Home Again Home Again Jiggety Jig...

...Home Again Home Again I Feel Like a Pig!!

We're currently in Toronto awaiting our flight home so I'm taking advantage of FREE WI FI to write this post. I'm also drinking my bourbon with a THOUSAND ICE CUBES and loving every second of it.

Anyway I could post tons of pictures of the Changing of the Guard, The Thames, Buckingham Palace (but not The Queen! That bitch new we were coming and left the country! I kid you not!), and on and on. But if you want to see those things I'm sure the internet has much better photos than I'll ever be able to take.

So I'll bore you with these.







Hans the Orator at the Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park.

The only audience besides me was a homeless/drunk man and I don't think either of us fully appreciated Hans' latest diatribe about our current state of affairs.

Greenwich Mean Time.

Hans actually had me going for a minute when he told me the line was six inches 'off'!

I hate it when he does that to me!








The weather this weekend was stupendous!!! Completely cloudless sunny skies!

In London!!!!!!

No kidding.





While Hans went to check on where our 'ghost tour' was to take place, I finally broke down and stuck one foot in the fountain in Trafalgar Square. Then next day I wore a bandage across my instep where the flipflop was just digging in!

A trip to London wouldn't be complete without a trip to Harrod's.
I saw thin cotton shirts for 250 pounds! And I'm sure they were cheap. I laughed at one ugly dress that I wouldn't pay ten bucks for at K-Mart and it was around 300 pounds!!

There was one clothing area that was 'appointment only' and I saw a very bored man sitting there waiting for his high maintenance wife/mistress.

We ended up with a piece of carrot cake and a brownie, and ate half of it during our walk through Hyde Park.


After walking for hours we stumbled upon the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain.

There's almost no signage and we were there forever before we figure it out!

If you really check this picture you can see that those bumps the kids are playing on are cement. Honestly! Cement with rushing water! I thought it looked horribly dangerous!

But once again I took advantage. This was day two of a lot of walking and my feet were killing me.

Hans joined in too.

Here's a pretty dog I saw in Hyde Park. When I asked the owner if it was a Pit Bull she said no.

She then said it was a Bull Mastiff and while the dog was friendly, the owner was not!

I'm still a little vague on the legality of some dog breeds in the UK and maybe she didn't want to be questioned!

Another dog near our hotel. I'm pretty sure it was a bully breed too.

I didn't ask!

Just up the block from our hotel was a very nice pub. We ate there at least three times.

This was Sunday (our last day) and we were so tired we never even bothered going back into London.

This is the burger that Hans had at the pub.

Double meat burger with cheese, sausage, and two eggs!!!! Along with chips!

This is why we really need to get home!! I never cook like this at the apartment.

Breakfast yesterday morning in our room.

The last of the Harrod's cakes, and coffee.

I see the Jack Daniels bottle made it into the picture but I saved it for later.

I finally got a picture of me in my Burda dress. It really did turn out nice and I hope I get to wear it again soon before I outgrow it!!

The Castaway

My head is pounding! I crammed a weeks worth of living into two days, and we have to be up at 5:30 AM tomorrow in order to get to the airport.
And while it's my own fault I still want sympathy!

Today I lined and hemmed my silk dress. And no one, NO ONE!!! will ever be permitted to see the interior. It's that bad!

The sleeves on my little black jacket needed to be hemmed but they were already short, so I added a black bias tape edge to them and it actually made them look kind of smart. Let's hope people will see the smartness of the sleeve edges and not notice the hideous job I did in easing the sleeves into place. I'm still not entirely sure, but I may have put them in backwards!

I made Wilbur a batch of food but I ran short and hope desperately that Vet Tech Girl will carry on in our absence.

I checked out 6 books at the library but only have room for 4 in my luggage.

I made a quick (and expensive) trip to Petco and when what you need is in a locked display case, look out!!! it's not gonna be cheap!

Then onto the shoe store. When I finished my silk dress I threw on my favorite patent leather sandals and the damn back strap on one of them wouldn't stay up!! Thank God I found a cute pair of black satin heels on the clearance rack! I get the clearance rack while Wilbur gets the locked vault stuff!!! It would appear that he is the high maintenance member of this family.

Then came time to pack and I didn't get started till after dinner. Passports, electrical plug adaptors, cords for all of our electronic devices, does my new flat iron work in Europe? Are we checking baggage or not? What the hell is the weather going to be like over there? OMG, I only have one set of contact lenses left and I just ran out of saline solution! I forgot to renew my vehicle registration, it's due at the end of the month, and I had to jump online and renew it!! Baby Girl is using my car and now we need to get it inspected ad nauseum, and she's in the middle of finals!!
In the middle of all this Hans told me he needed my phone to update it for use in Europe. I didn't snarl. I didn't!!!!!!!!!

While I was running back and forth in my attempt to pack, I nearly had a heart attack when I saw this:



Wilbur had jumped into my suitcase.














He dug around and made a nice little nest.

If I thought for one second I could get away with it...

My new favorite city

I really don't care if I ever see Paris again, but Amsterdam?

It's now my favorite foreign city.

Maybe it's because I had no expectations but now that I've been there I understand why Baby Brother and his partner are in love with it.

Across this canal is the house where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazi's. We were only in Amsterdam for one day so I didn't have a chance to visit. If I ever get back there again, I will.

Finding affordable homes on the canals in Amsterdam is just about as easy as finding affordable homes on any waterfront. Meaning not easy at all.

Baby Brother has some friends, who, after 2o years of living there, finally bought a home this year.

Now look closely between the buildings. That is an apartment! Can you believe it? Someone was able to construct a living space there.

I kept wondering what seemed so different about the houses that I saw in Amsterdam (except for the fact that they are almost all 4 stories high). And then it hit me; everyone's windows are spotless and gleam in the light. No one uses screens, and windows in Europe open inward for easy cleaning.

A little crooked house right out of a Dr. Seuss book.

Baby Brother says the houses are inspected yearly so we're not to worry about it toppling over anytime soon.

Because houses were taxed on how many feet of frontage they occupied on the canals, people built their houses narrow yet deep.

This little guy was sleeping on his master's steps.

This is on the back street of one of the canal houses.

Look at the big speaker on the back of the bike. These musicians will stop, play music, collect tips, and move on.

While I was there the canals were very busy. See the big boat in the background? It's a live-aboard and spends all of its time tethered to the wall. There are tons of boats like this.

I guess you can't live any closer to the water than that.

Here's a funny note.

We were in a 'coffee house' where everyone was smoking pot etc... and I had to laugh when I saw a man get up and go outside to smoke a cigarette.

Why?

Because there in the land of legalized drugs, cigarettes are banned from being smoked indoors!

I Like Mine Medium Rare

I've completely lost my sewing mojo, so I'll continue with another story of our recent trip to Europe. But don't worry, I went to JoAnn's today and bought fabric for our Halloween costumes. I'll post about them later and you're gonna love 'em!


This is the hotel that Hans' great-grandfather owned, in Trier, Germany, over a hundred years ago (we have an old oil painting of it hanging in our apartment). His son (Cousin Marianna's father) took over from 1900 to 1931.

We went to Germany to specifically meet Cousin Marianna who lived there as a child. She was Hans' dad's first cousin.


If you can keep all of that straight.



Anyway, we took Cousin Marianna (who is 87) back for a visit to her childhood home while we were there.




A closer look at the sign. Weis is the current family that owns the hotel.













Cousin Marianna was born in 1923, after World War I, and Germany was going through a great depression. While everyone was affected by hardships in one way or another, some suffered more than others. Marianna's family certainly never went hungry but their business fell off greatly. "We had five guests one year and they only bought one beer." Marianna joked with us. An exaggeration I'm sure but in 1931 when she was eight, they were forced to sell the hotel.

The family acquired a Doberman named Max the same year that Marianna was born, and he became her best friend and guardian. No one came near Marianna that Max didn't lift a lip in warning. Max certainly never went hungry, and in addition to his food, he was always given the leavings from the table after every meal.

I don't speak German but I knew exactly what Marianna was saying when she swept her hands over the table while talking about Max.

"He table surfed didn't he?" I asked Hans (my parents have a Doberman and I've seen her in action).

"She says Max's nose was level with the table and they had to watch him very closely." Hans confirmed.

When it was time to start school at the age of six, Marianna's big brother who could ride a two wheeled bike, refused to wait for his little sister and literally left her in the dust. School was a long scary two mile trek (it hasn't changed a bit in over 80 years either, believe me!) and everyone knew that Gypsies were just lying in wait to kidnap little blond girls.

So, Fat Max was pressed into service. Every day little Marianna went to school with the faithful Max in attendance. For allowing Max to sleep in the hall during class time, Marianna's teacher, a nice young man, was welcome to free coffee and cookies at the hotel anytime he wished.

But unfortunately, regardless of the exercise that Max may have received while acting as Marianna's guard, his eating habits caught up with him, and when he was seven, Max dropped dead from a heart attack.

Marianna was heart broken and the family made a big deal out of burying him out back and putting up a wooden cross. (Marianna made gestures with her hands to show how big the mound was that covered Max)

The next morning when Marianna started off for school, a poor neighboring farmer asked her, "Where is your fat dog?"


Marianna tearfully related the demise of Max and when the farmer asked, "What have you done with him?" Marianna told him about the burial.

The next morning the family was horrified to find that Max's grave had been excavated.

When Hans translated this information to me, I too was horrified and I had an awful feeling that I knew exactly what happened to Fat Max.

It wasn't until spring that the farmer fessed up.

He approached the family one day and wanted them to know that his family had been able to survive the winter thanks to Max.

After hearing of Max's death and knowing he hadn't been dead for very long, the farmer had waited until nightfall, and then stole the fat dog from his grave.

"We got four liters of fat alone off him!" The farmer proudly proclaimed in hopes that the family would feel better about the news.

They didn't, and the poor man headed for home.

"Wait! Wait!" The farmer called.

"I want you to know!" He puffed as he ran back to them.

What could he want? What could he possibly say to make them feel better about what had become of their beloved Max?

"I just want you to know," the farmer said with genuine sincerity, and he took off his hat and clutched it to his chest, "Your Max was a very tasty dog!"

The Brotherhood of the Traveling Pie

Hans and I traveled to Europe last week and our first stop was Amsterdam. We met Hans' baby brother and his partner who'd already been there for about three days. My biggest regret is that we were only able to spend one full day there before departing for Germany. Amsterdam is almost beyond explanation for me and all I can say is I have to go back someday. It's just that fabulous.

Anyway, I will post my Amsterdam pictures later but I wanted to share this fun little story first.

After arriving in Amsterdam we took a small nap to combat jet lag, and then went to meet Baby Brother and Partner who were very anxious to show us their favorite city. We walked for hours, enjoyed stopping at various sidewalk cafes for beer, walked some more, had dinner at a very good Indonesian restaurant (where I ate a lot of very salty Holy Mackerel!) walked some more, caught the midnight tram to our hotel, sat in the bar for a bit, and finally went to bed.

Even though I tried to sleep on the plane and had that small nap upon arriving, you can understand why my eyes were grainy and I felt like I was walking through sludge (remember we lost 6 hours due to eastern travel) when we hauled ourselves to the tram the next morning after waking up at 7 AM.

One thing I've learned in my overseas travels is that you really need to pack light as you'll be expected to walk up and down many stairs, get on and off too many buses and trains, and run like hell through airports. Baby Brother and Partner travel about a thousand times more than us (this year alone they've been to Egypt and just before meeting us they were sailing in Turkey) so I was a little surprised at the amount of luggage they had when they met us at the train station.

Rolling baggage, back packs, a huge camera case complete with a portable, bendable tri-pod, plastic bags full of sandwiches (a brilliant move on their part and I will love them forever for that as we ended up on trains for 7 hours that day), and a bakery box.

A bakery box?

I was too tired to think clearly, and my stomach doesn't like to travel as much as I do, or I might have questioned someone carrying a bakery box onto a train for a 7 hour trip. We lumbered onto our first train, banged our shins, knees, and elbows as we stowed our luggage, and struggled around each other as we tried to fit into our seats. During this time the bakery box was very delicately handled and then finally found its place of honor on the drop down tray in front of Partner.

I was tired and grumpy so luckily for everyone else I fell asleep as soon as I sat down.

Everytime I woke up though I saw that pie sitting on the drop down tray. Sometimes the lid was up and sometimes it was down (to let the steam out and keep it from getting soggy I later learned) and I caught Hans looking at it in a perplexed way a few times. I still didn't say anything as I thought maybe taking pies across borders was a European thing and I didn't want to appear to be any more unworldly than I already am.

We'd been on the move for about three hours and were only minutes away from our connecting train station when an announcement was made that there was a problem. We were going to have to get off of our train and onto another one. NOW.

This was not good news as we only had 10 minutes between our connecting trains and this switch was most likely going to screw everything up.

It did.

"We ask that everyone exit the train and move swiftly to the awaiting train," was the next announcement.

Then, "We will need your full cooperation. Exit to the right and board the other train immediately. Everyone must exit the train."

I looked around and saw young people with strollers, old people with canes, and I knew that even if I threw these people off the train myself, there was no way we were going to make our connection.

We didn't.

With one last dire warning from the 'voice', we retrieved our luggage (and the pie) and shoved our way off the train fully prepared to leap onto the next one.

Only it wasn't there.

As everyone looked around in puzzlement, Hans looked at me.

"This never happens! Never! Only with you, I swear!"

I gave him my dangerous look.

A few minutes later the other train pulled in but it really didn't matter because we'd missed our connection anyway.

Once again our luggage, bags, and the pie were loaded and stowed.

A few minutes later we arrived at the station, disembarked, got new tickets, and found out we'd have to sit there for an hour, so we went outside to a cafe for a beer.

The next train wasn't the 'Deluxe Lickety Split Get You There In No Time Train', it was the 'I've Been around Forever And I Don't Give A Shit How Long It Takes Me To Get You There Train".

So after heaving our luggage, bags, pie, and tired bodies aboard yet once again, I noticed there were no drop down trays.

No drop down tray to hold the pie that I was now starting to equate with the Baby Jesus as it had been cradled and carried ever so reverently for the last few hours.

Since I was still tired and grumpy, I did everyone a favor once again and took a nap. I woke up as Hans arrived back from a trip to the potty when he once again glanced at the pie which of course now had to be hand held for the remaining 4 hours of the trip, and whispered to me, "What the f**k gives with that pie?"

Just then Partner (who is a wonderful person and did not hear that comment) opened the box and peered in. "It's cracked!" he cried in dismay.

And that was it. The pie wasn't the only thing that cracked.

I dissolved into my seat in a fit of giggles.

All I could see was that pie box that had been on and off trains, up and down broken escalators, in and out of cafes, and hand held lovingly for hours at a time, and I just couldn't stop laughing. Poor Hans broke down too and when Hans gets going on a belly laugh it just fuels me even further. Tears were running down our faces and I turned toward the window and hoped that I wouldn't offend anyone but I don't think I succeeded.

The pie ended up being given to Hans' eighty-seven year old Aunt Marianna (who had once upon a time mentioned to Baby Brother that this pie was her favorite) and she served it to us the next day.

All I can say is this; for a pie that started out hot in Amsterdam, and was served cold in Germany, it was very good!

Sehr Gut!!!

The guest of honor on it's drop down tray.

At a cafe at the train station in Cologne as we wait for our connection.

Making sure all is well.

At last! Serving its purpose on this earth.

Traveling with Hans is too much fun.

travel update

We're still in Europe and haven't been kicked out yet.

Typing on a keyboard here is quite the experience. It took me about an hour to find the @ sign just to log in to my hotmail. I don't think anyone here needs to worry about my breaking into their computer systems and stealing vital secrets anytime soon.

We had an interesting trip from Amsterdam to Germany and a very precious apple pie made the journey with us.

More on that later.

We are near Köln (German name for Cologne but I wanted to use the ö with the dots over it to prove I'm really here).

Let me give you a few more symbols:

ß;I think it's a funky S.

ü; a different pronounciation of the letter u.

ä, I have no idea what the hell it is.

And the letters y and z are swapped on the keyboard (???!!!)

I really need to start learning German as I feel like the village idiot when everyone can converse in multiple languages but me, and no one wanted to talk in pig latin.

Anyway we've had a fabulous time so far (off to Switzerland tomorrow), including a visit with Hans' 87 year old cousin who told stories of her youth as a secretary with the German Secret Police, her capture, and short spell as a POW.

We visited the old family hotel complete with a castle that Hans has offered to buy back just for me, but I insist that he put the roof back on and get a couple of the fireplaces working. What's a few million dollars in remodeling if it will make me happy!!

We've had virtually no internet access here (so I can't read other blogs and acknowledge comments that have been left and I'm very sorry for that) and it won't get any better.

I'll be sure to catch up and post a few of the thousand pictures I've taken, when we get back.



I know you can hardly wait.

Up Up and Away!!

Happy Hans the Traveling Salesman and Laura the Vacation Jinx are off on yet another adventure.

I've mentioned in the past that most of my vacations turn into adventures, and not always good ones.

We are embarking on a family reunion that will start in Amsterdam, veer off to Trier, Germany, and end in Geneva, Switzerland.

This is a family reunion, Hans style.

My family reunion's are of the 'who's bringing the three bean salad,' theme.

Anyway I'm very happy that we got an early start because when we got to the airport we found out our flight was an hour earlier than expected.

A certain someone (who shall remain nameless) got a flight update last night, via email, and mis-read our new itinerary. (I have no idea how this man survived before he met me!)

We also decided to check our bags this time. We hope that since we have a five hour layover it will give the airport plenty of time to move our bags from one plane to another.

We hope.

I've only suffered through two weird people so far (I still have 4 hours to go though). The first was when we were trying to check our bags and get our boarding passes. Honest to God, the guy behind us wove between us and our luggage, and literally had his nose pressed to the monitor that the man in front of us was using. The man in front of us very politely told him to wait his turn. No problem, Old Weird One answered and then he did the same thing to us. No amount of body blocking could budge him.

I hope he doesn't try this in the cockpit.



We ran to security (my most favoritest place on earth) and while I was stripping myself of my shoes etc... I noticed that the long stainless steel table that our binned belongings travel along before being eaten by the X-ray machine was empty, and the man in front of me was standing still and doing nothing.

He was just standing there.

Oh, I'm sorry, he wasn't just standing there! He was texting, or tweeting, or whatever the hell some people feel the need to do while holding up an entire group of people at the airport security point.



If he was a pilot I hope I don't end up on his plane.





I be keepin' you posted!



(The final chapter of As the Stomach Turns is ready to go and will post while we're gone)

Wrapping things up in Ireland

We spotted a couple trying to take pictures of themselves by this statue so we offered to take a picture of them with their camera so they could be in it together. We ended up with three couples exchanging cameras all around and I think this is the only picture I have of Hans and I together on this trip.


When we were done, Hans looked at the name on the statue which said 'Phil Lynott' and asked, "Who the hell is that anyway?"


One of the other couples laughed and said, "It's Thin Lizzy and he was from Dublin."


I'm really surprised that Hans (being Mr. Music Man) didn't know that but now he does.














This is a guard station at the Dublin Castle.


With his white socks and black shoes I'm sure Hans would have made a fine guard back in the day.


Very commanding!


















Outside of the Guinness Brewery here are some horse drawn buggies.

See my umbrella? Well of course it's raining (remember we're in Ireland), and if you succumb to the 'I have to take something back to the kids guilt thing' then take along a water proof bag and don't for even one second trust the pretty bag that the Guinness people provide. By the time we walked from the tram station to our hotel in winds that literally pushed me backwards (thank God I had 8 big cans of beer from the off license in my shoulder bag as an anchor) that Guinness bag was in complete sodden shreds. Hans had to cross his arms over it and carry it against his chest and was just barely able to keep my stuff from blowing away.

Three thousand visitors at $15.00 euro each go through the Guinness Storehouse daily. It's the original and only Guinness Brewery in the world and along with beer sales and souvenir sales they have to be making a mint!!
Oh, they also originated the Guinness Book of World Records.


















Hans is at the Gravity Bar with our tickets which allowed us to a 'free' pint of Guinness.




Ignore the lady in front of him, I have no idea who she is.


















While I was trying to get a picture of Hans (you can see him in back of the guy on the right) these guys moved in the way and insisted that I get a picture of them.
No problem.
Everyone has fun in the Gravity Bar.


















It's very difficult to see but there is a shamrock figure in the top of the foam of each glass of beer. The bartenders do a little swirly thing at the end of pouring each glass.
Kind of like the DQ (Dairy Queen) curl.
Only I like this better.






So we left the 60 something temperatures of Dublin and arrived home at the Dulles airport to the 90 something temperatures and I'm more than glad to put my leather coat away.

Fabric from Dublin

First of all the fact that I was able to get to the tram line, navigate about Dublin all day by myself, and not get lost is a miracle in itself.

The fact that I was able to find a fabric shop is yet another.

I'm just a regular Miracle Worker this week.

A little off the beaten path is Murphy Sheehy & Co. and you can visit their website here. I got off the tram at the St. Stephen's Green stop where all the happening things are and it's within very easy walking distance. If you can't find it, ask. That's what I did.

It's a small shop with two floors of fabric rolls. I bought three pieces for bags. I wanted a piece from a roll on the upper floor so the proprietress brought her scissors up, snipped, ripped, and it was mine.

The same thing for two pieces downstairs. I didn't need full meters and they were also very wide so I got approximately 1/2 yard of each. I wasn't sure how much I was actually spending and I was thrilled when it only came to 2o euros!

A view up the stairs.

Here's the girl who was running the shop. So very friendly and cute as a bug!!

If you're going to Dublin stop in. I only wanted cotton fabrics but they have linen, wool, etc...

Just inside the front door.

This print caught my eye. I have no idea what kind of silly birds they are but I liked them.

This striped fabric isn't an exact match as the stripe is more red and the beaks on the birds are more orange but we went with it anyway.

I have a pair of my sunglasses lying next to it so you can see how big the print is.

I see I left a sun burst cookie cutter lying there too. I got that for my mother.

This is the print I found upstairs. Actually it's fully embroidered. The underside is as dense as the upper and each sea creature is attached by all the threads from its neighbor.

The fabric is a heavy but very soft cotton. It almost has a flannel feel to it and I forgot to ask for care instructions. I'll do some experimenting on it when we get home.

Tomorrow is our last full day here so we're taking the hop on hop off bus tour. I love those things!! In total it's about an hour and a half but you can get off anywhere you want and just pick up whatever bus you want when you're ready to get back on. The weather's not supposed to be the greatest but since we'll be visiting the Guinness Storehouse and The Old Jameson Distillery I don't think we'll mind.

Hello from Dublin

Hans and I landed in Dublin, Ireland yesterday morning and I'm just now getting caught up on seeing what everyone in blogland is up to.

We spent the long 4th of July weekend on our boat, and Baby Girl and a couple of college friends were able to come along. We had great weather and got in quite a bit of sailing. We anchored in Annapolis and St. Michael's and lucked out and caught the fireworks at each place. We were able to sit on the front sun pad of the boat and enjoy the show.

The unlucky part was when, even though there was a ton of water space available, a double-decker party boat anchored right beside us. I'm talking like 20 plus people including a lot of little kids, and some really bad and loud 80's music. There was a lot of dumping of people overboard (which apparently when your drunk is really, really funny!) and then two men (obviously not rocket scientists) climbed on top of the small roof on the second story of the boat. Even though this roof was never intended to hold men (drunk or otherwise), some even stupider people remained standing under it. Then amid loud cheering and encouragement they both jumped into the bay and much to my disappointment immediately bobbed to the surface.

Since they anchored far too close to us (a mile away would have been too close for me!) we prayed that they would leave right after the fireworks.

They didn't.

But just as we were trying to go to sleep and were sure that we were stuck for the night with them they hauled up their anchor and away they went. I almost cheered as I watched their pulsing green and blue disco lights fade into the distance.


We're in a relatively new hotel and they're trying for some funky theme that involves stark clean lines and clunky accessories. The lobby has all white upholstered furniture and includes a huge king size bed with a doughnut shape cut out and a table in the center.

Totally non functioning.

They also used chandeliers for lighting but they aren't hanging. They're just lying on the floor here and there.

Here is the floor length mirror in our room. It leans against the wall.

The mini fridge has sensors and if a bottle or can is removed you have 10 seconds to replace it or you get charged. We replaced their items with our items (bought in an off license) and when we use ours we immediately put theirs back.

We'll see if it worked or not when we check out.


We were exhausted when we arrived (I really struggle with jet lag) and were told our room would be ready.

It wasn't. We walked into an obviously used and yet to be cleaned room so when we headed to breakfast we let them know and they immediately upgraded us from a Queen room to a King room.

Here's the bathroom and I love a big bathtub. It's a good thing there is a tub though because I didn't want to wash my hair before going back out and the shower only has a huge shower head that's about 9 feet above you and only sprays straight down. No adjustments and no hand held nozzle just straight down.









Here's the view from outside the bathroom looking in.

I prefer more privacy in a bathroom but once again it's their funky decor.




























The bed. It has diffused lighting underneath and glows, if you want a nightlight I guess.

But I love the duvet's that I find in Europe. The cotton is always incredibly soft and smooth and I wish I could find something like it for home.





The little fellow below kept trying to eat this plastic bag. I felt sorry for him and threw him some crumbled cookie.




We walked around for far too long looking for an ATM that would work, stopped for a huge chocolate chip cookie at Starbucks because I was starved, and then finally started out for the tram line so we could get into town and eat.

After about a 2o minute walk (we were told it would take 7 and who really times this stuff?) that involved my stubbing my toe on a barricade, and bracing ourselves against the non stop Dublin wind we were just getting ready to go back to the hotel for better directions when we noticed a flood of people coming up some steps. Aha! It was the tram-line and I think they could do with some better signage!!



A view of a building from a walking park in St. Stephen's Green.

































The gate from inside the park.



We also had dinner at a place that offered buy one get one free entrees.

It was very good, Hans had beef and potatoes, and I had beef and shrimp stir fry.



Getting back was a lot easier since we knew where we were going and even at almost 9:30 it was still very light out.







Hans, looking very debonair, at the park, with our hotel umbrella. We won't be going anywhere without it!!






























Me, with jet lag (and a leather coat in July!).


I've already read one full book (Kate Wilhelm and I'm yet to be disappointed in her!) and I'm almost done with a Janet Evonovich book. It's Stephanie Plum in Fearless Fourteen. I quit reading her stuff somewhere around her eighth book because it started to get to be the same old same old, but I found this one lying around for free so I took it and I'm glad to say I am enjoying it. After that I have a Nevada Barr book and like Kate Wilhelm she's still good!

We're headed back out tonight and I think I'll see if I can find some fabric somewhere. I only want enough to make a purse so I can have my own souvenir of Ireland.