Category — Travel

This is my first view of Ireland, from a British Airlines flight, about to land in Dublin. Shades of green, as far as the eye can see, just as I always imagined it would be.

Once we collected our baggage and went through customs, we headed for the car rental office. This was to be our (Dave’s really, I have no intention of driving!) first experience with driving on the left side of the road. Dave reserved a car with automatic transmission and with GPS. The car we ended up with had neither. Suddenly our journey from Dublin airport to Dublin was looking a lot more daunting…

We paid extra to get the GPS but were still stuck with the manual transmission. Dave had a manual when I met him, but that was in 1982… it’s been a while! Put it all together and you have the uneasiness of driving a manual, in a foreign country, on the wrong side of the road, with a far from modern GPS.

All in all, he did great, at least on this, our first day. I am not being a critic, actually, I am giving high praise! If it was me, with my ADD, dyslexia, and the fact that I can’t drive a stick – Very High Praise!

It was only about 6 miles from the airport to our hotel, but with all that, it was still something of an adventure. You know how travel is, with the security and the tensions and anxiety that foreign travel brings about, we were happy to get to our hotel and even happier when the valet said he’d park the car for us!

We’d booked a room at the historic (1824) Shelbourne, overlooking beautiful Stephen’s Green. The very hotel where the Irish Constitution was drafted on the first floor in 1937.

We were escorted by the bellman to the registration desk and from there on out – it was all gravy!

We’d reserved a “junior suite” so that Dave and I would have the master and Connor would have the suite part of the room. We were informed that we’d been upgraded!

Is there anything better than hearing that you’ve upgraded?! It is THE BEST!

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Today I’m sharing images of our last three days in London.

Despite the passport issue, this was a good trip. But before you see that, you must hear all about my “passport saga” – because a trip isn’t a real trip until you have a dramatic story to tell!

It’s a long, but rather entertaining story, with a lesson attached. That being said, I’ll intersperse the story with my London photos… just to add a little lightness and joy to it instead of all ulcer-inducing – which is what it is.

Our flight to Heathrow was scheduled for 7:40 PM on Friday, July 11th. At about 1:00 PM on Wednesday, July 9th, I received this email from Dave;

“I’m sure you have already thought of this, but just making sure that all 3 of our passports are on site and you don’t need to go to the bank to retrieve them from the safe deposit box.”

Of course, I’ve already thought of that. In fact, I retrieved all three of our passports back in March when I got mine out to go to Spain. I was pretty proud of myself and was going to grab the passports from the shelf above the kitchen desk, where they had resided these last 4 months. Instead, I responded to another email from Dave about another issue and then I had to do some research and follow up on that issue. Once I was done with that, about an hour later, I got up to get the passports. I looked at each one and then I saw it…

OMG! How could this be? There is no way this is true! I can’t believe I didn’t notice this when I took out the passports four months ago! Connor’s passport was expired! EXPIRED! It expired in February of 2012! Holy Sh#t! Now, what am I going to do!?!

When the four of us (Marissa included) last got our passports, either new or renewed, back in 2007, they were good for 10 years! How could Connor’s be expired!?! Mine doesn’t expire until 2017. Dave and Marissa’s expire in 2017. How can his have expired in 2012?

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As you read this, I am someplace I’ve never been before.

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Tomorrow night we’re having Peggy and Lorraine and their significant others over for a dinner of tapas, sangria, and paella. We’ll exchange photos and basically relive our dreamy trip to Barcelona. Plus, I have to put my money where my mouth is when I assured them that my paella is superior to what we had in Spain.

Here is the recipe for one of the many tapas I’ll be serving.

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The good news is that I did not have an ounce of jet lag!

Staying awake for 24 hours and then going to bed at 7:30 PM once arriving home from the airport was the key. I was still tired the next day, the day our company arrived, but I again went to bed early, by 9:00, and have slept well ever since. That is the first time I’ve ever returned from Europe and beaten it!

We had a wonderful time with Dave’s brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Beth.

We checked out Cubs Park in Mesa which replaced the old Hohokam Stadium and is now of the home of the Chicago Cubs for spring training.

We visited the Desert Botanical Gardens for the Chihuly in the Garden event.

If you haven’t seen it yet, it is a must.

It runs through May 18, 2014.

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Friday of last week was our last day in Barca. Peggy and I spent it shopping for gifts for friends and family and just relaxing as we walked the pretty cobblestone streets.

We stopped for wine or sangria each and every time either of us needed to use the WC, which was often since we were drinking so much wine and sangria!

For dinner we finally had the “tapa toothpick” experience we had heard so much about.

This is a tapas bar where you choose your tapas from a counter…

…and then are charged by the number of toothpicks left on your plate at the end of your meal.

We returned to the apartment earlier than we had any night other night since the first day we arrived. That first night, we were in bed by 7:30 PM. This last night we packed and were in bed by 10:00 PM.  A far cry from the 1:00 AM or later nights we’d been doing for the last 10 days.

Instead of the bus/metro/airport excursion of that first day, we took a cab. Even at $25 euro each, it was totally worth it to not heave heavy suitcases up and down the metro stairs over and over again!

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Thursday of last week was Lorraine and Natalie’s last day with Peggy and me in Barcelona. Lorraine would be leaving on Friday morning to get back to Arizona so she could support her husband (Peggy’s brother) in a bike race he was participating in. And Natalie was leaving the next morning with her study-abroad group for a weekend trip to Madrid.

After a quick breakfast, we visited the Picasso Museum.

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Yesterday I told you about our Wednesday afternoon activities in Barcelona. I neglected to mention our nighttime fun.

When we returned from the abbey in the late afternoon we enjoyed Jamón ibérico, cheese, baguette, apples, grapes, and wine in our apartment.

My husband, Dave, has a client, Cliff, who lived in Barcelona for several months earlier this year. Cliff, made many friends while living here and told one of his friends, Kevin, to be sure to entertain us and treat us well when we came to town.

We tried to contact Kevin a few times early in the week, but were unsuccessful, mostly due to our incompetence in using international calling codes, or so we thought. Turns out the real reason was due to the fact that Kevin’s iPhone was stolen and was being replaced during that same time frame. Anyhow, we finally connected, right at the same time that we were eating our “stay in for the night” impromptu dinner of ham, cheese, and fruit. It was about 6:00 at the time and Kevin asked to meet us at 9:30 or 10:00 for drinks and dinner.  Yes, that is the normal dinner hour in Spain!

We met up at IceBarcelona, a super awesome and cool (COLD!) ice bar on the beach. There’s a steep price to drink at the ice bar. Fifteen euros each allows you entrance into the ice bar plus a heavy jacket and gloves to use and one drink.

Everyone looks sexy in the same big coat!

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On Wednesday we took a long train ride (90 minutes seems long anyhow) to Santa Maria de Montserrat Basilica and Abbey on the mountain of Montserrat.

Here is a shot of all our legs, tangled and spewed about on the train.

After the train ride, we boarded a cable car to the top of the mountain.

Honestly, I am too tired to write much, so please click on the link above to learn more about the Abbey, and then please enjoy the photos I took.

After that, if you want to see what we did once we got back to Barca, read down further… it was super cool!

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Tuesday was our most laid-back day of the trip this far. Natalie had classes all day, so we took the opportunity to go to the ocean-side town, Sitges.

Sitges is a town about 35 kilometres southwest of Barcelona, renowned worldwide for its Film Festival and Carnival. Located between the Garraf Massif and the sea, it is known for its beaches, nightspots, and historical sites.

But before we left, we HAD to go back to Brunch & Cake for breakfast! It was a need, more than just a want!

It was a 40-minute train ride from Barcelona. Before we saw our first beach, the first thing I noticed was all the beautiful signs made of tiles.

They were everywhere, both plastered directly into the walls or inserted in iron frames.

These are just a few of the many pictures I snapped of them all over town.

Basically what we did all day was walk the pretty shop-lined streets, gaze upon but not venture anywhere near the gorgeous water, eat tapas and drink wine.

At our first tapas and vino stop, we had these amazing patatas bravas. I will most certainly be recreating them when I get home! With tummies satisfied, down to the ocean, we went.

As we inhaled the fresh sea air and took in the beauty…

… we rounded the corner …

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