the Dublin flight. More than one trip to Starbuck's was involved. But it was all worth it because we all got Business Class seats. Life was good.

Seven hours later, we landed in Shannon for a quick stop. We did not get off the plane there so here's all we saw of Shannon, Ireland:

Then we took off for the 20 minute flight to Dublin. Here's what we saw of Irish clouds during the flight:

Yeah, I know...they're just clouds. But they're Irish clouds. Creamy and frothy, just like the Guinness.

The taxi from the airport was $22 Euro for five people, so we thought that was pretty good. Costs more for us to get from our house to DFW to be honest. Along the way and in the airport, for that matter, I noticed all the signs were in English as well as Gaelic (they call it Irish over there). Our driver was a great first impression of Dublin's citizens in all their Irishness. I think he might have been laying on the accent and story telling a bit thick, but who cares? We were in Ireland, talking to an Irish guy with an Irish accent and it was way cool. He asked how old our son was in true Irish form: "How long ye be ownin' that one?"

We took a quick shower at our hotel on the Liffey River (Jury Inn Custom House) before heading out. Here's something a bit different - they keep the hair dryer in a drawer in the desk of the room, not in the bathroom. See? Dryer in the drawer right there:

I'm not a big fan of walking a lot after a long flight, but we were all anxious to get out and see and do things....so off we went. We walked up to the Oliver St. John Gogarty Bar & Restaurant in the Temple Bar district for lunch (more about that later...traditional Irish food) and then off to Trinity College. I have a few pictures from there:

Across the street from our hotel was a monument recently erected depicting the hardship of the Great Irish Potato Famine:

We walked by the O'Connell Bridge named after Daniel O'Connell who was a big player in Irish history. Here's his monument and the sign to the bridge:

One of my relatives a few generations back was an O'Connell. Kinda neat to see the bridge and monument.

Then we had the lunch I mentioned earlier. Good lunch. Better dessert :). More later on that.

Following lunch we were off to Trinity College. Oscar Wilde attended there among many others. Here are some pictures:

Some lads were playing football on a field inside the campus. Had to show you this.

OK, maybe I didn't get that many pictures of Trinity college. Here are some more if you're interested. Beautiful old buildings rich with history and all that. You'll notice the Irish translations just below the English on the site. It's the law in Ireland all public institutions must also have the translations. Also, the solicitors (lawyers) and police must all be fluent as it's the law that a citizen may request to be charged and tried in Irish if it's their desire.

After Trinity College we went to St. Stephen's Green ("The Greens"). Sorry...didn't get any of my own pictures there as I was pretty much asleep on my feet. I looked for a bench while Tommy enjoyed the beautiful gardens and duck pond with his parents.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by The House of Ireland to browse a bit. Lots of Waterford, Waterford, Waterford and some other Irish trinkets for the tourists. They also have one in the duty free at the airport, so we got our stuff there instead. Did you know Waterford is heavy...H-E-A-V-Y? Well, it is. Trust me. I didn't buy any this trip, but a nice surprise when we got home because Tommy's mom got us some beautiful Waterford water glasses. No wonder her bag was so heavy!!

After House of Ireland, we walked back to the hotel because I had finally complained enough about being tired of walking that Tommy needed a beer to bolster his patience. He and his parents went down to the bar for a few Smittick's while Scytheboy and I took a long nap.

Not much else the rest of the night....we got up and walked out for some dinner. By that time it was the dinner rush so it was hard to find a place that would seat five. We finally did after wandering around the Temple Bar District for an hour or so and the food was actually pretty good at the quaint little place called O'Shea's we finally stopped in. More about that in the food post.

After dinner it was another walk back to the hotel. The Custom House is right down the street from our hotel and it's really pretty at night:

As I said, our hotel was right across from the Liffey River. Very pretty at night. Check the link for information on all the bridges that cross it. Anyway, here is the river at night near the Sean O'Casey bridge looking toward another more modern bridge built a few years ago for the 2003 Special Olympics World Games in Dublin:

And by day from our hotel room.

Notice all the cranes?

There are cranes all over the city...right next to 1,000 year old buildings and churches that have lasted forever. Very surreal to see the new construction as a backdrop to the original structures. Dublin is a thriving metropolis and is growing larger and more modern with each day. A large, bustling city with lots of cultural sites to see as well as modern entertainment, eating and living accommodations.

OK, off I go for an adult beverage and a nice long sleep. Hope you enjoyed hearing about day one as much as I enjoyed living the experience. Day 2 in Dublin tomorrow with the food post to follow.

Cheers.

So said Peaches on the topic of "Travels"
Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Because, really...where else would you start when talking about Ireland? And Dublin especially where Guinness is made.

Beer out of the tap in Ireland is like no other nectar of the gods you will taste anywhere in the world. It cannot be overstated how good the stuff is.

We took a bus tour on our second day in Dublin during which we passed by the Guinness factory. The factory rests in the heart of Dublin, just down the street from Hell's Corner where in years of old those men who chose to drink their wages would sometimes wake up the next morning to find themselves conscripted on a ship bound for the West Indies.

But enough of that...back to the beer....

Oh, wait, one more thing. Did you know that the original Guinness founder and his wife whelped 21 children? Our tour guide on the bus said that goes to show you that just a little bit of Guinness in you will do the trick....wait...what?

Anyway....our live tour guide on the bus likes Guinness from what I gather. Here's a paraphrased snippet of his narration as we passed by the factory:

"Aaahhh would ye just smell that? Aaahhh, Guinness. The fine creamy foam resting atop that tan tarry nectar, slowly seeping its creamy goodness down into the cup. The glass cool in your hand...the condensation slowly running down the sides.....your throat dry as the Arizona desert.....you take the glass and bring it to your mouth and take your first drink after a long hard day....aaahhh yes, Guinness. Aye, there's nothing finer than a pint of that tarry sweet nectar....okay then, back to the tour...."

Aaahh yes,....Guinness. But there's another beer that's a bit lighter and just as good. It's called Smithwick's. Tommy had it on several past trips to Dublin so I gave it a try. Words cannot describe how good the stuff is. Creamy, smooth, rich red ale it is. Mmmmm.....Smithwick's.

Here are some pictures of the taps at the little bar in our hotel by the Liffey River.

The King of Beers and his court, no? Bud is everywhere you go it seems....

There's your wee post on beer. More later on Dublin when I've got my thoughts sorted.

Cheers!

So said Peaches on the topic of "Travels"
Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

I woke up this morning in Dublin, and now this evening I'm back in the U.S. Very tired. Just had two beers in the airport bar waiting to see if one of these flights we'll actually get seats...FYI....I now realize the beer here is nowhere near as good as the beer in Ireland.

I have so many pictures and notes to go through...perhaps tomorrow after some sleep I can start sharing some of the trip. Until then....I am enjoying the very fine standing room only accomodations in various gate areas at the airpot until someone lets me on a plane back to Dallas.

Flying back on a Monday was a brilliant idea....NOT.

Well, we got our first flight out of DFW which was our only major hurdle for today. Only problem was our cab driver was 30 minutes late so Tommy just drove us all to the airport and we're paying for parking. Turns out it costs about the same to park in short term for the duration of our trip so it all worked out in the end.

However....DAMN....CAB.....COMPANY!! I called no less than four times and each time they said he was right there. One time they even said he was in our driveway...trust me, he was NOT in our driveway. Jerks, jerks, jerks. We will never use them again. They almost made us late, but Tommy's plan B worked out. Yeah, Tommy!!

And we are here...and now...we wait. Four more hours until we can check in for our trip to Dublin. Chances still look really good for Business Class. Hopefully we can post from Dublin but don't hold your breath. We'll be busy.

I have a few more pictures left to show you. Right across the street from where we had breakfast and lunch at a couple neat outdoor patio cafes is this building. It's called The Navy Center but other than that we don't really know much about it. But it's a cool building.

Here is the old Bank of Boston. Sad really, but like all large cities there is graffiti on this old landmark and many others.

Something happened on May 25th, 1810 that was significant enough to create this memorial.

Here is the Plaza de Mayo where the memorial above resides.

I went to the Pink Palace. Here it is. It's across the street from the Plaza de Mayo.

This memorial was near the Recoleta Cemetery. Apparently, something happened in 1976 but I'm not sure what...neat statue anyway.

We stopped in the Cafe Tortoni for some "postre" (dessert) half way through our day on Sunday. The link shows much better pictures, but we did manage to take this picture from our table. You can see our waiter standing by the counter on the right. He was cute. At least I thought he was....

The Cafe has been there for many years and is known to be frequented by the stars (Robert Duvall among them - but we didn't see him there on Sunday). It's one of those places that you just enjoy being there because you feel so relaxed and cozy. The wait staff is VERY good at making you feel like you can stay all day, even if you are just having a snack. I highly recommend a visit there if you have time while you're in Buenos Aires.

Here are the Tango dancers that were just down the street from where we ate at the outdoor cafes. It's an action shot. A little blurry, but you can see the surrounding area to get a feel for where we were.

So said Peaches on the topic of "Travels"
Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

If you ever make it down to Buenos Aires, one of the "touristy" things you really should do is go see Recoleta Cemetery. It's just a $2.50 cab ride from down town and well worth the trip. Posted below are some pictures we took during our self-guided tour. Most won't have captions, but some will. Evita is buried at this cemetery, and I have pictures of her markers at the end of the post. Enjoy!

And the tour continues...

And here is Evita's marker.

She was put to rest in the Duarte family crypt in an unassuming location situated among all the other grave sites. It was very hard to find, but we finally spotted it just before we left the cemetery.

This is a very serene location. I was struck by the reverance with which they honor their dead here. The bronze work in creating the likenesses of the deceased is absolutely incredible and there are, of course, many religious references and sculptures as the Catholic religion is very prevalent in the area. There are sites going back to the very early 1800's and all the way up to this year, placed in family crypts that have been there in some cases for more than two centuries.

Oh, and let's not forget there are opportunities for vendors to give tourists the chance to pick up a remembrance of their visit to Recoleta Cemetary. It's sort of like a high-end flea market. This is where we got the Tango statue and a few other trinkets. Yes, we caved but it sure was fun walking through the stands.

So said Peaches on the topic of "Travels"
Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

1. No matter what he says, don't believe him. Tommy is NOT working while he's wheels down in Buenos Aires.

2. They have good flan.

3. If you go there, you must eat steak at least once a day. You just have to. No excuses. Why? Because it is unbelievably inexpensive, and unbelievably good.

4. They do the Tango in Buenos Aires. They do the Tango A LOT. And some people plan vacations to go there for the sole purpose of doing the Tango.

5. No matter how much wine you drink, you will not be hungover the next day. At least, I wasn't....

6. If your Tango instructor says, "Ah, si', eso" that's a good thing.

7. If your Tango instructor says, "Si' eso, excelente!" that's even better.

8. Yes, it's better if the woman wears heels to do the Tango. I know it sucks, but it's true.

9. Doing the Tango makes your legs hurt.

10. 33 hours is just not enough time to be there. You must go back many times to ensure you've truly absorbed the cool vibe of the city and seen all the cool things there are to see.

11. They have a LOT of really interesting old buildings.

12. If you dropped Buenos Aires into the middle of Europe, it would totally blend with the culture. It feels much more like a European city than a Latin one. The vibe, the buildings, the things to do, the pace....everything. Well, except the Tango part of the culture. That is truly unique.

13. If you like cashmere and leather, you can get really good, high quality items for about a third of what they would cost in the states (at least while the exchange for pesos to dollars is 3:1).

14. It is customary to tip your service people 10% (just so you know).

15. If you go there, you simply must either try a Tango class or go to a Tango show. You haven't been to Buenos Aires until you've experienced the Tango in some form - while in the city.

16. Girls...watch your purses VERY closely. Don't hang them on your chairs, don't put them on the seat next to you...keep them in full view or wrapped around your ankle under the table. Boys...keep your wallets in your front pockets. Sad, but the tourist areas are rife with pickpockets and purse snatchers.

17. Buenos Aires is a fairly safe city and there are police officers highly visible in all the tourist areas, but just to be sure, see number 16.

18. If you fly the all-nighter in, you will be VERY tired that first day. Take a nap for a few hours when you get in, but then try and stay up through dinner so you can enjoy the next day...especially if you have limited time there.

19. You must drink at least three glasses of wine each day, preferably some at lunch and then some more at dinner. You just have to. You're in Argentina.

20. If you catch a Taxi, flag one down that has "Radio Taxi" on it - these are the regulated taxis and you will have a much better chance of not getting ripped off by your driver.

21. Once you've been there, you will not want to leave and you will definitely start planning your next trip on your way home. Be prepared to love every single minute you are in Buenos Aires.

That's right. On Saturday night we actually went and took a tango lesson. A beginner lesson, but a lesson. I'm going to claim we looked like this, and you weren't there so you can't refute it. So there. We looked damn good, I must say. Even the teacher said "excelente!" - okay she said it only once but she still said it. Anyway, it was fun. And we got this statue. I would like to go back and take another lesson. Oh, and....my legs hurt. From the lesson.

So said Peaches on the topic of "Travels"
Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

I promised pictures of the food and fun last night, and here they are.

<

They had a trio of musicians playing in the lobby of the hotel where we did our pre-drinking before dinner.

Here is how the table looked while we were enjoying some wine and snacks before dinner was served. We went with some of the other crew and a few of their family members. And we had wine...lots and lots of really good wine.

Here is my flan....and wine, of course. Flan in Argentina is very different from the custardy looking stuff you get in the states. I must say it was the best flan I've ever had.

And here is the purse I bought yesterday. It's an awesome purse. Tommy bought some shoes too but they're not really picture-worthy.

I'll have more pictures some time Monday. We ate at another sidewalk cafe this morning, did some more sightseeing and then stopped later for some pie and drinks at a really cool cafe. Then we headed down to the pink palace and caught a cab to the Recoleta Cemetary. I'll tell you a little more about all that when we get the pictures uploaded.

Now we're off for a light dinner before getting ready to head back home. Hasta manana.

I'm in Buenos Aires and it's fabulous! I got to fly in business class from Atlanta so that made all the difference in the world. Do those flight attendants keep the wine glass filled, or what?

After leaving Dallas at a balmy 104 degrees "reel feel" the 60 degree weather here today was a welcome relief, let me tell you. Jackets and jeans were the rule of the day.

Oh yes, I was eating paninis and empanadas at an outdoor cafe this afternoon. And tonight I was drinking Argentine beer and wine and eating steak and flan. It was good. And YES it IS all about the food...food that I didn't have to cook, thank you very much.

Oh, and it's also about the shopping. I do, in fact, have in my possession one spectacular brand new leather purse I bought for about 1/3 of what it would cost in the states.

I'm too full from the flan to show you any pictures, but when I emerge from my food coma I'll try and show you some stuff.

It looks like I'll actually be able to go on the trip today. So we're off in a few hours, and hopefully we'll be able to post some stuff while we're gone. I've left the banana muffins with my in-laws and I told them they'd better be gone, gone, gone before we get back. Perhaps some more "travels" posts coming up in the next couple days, but if not I'll post and let you know how the trip was when we get back early next week.

Hasta luego!

Well, I got stopped for speeding this past weekend. More about that later.

The last time I was in a car that got stopped for speeding was during my month-long visit to my hubby while he was stationed at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea.

Anyway….on the road from Seoul to the base we were stopped by a South Korean traffic cop who spoke very little English. He said “license please” so my better half, being the ever-cautious pilot that he is, handed everything out of his wallet to the cop – EXCEPT his international drivers license which is a common method used by servicemen when dealing with South Korean traffic cops. I mean, he handed the guy his library card, his insurance card, his military ID, receipts, everything. When the cop realized he was not going to get what he needed and given that he knew he was dealing with an American service member, he just hissed through his teeth, pointed his finger at my hubby and said, “You speed….slower.” So what did that mean? You can still speed, just not as fast as you were speeding before?

Cut to last Sunday. My brother-in-law bought his aunt and uncle’s parts of the family farm near Brownwood, TX and he lives out there now. It so happens that it’s legal to shoot off actual, no kidding real fireworks right there on the farm. It’s a three hour trip, so I said, “Why not, we’ll go” when my in-laws called to ask if we’d meet them there to “Blow things up,” as Scytheboy says (that's our son). Of course, hubby was off on one of his vacations (I mean trips for work) down to Buenos Aires so we packed up the dog, fed the cat, and hit the road. Well, wouldn’t you know it I had just gotten through passing someone and was coming down a hill when a Dublin, TX (not Dublin, Ireland where Mr. Average has much more fun) police officer stopped me for speeding. Was that fair, I ask you? I told her I had just finished passing a driver that was going 62 in a 70 zone and wouldn’t it be better to give her a ticket for driving so slow she was causing real problems on the road, but she wouldn’t buy it. So I got a ticket for going 8 over the limit. Shit. Turns out it was the beginning of bad luck…..

So we check into our less than stellar hotel accommodations and head out to the farm for dinner and fireworks. Can I just say that it’s DAMN HOT in Texas in the summer? It was 102 for Christ’s sake!!! But being the good Mom that I am I tried not to complain too much and just waited along with Scytheboy for it to get dark so he could shoot off fireworks. After dinner, we did the fireworks – lots of fireworks – 2 hours worth of fireworks.

Now, picture complete and total darkness, a dark country road, no traffic, it’s midnight and I have Scytheboy in the car with me, and….BLOWOUT!! I could not believe it. I had no flashlight so I took out my leak stop can (always prepared, I am - well, sort of). It was only after I felt the stuff spraying me in the face that I realized the tire was completely shredded and there was NO WAY I was gonna get out of changing that tire. So I pull out the cell phone – no signal. Crap! I open the trunk, get all the stuff out to change the tire…and I hear a car coming down that dark, lonely, scary country road. I take a chance and wave the car down. Yeah!! It’s my in-laws following us on the road into town. They stop and help me with the tire. But my adrenaline was in such overdrive by the time we got to the hotel at 1 a.m. I could not sleep. So it’s off to Wal-Mart at 7:30 to get the new tire. We were back in Dallas by noon the next day. But I have to say that even with the speeding ticket, the blowout, and no sleep it was worth the screams of utter and complete joy I heard from the other side of the farm yard when Scytheboy was setting off those fireworks. Scytheboy told me on the way back from the farm, “That’s it, from now on when we go somewhere we are flying, not driving!” I’m with you, Scytheboy.