Websites?

Are the websites highlighted when you look at the blog? They are when I go to the edit page, but they are not when I look at the blog. There are some great sites to check out that go along with the posts if you'll scroll over them or highlight the whole paragraph to find those sites, if they are not already highlighted.

Ireland

First stop: Ireland

I arrived in Dublin Sunday April 23rd, we stayed in County Wicklow in a town called Enniskerry, about 30 min. away from Dublin, until Saturday April 28th.

There is a 7 hour time difference (ahead) between Mountain standard time and Ireland. It took me a few days to stop feeling the jet lag.

Here are some photos of the hotel you already saw in that first website...



The back of the hotel

Back porch and part of the view

Lobby

One of the gardens

The family got to Ireland a day earlier, they were kind enough to let me sleep for about 10 hours before starting our adventures together.


Powerscourt Gardens are next to the Ritz. Here are a few of my photos:

Pet cemetary

 *Sorry, dont know how to flip this.

A tower. Looks nice from afar, it was a nice shelter inside when it started pouring rain---which happened often. Rule of thumb, we learned, if it rains in the morning, it won't in the afternoon. If it's nice in the morning, it will rain in the afternoon. The locals shared this "secret" with us, but we learned it was true and could plan our adventures around it.

I took a whole bunch of pictures, but I'll direct you to the websites (it's easier than dealing with the format that keeps messing up!). Besides, I love to show off the pictures and flyers I picked up along the way of the vacation, so if you are really interested, please ask.

When there was a small window of  no rain "P" and I  {I am going to label the family... "A"= Mom, "M"= Dad, "P"=7 year old boy, "a"= 3 year old boy}  ran into the Powerscourt house (the rest of the family went back to the hotel, before the rain started). We discovered a little museum called Taras Palace . Cute "doll house" palace with incredible detail! Then next door there was a small room with doll houses and toys that were perhaps played with by the children that used to live at Powerscourt. We explored the rest of the house. There was a furniture store, a gift shop, and a resuraunt---it was very touristourized (I made that word up) .

Some of our sight seeing and activities:

*We went to Bray and visited an aquarium .

*In Dublin we went to the "National Leprechaun Museum"  Interesting story while we were there... in the lobby, where we wait for the tour to begin, there are a lot of different leprechauns and interpretations of what people, from all over the world, or groups think they are and look like. There was a box of  "Lucky Charms" cereal on display, and a group of girls were pointing out the different shapes "Oh look at the cute little rainbow!" "Look at the  hearts", "I've never seen this before, I wonder what it tastes like." The party I was with was listening in on this conversation (obviously) and "M" said "actually they are not very good". I personally like to eat them, though it's been a really long time, but I didn't say anything. I later learned, when the tour started, that "Lucky Charms" is an American cereal, it has been banned in Europe because of the artificial colors, etc.   *We did a city tour on a 'hop on hop off' bus.

*We hopped off at Trinity College . We went to the library and had to do a speedy walk through, as it was about to close. Incredible! So old and well preserved the books were! (couldn't take pictures in the library)

*We hopped back on the bus (and off a few more times). Here are some of my photos, as well as some from other visits to Dublin:

Notice anything odd about the red building in the back??

Different from what I am used to seeing, though seen all over Europe. 

Many of the doors are this size.

For Rent





*One of the places we drove by in the tour bus was the Dublin zoo. An interesting bit of info... the tour guide said that one of the lions at the begining of the MGM film was named 'Steven' and he lived at the zoo. (I don't remember which lion)

The format is not changing back to the left column. Sheesh!

I was mostly excited about trying the foods on this European trip. I do love food. :-) We went out to eat a lot, but stayed in for most breakfasts and lunches. "M" bought yogurt and granola for most of the breakfast meals. I am a huge fan of European yogurt! The sweetness is not overbearing and there are natural add ins, like vanilla bean, hazelnut, or lemon. I ate a lot of fish/chicken 'n chips (huge potato wedges). I was ready to not ever eat a potato again after so many chips! Many times I had a huge desire for fresh vegetables and greens,but disappointingly, they were difficult to find.

We spent a bit of time at the hotel, the parents got work done and the boys and I explored. Jarom posted a picture of me with a giant chess board- that was on the grounds of the hotel. Everyone was so so friendly and easy going, hotel staff, guests, etc. It was a comfortable pleasant place to visit.

Saturday April 28th we all flew from Dublin to Zurich Switzerland...





 

Europe...finally

Hi, Jennifer here. Just wanted to get that out of the way so I can write in first person. :-)

I got to go to Europe. I left Sunday April 22nd and returned May 7th close to midnight, 2012(!!) A family that I used to nanny for invited me to be a third body to help with their two boys, ages 7 and 3. They are a great family and have invited me on other trips (which are also documented on this blog).

To help persuade me to want to come on this trip, the mom sent me to a website... Check it out... here . (Things have changed since I went on this trip, it used to be the 'Ritz Carlton', there have been changes, but a lot is still the same from what I see in the website). I was smitten.  After I said yes, she sent told me to check out another place we'd be staying.... see here

A lot of planning and e-mails later I was sitting on the airplane for my first trip outside of the United States. The parents are seasoned international travelers, which helped boost my confidence of going to another country, but I got to do the first part all alone. It wasn't bad at all. It was long though! I flew to Minneapolis to Amsterdam (The Netherlands) to Dublin (Ireland). The last flight was only about 2 1/2 hours (compared to the 12 hours I'd already flown), but that was the hardest and most boring flight. I was ready to stop flying!!

Note: I have attempted to work on this blog off and the format kept messing up, so I am trying a different approach (separating the posts) so I can get this thing done!

Hello? does anybody read blogs anymore??

We finally have the 'world at our fingertips', in our home, for the first time. Blogging will be a whole lot easier to do now, but it seems like "Blogger" has become a lost art. Too bad. To those that still continue to visit this world, hello.

Europe: I still have those posts. As promised, they will be posted... 3 years after the trip. Finishing that project moved way waaaay down on the priority list.