Wimbledon, center court!

We thought it had been a pretty great day already after soaking up a bunch of medieval history at the Tower of London, enjoying fresh sandwiches from the borough market, strolling through Hyde park, listening to Big Ben chime, and seeing a bunch of dead guys at Westminster abbey (seriously though, it is an amazing and humbling church). We even stayed for their evensong service. However, one of the most exciting events of our trip was still yet to come. We thought it would be interesting to take a trip out to Wimbledon on the tube and see the excitement of opening day. I thought we would be lucky just to see the courts from afar. But after buying some cheap (only 14 pounds) evening tickets and a few lucky turns, we were actually able to watch a match on center court! We saw Brit Heather Watson beat Ivela Benesova, and caught the conclusion of a couple other matches.

The West Coast

Grandma's House

We spent most of our time in Ireland on the western coast, in county Galway and county Mayo.  This area is a must-see if you come to Ireland, as it is an incredibly beautiful area and rich with cultural legacy.  Here in Galway, the Irish language is thriving.  We were graciously housed by cousin Máirín and Paddy Joe, who prepared us Irish meals every morning and night, and gave personal tours of the area.

Aran Islands

We ferried to the Aran Islands, home of Dun Aenghus, a rock fort dating back over 2000 years.  Unfortunately, there are no records from that time, so no one really knows what the fort was defending.  We also visited Clifden on the western tip of the country and landing site of the first transatlantic flight, courtesy of cousin Maureen King.

Grandpa's House

Next, we made our way to Crossmolina and visited Fiddaunageeroge, my grandfathers birthplace and home until he emigrated to America in 1929.  I have to tell you though this is when I started getting emotional. We were able to ask a few people where there house was when we got to town. It didn't hit me where I was until we asked an older gentlemen where the house was. He reminded me of my grandpa. He was probably at least 85, standing outside of his house with a shovel and I could barely gets the words out. Marty had to finish the conversation because I had too many tears. I loved my grandpa a lot and I knew that he was so happy I was there. I had been waiting to see his birth town for a long time now.

We enventually arrived at John and Mary Coyle's house and had a great visit with John. He told us stories about my Great Uncle Ned and my grandpa's uncle Tom.  They drove us to my grandpa's old house, where cousins Annie and Philemena now live.  We had tea and cookies and heard some more stories of my family history. We had an excellent time in western Ireland and want to thank all our family that housed us and showed us around: Máirín and Paddy Joe, PJ, Ifa, Sarah, Maureen King, John and Mary Coyle, Annie, and Philemena.  We hope you can come visit us in the states sometime!

Croagh Patrick and Dublin

Before leaving western Ireland, we hiked Croagh Patrick, despite rain and wind.  This is the mountain St. Patrick hiked to fast and pray and source of the legendary driving the snakes out of Ireland.

What better way to celebrate St. Patrick than by drinking a beer!  Sláinte (cheers) from the Guinness brewery in Dublin.  Though we only had a day in Dublin, it was a fun day between the brewery tour, national gallery, and a musical pub crawl celebrating "Trad", Irish traditional music.

The Bog

It was a bit of a surprise to me when I learned that people use the bog to fuel their fires.  My cousin Máirín explained to us that people around the west coast of Ireland cut out pieces of the bog called turf, which contain oil and are used to build a fire for cooking and warmth. When she was younger, her family would take the donkey, water, tea, and some brown bread to work on the bog during the summer months. When they walked to the bog they would set up a fire and have some tea and bread. All of the local people would get together and start digging out the bog. This was very hard work. She recalls playing in the oily mess as a child and helping her father pull it out to dry. Once it's dry they would brings the bricks of turf back to the house to use.

Our First Day in Ireland

We had a fantastic first day of our trip, even after a mere 3 hours of sleep over the last 2 days!  We arrived in Shannon, Ireland around 10am Monday morning and picked up our rental car from there, which initiated the fun experiment of driving on the left.  We've already seen family from Shawna's grandmother and grandfather's side.  The hospitality here is terrific as we were greeted at Maureen and Paddy Joe's house with a delicious lamb roast and potatoes and some Gaelic songs by students studying their Irish for the summer.  That evening we walked around the beautiful city of Galway and had a pint (Guinness, of course, and yes it does taste better in Ireland) at a local pub featuring Irish traditional music.

Preparing for our Trip

Well after much discussion and debate about our trip, Marty and I were very excited to just hop on a plane and see where our hearts took us in Europe, booking point-to-point trains. Things changed over the past three weeks and we’ve realized we needed to do a lot more planning. Okay, Marty is doing most of the planning, and I’m just listening to a lot of Rick Steves podcasts. I tried booking one hostel in Switzerland and that turned into a few chaotic international phone calls, emails between several alpine hostels, and frankly I’m still not sure if we have a confirmed place to stay. That was the last of my hostel bookings.

I mentioned we are planning now, but organizing this trip has been much more interesting than simply compiling a list of itineraries.  My take on planning has included: searching for cute little bed and breakfast or hip hostel on the way, looking for the most scenic public transportation routes across Europe, and getting direct recommendations on Irish countryside from my friends and family that live there.

Some other interesting tasks have come up as we plan this trip.  We learned from our good friend Stephanie that we might need International drivers permit. So Marty and I took a drive to our local AAA and walked out the door 10 minutes later with the most hilarious official document I had ever seen. Marty didn’t tell me ahead of time what he was up to but when we got to the counter to pay I was excepting to see an amazingly handsome man’s photograph but what I saw was hysterical! What do you think? I think one of us took it a bit more seriously than the other.

My List

We also decided to each create our own packing lists and compare later. My list is hand written on scratch sheets of paper around the house, while Marty’s is clearly typed and organized in a text document and saved across multiple computers, just one more example of our different personalities. Marty will probably be packing my bag or else I might forget something.

As you can see Marty is a trooper. We are going to have an amazing trip and I am so thankful that I have Marty to keep me organized, smiling, and prepared for our trip.

The Worst Part of our Trip

At the risk of offending all the humans reading this, probably the hardest part of traveling to Europe is leaving our pets behind.  Bozeman (our dachshund) and Casy (our cat) are like our children.  Yes, it's cheesy.  And yes, we spoil them a bit.  But we will miss them a lot.  Fortunately, Shawna's parents love them too and have volunteered to watch them while we're gone.  Shawna and her mom just completed the marathon drive from Austin, TX to Tracy, CA in a rental car (but don't tell Hertz about the pets).  They drove through the night and made it there in just under 30 hours!  The pets did great in the car too.  Casy did start foaming at the mouth and throw up early in the trip, but she probably thought she was going to the vet.  Bozeman was as usual content just to curl up in the donut position on the closest available lap.  Hopefully after this trip they will be ready for the return journey in August.