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Published: June 26th 2014
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Into Paris out of Dublin - Power Touring.
Writing this high over the Atlantic - flying from Dublin to Miami. A daylight flight, waking at 3am in the airport hotel at Dublin. We are NOT good morning people, but here we are, on our way to Florida, where the temperatures will probably be twice that of Europe! But I digress........
The last ten days have been varied to say the least! We drove to Munster in Germany for the weekend of 14/15th to help Brigitte celebrate her birthday. We were kindly hosted by Rolf and Angela, and had a great suprise to also re-unite with Hans Yurgen, who accompanied us on our day trip to Tangier (Africa) in 2007! We had a wonderful two days of eating, drinking and much laughter - we walked the streets of Munster taking in the sights, ate spargel (white asparagus) - twice, as well as sampling local specialties in many pubs, restaurants and lakeside by the Aasee, and needless to say, didn't sleep much at all! Very thankful for the long daylight hours of summer with much appreciated mild temperatures - no rain apart from a few showers that teased us on a
Breakfast in Munster
Hans Yurgen, Toni, Bridget and Bones. couple of occasions..........
Made a dash back to Biwer in Luxembourg on Monday morning, in time to re-pack, and bid farewell to Tom who took us to the main station to catch the TGV (fast - very fast) train to Paris later in the afternoon. Unfortunately, Nadine had work commitments so we had to send our goodbye hugs home with Tom. Words cannot express our appreciation for the grand time they gave us during the three weeks we were together at their home in Luxembourg, the Isle of Man tour, and our introduction to the French regions of Alsace, Burgundy, Loire Valley and Champagne!
We arrived in Paris during rush hour, and elected to travel by Metro to our B and B close to the Eiffel Tower. Won't do that again - I'm sure the route we took had the most steps of all the underground stations! However, with help for me from several Frenchmen (bless 'em! - they ignored Rosco who had two big bags - I only had one....) we found our accommodation, which had the tiniest lift (even smaller than the loo on this plane!) We ascended one at a time - the
four flights of a spiral staircase were just too daunting with luggage. Our hosts Pauline and Loren had a cosy apartment (word bigger than the space) and we had the lounge as our bedroom. Luckily they both left for work early, as it was like living in a dolls house - very French, with the Eiffel Tower just up the road. Perfect location! Over the next two days, we walked the beautiful city of Paris, as well as taking a 3 hour Segway tour which gave us an overview of the magnificent buildings, statues and atmosphere, riding to the top of the Eiffel Tower (what wonderful views!) cruised the River Seine and climbed the hundreds of steps to the top of the Arc de Triumphe. Hundreds of photos taken, some of which are included here.........
We found a couple of small restaurants that became our favourites, and pretended we were locals.
Happy to move onto Dublin, and relieved that the train strikes didn't extend to the flights being affected, we arrived in Dublin early evening of Wednesday 18th - gaining an hour, which we used up sorting our rental car booking and the navigation system therein,
making it easy to get to our second B and B in the suburb of Ballsbridge. This time, we had a house at our disposal, with a back yard even! Our host Melanie, suggested her 'local', so we walked to The Dropping Well and had our first meal in Dublin, while watching one of the World Cup games.
The next day we drove to the Royal Dublin Society, the venue for the 11th World Floral Art Show, where I took 8 hours to soak up the wonderful floral designs from all round the globe - New Zealand was very well represented, and featured amongst the prizewinners in all the classes entered. Rosco even lasted the whole day as well, which says much!!
Next day we headed south after a quick look at Dublin on the Hop on Hop Off bus - always a great way to get a quick overview of a city. We had no particular plan, just a map and heaps of brochures. Always choosing the roads less travelled, we took the east coast and ended up in the village of Kilmuckridge (truly!) Sean Og's Hotel, where we stayed for two nights - explored
The King and I
The King of Schuetzenfest, thats the TALL Guy Enniscorthy (1798 Rebellion following the French Revolution) and New Ross where we visited a replica of one of the famine emigrant ships, the Dunbrody. President John Kennedy's great grandfather emigrated to the USA from here.
The next two nights saw us based in Kilarney, in a room above a pub in the Main Street, which was great. There is so much accommodation to choose from, but Rosco struck up a conversation (as he does) with one of the stewards at the Floral Art Show, who gave him the contact, so we booked in at Dan Linehan's Pub - it was good to know we had our bed booked, so we could concentrate on seeing the sights. We visited the Waterford Crystal Factory - beautiful creations! Through Cork, onto Tralee and Dingle, circumnavigating the peninsula and the Ring of Kerry in one day. Our memories of Ireland will be fine weather (yes, not a drop of rain to be sure, to be sure.......) lush tree lined roads with branches forming groves to drive through, castles at almost every turn (even a Ross Castle - from Gaelic Rois, meaning promontory!) A beautiful country with rolling countryside, super friendly folk, who tolerated
Rosco's new passion for Guinness - with blackcurrant! Many tourists, with so many languages being spoken - we are truly a global community now.
So, back to the now, we are halfway across the Atlantic, I have killed a couple of hours taking a turn at blogging - trust my ramblings filled in the last ten days. It has been a great adventure, and we are looking forward to catching up with John and Kathy in Fort Lauderdale over the next three days, before heading for more riding with Trapper and Hobby in Lake Wales - watch this space!!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Segway
We've wanted to take one of those tours. Looks fun. Enjoyed your blog.