Trip to Ireland & France, Day 9, Friday February 20th

Friday was a travel day, going back from Carcassonne to Dublin. We sent Aisling out to the Boulangerie to buy us baguettes (she had been doing that most days) and we ate as many of our leftovers as we could. However, each of the wrinklies packed some contraband in their carryons. Nana had cheese and Nan had salmon. Not to mention the bottle of wine we packed in Nan's luggage. We headed to the airport and had an uneventful flight back to Ireland. Once there, we did a little shopping with Nana as we were pretty much out of food. Gordon always enjoys visiting supermarkets in other countries. After we had dinner that night, we went over to Harold's Cross to enjoy the greyhound racing. Aisling bet on the first race and won 20 euros, which pretty much financed her gambling for the rest of the night. My next door neighbors came, and won on every single race. I usually picked my bet by the description of the dog in the printed program. I especially enjoyed the descriptions that went "experienced bitch" or "tenacious bitch" and I always bet on them. However, I never won anything!

We took a taxi home through the city and Dublin is definitely hopping on a Friday night. It's full of people. The cab driver complained bitterly about how his business has suffered because of the recession and also because of recent deregulation, but it didn't look to me like the recession was impacting how much people were going out at night.

Trip to Ireland & France, Day 8, Thursday February 19th

Thursday was our last full day in France, so we decided to spend it down in the Ville Basse. We thought it was a little far for the wrinklies to walk, so Gordon and I walked and we sent Aisling and the wrinklies in a cab. We arranged to meet at the McDonalds, just because you sort of can't miss it, it's right across from La Gare. I got coffee in McDonalds, and it was pretty good. Also, the bathroom in McDonalds was great! We spent a long time in McDs as the grandmothers decided to go shopping before meeting us! They showed up wearing new hats and scarves to help them stay warm. We walked into the main square in Ville Basse, where there was a market, but we got there a little late, and we missed most of the market, which seems to sell mostly produce and cheese and meet. We had lunch at a little restaurant on the square and then we split up and arranged to meet at the same cafe later in the afternoon.

Aisling and I went shopping. Aisling was wearing a Barack Obama campaign button, and that really made her very popular. We went into Sephora, and they actually gave us free stuff! We also went to the Monoprix, as Aisling wanted to buy French chocolate. She also bought french makeup and went to a cheap french clothes shop and bought some french clothes! We then headed back to the cafe to meet the others. The wrinklies were late. Apparently they went to the coiffure and got their hair done. They also reported that they had gotten capuccinos, and they had never seen so much cream on a capuccino before.

We decided to buy food at the Monprix and eat at the hotel. We ate baguettes, salmon, cheese, pate, and Aisling had a steak. We also *had* to drink two bottles of wine from the winery since we couldn't take it on the plane! After dinner, Gordon and I went for a nighttime stroll to the Ville Basse. I hadn't gotten to see Cathedral St. Michel in the Ville Basse, so we walked by both cathedrals in the town and enjoyed how they looked from the outside. We also found one of the two Irish pubs (although we didn't go in). On the way back, we passed the museum which was beautifully illuminated at night. The town was pretty lively at night but we just went back to the hotel rather than go clubbing!

Trip to Ireland & France, Day 7, Wednesday February 18th

After the long day Gordon and I let Aisling and the wrinklies sleep late and we headed to return the rental car. The car rental office itself was closed, but we turned it back inside La Gare. We then headed back to the hotel and met the others to head up to La Cite for the day. It was great. We walked the shorter, but somewhat steep way. We wandered around the , the moat and battlements, enjoyed the daytime view of the Ville Basse. Once we got up to La Cite, Nan and Nana stopped for coffee and Gordon, Aisling and I went to La Maison Hantee, the Haunted House. It was very scary, but all the ghosts spoke french so I'm not really sure what I was afraid of. It was a unique experience, you wandered from room to room as the doors automatically opened for you and then people jumped out and scared you in French.

We then headed up to the castle and did the tour. We learned a lot about Carcassonne and the castle. Some highlights. The town is supposedly named after Mme. Carcass. When the town was under siege, after several months of siege she had the bright idea to have a pig killed in view of the attackers (under the command of a french king). The attackers then concluded that if they were killing pigs for no good reason, then they must have lots of food and could hold out for months, so they retreated. As they left, Mme Carcassonne had all the bells in the city rung, and one of the retreating warriors said that "Mmm Carcass sonne". Sonne means rings. The tour also explained the winds, the cold one that we experienced while we were there is called the "cers". The town was restored beginning in the 19th century. The towers on the wall are from several different time periods, including some Roman towers, which are "u" shaped. While it was in operation, the castle would have had wooden walkways built, so there were a couple of these walkways built so that we could see what they were like. They had slits in the floor, called murder holes, where the defending soldiers could throw object like stones or arrows at attackers making there way forward. Apparently, nobody ever threw boiling oil or water - this is just a myth - as oil and water were just too precious. It was an interesting tour, but walking along the top of the castle was cold!

After we were done in the castle, we also went to the the church in La Cite, formerly a cathedral, the Cathedral de St. Nazaire. It was much smaller than the cathedral in Toulouse. But it had very nice stained glass. The old part of the cathedral was freezing! The walls were several feet thick, and that seemed to hold in the cold for us. We wanted to visit the hotel de la Cite, the fancy hotel there, which we heard was beautiful. However, it was actually closed until March 6th, so we didn't get to see it.

That night, we ate dinner in a little restaurant in La Cite. It was in a most interesting building. The bathroom was very bizarre, very low ceiling and very tiny. I don't believe it would have met anyone's ADA requirements. We ordered steak, which was cooked on a wood fire in the dining room. There was live music, mostly Spanish singers and guitar players. Our waitress was a very friendly Scottish woman from Glasgow. All in all, it was one of our best meals in France.

Trip to Ireland and France, Day 6, Tuesday February 17th

Before we came on our trip, Aisling discovered that my favorite rock band, Oasis, was performing in Toulouse while we were in France. Toulouse is only about an hour from Carcassonne so we decided to buy tickets and head to the concert. Carcassonne is small, so a car is unnecessary, but for the trip to Toulouse we rented a car for the day. Gordon and I walked over the the train station (La Gare) in Ville Basse and rented a Peugeot. So after getting used to driving on the left in Ireland, Gordon had to switch to driving on the right again, although with roundabouts! The walk to La Gare was pretty fun as we got more of a sense of what the Ville Basse was like, the churches, shopping etc. We did stop in a chocolatier and buy some chocolate snacks!

We headed back to the hotel and picked up Nan, Nana and Aisling. The plan was to drive to Toulouse, do some sightseeing, drop Nan and Nana off at a restaurant while Gordon, Aisling and I headed to the concert. However, we decided to make a couple of stops on the way (okay, slightly out of the way) to Toulouse. Carcassonne is in an area of France known as "cathar country". Apparently, the Cathars were a religious group persecuted by French catholics in the 12th and 13th centuries. So all the towns have significant Cathar history, including churches, castles etc. There are so many towns to pick from and sights to see, it's hard to choose where to go! But we decided to go to a town called Lastours, which is the home to the remains for four castles, built up very high on ridges and mountains in the Black Mountains for protection. Lastours apparently welcomed the Cathars and paid for this later when the French kings destroyed the castles.

It took us a little while to get our directions straight, but once we were out of Carcassonne on the way to Lastours it was a very nice drive on older French roads, very picturesque. It didn't take long to get to Lastours, a very pretty little town. One of the ruined castles was visible from the road. We followed the road to try to get up to the castles, however, that's not possible, so we turned around and came back to the town. It's very lovely, small with a river running through it and lovely old buildings. It's in a valley with the castles looking down on it. We stopped for lunch in a friendly little restaurant with great food. By this time we've gotten totally used to "le menu" the three course meal, with a glass of wine. After lunch, we headed up to the viewpoint, or the belvedere, where there's a fabulous view of the castles. It was fabulous. So we took some photos and then headed out of Lastours, back down the French country road to the motorway.

We decided to stop on the way at a little winery, Salitis. We pulled in and it said they were "ouvert" but it seemed pretty deserted. The sign said ring the bell and we'll come out. So we did, and out came the owner of the winery, a french woman. She brought us into the tasting room, which was very informal, and she spent a great deal of time talking to Nan and Gordon about the winery. Apparently, it's been in her family for four generations, and all the owners are women. She gave us several types of wine to taste - Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, merlot and dessert wine - and even Aisling got to taste. We bought four bottles of wine, none of them over 7 euros, and headed on our way to Toulouse.

Before we left California, I had printed a google map directing us from Carcassonne to the venue of the Oasis concert, Le Zenith, in Toulouse. I had intended to buy a map of Toulouse before we headed there, but I was unable to find one in Dublin or Carcassonne. We wanted to stop at some of the sights of Toulouse and needed a map for that, but we headed toward Le Zenith and figured we'd just get one there. So off we went, and followed the google map. Unfortunately, Le Zenith is near the Toulouse airport, in a fairly industrial neighborhood so we were a little concerned about finding a place for Nan and Nana, who somehow had now given themselves the nickname "the wrinklies". So we drove around a little bit, and finally found a store. I went in and in my very bad accent asked for a map of Toulouse. The guy went behind the counter, dug in a drawer and handed me a map, which he said was a little out of date and so he gave it to me as a gift. Who says the French are unfriendly? He was delightful. I studied the map, and figured out where the big cathedral, St. Etienne, was, and we headed toward it. We headed across a lovely bridge, Pont St. Michel, along a big boulevard toward "le grande rond" (the big roundabout), which was big, and we parked near St. Etienne. This was clearly the nicer part of Toulouse - fancy shops, nice bars and restaurants, and of course the cathedral. St. Etienne is a 12th and 13th century cathedral. It's quite large, beautiful stained glass, lots of ornate side altars and a huge organ. The city of Toulouse in that area is very beautiful, very attractive architecture and cute little windy streets. We toured the cathedral, walked the area, and set the wrinklies up in a coffee shop, found a restaurant for them for dinner, and a bar for after dinner, and then we headed to the concert.

We drove over to Le Zenith and parked in the lot, which was free! We then decided to eat at a food truck, where they were grilling sausages and burgers. I ordered a "burger americain". It was a baguette, with the burger cut in half and put in there like a sandwich, with chips (french fries) on top! The burger may have seen the grill for about 30 seconds or so. It was definitely rare! We then went on into Le Zenith. It was open seating, so we found a good spot and waited for the show. The opening band, Three Piece from Liverpool, was sort of boring. But then Oasis came on, and they were fabulous. They played lots of my favorites and they were really great.

After the show, we headed back over to the center of Toulouse to meet up with the wrinklies. I was a little worried about leaving them, but I needn't have been worried. We found them in a bar. Apparently, they had had a couple of gin and tonics, a half bottle of wine with dinner and two aneracs (a type of brandy) and were having a grand old time. So we more or less poured them into the car and drove back to Carcassonne.

Trip to Ireland & France, Day 5, Monday February 16th

This was the beginning of our France trip, so the group of us - Nan, Nana, Gordon, Aisling and me - headed off early to Dublin Airport for our flight to Carcassonne on the very no-frills airline, Ryanair. We obeyed their very specific rules about the dimensions of our single carry-on bag. The flight was full but went smoothly and we arrived in Carcassonne on time. On our descent, we got a fabulous view of Carcassonne. This is the oldest medieval walled city in Europe, restored in the 19th century, and it looks magnificant from the air. When we got off the plane, I think the first thing we noticed was that it was much colder than we anticipated. I think temperature wise, it was okay, but there was an extremely cold wind. This is because Carcassonne is in a valley in between the Pyrenees and the Black Mountains and it's sort of a wind tunnel.

We took a shuttle to our hotel, the Citea Carcassonne. It's an "aparthotel" meaning the rooms are meant to be more like apartments and we were really pleased. The rooms had large living areas and very well-equipped kitchens. Carcassonne is divided into two distinct towns, the old medieval city, called La Cite, and the newer city, called Ville Basse. They're spearated by the Aude river. Our hotel was on the La Cite side of the river, just outside the walls, and close to the older bridge, Pont Vieux, which is a walking bridge only. So once we were settled we decided to head out for some lunch. We headed across the Pont Vieux to Ville Basse. The views of La Cite from Pont Vieux are fabulous, so we took lots of photos. But we really felt the wind on the bridge and we were pretty much freezing to death.

Of course, it was about two by then, and we forgot that many French establishments serve lunch, then close for a few hours before opening again for dinner. So we weren't having a lot of luck finding something, until we were directed to a restauranct called La Salle du Dome near and old dome. That restaurant is open "toute l'heures". They were only serving one dish - Cassoulet, a local speciality. It's a stew made of duck, sausage and white beans, and given how cold we were and how warm and tasty it was, it was perfect.

After lunch we headed back across the Pont Vieux to La Cite. La Cite is on the top of a hill and it's a pretty steep walk. We weren't sure that the mothers were going to make it! But somehow they did. We came in through the Norbonne gate. It is very touristy, full of little shops catering to tourists, but at this time of year, there aren't so many tourists, so it felt fine. Even with the commercialism, it is an amazing place. The city walls, the fifty plus towers on the walls, the little cobbled streets, and the quaint buildings are all very nice. We just wandered around La Cite and didn't visit the castle of the church. We stopped for coffee and crepes in one of the many little establishments before heading back to the room. We stopped on the way back at a little grocery and at a boulangerie and bought lots of food including cheese, pate, baguettes, wine, meats and coffee for the morning. We spent the evening playing cards and snacking and drinking wine. It was great!

After we were done snacking, Gordon and I went out for an evening walk. La Cite is lit up at night, and it looks beautiful. We also found an easier way into La Cite from our hotel and we walked around the wall and battlements. There is a fabulous view of the Ville Basse and the rest of Carcassonne from La Cite. Some of the restaurants were still open, we could hear the music coming from them. Other than that, it wasn't that lively, probably because of the time of year, so it was easy for Gordon and me to just wander around. It was cold, but it is definitely worth walking around La Cite at night.

Trip to Ireland & France, Day 4, Sunday February 15th

Most of Sunday was spent getting ready for our trip to Carcassonne in France, although Aisling managed to get her cousin Sarah to take her shopping to the Pennys in Swords, where she bought three pairs of shoes at three euros each. We also went to lunch at Bewley's hotel near the airport. I used to work for Bewley's cafe in the center of Dublin when I was a student, and the menu has changed a little. But as always, there is tea. Most of my family went to lunch, so we werer a group of 15 or so. After lunch Gordon and I went over to Paula and Hubert's where Gordon got to ride Hubert's honda shadow motorcycle, which apparently came from Sacramento! I think he managed to stay on the left side of the road.

Sunday evening, we played cards again and then Gordon and I went out for a little while to a local pub, the Sheaf o' Wheat. There was "live" music. Two guys with guitars and a backing track. Of course, Irish people will dance to any sort of music, so there was much dancing. Gordon got to observe the Irish phenomenen of two men dancing together. That's perfectly acceptable in a straight establishment, after all, it's only dancing. On the way home, we stopped at a local chipper so that Gordon could experience post-pub Irish cuisine. I had a spiceburger, which is a burger made primarily of breadcrumbs as far as I can tell (I'm not saying there's no meat, there just isn't much) and various spices. It's then deep-fried. I love them! Gordon had a battered sausage, which is a fully-cooked Irish pork sausage dipped in a flour batter and then deep-fried. Yum!

Trip to Ireland and France, Day 3, Saturday February 14th

Thankfully, Gordon was feeling much better on Saturday, so the four of us - me, Gordon, Aisling and Nan - headed up to a beautiful place in the Wicklow mountains, Glendalough. We met Orla, Joe and the kids, Colm and Daniel, up there.

This was Gordon's first long drive since we got to Ireland. He did well with driving on the left, and with the roundabouts. There are lots of motorways in Ireland that have been built recently, so it makes driving out of Dublin much easier. We took the M50 motorway, which is actually a toll road, into County Wicklow, and then got off onto older country roads close to Glendalough. We drove through two little towns, Lara and Roundwood. We stopped in Lara and picked up some lunch in the grocery store. Gordon and I had the Irish culinary treat, a sausage roll. Nan bought a little bottle of wine to eat with lunch, which she proceeded to open in the car, which is illegal even in Ireland. We headed up to Glendalough and parked, and waited for Orla and Joe.

Glendalough, which translated from Ireland means "glen of the two lakes" is an old monk "city" in the Wicklow mountains. It's a great spot as it is both naturally beautiful being relatively high up in the Wicklow mountains and it has the two beautiful lakes, and it is historically interesting as it has churches, cemeteries and a round tower, which date from the 11th century on. Also, there was actually snow on the mountains, which is quite unusual in Ireland, as we get very little snow, and our higher elevations aren't actually that high (under 2000 feet in the Wicklow mountains, for example). We walked along the trails, and first visited the cemetery, church and round tower. It is fascinating looking at old gravestones, and many of these dated back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Naturally, some were pretty weatherbeaten, but we could read the inscriptions on many. The Round Tower is interesting too. The door is about 15-20 feet off the ground, and that serves two purposes. First, the monks stored treasures in the Round Tower, so it was harder for local people to break in and steal things if the tower itself was pretty inaccessible. Secondly, if they were attacked by invaders, the monks would climb the ladded up to the door, then pull it up and try to wait out the invaders.

The two lakes are very lovely, and the trails around them are very nice, with some small waterfalls. There's a larger waterfall on the opposite side of the upper lake, but that's quite a hike and with all the kids, we just couldn't take it on. But we enjoyed the scenery on our walk . The river was flowing pretty fast, probably due to the snow, and Aisling enjoyed leaning over and drinking some of the very clear water from it.

When we were finished at Glendalough, we headed back to Roundwood and had lunch/dinner at the Roundwood Inn. It was very good, Gordon had venison and Aisling had duck. We didn't see Bono there, however (apparently he's a regular). We headed home, and Aisling spent the night with her cousins, while Gordon and I went to visit my sister Paula and her husband Hubert. Paula's mother-in-law, Breda, who is quite a character, was there, and regaled us with stories from her past, claiming to be related to the well-known Irish rebel, Harry Boland. (google him)

Trip to Ireland and France, Day 2, Friday February 13th

Gordon was still sick on Friday and not really able to do much. However, Nan, Aisling and I took the bus into town to wander around and go shopping. Aisling loves to go upstairs on the bus when she's in Ireland, so of course we did so. When we got into town, we were hungry so we went and had lunch at the Kylemore. As usual in Ireland, we drink tons of tea, and we continued with that tradition at the Kylemore. We shopped in Penny's, Ireland's cheap store. Aisling loves cheap stores. While we were in Penny's some local people heard Nan's accent, and stopped her to tell her how much they love Barack Obama. We also stopped at a bookstore called Eason's (the best in Dublin) and a second hand bookstore. We then walked along the river Liffey along the quays. We crossed over the river on the ha'penny bridge and went to Templebar, the area crammed with bars and restaurants. There was nothing in that area when I was young and living in Ireland and now it's a really lively area, but it's expensive. We had coffee and snacks and then headed back over to the bus stop to go home. We crossed O'Connell bridge, the busiest bridge in Dublin. Dublin has a lot of statues, and at the end of O'Connell Bridge, there is a statue of Daniel O'Connell. Daniel's head appears to be very popular with the seagulls. There was constantly a seagull on his head, which Nan really enjoyed, and photographed repeatedly. Aisling really enjoyed one of the ads on the side of the bus. It was for her favorite TV program, House, and the ad said "Meet the doctor whose a pain in the ass". She thought that was hysterical.

We just spent the night at home, playing cards, Aisling's favorite activity. We stayed up a little later, apparently getting more onto Irish time.

Trip to Ireland and France, Day 1, Weds & Thurs Feb 11 & 12

We got started on our trip by flying directly from San Francisco to Dublin. This is the first time we've done this, in the past, there wasn't a direct flight and we had to go through LA. This is so much better! One clear sign of the recession was how quiet the international terminal felt (although admittedly this was a Wednesday, probably a slower day). Another sign is that our flight was nowhere near full. We walked right up to the checkin, no line at all. We ate lunch at SFO, Aisling and Gordon played chess in the airport, and then we headed to the plane. It was an uneventful flight. The extra seats meant that Aisling could lie down and get some sleep. I didn't sleep much, instead suffered through three of the worst in-flight movies ever, Nights in Rodanthe, Igor and City of Embers.

We left on Wednesday, lost eight hours and arrived on Thursday morning. It was grey and chilly. My sister Orla met us at the airport. She took Nan an Aisling and much of the luggage to my mother's while Gordon and I went to get the rental car from Hertz. What an ordeal that was. I look at the nametag of the person who was helping us, a very nice guy, but I was a little perturbed that his name was "trainee". Slowly, he got us our car and walked us out there, when he noticed a wire hanging from underneath the car. He tried to re-connect and couldn't and got someone else to try to reconnect it also, but he couldn't. So he went in to get us a new car, which seemed to take a while. When he finally brought us our paperwork, I noticed that the price for the new car was about 1,000 euros higher than what I paid for the first one. Not okay! So we went in to get that fixed. Poor little trainee guy couldn't fix it, so he called his supervisor, who also couldn't fix it, and eventually it had to be fixed by the manager (or at least some guy in a suit). So after an hour or so, we finally got our car, a Toyota Avensia (sort of like a Camry) and headed to my mother's house. I think they thought we just got lost on the way as it took us so long.

When we got there, we met my newest nephew, Daniel, Orla's son. He was very cute and he likes the same games that my grandson Aidan likes, so he seemed to warm up to us right away. We also met my newest great-nephew, Lewie, the son of my niece Hannah. He warmed up to Aisling very fast because she plays football (or soccer for Americans). We decided to have a fairly unambitious day. Gordon and I took Aisling down to the Omniplex, where she and I skated on their indoor ice rink, quite possibly the worst ice rink I've ever been on! But it was good to get up and move around. We headed home, ordered Chinese takeout for dinner and went to bed early. Unfortunately, it was an eventful night, as the food, or maybe the travel, didn't seem to agree with Gordon and he was sick for most of the night.

My upcoming trip

Starting this week, I have a crazy travel schedule between vacation and work. Tomorrow I'll be driving from the bay area to to Sacramento, then drive back to the bay area on Tuesday. On Wednesday, we'll fly from San Francisco to Dublin, then later on we'll fly from Dublin to Carcassonne, then Carcassonne to Dublin, then Dublin to San Francisco, then I'll cross the bay and fly from Oakland to Los Angeles the same day. The following day, I'll fly back to Sacramento and the day after that, I drive back to the bay area. Then I'll probably collapse for the weekend!

So probably no blog posts while I'm gone but lots when I get back!