A week in Tuscany - Part 1

Florence, Italy

flickr photo link: <Tuscany, May-Jun 07>

25 May 07 FR9908 DUB/PSA 2005/2350

02 Jun 07 FR9907 PSA/DUB 1730/1915

A week in Tuscany - Part 1... (this is a pretty long blog entry, our longest story so far). You'll need to allow a few minutes for this one!

Crusty Italian bread toasted with Chianti extra virgin olive oil, topped with fresh local asparagus and fried eggs with runny yolks... Washing up seems a pleasure after a breakfast like that. This was our first “farmhouse” meal at La Cassucia 1 (€605/week), our fantastic villa situated on the winding road between Radda and Lecchi in Chianti, Tuscany. The 2 bedroom villa had it's own olive grove, and as we found out, a wild pig that came around at night to root out yummy things in the ground. Yes, the Vogue stories and movies are right. From the excellent local produce & wines (the tomatoes and basil really taste better than home, wherever your home is), to the incredible places to visit (or just hang out at the villa), there’s a lot to write about this week.

Before we start, I want to thank Clare for buying me the Jack Wolf lightweight rain jacket with hood, substantially discounted at approx. €26 at the outdoor clothing store in Dundalk (a few weeks back). Living & travelling in Europe has proven to us time after time that weather here will always bring the unexpected, so whilst we’d expected 25c-30c for our week in Italy (from the forecasts), in fact we had day after day of quite cool and rainy conditions. The same thing happened in Madrid over Easter too. We just wish that Brisbane could have a couple of weeks of this weather!
Friday Night... I guess we should have realised about the impending weather as we pitched through a series of storms across France on our 2 ½ hour Ryanair flight from Dublin to Pisa (€125 return), but we landed ok and were soon into our Hertz Rental Car (about €230 plus upgrade). I happily upgraded this to a 5 door Alfa Romeo 147 (Turbo Diesel), which hugged the mountain roads in Tuscany very nicely. Our hotel in Pisa, Accademia Palace Hotel (€95) was a little difficult to find after midnight, but mainly because we didn't know the roads and didn't have a clear map. I think we actually drove very close to it in the process of being lost, but we found it in the end and it turned out to be quite comfortable and had a good breakfast included.

Saturday means Chianti... We drove off towards Chianti following our AA road map - best purchase we made before leaving Ireland. And we (well, Clare), got a local map from the hotel reception of how to get from the hotel to the main Pi-Fi highway - Pisa to Florence. We drove through the LA style outer suburbs of Pisa (flat and boring) towards the hills of Chianti. We drove through towns like Poggibonsi, until we got to Castellina in Chianti. Chianti being a wine producing region of central Tuscany that epitomises what everyone thinks is the image of "Tuscany". We got there at about 11.30am and Clare realised there was a farmers market and we should buy some fresh food before the shops shut for the weekend. No 24 hour trading here - it's all Slow Food and the better for it. What we found were:

- Farmer’s stalls with fresh asparagus and zucchinis with flowers still attached.

- Roast chickens, pig, & wonderful salamis.

- Artichokes and fennel growing wild in over grown orchards of peach and apricots.

- Red poppies by the roadsides.

- Luscious coconut and hazelnut gelati.

We drove on to Radda in Chianti (a 16th Century hilltop town), parked the car and had a lunch of rocket with walnuts & goats cheese with glasses of the local red & white wine. At 4pm we arrived at the villa and met the caretaker who spoke absolutely no English, and we spoke no Italian, but we got the message about all aspects of the villa - except the rubbish collection system (never quite understood that one!) So our images from that day were:

- Cool green forests (behind the villa).

- Hillsides full of olive groves, vineyards (in front of the villa).

- Blooming highly scented roses among the vines.

- Rosemary, almonds and sage in the garden.

- Geraniums in terracotta boxes on every window sill.

- Crusty bread and olive oil (from the market).

- Blue butterflies landing on pink pastel wild flowers.

- Cuckoos (calling in the afternoons).

- Green lizards sunning on the terrace (we don’t see many lizards in Ireland, but we had at least 5 species in our Wavell Heights backyard).

- Pecorino cheese grated over the eggs and asparagus (for Sunday breakfast - copied the Vogue cover exactly!)

- Wild boars rooting around amongst the olive groves (well that was a few nights later in the rain).

After settling in and unpacking, we ended up getting a giant pizza from Radda and sat in our kitchen and had dinner.

Sunday means San Gimignano... The next day (after the above mentioned breakfast) we drove off to collect Chris & Shay from the bus in Siena. We circumnavigated the town at least twice looking for the central bus station, and eventually realised much of the town was cordoned off due to an impending local soccer match (the home team arrived by coach with police escorts and horns blazing). By this point, torrential rain was coming down, the first of many downpours that week. Clare eventually collected them from the Café Antico, and we set out for some sightseeing. San Gimignano - a brief history lesson:

- Saved from Attila the Hun in 1199.

- Wiped out by the plague in 1348.

- Still has frescos of Saint Bartholomew being skinned alive then beheaded in Palazzo Comunale.

- Now in 2007 a major Tuscan tourist town famous for its 72 towers - well, less than that now, but still pretty damned interesting.

The "Siena" storm hit with hail, thunder and lightening cracking over the soaring terracotta towers. Joe decided to peruse the organic wine stores below the tower (Pinacoteca Torre) while Chris, Shay and Clare ventured upwards. About a quarter of the way up Clare remembered that she didn't like heights, a bit late as she'd paid her 5 Euros! With Chris’s help, Clare got all the way up until the stairs turned into a wooden ladder. Chris took some shots with the camera and Clare noticed that birds were nesting in the holes that had been used for firing arrows. Other memories from that day were:

- Cats asleep in doorways (yes of course Clare took pics).

- Torture museums (Joe has to explain that one).

- Lot of tourists and car parks!

Later on in Radda, we stumbled onto a local wine festival held in the underground catacombs. Clare, Chris & Shay had a solid session tasting the wines of the Chianti Classico "Black Rooster" producers (Joe was driving). Too much red wine, stumble, stopped for pizza, stumble, etc, etc...

Monday means Monte... Today we went to 3 historic hilltop towns that started with Monte...

Monte No. 1: Montalcino

We arrived as the town was just awaking from seista to sun showers and sudden downpours that were to characterise the day. Black clad ladies of the village were sitting in the sun and there were very few tourists. This was a village built below a 14th century Fortezza (fortress) - complete with turrets watching over the hills and dales of the Orcia valley below. Between the turrets there were holes designed for the throwing of boiling oil on those below. A bit scary - heights & rotting floor boards wise - but the view was spectacular; undulating wheat fields and pencil pines leading to ancient villas from Roman times straight out of the movie "Gladiator" (one of Clare's Russell favourites!) Wonderful gelati, as usual (I think we tried the gelati in most towns we visited!)

Monte No. 2: Monticchiello

A small hilltop walled village, windswept and blustered by showers (ok, it was a downpour!) So we took shelter in the village church with soaring vaulted ceilings and partially restored frescos. Joe did some Gregorian chants, not bad. We walked around, in the rain, then gave up with rainbows arching over the fields of wheat. Really one of Clare's best photos of the trip. Back to the car.

Monte No. 3: Montepulciano

A stunning small town of 14,000 people built upon a small volcanic ridge. It was originally an Etruscan fort with still intact burial chambers under the wine bars - sounds like the underground city of Edinburgh but less haunted!!! We missed seeing these, but did watch the ever increasing showers rolling in, from the windows of Caffe Poliziano (1868). The caffe fredo (iced coffee) and 4 types of chocolate cannoli were to die for (total about €15). The renaissance architecture was built by the Florence Medici's in the 1400’s and the gothic structures were from the previous Siena based administration, such as the 13th century gothic Palazzo Comunale on the Piazza Grande at the towns highest point. Just before another very heavy downpour, we scored the last table at Osteria dell’Acquacheta, whose specialty was 2 kg ribs of beef t-bone, just seared in a wood fired oven. No we didn't have it, nor did anyone anyone at our table (but the gnocchi and other Italian foods were bloody good!) American tourists came in from the rain looking for tables and were told to come back in an hour. Satisfied, we walked back to the car in the pouring rain and drove back to Chianti along deserted motorways.

Photo Link: <Tuscany photos>

... Continued in Part 2...

Life & Times in Annagassan

Irish Pub of the Week #6 - The Glyde Inn, Annagassan, Co. Louth. Established in the 1700's. This is "our local", about 3 mins walk from our apartment. They pour a nice pint of Guinness!

A pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, Co. Louth

A bit of aviation spotting, American Airlines Boeing 777

Pigsy, our local dog at The Saltings, Annagassan, waits patiently for a dog biscuit
(please click on any of these photos for a larger version)

Photo Link: <Annagassan photos>

Hello all. Not much to report this week. Clare & Joe have both been busy at work. Clare had an overnight trip to Berlin on Tuesday (3am start), and enjoyed our favourite sushi restaurant in Europe. Joe did his DHL stuff! Just another week to go before we head across for our holiday in Tuscany. It's still spring in Ireland, although the weather conditions can change, quite literally, minute by minute. It might be spring in the morning, summer at lunchtime and winter on the drive home. No shortage of rain of course, as always. They've just started some Friday night trad music sessions at our local, The Glyde Inn, so we'll have to check that out soon. Bye for now.

The Connemara Jig

Irish Pub of the Week #5 - Mannion's Bar, Clifden, Co. Galway

Jump! The Atlantic Ocean hits the cliffs of County Mayo

Clare feeds the Connemara ponies
(please click on any of these photos for a larger version)

Micky Martin & Marie Walsh playing some great Irish trad music
at Mannions Bar, Clifden (YouTube video)

Photo Link: <Connemara photos>

Video Link: <YouTube video of Irish trad music>

This past bank holiday weekend, we went for another motoring jaunt across Ireland – to Connemara and County Mayo, on the Atlantic coast. Lots of rugged hills, peat bogs, rocks, loughs (pronounced like Scottish "lochs”), and loads of “famine ruins” (abandoned rock houses) as this was one of the worst affected areas of Ireland. I guess you could say Connemara is quintessential Ireland, although Ireland has so many really different regions. It’s certainly one of the major "tourist” areas of the country, as we saw coach loads of Americans that we don’t see in County Louth (where we live). We also caught 2 nights of really great trad music at Mannion’s Bar in Clifden – the best so far in Ireland.

We started our journey with some dinner at The Cock Tavern in Swords (right near DHL, before we even hit the road), then along the wonderful M50 (not!) and the M4 to the Galway ring road in about 4 hours. Stayed at the Ibis Galway (€87) - we always seem to start our weekend at the Ibis! Definitely don’t drink the water, as the Galway water supply is currently rendered undrinkable due to cryptosporidium contamination. Mmm, tasty. Despite all the rainfall in this country, maintaining a clean water supply to towns still seems to be rather a challenge.

The next day started with low rain and cloud. We took the coast road (R336) via Spiddal towards Clifden. The country beyond Galway soon turns very rocky & boggy, then the mountains of Connemarra start to rise up. We drove north straight through the middle of the Maumturk Mountains past a number of mist covered lakes, peat bog diggings and small stone walled fields full of sheep. Some sheep did manage to escape the fields onto the roads, especially the black faced lambs! We had a seafood lunch in Leenane where Killary Harbour starts - this is Ireland's only true fjord. The road rises from here with views of Mussel farms (floating ropes in the water) that are strung along the fjord and flowering trees -Rhododendrons? We stopped at the very gothic pile of Kylemore Abbey. At this point, after 2 fine weeks, it started to rain again. The abbey is now a girls boarding school run by the Benedictine Nuns. The stately home was built for an American couple in 1848, saving huge numbers of locals from potato famine starvation, and now is partially open to the public. The extensive restored kitchen gardens and family chapel are also open. It's very interesting to see what vegetables were grown and how, as most stately homes around the world show off the formal flower gardens but very few show what the residents really grew and ate. The only other one Clare can remember seeing was George and Martha Washington’s place at Mount Vernon, USA. The Nuns grew produce for the school in the garden until the 1970’s (I think) then it all ran wild until an EU grant came to the rescue in the 1990’s.

Stopped at lots of country crossroads to check for directions - that’s quite a common thing in Ireland, especially in Connemara, and most drivers are pretty tolerant to people just stopping in the road! Eventually got to Clifden, where we stayed at the Ben View House B&B for 2 nights (€65/nt) which was quite pleasant and you got a nice pot of tea served on silver each morning! Clifden is a small town and eveything is within easy walking distance. So we had some dinner, then went on a "trad" music pub crawl. The first place, EJ Kings, was just a bit too crowded. At the second, Lowrys, we had a drink and listened to 2 old blokes playing the accordian and keyboard. Then we went to Mannions Bar (our favourite!) - here we settled in and listened to Marie Walsh (All-Ireland accordion champion) & Micky Martin. This is our YouTube video of Irish trad music (you'll need a good broadband connection to view this). Apart from the well sozzled locals propped up at the bar, I think we were the only English first language patrons, so lots of the Europeans didn’t always catch Micky’s jokes. One of them them was aimed at us - Clare requested "Bound for South Australia," so Micky says "this song is for the South Australians in the corner"... "well, actually Micky, we're not from South Australia"... "OK, this song is for the people in the corner who might have once been to South Australia"... We bought 2 CD's that night, so supported the local musos!

After a "full Irish" breakfast, we headed off in the rain to drive the rest of the coast road (R341) around to Ballyconneely & Roundstone. This part of Ireland is very, very Irish and most, if not all, people will speak Irish. These areas are called Gaeltacht. Most of the road signs are in Irish too, and not often in English. To buy a house here you must first pass an exam in written and oral Irish. Not quite sure how the Americans manage to get holiday houses here then. The place is full of side lanes that usually lead to a wharfs and salmon/mussel processing/smoking plants. Clare has been to these parts before with her job. We passed the site of the Marconi Telegraph Station, which is interesting because Clare has seen sites marked with the same title in Cape Cod, USA and just north of Perth, WA. Did Marconi get around or what?!

We stopped at a few places on the way: patted the Connemarra ponies; stopped at some white sandy (but windswept) Atlantic beaches (Tra Mhoir on Mannion Bay and Gurteen & Dogs Bays); checked out some fishing boats, just back into port; checked out a huge dead crab on the beach. On the R340 past Kilkerrin, we stopped at a windswept (yes, a pattern of the day) cemetery full of spectacular Celtic crosses, some with sheep grazing on them! Clare has been to some wonderful cemeteries in my time - Bonaventure Cemetery down by the river in Savannah Georgia stands out, but this one was really bleak with mist sweeping down (well it was in the bogs of Connemara) and at the same time had the most wonderfully inviting moss lined stream running through it. We headed back to Cliftden via the N59 straight through the middle of Connemara past abandoned "famine" villages, cleared bright green fields edged by dry stone walls, yellow gorse "hedges", and flat bog lands below rocky hillsides and mountains - 100% Ireland! After a late lunch at the Blackberry Café Leenane (in the Irish good food guides), we did some scenic detours through an area that had a number of villages with the name Tully in them. We have a good friend (Tully!) from Joe's DHL Brisbane days, so we took pictures of the Tully Mountains, Tully village, Tully Cross village, etc. Suzynne, we think this must have been your ancestral home! Being the fair weather "walkers" we are, we gave the Connemara National Park a big miss due to continuing downpours.

The sun finally came out as we headed up the famed "Sky Road" near Clifden. Yes, well worth a look. Clare's work colleague Dave insisted that we really should walk or ride a bike along the 12km road - needless to say we drove it. This is a small hilltop road (lane?) that runs off the N59 just at the northern edge of Clifden town, and loops around rugged, stunning Atlantic coastal scenery. From up here, you can see clearly how local people have worked so hard over the centuries just to eke out a basic living from the fields below. They start with a rock strewn patch of grass; collect all the rocks of every size; build a dry stone wall around everything, right down to the sea; collect seaweed to fertilise it; then put the sheep in it. We guess in the past they grow endless crops of potatoes, until the blight got to them in 1845. And so started the greatest migration I think the world has ever seen - before or since. There were 8 million Irish in Ireland in 1844. Even now there are only 4 million people in Ireland, and 250,000 of those are Polish. So 1 million people died in the famine, and another 1.25 million people emigrated. Looking at the harsh scenery in Connemara, it takes no imagination at all to see how & why this happened.

Mannions Bar had another session that night with Micky Martin, Marie Walsh, a bloke on the Irish bagpipes and another bloke on the "spoons" (yep, spoons). Then there was another bloke who sang. Then a girl popped in for a while (looked like she was clubbing with her 10 mates), and she sang a couple of songs. Things were generally a bit more rowdy as the locals hit the Guinness before the Monday bank holiday. A busload of Americans had taken the best tables, but not to be outdone, the locals took the tables back, seat by seat, until the Americans eventually gave up and left! The same sozzled locals from the night before were at the bar again, proclaiming us to be long lost friends to the Americans, and the barman knew our drink order by then and had the bottle of rum at the ready. The night before he'd said they had no rum, whilst standing in front of a bottle of Havana Gold. Mmm. Clare went back to Mannions in early July (had more salmon factories to look at). The local boys were still at the bar and the bottle of Havana Gold still wasn't finished. Micky was playing next door at Lowrys - that was the only difference!

On the Monday the sun had really come out (always happens on the day you go home) - we headed north on the N59 again, passing Killary Harbour and through Westport in County Mayo (very smart little town). We headed out to Ballycastle and the nearby Ceide Fields, sitting on the edge of spectacular Atlantic cliffs near Downpatrick Head. Ceide Fields is the worlds most extensive stone age monument. It's not like Stonehenge or Newgrange, but is a complete community of houses, fields & tombs completely buried under the peat bog fields from 5500 years ago. The visitor centre is well worth a look. Joe called this a "bunch of buried rocks" and to a large extent, it is, but Clare found the history of the bogs fascinating. Even more fascinating the fact that when the bogs came and they couldn't farm anymore, the people who were farming here just moved down the road, 8km or so, to the area of Ballycastle. The tour guide said that Ceide Fields would have looked physically almost the same as the farms in Ballycastle today, using more or less the SAME FARMING METHODS. So it's not a tall order to say that there are still some people in Ballycastle who may be direct descendants of the farmers from 5500 years ago. Stopped for some service station junk food on the way home. So that's a wrap-up on another great long weekend in Ireland...

A quick update for the week...

Irish Pub of the Week #4 - Pebble Beach, Clontarf, Dublin 3

Glass half full, Pebble Beach

(please click on either of these photos for a larger version)

Photo Link: <Our Best Of Ireland Photoset>

Photo Link: <Our Irish Pub Of The Week Photoset>

Hi all. Another week (and weekend) has gone by. Clare was in Brussels for the European Seafood Exposition until Thursday - had a great time and saw lots of her old Aussie seafood clients and met people from the Irish seafood industry. Brussels got to 31c, with humidity just like Brisbane, but Ireland didn't rise above the teens as usual. Joe did his daily commute to DHL at Swords, close to Dublin Airport, not so exciting. We had a new front window installed at our apartment, which stayed clean for 1 day but is now covered in salt spray as the coastal breezes really whipped up this weekend. People were flying kites and I even saw a brave sailboarder screaming across Dundalk Bay. We went for a walk with the Hashers on Sunday - at Clontarf, on the northside of Dublin. Quite leisurely, and ended up at the pub as usual. Next weekend we're off to Galway and the West of Ireland as we have our May Bank Holiday (Labour Day). Bye all.

Accidental Tourists

Of all the Newcastle's in the world... this is one of them!

Irish Pub of the Week #3 - The Sail Inn, Clogherhead, County Louth

Silent Valley is an appropriate name. You can almost hear the silence.
(please click on any of these photos for a larger version)

Photo Link: <Best Of Ireland photos>

It's really great to go to places within an hour of home (in Ireland), that are so bloody brilliant, so diverse. It's weird enough that we can actually see the Mourne Mountains (on a good day), from the main window of our apartment, and had never been there. The Mourne Mountains, and the little town of Newcastle where the mountains meet the sea. Newcastle, with it's Victorian Terrace seafront, amusement arcades and good cafes couldn't be any more different than Annagassan. They even use a different currency... But it's only an hour away. I guess we used to explore our "backyard" in Brisbane too, but when you live somewhere, you think you know your own region so you spend your weekends at home, or doing something else. So Ireland is just made for exploring. Every day I can drive down a new country lane I've never been on before, or see a different Norman ruin or ancient church. Last week, I discovered 2 country pubs less than 10 minutes from Annagassan. This week, vast fields of yellow flowers emerged in the Spring temperatures. So this weekend, we found new sights and tastes in a region just north of where we live - the Mourne Mountains. The weather can vary of course. It was quite warm today. The clouds rolled in over the hills and rain threatened, but never really happened. We went for a 3km walk at the Tollymore Forest Park (far too easy, we should have done longer). We had a great lunch at the Seasalt Cafe in Newcastle (notes from Lonely Planet Ireland). We took a loop walk around the Silent Valley Reservoir. Silent it was too, apart from the distant bleating of sheep in lush fields. Thankfully, the reservoirs here look a lot healthier than poor old Wivenhoe. So we drove home to Annagassan, sat down in our loungeroom, and gazed at the Mourne Mountains again!

Real Madrid

Puerta de Europa, Madrid

MADRID... (There are lots of photo links in this story)

flickr photo link: <Madrid, Apr 07>

flickr photo link: <Madrid Bullfights, Apr 07>

05 Apr 07 IB3183 DUB/MAD 1835/2200

09 Apr 07 IB3186 MAD/DUB 1615/1740

Continuing our tradition of quick European Vacations from Ireland, we ate and drank our way through Madrid over the Easter weekend. We loved the parade of strange religious costumes through the streets & alleys on Good Friday. We raved about the grilled prawns in the tapas bars. The art and architecture are not to be missed, but plan your time carefully. And the bullfights, which are something you only have to see once, but are part of the history and culture of this great city.
We flew from Dublin to Madrid with Iberia. Dublin Airport was far calmer than expected and we got to our gate in no time at all. Nice airline, smooth flight. The new Madrid Barajas Terminal 4 is huge and sweeping in scale, more in kind with Kuala Lumpur or Hong Kong Airports than any other European Airport. Took a cab to the hotel. The freeways into Madrid are quick & seamless, giving you a distinct impression of being very new (and so much better than Ireland!) Our home for 4 nights was the 2 star Hostal Persal (€99/nt), in the absolute heart of the historic quarter of Madrid (100 yards from the Puerta del Sol, and very near the Plaza Mayor and the Prado, Thyssen & Reina Sofia Museums). The continental breakfast ran till 11am, which was great for us!
Joe... I slept in big time on Good Friday. Didn't get outside the hotel until early afternoon, and found some lunch at a place with a person inside an inflatable chicken suit. Not bad. Clare then spied a little Tapas Bar that soon became our favourite in the area (La Zapateria/The Shoemaker) which had grilled prawns in sea salt (absolutely lipsmacking), octopus, meat kebabs & paella. And of course bottles of the local red (very drinkable), and glasses of Cerveza (beer). Our average bill there was about €35 for 2, including drinks. We then retreated back to our hotel room and did the very Spanish siesta thing.
Clare... I decided that as it was Good Friday, I really should go to Mass. I'd checked with the hotel reception and identified the 2 main "must do" mass churches in downtown Madrid - Basilica of Crist de Medinacell and Church of San Pedro el Viejo Nuncio. I chose the Church of San Pedro (built in 1202 on top of the mosque that was here in the Muslim district in the middle ages), as it was the smaller and much older church of the two. At Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church, in downtown Kenmore, Brisbane, the two biggest and well attended masses of the year are Good Friday 3pm mass and Midnight mass on Christmas Eve. With this in mind I actually dressed decently and wandered off through the back lanes of old Madrid (Real or Royal Madrid). On my way down I noticed large numbers of people of all ages heading off in the opposite direction, very well dressed including full length fur coats, yes real animal fur, this is Spain, the land of the bullfights!
I eventually found the Church of San Pedro and sat down for mass which was sparsely attended, to my surprise. With no priest in sight the Stations of the Cross started, led by a lay attendant. So 20 minutes later it was all over. Apparently Saturday is the big day for Easter mass here. There was a small stall with religious items for sale. I bought a magnet of a saint and 2 post cards of the Mary and Jesus statues/icons ? from San Pedro. The Mary and Jesus "statues" were made of wood - quite realistic - standing on a "bed" of silver or gold that has been built to be carried around. After the mass that wasn't, I wandered off and just started popping into churches I found - loads of them. All were different, very different styles of architecture and interiors. Every one had different "statues", particularly of Mary, standing on silver or gold "beds". After the third one I was wandering through the back lanes and stumbled upon a procession of people (men, women & children) dressed liked black Ku Klux Clan people. I thought THIS IS MADRID, and just started following the procession through the laneways. I found the procession around 7.45pm. Later I found out it had started at 7pm and didn't end until 11pm. It didn't travel too far at all, but took a very slow route via small laneways dating back to the 1200's. This is what the ladies in fur coats were doing, following the procession. The people dressed like the black Ku Klux Clan were carrying large candles, others were very, very well dressed women in black "widow" clothes from head to toe, and others were carrying the Mary Statue on a silver bed. Yes, solid silver. It took around 12 men and women to carry it with many rest stops along the way. It was a cold night with frequent showers (the weather in Ireland was actually much better). Even the small children in the procession made it all the way to the church of Inglesia la Santa Cruz. At this point the police escort closed ranks and no one other than the parade people could get into the church. I think the procession of Saint Dolores started in 1592. Pity I can't read the Spanish brochure that the kids were selling. Half way through I went back and got Joe from the hotel and we got some great pics.
The next day (Saturday) we made a concerted effort to be tourists and did the Madrid VISION open top bus tour, then did lunch at the Palace of Jamon (Ham Palace). Don't even start me on Spanish hams from pigs wandering free in the oak forests in the hills. Simply wonderful. Then off to do art: a portrait show at Fundacion Caja Madrid which included Andy Warhol, Picasso & Dali, then Escher's "The Art of the Impossible" near Puerta de Europa (the 2 leaning skyscrapers - really amazing). Then dinner back at La Zapateria followed by a long stroll around the old town. We ended our night at the famous Chocolatería San Ginés. Love chocolate, then this is definitely the place for you - a favourite haunt of many Madrileños, this place serves thick cups of chocolate with churros (long sticks of fried dough) in a white-marbled bar. It's been around for well over a hundred years. All diets on hold tonight.
On Sunday we started with a stroll through the huge El Rastro flea market. Then we started on the art again (it's SO easy to get around on the Madrid Subway system). We saw photos of Madrid from the 1950's to the present, then the large Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, the best collection of European art this side of the Hermitage which holds Catherine the Greats collection. Gave the Prado and Reina Sofia a miss due to very, very long queues. (Joe says - the security guards in the museums here all carry guns - these guys are serious about keeping a hold of their art!) Then the bullfights. We had to see at least one bullfight for real. We saw 3 fights at Las Ventas and it's rather cruel. We cheered when one bull tore down the wooden stand in front of the matador, much to the consternation of the Spanish people sitting next to us. The real eye opener was the treatment of the final matador who must have been the best of the day and was carried out of stadium by a frenzied crowd of people and driven away with a police escort. Lots of excitement there!
Back to the city centre and a late night drinks and jazz session at the Central Cafe 2 doors from our hotel (stumbling distance). We had tapas and some serious drinks & cocktails whilst listening to the Lluis Coloma Trio, who were great. This was my type of bar, with a rum menu, which type of Havana Gold exactly did I want? And perfect daiquiris (lucky it was our last night).
The next day we headed back to Madrid Barajas after lunch only to discover our flight was overbooked and we had somehow been placed on standby. Clare produced her Gold Qantas Frequent Flyer Card, and we were immediately upgraded to business class for our flight back to Dublin. So we got on the plane and turned left (as they say). Now this is the life! Madrid was everything that Paris never was. The food, shopping and art are more easily found and enjoyed. Can't wait for Barcelona.

flickr photo link: <Madrid, Apr 07>
flickr photo link: <Madrid Bullfights, Apr 07>

Boston Common

Clare in work mode at the Boston Seafood Show

Photo Link: <Boston photos>
I'm finally getting around to doing some more blog updates. Not that I'm too busy or anything, you just have to find the time to sit at the laptop and get it done. The first update is from Clare's trip to Boston in March...
Clare says... I took a work trip to Boston (for the SEAFOOD SHOW) and I saw the Pogues. Best corporate function I have been to. Yeah, and some drinking sessions with Newfies till the wee hours. God they can drink those Newfies (Newfoundlanders). I need to get ready to do it all again at Brussels (Seafood show). Flew to Boston on Virgin Atlantic. The river, sea, lakes, etc. were frozen in Boston at the start of the week but mostly thawed by the time we left. I took the pics whilst on the trolley tour on the last afternoon. Still the whole place is rather bleak as there is absolutely no green anywhere at all - all dead under the ice and snow piles. We (Peter, my boss and I) went to a drinks party (for Bantry Bay Mussels) in South Boston (Irish town) and it was like Belfast - full of IRA murals on the walls. Nothing like it in Australia.
The Pogues concert was the third in a row for Boston which was then being followed by New York for St Patricks night. We got tickets for the 10th row from the front at the Orpheum Theater a couple of hours before the start. We then popped off to the California Pizza Kitchen. For those people who went to my parties at Auchenflower in the 1990’s with the infamous pizzas - a lot of the recipes came from this establishment. The Pogues, for those that haven’t seen them, are an Irish punk band formed in London in the mid 1980’s when Ireland was a very different place from now. They play traditional Irish songs with a punk beat and sing their own songs as well. Some of their own songs are absolute classics for the Irish especially those who came of age in the 1980's and had to move overseas for jobs ie. London & New York, even when they didn’t want to leave. There is one in particular called “New York Fairy Tale’ which I'd never heard in Australia and they didn’t play in Boston, as they needed a female singer. But it's probably the only song of theirs they didn’t play, as they came back for 3 encores. The band consisted of Shane McGowan, the infamous lead singer, 1 drummer who also sang a solo, 2 guitarists, one who also sang a solo, 1 tin whistleplayer who also played a lot of other bits and pieces including a biscuit tray at the end, 1 banjo player and a sax player. They played all the songs I know from the CD "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash" with the exception of "And the band played Waltzing Matilida", wrong target audience for that one. They played "Dirty Old Town" and "Irish Rover".
And yes, for those that are familar with Shane McGowan (he played the Byron Bay Blues Fest a few years ago), he did stand up for the whole show and no, did not appear to be drunk/stoned throughout the concert. But he was drinking something that looked a lot like whiskey straight all night, but could have been ginger ale (Shane has been trying to dry out for years). But he did smoke non stop all night despite all the signs saying it was a smoke free building. By the encore Shane couldn’t walk or stand up by himself. He needed a roadie to basically walk him to the stool they had put out for him and hand him a smoke and drink. Maybe it wasn’t ginger ale after all. And they had a Mary statue up on the sound equipment. Okay they are Irish but the last song on the CD "Thirteen Thongs" by the Lonesome Cow Girls did come to mind. Those of you who went to Woodford in 2005/6 would have heard this song and know what the Mary statue probably contained.
We couldn’t get a taxi back to the hotel so walked quite a way past the still frozen Boston common and were meant to meet up with the Newfies again for another get-together but these sessions tended to finish at 4am, so I piked and went to bed. The next night we had dinner at a place called Cotton Wood - well worth it for the cocktails alone, but the steak was wonderful. Ran into some of our Irish clients there as well. Very small world. I expect to meet up with a lot more familar (Aussie) faces at the Brussels seafood show in April. (The Boston photos are linked right here).

I Can't Get No Satisfaction...

Irish Pub of the Week #2 - Cobblestone, Smithfield, Dublin 7

Hi all, just a quick weekend update. We managed to get 2 tickets for The Rolling Stones at Slane Castle in August (about 1/2 hour from Annagassan)... Should be a blast - concerts at Slane Castle are reputed as being quite special with 80,000 people in a in a natural amphitheatre beside the Boyne River, in the height of the Irish Summer (but I still had no idea Clare was a closet Rolling Stones fan). All 80,000 tickets sold out in 1 day of course!
On Sunday, we went for walk with the Dublin Hash Group (A few photos are here) - we were following impossible clues in Polish, German & French from pub to pub across Dublin. Found a great Sunday afternoon trad music session at the Cobblestone, Smithfield. Not much to look at from the outside, but that's no sign of a good Dublin Pub. There are so, so many of them to choose from...
We're off to Madrid this Thursday for 4 nights away. This was a surprise trip for Clare, but I've given the destination away now - Olé...

Springtime in Ireland

Irish Pub of the Week #1 - Maccarthy's Bar, Castletownbere

Damn, it's really foggy tonight!

It’s Springtime in Ireland. Everything is glowing green despite the St. Patricks weekend of hail, sleet, snow & pouring rain (often all at once). Even most of the daffodils have survived it all – just a few broken stems. The trees are getting buds and some have pink flowers. Lambs are running in the fields and we have daylight until well after 8pm, which is a weird concept, and will only get later from this point on. The sun is valiantly trying to burn through the cloud layer to raise the daytime temperature out of single digits, but Ireland has a strange meteorological condition at the moment. With the rising temperatures and all the moisture in the fields, an amazing permanent haze (fog) hangs over over the landscape. It looks very much like Aussie bushfire smoke, but when you wind your car window down, the blast of cold air reminds you it’s still March. The haze looks really spooky with all the bare winter trees and has developed into thick pea-soup fog for the last 2 nights when colder air comes down. There’s been some incredible car smashes near Dublin too…
We had some friends (Chris & Shay) up from Dublin for the weekend and it was the first weekend Clare's been home for a full weekend here & not writing assignments! We took a nice walk along the seashore, patted the local dogs (and fed cows), popped in for some craic at the local pub and made a nice dinner. We even discovered some sort of ancient mound, just over the river from our apartments. Clare is away now on a quick 2 day audit in Northern Ireland, while I continue to deal with my DHL clients who seem to exist in a world of permanent happiness. On Monday morning I thought I’d try a new shortcut across the country lanes to the M1 (motorway to work), but ended up taking a long, long drive & discovering lots of new pubs, but alas it was far too early for a Guinness and I eventually got to work just a few minutes late. One more weekend at home, then we're away for Easter...

St Patrick's Day Weekend

Watch out for those giant leprachauns...

Photo Link: <St Patricks Day Parade in Cork photos>
Photo Link: <West Cork (Castletownbere & Peninsulas) photos>
Photo Link: <The Wicklows photos>
On the St Patricks Day Long Weekend we headed down to Cork and the incredibly beautiful and rugged peninsulas of South-West Ireland that stick out into the Atlantic (Sheeps Head & Beara). Lots of small towns & villages, rocky hills & mountain passes, lakes, many sheep & cattle, great pubs & music, etc. The weather was really wild and endlessly changing, from icy rain and hail to wind so strong you couldn’t stand up. Coming home on Monday, the tops of all the mountains were all covered in snow. We started out the weekend with a night at the Ibis Cork East, then a rather lacklustre St Patricks Day Parade in Cork (I guess we were expecting Riverdancing girls), then we headed for a little town called Castletownberehaven (Castletownbere for short). Clare's been down there about 4 times for work, and is still amazed how many business names in every village are the same names as kids she went to school with - “We even found a pub with music and people were dancing like we had to at school – Pride of Erin and all that. Apparently it’s called “Calie” dancing (wrong spelling for sure). First time I had seen anyone doing that style of dancing here. Irish dancing is when you hop around with your arms at your side. So when we drove around all these towns in Southern Ireland (far south) with names like: O’Sullivan, Nolan’s, Dunne’s, Burke’s, Hennessey, Hegarty, O’Brien, Crowley’s, O’Neill… all I could think was it was a very long way in so many ways from Bantry Bay to Brisbane, especially in the 1860’s let alone 1790’s.”
We stayed at the Cametringane Hotel for 2 nights. Quite comfortable, and good Irish breakfasts (& the breakfast staff were quite entertaining, especially the girl who was just like the dippy Alice on the Vicar of Dibley - she sounded exactly the same). Anyway, they ended up charging us considerably less than what was quoted when we booked, which is always nice. For dinner, the first night we had fish and chips from the local chippy (very fishy fish and chips, being a fish town and all), and the second night we had dinner at The Old Bakery Restaurant, which was ok but nothing too flash. The scenery in South-West Ireland is totally spectacular and every turn reveals new landscapes & microclimates, like around Glengarriff on Mizen Head Peninsula where semi-tropical plants like camelias, tree ferns and wonderful rhoderdendrons grow in this cool climate. There's even a bamboo garden you can visit. All of these plants were flowering when we were there, then we got hailed on... then sleet... then snow, before the weekend was out. We found a “Hobbit” grotto on the Ring of Beara full of wonderful trees and moss that we think must have escaped from a New Zealand forest - very Lord Of The Rings. Clare took pics of moss for her Dad - who drove the family around NZ for 3 months in 1973 taking pics of moss!
Yes Ireland is the sort of place where you just want to keep stopping the car to take photos, but the photos don't really take it all in - you have to see it for yourself. On the way back home, after more hail, we stopped in The Wicklow Mountains (south of Dublin) in the hope of throwing some snowballs. There wasn't quite enough snow for that - just a quick flurry or two, and more spectacular scenery... Just another weekend in Ireland!
Here's a few pictures from our weekend...
- St Patricks Day Parade in Cork
- Castletownberehaven, Sheeps Head & Beara Peninsula, etc.
- The Wicklows

Living life on the edge, Sheep's Head Peninsula...

Blog about nothing...

This update is not a blog of excitement, rather a blog of Korean BBQ, flatpack furniture & dog biscuits - just an average weekend in Ireland. So last Friday night we went out with the Dublin Hashers to a Korean BBQ Restaurant in Parnell St, Dublin. After a couple of pints up the road, we all sat down in Korean BBQ Restaurant #1, when the organiser of the group realised she had booked us into the wrong Korean BBQ Restaurant (the one she meant to book was just next door). So all 15 of us ended up sheepishly moving from Korean BBQ #1 to Korean BBQ #2, next door, while the staff looked on. I don't think Korean BBQ #1 was real happy with us, but what can you do? So we all proceeded to cook little morsels of meat and sweet potatoes on our Korean BBQ's and a good time was had by all. We left after the dinner, as Clare was flying to Boston on Saturday morning. I think some people partied on. Clare packed her new corporate rolling luggage, purchased at Luton Airport last weekend...
Early on Saturday morning, Clare left for Belfast (for her Belfast-Heathrow-Boston flight), and I started ripping open boxes of flatpack furniture from Argos, the incredible catalogue shop that sells everything. You pay at the counter, then wait for your stuff and they call your number - "number 39, your electric shaver is ready", "number 40, your flatpack furniture is ready" (no IKEA in this neck of the woods)... Things soon disappeared into a haze of screws, nails and allen keys, and 2 slightly flimsy bedside cabinets and 2 chest of drawers were finally completed by Sunday afternoon. Clare texted me at some stage to say she was eating bagels and having a Frappucino at Heathrow. I made a cup of tea. Another trip to fabulous Argos later for a couple of slightly flimsy matching bedside lamps, and all was done...
Sunday was grey and drizzly. I'd thought about taking some photos today, but in Ireland you learn never to make plans when it comes to weather. So after finishing the furniture and vacuuming up all the mess, I went for a drive across the countryside to get a few things from Marks & Spencer in Drogheda (they have good fruit salad and other yummy things). Also stopped at LIDL (like Aldi) to get some dog biscuits, and looked for a couple of electrical extension leads at Woodies DIY (like Bunnings), only to discover that they just don't do extension leads in Ireland. Weird. Anyway, the dog biscuits: The Saltings has a couple of resident dogs, who get very excited when you pull into the carpark in the evening, or try and eat your shopping, or try to jump in your car, or join groups of walkers along the seafront on weekends. They're not neglected, I think their owners are just out a lot. So I got them some biscuits, and next time I see them, they might get a biscuit from me (or Clare!)
Next weekend is the Paddy's Day long weekend (yes, we get Monday off in Ireland), and we're heading south to Cork and Bantry Bay for a bit of Irish sightseeing. Might even get stuck in some long weekend traffic. The days are getting much longer now. See you round.

London Calling!

Todays lesson is London in dot points, some links & a few piccies, as we're all rather time limited in this day & age...

Planes: Took a rather hairy flight with Aer Lingus from Dubs to Heathrow, after taking a sharp climb (perhaps avoiding a Pakistani Airbus), we landed in the driving rain...

Planes: Took Ryanair from Luton back to Dubs, a bit smoother than Aer Lingus, but that's what you get for flying in Europe in winter...

Trains: Mental note for next time, lots of tube lines are bound to be shut down on a weekend...

Automobiles: We like London Cabs, especially when you're hungry and you can't be bothered seeing if the tube station is open again or not...

Hotels: Stayed with Shirley & David @ Rickmansworth on the Friday night, thanks for having us...

Hotels: Stayed Saturday night @ The Holiday Inn London Kensington Forum, very nice, thanks to lastminute.com for that one...

Food: Took in the Harrods food hall - bought some duck fat (following Nigella's advice) but successfully resisted the Krispy Kremes...

Food: Sushi at YO! Sushi Harrods is expensive and not as good as Brisbane or Berlin...

Food: But we had a great lunch at "The Cock Inn" at Sarratt - I highly recommend the rhubarb crumble... :)

Highlights: Clare did 5 photo shows - the best one was the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the Natural History Museum, and found at least 1 show with photos of Central Asian Meat Markets that cost over £1000...

Highlights: Joe went to Billy Elliot The Musical (excellent), as Clare hates musicals!

Highlights: Got to catch up with Alison & Barbara & Ian & some of the kids, and the dogs on Sunday afternoon...

Lowlights: Loads of stylish Italian tourists clogging up the pavements of Knightsbridge...

Lowlights: It rained a lot on Sunday, great weather for ducks, not for people...

Click on the picture to see a larger version...

Batchworth Lock, Rickmansworth

The Cock Inn at Sarratt, Rickmansworth

Who's on stage today at Billy Elliot?

The Metropolitan Line is quiet on a Sunday

Clare contemplates North London from the tube

Equus @ The Gielgud Theatre, West End

Les Miserables @ Queen's Theatre, West End

Visual art @ Piccadilly, London

Safety Curtain, Victoria Palace Theatre (Billy Elliot)

House Of Sand & Fog

Joe... "Well we've moved into our new apartment at Annagassan overlooking Dundalk Bay (the Irish sea). This picture was taken recently on an incredibly foggy afternoon. The scaffolding on the left side has come down since the pic was taken - the developers had some last things to finish! The tide comes and goes very fast and people wander along the shore with their dogs, kids looking for shells in the mud - very Ireland! The view across the bay from our big picture window actually reminds me a little of Hawaii (believe it or not) - mountains rising out of the water in the distance. And this view changes throughout the day as the weather changes - clouds rolling across the sky with the sun occasionally breaking through. Yes, it pretty much rains every day in Ireland in one form or another. Here is a typical Irish weather forecast for the week...

Monday - some rain & sunny spells
Tuesday - mainly fine with some showers
Wednesday - sun breaking through in some areas, with light showers in others
Thursday - heavy rain & wind
Friday - cloudy with light rain, etc, etc...
You get the general picture. In the end, you just don't notice it anymore. So each morning, I cross some country lanes (watch out for those slow tractors), and join the motorway to my office at Swords which is about 35-40 minutes away. And Clare goes off to her office in Dundalk, in between her fabulous trips."

NORWAY...

Photo Link: <Norway photos>

Clare... Thanks for your cards and emails. Keep them up. Last Thursday night I got back from far northern Norway - way above the Arctic Circle (Tromso). I was there for a meeting of the EU salmon research project I am working on. It was cheaper to go on a cruise of the fjords than to stay in a hotel - and you can’t escape and end up doing twice as many meetings but still it was all amazing. It got down to -20c on the last morning in Trondheim. Unbelievably cold. I couldn’t breath and had to breath thru my scarf but still have the asthma today. On the first day I had to run out and buy a set of gloves and wooly hat. Wouldn’t have survived without them.
The cruise was spectacular and the weather held for the whole trip blue clear sky, just mind blowingly cold. Had to dress like a polar bear every time you went on the deck. Snow and ice everywhere. I’ve never seen anything like it. Will send some postcards in a few weeks when I stop for a bit. I fell over on the ice on the last morning but onto my backpack like a Xmas beetle, so no part of my body touchéd the ice and so didn’t sprain my ankle, tear a ligament, break a small bone in my foot or large bone in my thigh. Thank goodness. Didn’t even break the bottle of 7 year old Havana Rum I had in my bag. Good packing there. And we saw the northern lights on two nights. The first time was a bit poxy - like the milky way really. But the second night it was proper northern lights with the light pulsing across the sky and with green and pink bits around the edges. Couldn’t take a photo though.
Think I'll pop off to bed now and will promise to write a decent story about Norway soon. I have to go to Berlin and Brussels with work in the next few months and Joe & I are going to stay in a villa in Tuscany at the end of May with Chris & Shay. And we have a long weekend in London in March and I will take Joe to the far south of Ireland (where I go for work in remote fishing villages) on the St. Pats long weekend. Joe has a secret weekend planned for us over Easter. And the EU salmon project has a trip to Brazil in October and we're going to a wedding in Las Vegas of one of Joe's really good Brisbane DHL friends in October as well. We're going to stay for a bit longer and drive from Denver to the Devil's Tower in Wyoming (Joe says - think "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind!")

I went to Holland a few weeks ago with work to see a mussel factory (in Yerseke spelling ?) and stayed the weekend with a friend (Dorine in Nymegen) from my Africa trip centuries ago. I also went to the western part of Ireland - Connemarra about 2 weeks ago. The salmon place I did in Connemarra was all Irish speaking. The only English conversations were with me. Even the phone is answered in Irish. A totally different lost world down there. They just want to be left alone to keep on with their way of life. Since so much has changed around here (eastern Ireland) in the last 5 years, places like that are fighting to be left alone in peace and quiet. After centuries of being left alone due to abject poverty now they want it kept that way. To buy a house there you have to pass a Irish language exam - written and oral. It was the first place that didn’t ask about me being Australian - you are just another outsider from somewhere else, so exactly where doesn’t matter - Dublin or Sydney. They did ask me “Winkel - what type of name is that ?” The Dutch of course wanted indepth and precise answers to that question the other week. They actually assumed I could do their audit in Dutch! Bye for now.

Latest News & Dublin Airport

Here we are again. Just enjoying a little smoked salmon breakfast on a Saturday morning, and looking out at the Cooley Mountains. As much as we love the "North End" of Dundalk, with it's abandoned pubs & cracked windows, our view will be different from next weekend, as we've secured our new 2 bedroom apartment at Annagassan! So we'll be loading the DHL Jumbo Boxes back into our cars, and heading off for our new home. Please email Joe at jf1969@optusnet.com.au or Clare at straddiegal@optusnet.com.au if you'd like our new address/phone details. We'll also have a new phone number, etc. Eircom have promised to connect our phone & broadband straight away, so we will see! And, much to contrary belief, Annagassan isn't a stomach complaint, it is in fact a tiny fishing village with 1 shop and 1 pub, where we hope to become "locals" over the next 2 years...! So, again, we extend the invitation to anyone heading this way at any time - you are most welcome to come and stay at Annagassan any old time. We will post some photos when we're all settled.
Clare is off to Norway for work meetings tomorrow, on a boat cruise (yeah sure, they call it work!) The latest temp there is minus 12... That's why they drink vodka over there. Better wrap up warm Clare!
On a completely different subject, I'm still being an aviation geek over here, and have discovered that Dublin Airport is a great spot for aviation photos. So, this will still be my hobby every now and then. Here are some of my photo results from last weekend... Enjoy!

Working Life in Ireland (Christmas Update #3)

So I guess the biggest news for me (Joe) is that I'm back with DHL Express, in Swords, just near Dublin Airport. I'm working as a Key Accounts Advisor, which is quite interesting, looking after the day to day runnings of some of DHL Ireland's largest accounts. The role is mainly proactive, and my past experience with DHL has allowed me to take up the ropes pretty quickly. So everyday, I go down the lift in our apartment building, into the underground carpark, drive to Swords (about 45-50 minutes on the motorway), into the DHL underground carpark, then up in the lift to my floor. Consequently, I've joined the gym and I'm going 2-3 times a week! Clare continues to do well in her role and went to the Netherlands last week, and off for some meetings and audits in Southern Ireland on Sunday night. We spent a recent weekend checking out some of the areas south of Dundalk, and discovered a little fishing village called Annagassan. We loved it, so we're currently negotiating to move into a new apartment there overlooking the sea. It's very quiet and the village has just 1 local pub and shop. But it's very beautiful, and will make a change from Dundalk (but only about 15 minutes away). The 2 photos of Annagassan in this update are actually from the local pub website, The Glyde Inn, so please feel free to come and join us for a Guinness or two... We'll keep you updated with how it all goes!

Also, all of the pictures from our recent trip to Germany are posted here. Please take a look if you like.

Berlin, Berlin (Christmas Update #2)

flickr photo link: <Berlin, Germany, Dec 2006>
On 27 December, we took the ICE train from Braunschweig to Berlin. Very crowded, so we found some seats in the buffet car, but also very fast, so we found ourself at the brand new Berlin Hauptbahnhof in less than 1 1/2 hours. From there, we got frustrated by the ticketing machines, but eventually found our way on the S-Bahn/U-Bahn to the stylish Moevenpick Hotel Berlin, which was absolutely beautiful (our Christmas treat!) Our top floor room had a huge Philippe Starck designed bathtub, groovy lighting and chocolates magically appeared on our pillows every evening. Berlin is truly amazing, and can only be compared to London & New York in terms of scale & shopping. Clare had visited in October 1990, just a year after the Berlin Wall came down, and 1995. I'd never been there before, and I want to go back already!
You could easily stay a week and not see everything you want, from Checkpoint Charlie (very close to our hotel) and the whole Berlin Wall history (and associated museums), to Museum Island (chock full of huge museums bursting at the seams with ancient treasures) which we only saw from the outside, the Jewish Museum Berlin & the 2,711 concrete stelae of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which we saw on a bleak and overcast day, perhaps the most appropriate time. Near the memorial, next to a childrens playground and large apartment building is a simple sign showing where Hitlers' bunker was located. History is at every turn - you need to use your imagination sometimes, but remnants exist all around that help you to feel it. So, we fit all of that into 2 1/2 days, as well as the Museum for Photography and the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral), which is so massive it's almost overwhelming. The Museum for Photography features Helmut Newton, a Berliner who lived for a time in Australia and took photos for the fashion and art world. He died in 2004. Many of these attractions can be found on foot with a half decent map, or just use the S-Bahn/U-Bahn, which has a huge network of trains crossing Berlin in all directions.
Finding great food in foreign cities is of course our forté, and Berlin was no different. After Braunschweig, we'd had enough knackwursts & cake, so we quickly found an excellent Japanese restaurant, Izumi sushi bar in Kronenstrasse (try everything, it's all good). The breakfast buffet at our hotel was outstanding (but we only made it on 1 morning!) The next evening, Clare settled in with a cheese platter & a glass of red at the mindblowing KaDeWe foodhall. 1,300 different types of cheese, 1,200 sausage and ham delicacies, 400 types of bread & rolls, 34,000 products - unbelieveable but true. Clare says the listeria filled cheeses were the best she's ever had, and very filling. I settled instead for a Nasi Goreng from the local Asian takeaway! On our final day, we met Clare's friend Michael (from an African trip in 86/87) for lunch at Cafe Einstein Unter Den Linden (nr. Brandenburg Gate), had a fantastic walking tour to Museum Island & Berliner Dom, and ended up at the Vietnam Restaurant next to Friedrichstrasse Station. Authentic and quite reasonable. We found Friedrichsrasse to really be the new centre of Berlin. From pretty much nothing 10 years ago to Mini-Cooper showrooms, French department stores and European designer clothes. All too much for our budget!
That was our final night in Berlin. We ended up braving the chill to see if the queues for the viewing dome at the Reichstag had dimished in the evening, but they hadn't. So we retreated to the warmth of our hotel room to get ready for our early morning flight back to Dublin. Oh, I almost forgot to tell about the snow. Yes, as we peered out of the crooked windows of the Jewish Museum (don't miss it) on our 2nd day, snow flakes started to fall. They got heavier throughout the day, but had stopped by evening. Of course we rushed back to the hotel to get our camera, and we got a few photos, but it was just a great experience. Our flight back with Ryanair from Berlin-Schönefeld Airport was on-time and smooth. As cheap as they are (and for their poor reputation), we've had no problems yet with Ryanair, and that capped off a truly superb week away - completely different from Christmas in Australia!
All of our pictures from Berlin are posted here. Please take a look if you like.

Frohe Weihnachten! (Christmas Update #1)

flickr photo link: <Braunschweig, Germany, Dec 2006>
23 Dec 06 EI DUB/DUS 1340/1930
30 Dec 06 FR SXF/DUB 1105/1220
Haven't had any updates just recently, so it's time for 3 quick ones in a row. Happy New Year everyone... We hope you all had a good one, wherever you were. We spent the night in Dundalk, watching the local Polish kids burning themselves with fireworks in the park over the road, but more about that later. We're feeling thoroughly "reunified" after our Christmas week in Germany. We learnt a few things... about the superb "Weihnachtsmarkt" (Christmas Markets) of Braunschweig, the organisation of the Germans at Autostadt (Car Disneyland), the immense history of reunified Berlin AND the value of the Euro in Germany (compared to Ireland!)
We flew with Aer Lingus from Dublin to Dusseldorf on 23 December. We got to Dublin Airport around 5am to the busiest airport I've ever seen in my life. No kidding. Even the worst days in Australia never rivalled this. A bit like what you see on tv when Heathrow is in the fog, but no white tents on the roadways! But there was no fog this morning, this was just Christmas. Dubs can be bad at the best of times, but I guess we should have known that flying at Christmas is a no-no. We used the self service check-in terminals, which everyone does, then spent an hour in the "bag drop" queues. Then into the security line (more like a conga line!) which snaked round and round the terminal like something out of Disneyland. That took another hour, and we made it to the gate with 15 minutes to spare - phew. Dusseldorf Airport seemed pretty quiet after Dubs, but they continued the Christmas joy by taking about 1 hour to get the luggage onto the conveyer belt! Met our good friends Gerald & Sandra to have a quick tour of this sophisticated city on the Rhein. Nice Italian lunch at Vapiano, then down the autobahns for 3 hours to Braunschweig (reached 180 km/h). Met Gerald's parents, Sylvia & Peter, then off to the Weihnachtsmarkt for some delicious bratwurst, strawberries dipped in white chocolate & glühwein (Clare says it's an acquired taste)... Gerald & Sandra bumped into loads of old friends, it seemed like the place for old friends to come home and meet up at the end of the year. We all had a great night, and another experience is ticked off our list!
24 December started with a traditional German breakfast - breads, meats & cheeses. Then up out of the fog into the blue sky of the Harz Mountains to walk off some of the food - alas no snow but pretty cold. Back to Braunschweig for coffee & cake (a real German tradition), then later our Christmas dinner of duck legs, red cabbage, potato dumplings and real cranberries. Gerald's 94 year old Grandmother was there and had some amazing tales, born in England in 1912, emigrating to Germany in 1922 and staying for the WWII while her brothers & sisters went back to England. So we had a nice day, but so much food, too much food...
On Christmas Day when you'd think everything would be closed, a lot of things in Germany are open, including the impressive Autostadt in Wolfsburg, the futuristic showpiece of the Volkswagen Group in an ultra-modern concrete landscape dominated by the huge 'Pink Floyd like' smokestacks of the VW Factory. Did you know the VW Group includes Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Seat & Skoda as well as all the V Dubs? (but not many Combi's in sight)... As well as bucket loads of interative displays & cars, they have 2 huge glass car "towers" that lead to an underground VW delivery centre, and yes, some customers were even picking up their cars on Christmas Day. Anyway, we called it 'Car Disneyland' and it's well worth a visit if you're in northern Germany. On the way back, we stopped at the disused East/West Germany checkpoint at Marienborn-Helmstedt on the highway from Hannover to Berlin. More than 1000 GDR soldiers inspected everything moving between west & east until finally abandoned on 30 June 1990 after the wall came down. A great museum and such amazing recent history...
We spent another day walking in the countryside and checking out downtown Braunschweig before going for more coffee & cakes with Geralds' sisters family. A good chance to practice a little German, mmm... The next day (very cold & foggy), we took the ICE train to Berlin for part 2 of our little trip...

All of our pictures from Braunschweig are posted here. Please take a look if you like.

... Continued in Part 2 (Berlin)...