Blogs from Europe - page 3

We made it back across the English Channel, so we changed times zone. We actually gained an hour last night. That was good because we stayed up late watching horse races – awaiting the Preakness. We wore out at about midnight Central European Daylight Time, so we missed the main race by about an hour. We are sure Elizabeth was watching it and thought it would be fun to watch it with her, but we were “scratched” before the race. This morning, we got up at 8:00 UK time and headed down to the Palm Dining Room to have a leisurely breakfast. Unfortunately, they closed early today because so many people hit the buffet before leaving the ship. So, we had a leisurely breakfast at the buffet instead. We will try another morning and someday will ... read more

This morning, we woke to glorious sunshine. We breakfasted in our room on apple, kiwi fruit and clementines followed by the cakes we purchased yesterday. Mine was an almond croissant and Bernie’s was a blueberry topped cake/tart. We had sealed both up in a ziplock bag straight after we purchased them yesterday morning and they were still good to eat this morning. We hit the road about 9.00am heading south on the N71. At Bandon we turned southwards onto the R603 so that we could pick up the Wild Atlantic Way (R600) again to drive along the coastal road towards Timoleague. We made a few photo stops along the way with the coast looking fantastic with the sky blue and the sun shining. So many fantastic views, so few places to stop! The roads are really ... read more

And we are off! Our next two weeks will be spent sailing on a 33ft sailboat in the Ionian Sea, off the west coast of Greece. This trip is a truly new adventure for us and one that Ken has dreamed of, and I, well, maybe not so much. While I love the water, both living next to it, kayaking, swimming, water skiing, etc I do get very seasick, so boating has not been much of an option. I have a new gadget (for which I will explain later), that is to keep me from feeding the fish last nights dinner. We first made our way to London Gatwick airport where were flying out early on Sunday, which meant we had time to do dinner with my wonderful niece Andrea who lives there, and her equally ... read more

What a day! One to remember. Our destination was to Hintertux about an hour from Mayrhofen but on a steep and winding road. I'm not sure what the significance of Tux is but the name kept cropping up for place names, chalet names, peaks, rivers and alms. On arrival at Hintertux there was a huge carpark so the area was more significant than we expected. Our goal was to take the Seilbahn (gondola) up to the top of the mountains and then visit an Ice cave whilst there. There were three cable cars to take to get to the top and each of the cars deposited skiers who were zooming down a groomed piste from the top down to the finish of snow. That is one huge run. The first stop was at Sommerberg at 2100m, ... read more

We had breakfast in the room since we had an early excursion plus Susan had to get to medical center early to get her stiches out. Our first excursion was the included one that we finally got confirmed on yesterday. The tour drove through the countryside and we saw many sheep and cattle but no trees. The baby lambs were so cute. I could see them jumping and playing. The countryside was very green with rock fences but there were no trees since the winds can get near 100MPH often. The hills had large patches of brown and the guide said that heather grew there in the fall. I can just imagine the blue and purples on the hills. We saw some burial mounds that were several thousand years old and then we came to ... read more