Return to the (Rainy) Pacific Northwest
Note: You may think you've already read this post, but it's been updated with new content. Scroll down to see the new stuff.
Hey folks
Day 1 - Skerries and a few from Dublin
Day 2 - All Dublin All The Time (including Trish's famous "Got Guinness?" photo!)
Day 3 - Our Room at the Ballykine House (the 200 year old lodge we stayed at)
Day 4 - The Grounds of the Ballykine House
Day 4 - Ashford Castle
From Ireland we headed to Germany, flying from Dublin to Frankfurt Hahn airport. We picked up our rental car in Hahn (a very fancy Volkswagon Passat) and discovered two things - One, I couldn't figure out how to start the car. Two, my German wasn't as good as I thought it was, as I had to stumble through asking the gents in the rental office how to start the car.
After that little episode we drove to Heidelberg, and our hotel the Backmulde Gasthaus - which has been retrofitted from an old building in the old-town. The place was great, and they treated us really well.
Click here for photos of the Gasthaus.
Being in Germany was sort of like coming back home... Trish and both lived there at different points in our lives (She was there twice while in the army, and I lived there as a child when my father was in the army). The food, the people, the rhythm of the country were like stepping back into our pasts.
Heidelberg is a wonderful city to visit, too. The University, started in the 1300's, is still an active institution of learning so the historic streets are swarmed with students. The architecture is, of course, astounding. From the cathedral to the castle overlooking the city the past is alive all around you while you wander those cobblestone streets.
Click here for photos of Heidelberg
Most of days in Heidelberg were spent in cafes or wandering the streets. It was colder there than in Ireland, so we had to get Trish some cold-weather gear. We also ate and ate and ate (and of course, the beer was spectacular).
We climbed the very steep hill to the castle on our last day in town. Dating back to the 14th century, it's an amazing area. Some parts of the castle have succumbed to the ravages of time, but it was a great afternoon nonetheless (and a great view of the city from up on the hill).
Click here for photos from Heidelberg Castle
The next day it was off to Greece. We flew into Athens International Airport in the afternoon and took the Metro to Omonia Square, where our hotel was located. Once we got settled in, we decided to take a little stroll around the hotel and find something to eat.
Boy, Mr. Ruiz, you were so right about that neighborhood... darkness had fallen, and when we stepped out of the hotel Peireos Street was just as busy as when we'd entered. We turned a corner off that main street, though... and we plunged into an alleyway set from a Brian DePalma movie. Barrels were on fire, people were sitting on shadowy curbs snorting drugs and arguing with each other, and we were definitely the outsiders as we walked down the street. We kept our eyes straight ahead and made it back to Peiros, then slunk back to our hotel and had dinner in its restaurant. A little shaken, Trish said it best when she said that we were "out of our league" after dark in Athens.
The next morning we caught a ferry to the island of Paros, where we were slated to spend the next week. The ferry was huge - with plush seats and large screen televisions in the main cabin. After about four hours we were on Paros, enjoying a glass of Ouzo in the sun and catching the bus (that ran about once an hour) to the villiage of Drios where our apartment for the week was located.
Anezina Villiage, where we stayed, is a lovely little complex of small, traditional Greek houses. The apartment (house, really) that we stayed in was one of the first constructed; the back wall of the house is 300 years old, and was the foundation (if you will) for the entire condo villiage. They built the complex around that old wall.
That evening, after getting settled in and buying some groceries for the week, we walked down to a pebble beach close to the villiage. It was trippy to sit on these tiny stones (which sounded like skeleton bones from Jason and the Argonauts as the waves carried them down the shore) and think that we were sitting in the same spot that Aristotle, Socrates and Euripedes might have sat while they composed some of the great Greek plays we have today.
Click here for photos of the ferry trip and our first day in Drios
The next day we pretty much just laid around... in fact, that's what we did during most of our time on Paros. While our other destinations hadn't been full of sights to see or things to do (well, they were, but we didn't see or do a lot of them), the pace Paros really lent itself to relaxing, sleeping in, reading in the sun (or, more often, in the shade), and generally loafing around. The back porch of our little house was especially comfortable, with Olive trees outside the fence, a little table and chairs, and the neighborhood cats wandering around checking us out.
Click here for photos of the cats and our lazy hideaway
Ok, so we didn't just laze around (though that was most of the week). One day we took a trip on the bus to Parakia, the island's port city, and wandered its streets. We stopped at the second oldest church in Greece, the Church of 1000 Doors, and tried to get into the archaeological museum (but it was closed that day).
Click here for photos of our trip to Parakia
Our most ambitious day-trip involved a ferry ride from the port city of Nassos
Click here for photos of Nassos
to the sacred island of Delos, the traditional birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. The island is one big archaeological site - inhabited since before the 6th century BC, there's an entire city that's been uncovered on the site including houses, temples, and (the "main event" for Trish and I) a theatre that was the core of one of the major districts in the town.
Click here for photos from Delos
After Delos we cruised (over some very windy and choppy water) to the island of Mykonos. Mykonos Island may be a lovely place; Mykonos town, the port city, was one big tourist trap. It was still nice to walk around and snap some photos... but if you weren't looking to drop a couple hundred dollars on tourist junk the stop got old pretty fast (our understanding is that Mykonos town is a great night-life center, though... if we were looking to go to clubs that would be the destination to head for).
Click here for photos from Mykonos
But mostly we just lazed around and didn't flush toilet paper (important fact for future American tourists - the Greeks NEVER flush toilet paper down the toilet. Their plumbing can't handle it, so they throw the used toilet paper in little baskets by the toilet.)
It was hard to leave such an idyllic life, but eventually we had to move on. Our last day on Paros the clouds started to roll in - the first we'd seen the entire week) and the wind picked up to gale force. We rented a car to drive back to Parakia, and along the way we stopped at a few of the road-side monuments like a "Tower from the Hellenic Period" (basically a circle of stones) and a Mycenaean Acropolis. The Acropolis was a bit harrowing for Trish - there was no maintained walkway up to the hill the Acropolis was on. Instead, there arrows spray-painted onto the side of rocks leading up a hillside. I left her at the foot of the hill while I climbed the hill... and she waited. And waited. And waited. After a few minutes, she thought "What am I doing? What if he's broken his leg up there? I have no idea where he is or how I'd get him down and our ferry leaves in two hours!!!"
Naturally, I didn't die on the trip up the mountain. She resolved after that, however, not to let me go climbing a hill in a foreign country where she didn't speak the language again... at least, not a hill where she couldn't see me go all the way up.
Click here for photos of our last day in Paros and the Mycenaean Acropolis (not as impressive as it sounds)
We got back to Athens late that evening and stayed in the Baby Grand Hotel, down the street from the Acropol Hotel that we stayed in our first night there (we'd learned our lesson. No after-dark excursions that night).
We had to catch an afternoon flight the next day, but we hadn't seen the Acropolis or the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens. After we checked out of our hotel we set out to find those two must-see monuments (thankfully the hotel let us leave our luggage in their lobby so we weren't hauling it around Athens). We found the Acropolis all right... or rather the foot of the hill it rests on. Looking at the climb and taking into account the time it would take us to get to the airport and board our flight, we chose not to head all the way up the hill - we would have had time to climb the hill, take a look, and then run (or more likely, roll) back down to the hotel to get our luggage and get to the airport. It would have been nice... but maybe next time.
Click here for photos of what we did see in Athens
Time for our final leg of the trip - Florence Italy. We were late flying into Milan Airport, and it was already after dark when we picked up our rental car (a sporty little Fiat - I still had trouble figuring out how to start this one, but I didn't have to ask this time). After driving down the Autostrada for about 4 hours at around 100 miles per hour, we finally pulled into our B&B in Florence at 1am.
After the leisurely pace of Paros, it was hard to get-up-and-go in Florence... we still got out and saw a lot of the sights (the Duomo, the Academia and Michelangelo's David)... but we were pretty much ready to come home by that time. We did shoot one day's worth of photos in Florence, but most of our time was spent walking the streets, soaking up the architecture and public art, and thinking about how nice it would be to sleep in our own bed.
Click here for photos from Florence
Don't get me wrong - Florence was a wonderful place and our four days there were lovely... we ate some really fine food, we saw some amazing things, and we bought some fantastic leather (wait until you see Trish's boots!!). The people we met were fantastic, and being surrounded by all that Renaissance statuary and architecture was a dream come true... but we were still in the Paros rhythm, and I think we weren't ready to go-go-go in a way that would have shown us a lot more of Florence.
Then again, we made decision at the start of this trip that we weren't going to try to go-go-go, but instead were going to "be" and just enjoy and relax. So, in many ways, it worked out for the best.
After four days in Florence, we headed back to Milan's Bergamo Airport for the penultimate flight of the trip. We flew back into Dublin and stayed the night at a hotel close to the airport, and then it was back into a plane for the final flights (one to Chicago, four hour lay-over, and then from Chicago back to Portland).
And here we are... starting life at home, it seems, almost anew.
So, that's the re-cap. Hope you enjoyed this (abrieviated) trip-by-proxy and the photos that went with it. Don't worry, when next we meet in person, I'll be sure to go into more detail.
Hope you're all doing well...
-Harold
Hey folks
And, after a month of travel to exotic lands, we're back! As you can see, we didn't do so well at keeping up on the blogging on the road... after a while we were more interested in just "being" in the various countries we visited, rather than "doing."
I thought I'd take a moment this morning, though (in between emails and phone calls - it's nice to be wanted!) to catch you up on the rest of the trip since we stopped our daily blogging.
First off, the photos. I've uploaded some selected shots to our Photobucket account. We took many many more, but I don't want to be one of those guys who bores all his friends with every out of focus shot from his vacation.
Photobucket doesn't have the prettiest interface. When you click the link below, you'll need to click the "Sub-Album" links near the top of the page to see the individual photos (be aware that there are sub-albums within the sub-albums, so keep an eye out for them). To go back to the main directory, click the links at the top of the page that say "Trishandharold -> Europe 2007 -> etc..."
So, we left off on the last post with our departure from Ireland - or at least, with the evening before our departure. As sure as we were to write about our Irish experiences, though, we weren't as good about uploading photos. Before we leave Ireland for good, feel free to check out these photos:Day 1 - Skerries and a few from Dublin
Day 2 - All Dublin All The Time (including Trish's famous "Got Guinness?" photo!)
Day 3 - Our Room at the Ballykine House (the 200 year old lodge we stayed at)
Day 4 - The Grounds of the Ballykine House
Day 4 - Ashford Castle
From Ireland we headed to Germany, flying from Dublin to Frankfurt Hahn airport. We picked up our rental car in Hahn (a very fancy Volkswagon Passat) and discovered two things - One, I couldn't figure out how to start the car. Two, my German wasn't as good as I thought it was, as I had to stumble through asking the gents in the rental office how to start the car.
After that little episode we drove to Heidelberg, and our hotel the Backmulde Gasthaus - which has been retrofitted from an old building in the old-town. The place was great, and they treated us really well.
Click here for photos of the Gasthaus.
Being in Germany was sort of like coming back home... Trish and both lived there at different points in our lives (She was there twice while in the army, and I lived there as a child when my father was in the army). The food, the people, the rhythm of the country were like stepping back into our pasts.
Heidelberg is a wonderful city to visit, too. The University, started in the 1300's, is still an active institution of learning so the historic streets are swarmed with students. The architecture is, of course, astounding. From the cathedral to the castle overlooking the city the past is alive all around you while you wander those cobblestone streets.
Click here for photos of Heidelberg
Most of days in Heidelberg were spent in cafes or wandering the streets. It was colder there than in Ireland, so we had to get Trish some cold-weather gear. We also ate and ate and ate (and of course, the beer was spectacular).
We climbed the very steep hill to the castle on our last day in town. Dating back to the 14th century, it's an amazing area. Some parts of the castle have succumbed to the ravages of time, but it was a great afternoon nonetheless (and a great view of the city from up on the hill).
Click here for photos from Heidelberg Castle
The next day it was off to Greece. We flew into Athens International Airport in the afternoon and took the Metro to Omonia Square, where our hotel was located. Once we got settled in, we decided to take a little stroll around the hotel and find something to eat.
Boy, Mr. Ruiz, you were so right about that neighborhood... darkness had fallen, and when we stepped out of the hotel Peireos Street was just as busy as when we'd entered. We turned a corner off that main street, though... and we plunged into an alleyway set from a Brian DePalma movie. Barrels were on fire, people were sitting on shadowy curbs snorting drugs and arguing with each other, and we were definitely the outsiders as we walked down the street. We kept our eyes straight ahead and made it back to Peiros, then slunk back to our hotel and had dinner in its restaurant. A little shaken, Trish said it best when she said that we were "out of our league" after dark in Athens.
The next morning we caught a ferry to the island of Paros, where we were slated to spend the next week. The ferry was huge - with plush seats and large screen televisions in the main cabin. After about four hours we were on Paros, enjoying a glass of Ouzo in the sun and catching the bus (that ran about once an hour) to the villiage of Drios where our apartment for the week was located.
Anezina Villiage, where we stayed, is a lovely little complex of small, traditional Greek houses. The apartment (house, really) that we stayed in was one of the first constructed; the back wall of the house is 300 years old, and was the foundation (if you will) for the entire condo villiage. They built the complex around that old wall.
That evening, after getting settled in and buying some groceries for the week, we walked down to a pebble beach close to the villiage. It was trippy to sit on these tiny stones (which sounded like skeleton bones from Jason and the Argonauts as the waves carried them down the shore) and think that we were sitting in the same spot that Aristotle, Socrates and Euripedes might have sat while they composed some of the great Greek plays we have today.
Click here for photos of the ferry trip and our first day in Drios
The next day we pretty much just laid around... in fact, that's what we did during most of our time on Paros. While our other destinations hadn't been full of sights to see or things to do (well, they were, but we didn't see or do a lot of them), the pace Paros really lent itself to relaxing, sleeping in, reading in the sun (or, more often, in the shade), and generally loafing around. The back porch of our little house was especially comfortable, with Olive trees outside the fence, a little table and chairs, and the neighborhood cats wandering around checking us out.
Click here for photos of the cats and our lazy hideaway
Ok, so we didn't just laze around (though that was most of the week). One day we took a trip on the bus to Parakia, the island's port city, and wandered its streets. We stopped at the second oldest church in Greece, the Church of 1000 Doors, and tried to get into the archaeological museum (but it was closed that day).
Click here for photos of our trip to Parakia
Our most ambitious day-trip involved a ferry ride from the port city of Nassos
Click here for photos of Nassos
to the sacred island of Delos, the traditional birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. The island is one big archaeological site - inhabited since before the 6th century BC, there's an entire city that's been uncovered on the site including houses, temples, and (the "main event" for Trish and I) a theatre that was the core of one of the major districts in the town.
Click here for photos from Delos
After Delos we cruised (over some very windy and choppy water) to the island of Mykonos. Mykonos Island may be a lovely place; Mykonos town, the port city, was one big tourist trap. It was still nice to walk around and snap some photos... but if you weren't looking to drop a couple hundred dollars on tourist junk the stop got old pretty fast (our understanding is that Mykonos town is a great night-life center, though... if we were looking to go to clubs that would be the destination to head for).
Click here for photos from Mykonos
But mostly we just lazed around and didn't flush toilet paper (important fact for future American tourists - the Greeks NEVER flush toilet paper down the toilet. Their plumbing can't handle it, so they throw the used toilet paper in little baskets by the toilet.)
It was hard to leave such an idyllic life, but eventually we had to move on. Our last day on Paros the clouds started to roll in - the first we'd seen the entire week) and the wind picked up to gale force. We rented a car to drive back to Parakia, and along the way we stopped at a few of the road-side monuments like a "Tower from the Hellenic Period" (basically a circle of stones) and a Mycenaean Acropolis. The Acropolis was a bit harrowing for Trish - there was no maintained walkway up to the hill the Acropolis was on. Instead, there arrows spray-painted onto the side of rocks leading up a hillside. I left her at the foot of the hill while I climbed the hill... and she waited. And waited. And waited. After a few minutes, she thought "What am I doing? What if he's broken his leg up there? I have no idea where he is or how I'd get him down and our ferry leaves in two hours!!!"
Naturally, I didn't die on the trip up the mountain. She resolved after that, however, not to let me go climbing a hill in a foreign country where she didn't speak the language again... at least, not a hill where she couldn't see me go all the way up.
Click here for photos of our last day in Paros and the Mycenaean Acropolis (not as impressive as it sounds)
We got back to Athens late that evening and stayed in the Baby Grand Hotel, down the street from the Acropol Hotel that we stayed in our first night there (we'd learned our lesson. No after-dark excursions that night).
We had to catch an afternoon flight the next day, but we hadn't seen the Acropolis or the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens. After we checked out of our hotel we set out to find those two must-see monuments (thankfully the hotel let us leave our luggage in their lobby so we weren't hauling it around Athens). We found the Acropolis all right... or rather the foot of the hill it rests on. Looking at the climb and taking into account the time it would take us to get to the airport and board our flight, we chose not to head all the way up the hill - we would have had time to climb the hill, take a look, and then run (or more likely, roll) back down to the hotel to get our luggage and get to the airport. It would have been nice... but maybe next time.
Click here for photos of what we did see in Athens
Time for our final leg of the trip - Florence Italy. We were late flying into Milan Airport, and it was already after dark when we picked up our rental car (a sporty little Fiat - I still had trouble figuring out how to start this one, but I didn't have to ask this time). After driving down the Autostrada for about 4 hours at around 100 miles per hour, we finally pulled into our B&B in Florence at 1am.
After the leisurely pace of Paros, it was hard to get-up-and-go in Florence... we still got out and saw a lot of the sights (the Duomo, the Academia and Michelangelo's David)... but we were pretty much ready to come home by that time. We did shoot one day's worth of photos in Florence, but most of our time was spent walking the streets, soaking up the architecture and public art, and thinking about how nice it would be to sleep in our own bed.
Click here for photos from Florence
Don't get me wrong - Florence was a wonderful place and our four days there were lovely... we ate some really fine food, we saw some amazing things, and we bought some fantastic leather (wait until you see Trish's boots!!). The people we met were fantastic, and being surrounded by all that Renaissance statuary and architecture was a dream come true... but we were still in the Paros rhythm, and I think we weren't ready to go-go-go in a way that would have shown us a lot more of Florence.
Then again, we made decision at the start of this trip that we weren't going to try to go-go-go, but instead were going to "be" and just enjoy and relax. So, in many ways, it worked out for the best.
After four days in Florence, we headed back to Milan's Bergamo Airport for the penultimate flight of the trip. We flew back into Dublin and stayed the night at a hotel close to the airport, and then it was back into a plane for the final flights (one to Chicago, four hour lay-over, and then from Chicago back to Portland).
And here we are... starting life at home, it seems, almost anew.
So, that's the re-cap. Hope you enjoyed this (abrieviated) trip-by-proxy and the photos that went with it. Don't worry, when next we meet in person, I'll be sure to go into more detail.
Hope you're all doing well...
-Harold
posted by Harold Phillips @ 10/01/2007 04:18:00 PM
.gif)
<< Home