Krakow

Our last city to visit was Krakow. We wanted to visit Krakow four years ago, but didn't get to it. We are really glad we did now as this is a great city that we really enjoyed. We arrived in the afternoon in time to get to the hotel and get out for pierogi dinner. The first place we had read about was not open during July, and the second place was a bit hard to find. But U Babci Maliny was pretty good. A small place where you order at the window and wait in the little upstairs or downstairs for your number. It was pretty tasty, but three plates wasn't enough and we headed back to something we spotted earlier, a summer festival at Mały Rynek square. I asked the girl at the beer tent (as her english was quite good) and it was a food and misc festival that was there all week. Awesome! We ended up here every night! We had pan fried pierogi, sausage, beer, kraut, potatoes, kebabs, and grilled oscypek cheese.

Our first day we scheduled a tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Salt Mines. We knew this would be a long day, but we had a private driver who took care of everything and made it a doable day. We started at Auschwitz for 1.5 hours and then headed to Birkenau for an hour. Our tour guide was from the area and she did a great job taking us through. All I really want to say is everyone needs to visit here. Thoughts of this place are permanently engrained in my head. (Pictures from Auschwitz are here). After these tours, our guide took us to Wieliczka to tour the salt mines. He dropped us next door for lunch (pierogi and a delicious Mocno Dojrzale polish porter) and we started that tour at 5pm. This place is pretty interesting and an UNESCO world heritage site. The miners took a lot of pride in their work and carvings, especially the cathedral! After the main lift breaking and walking out to another lift, we didn't get back to Krakow until 8pm. And guess where we ended up for dinner...

The next day our plans were to talk around Market Square and just take in the sites, and then walk around Kazimierz (Jewish quarter) a bit. We watched the opening of the alter in St. Mary's Basilica and this church was quite interesting. We also visited the little church next door (made from left over bricks from St. Mary's), which contains the tomb of Jakub Wujek, who translated the Bible to polish. I took a quick trip up the Town Hall tower, but the view is obstructed as you can't get outside; you only look through 3 small windows. After eating some food at, guess where, we stopped at the hotel for water and toilets and then walked to Kazimierz. We checked out a couple synagogues and got some ice cream (lody) at the place our guide said was the best in Krakow. The place is possibly called 'Pracownia Cukiernicza Stanisław Sarga'. Lines form in the summer, but our line was only about 5-7 minutes. They use real fruit and it tastes great! For dinner we went to Zapiecek for pierogi. Another great place!

Our last day we went to Wawel Castle. The ticket process is a little cumbersome, but we bought several different tickets and spent the afternoon visiting places. Getting food here is a bit tricky unfortunately. Some of the sites sell out, so don't come up at the end of the day. I think I liked the cathedral best of all, which doesn't sell out at all. The views from the Sandomierska Tower was not that great as you only get to look out a few small windows. We finished our day by walking out through the caves, known as the Dragon's Lair, which lowers you down to the river. At the end once you are outside, there is a stone dragon statue that breathes fire! We finished by going back to Zapiecek and then the food festival again. Then, it was time to catch our night flight back to Dublin.

Krakow was our favorite, and I think Poland is a place we could drive around for a week. Nice people, yummy food, a tough history with resilient people, and beautiful countryside. Also, it is easy on the pocket book!

Pictures from Krakow and the Salt Mines can be found here.

Stockholm

Our second city on holiday was Stockholm, Sweden. We had two full days and our plan was not to run around too much and just enjoy walking around. The first night we arranged to fly in to have time to eat dinner there. We asked for a recommendation at the hotel and ended up at a place that had the food we were looking for, but a bit touristy. The food was ok but the atmosphere was not quite right. We stopped by a bakery/coffee house still serving some dessert and had a little treat.

Our first day, the plan was to tour the City Hall (where the Nobel Prize Banquet is held each year) first. There were some nice views of the city across the islands from there. The tour is pretty average, but some places of the hall are quite interesting. I climbed the tour for more views of the city and it was a good viewpoint. Next we walked toward Kungsträdgården to just walk around the park. Along the way we stopped along the Drottninggatan pedestrian walkway and ate at the Pickwick Irish bar, as they also had some Swedish food. Kacey got a delicious Jansson´s temptation, sliced herring, potatoes & onions baked in cream. We were considering a canal tour and while walking around we read more about it and booked a boat tour of the city for later in the day. We walked around the park a bit enjoying the sites before getting on the boat. The boat tour was good. It was nice to see lots of islands and different parts of the city. We even saw the two beaches they have. Not having done many of these tours before, I learned that I much prefer live guides as opposed to electronic headphone-only guides. After the tour we were going to walk the pedestrian way back toward the hotel and find food along the way. We couldn't find any local cuisine so we ended up at an Italian place for pizza.

Our second day was spent in Gamla Stan, the old town. We started off going to the Cathedral. Then our plan was to visit the different areas of the palace most of the day. We went to the royal chapel, apartments, treasury, Gustav III's Museum of Antiquities, Tre Kronor Museum, and the Royal Armory. We also visited the Royal Coin Cabinet next door. Most of these places were no photo, but there was nothing super special here. It rained a bit while going in the first few places, but we were fine and it stopped by time we were done. We walked toward Stortorget square to find some dinner. We stopped in a bakery and had a delicious hazelnut cream cookie. We ate dinner at De Svarta Fåren and we had pretty good food. I had a moose burger and Kacey's delicious raw spiced salmon with Västerbotten cheese, fennel, red onion, dill, horseradish and Swedish mustard sauce. The kids and Kacey got ice cream afterward at Lejonet & Björnen. We slowly walked back to the hotel along the pedestrian street, and I once again went to the bakery nearby the hotel for my treat.

The next morning we got up for a long bus ride to the far away Skavsta airport to get to Krakow. Stockholm was an ok city. It is pretty in parts, and the food is good if you are lucky enough to find a good place (but we found this was hard), but once again expensive. There are some nice outdoor areas which we didn't have time to visit.

Pictures from Stockholm can be found here.

Copenhagen

For our big summer holiday, we picked three cities to visit. We started first in Copenhagen, which is rated as one of the top cities to visit in Europe. We got a hotel close to the station and Tivoli, which is a decent location. Copenhagen is expensive (worse than Paris I think) so just be prepared if visiting. Everything is about double what it should be.

Our first day there we went to visit Rosenborg Palace. This is a little castle with nice gardens and a treasury in the basement. When we were done, it started hailing and didn't stop for a while. We got quite soaked making our way to some lunch. After struggling to figure out how to spend the rest of the day, the sun had some back out and we dried out a bit. We walked through Nyhavn a bit and made our way to Amalienborg Palace and the Marble Church. We were able to visit Christian VIII's palace, which is a little museum now. The church was different and interesting. We then headed toward Strøget, Europe's longest pedestrian only shopping street. We took in some sites and shops and kept an eye out for dinner. I went up the Round Tower for views while Kacey and the kids watched a street performer on a unicycle. Next on the street was the Lego store! Nolan played for a bit in there while Kacey shopped some. We could not find a good restaurant with food for kids, so we ended up getting Chinese takeaway for the kids and Kacey, and I watched the US world cup game against Germany at a bar filled with Germans. I had some Jacobsen Brown Ale (from Carlsberg) and quite enjoyed it.

The next day we went to Christiansborg Palace first and visited the palace, ruins, and royal stable. We ate a little lunch near Nyhavn and then decided to take an "under the bridges" canal tour. It was nice and the city is quite pretty in places. We even saw the royal family out on their ship (the tour guide was convinced the family was on board due to staff and flags at use). We also saw the famous Little Mermaid statue. Once done we walked Strøget some more and found an Italian place for dinner; probably a little touristy, but really one of the best options we could find. I tried a drink (can't recall the name) where beer is mixed with sprite. I would not order it again.

The next day was our day at Tivoli, an amusement park right in city center. But first we stopped in the City Hall (next door) to see Jens Olsen's astronomical clock. Pretty impressive craftsmanship. So next we walked next door to Tivoli. It isn't huge, but the big prices keep it from getting too ridiculously busy. Once you pay to get in, you quickly realize you should just buy an unlimited pass for rides. We were able to buy a child plus adult ticket, which meant that either Kacey or I could go with Nolan on a ride (but we couldn't do one by ourselves). Nolan had a lot of fun, and Liana got to play at the little kids area for a while too.

The next day, craving some big breakfast, we actually went to the Hard Rock for their American brunch. It was good for Nolan and now it was time to fly to our next city, Stockholm. Copenhagen isn't as great as we were expecting; more expensive than Paris without the sites of Paris. Yes there are some pretty streets, palaces and museums, but we didn't quite understand the hype.

Pictures from Copenhagen can be found here.

Nice and Monaco

This past bank holiday weekend, we traveled to Nice for a little getaway. We had heard good things about this little southern town in France and were looking forward to going to a place where we could just wander around and not feel like we had a lot of things to do (as you can see from most our trips, we are heavy into site-seeing). Nice is a great place for this! The Cours Saleya market is full of food. The Castle Hill has great views of the town and ocean, and a nice playground (as well as a lift up for those hot days). The old town has plenty of little shops, ice cream, and food to keep you interested for a few days. There is a 2.5 mile pebble beach with a Promenade for bikes and walking. And, Monaco is a 20 minute train ride away, to see how the 1% lives.

Our highlights were playing in the Promenade du Paillon, with water features and playgrounds, Castle Hill, throwing rocks in the ocean, taking a bike tour, walking the markets, and eating ice cream. Fenocchio is well known for its crazy flavours, and we tried quite a few (beer was average, a local specialty torte de blette was quite good, cola was great on a hot day, violet was quite good, and cactus was quite good). None of our meals were outstanding, but eating at Patin Couffin was probably the best meal we had there (even though the service was probably the worst; they completely forgot my food). I did try frog legs and I did enjoy them; it is like delicate chicken. We stayed at Hotel Univers and I do recommend them if needing a triple. We also walked to see the Russian Orthodox church when we were out by the station, but it was closed. We were able to just take in the view from the street, though.

Monaco is quite small, but the large buildings and the hillside make it seem larger than it is. We took the bus from the station to the old town and walked out toward a lookout. There are beautiful flowers everywhere. We walked through the gardens toward the cathedral, and then a couple blocks to the palace. We didn't go in to see the car collection, but just took in more views of the port and town from there. We could see that stopping at the port/harbour area looked less interesting than we expected, so we just took the bus to Casino Square. After walking for a bit and enjoying some more gardens, we took the bus back down to the station to head back to Nice. We only needed two or three hours to walk around and eat lunch, and it was enough.

Pictures from Nice can be found here.

Pictures from Monaco can be found here.

Southern England

Last week we met Kacey's parents in England for a week holidays. We took the Rosslare ferry to Pembroke Port and drove through southern Wales to meet them in Bath on Saturday.

Bath

We all arrived around 4pm. Bath is rated quite high in the places to visit in Great Britain. Honestly, I think Canterbury had a better feel, but seeing the old Roman baths was interesting. Bath is quite expensive, but we did enjoy dinner at the Bath Brew House. Granted, most food in Great Britain is pretty good. We also checked out the Bath Abbey and then spent some time in Sydney Gardens to let the kids play a bit before our drive to Amesbury on Sunday afternoon. The drive was a nice country drive with plenty of yellow rapeseed/canola fields, which looked brilliant on the sunny days we were enjoying.

Pictures from Bath can be seen here.

Stonehenge

We stayed at the George Hotel in Amesbury, a 5 minute drive (without traffic) to Stonehenge. Recently, they have invested to preserve the area around Stonehenge by building a large carpark and visitor center about a mile away from the site. It is still crazy, though. I recommend going when they open at 9:30 and having a reservation. The traffic getting to the site backs up for miles by lunch (partially because you can see Stonehenge from the highway, and everyone rubbernecks). It is surreal to see this site. The large blocked off area around the site helps it not feel too crowded. I was even able to get pictures with no people visible. As you walk around the site, the light hitting different areas and the different formations make it seem to change every 20 feet. The cafe was decent for a quite bite before hitting the road to Dover.

Pictures from Stonehenge can be found here.

Dover

We arrived in Dover and headed straight to the castle. When purchasing the english heritage pass at Stonehenge, it made Dover Castle almost free (sites in England are expensive). We had 2-3 hours to visit, which was plenty. Plus, many people had left by the time we arrived. This is one of the nicer castles we have visited, with many buildings restored, and actors providing some interactive exhibits. This was all very similar to Sterling Castle in Scotland. We enjoyed the sun and some nice views of Dover as well.

The next day we got up to hike the White Cliffs of Dover. We were blessed with another sunny day, and beautiful views of the cliffs (and France). They really are spectacular and rise up out of no where. They change in the sun and clouds, it was interesting to watch the clouds move and see how they change. We hiked out to the lighthouse, taking the scenic route along the cliff edge along the way. After a quick snack, we took the shuttle back to the carpark and headed toward Canterbury.

Pictures from Dover can be found here.

Canterbury

We found a spot in the close carpark and we were basically already in the town center. We toured the cathedral first, in case Easter week services closed it later. It is rated as one of the top cathedrals in europe to visit. I don't know if it is #1, but it is up there. It is in a really nice setting with a park to the back. King Henry IV is buried here, which I thought was cool (until visiting Westminster Abbey). Also, I saw a clock here, which is seldom found in these old cathedrals.

Walking around Canterbury town, it is a grand little town with lots of people wandering around and lots of old shops. We were directed toward what was supposed to be a great chipper, but honestly wasn't that super (next to the Canterbury Tales exhibit). We watched some fudge get made and popped in a couple other shops before driving in to London. Canterbury had a nice feel where a couple more hours could maybe have been spent wandering around.

Pictures from Canterbury can be found here.

London

We arrived Tuesday night, which gave us 4 full days plus Easter service on Sunday. We had planned out the first two days pretty well, and a couple more activities to do on the last two days. On Wednesday, we visited St. Paul's Cathedral, and walked through Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the Eye. No photo is allowed in St. Paul's and I get why. It does a ton of visitors and they were having problems with everyone posing, slowing everything down (Westminster Abbey is the same way). This is a grand church with a big, open crypt as well. I did the tower climb for views of London. This church does remind one of St. Peter's Basilica. While London attractions are very pricey, they do usually include an audio guide for free. It was nice to listen to information about the church while walking around. We grabbed a bite at Pret and then took the tube up to Hyde Park. We walked around a bit, then headed down Constitution Hill toward Buckingham Palace. After a few pics and some frolicking in the flowers, we walked to Big Ben. We hung out for a bit in Parliament Square, taking in all the sites. We walked across the Thames toward the Eye to learn about it costs and line lengths. It is crazy long wait and crazy expensive. We found the Wahaca mexican restaurant; it was awesome!

Thursday we were using a London Pass to visit a few sites. We started off cutting the big line at Westminster Abbey. This place is incredible. Kings, history, poets, scientists, all buried here. Next we headed to the Tower of London. This is a castle in the city surrounded by a moat. There were a few lines for things inside, and they were huge. We did see the crown jewels, but the exhibit seemed smaller than expected. Next we went to Tower Bridge to check out the exhibit. This was cool, seeing the inside of it, and how things work and how it was designed and built. Lastly we finished off our day with a boat cruise on the Thames back to Big Ben and Parliament. It was a nice ride with great commentary along the way. We walked up toward Trafalgar Square to see the area and to find some dinner. We ate some delicious pizzas and pasta at Fratelli La Bufala. This is a fantastic international Italian chain. We then enjoyed some gelato from around the corner at Gelupo. We headed toward Piccadilly Circus to see the aluminum statue, but it is covered and being renovated. So, we headed back to the hotel.

Friday we were going to maybe go to a museum, so we headed toward the Natural History Museum. We didn't have tickets to a special exhibit, and the queue was huge, so we decided to walk toward Harrod's and Hyde Park. I had never heard of Harrod's, but it is huge, and we were able to score some Belgium chocolate at the Neuhaus shop there. After lunch at Wagamama, we walked toward Hyde Park to play and relax some. Kacey and I rented some city bikes for a while to see the park and liked seeing the Princess Diana Memorial fountain as well as the Albert Memorial and the Italian Gardens. We tried to visit the British Museum, but it was closing early for Good Friday, so we only walked around the atrium, no exhibits for us. We found a bite at Verdi and headed back to get some rest.

Saturday we had a plan that we were all getting up early; the boys were going to the Natural History Museum, and the girls were going to Notting Hill and markets. We got to the museum about 10 minutes after they opened and only queued for 10 minutes. Inside was great, even without tickets to the Dinosaur exhibit. We spent about 4 hours there and a decent lunch at the cafe. Then we headed next door to the Science Museum, which had no queue. This museum was pretty good as well with a wide variety of exhibits. We walked toward a couple restaurants that looked good and ended up at Bumpkin. It was pretty tasty. We, of course, got some gelato at Scoop and went to rest in preparation for Easter services the next morning.

On Sunday, we got up and checked out to drive to Westminster Abbey for services at 10:30. Our goal was to get there by 9:30-9:45, but it was almost 10 by time we got in queue. It was moving quick and we ended up sitting right next to the Shakespeare memorial in Poet's corner. We had some views of the front, and could see a large monitor of the altar. The message was meaningful and the music was powerful. While Liana wasn't really having it, and although they had no nursery, it was still a memorable service (and, Kacey ended up sitting next to the organists for a while, as well as the Jerusalem Chamber where King Henry IV chose to die). After grabbing some Pret, we got on the road to drive through the Cotswolds.

Pictures from London can be found here.

The Cotswolds

Today was a bit rainy, but we were in the car most of the time. We decided to drive through the Cotswolds region to take in some of the scenery. We decided to drive to Minster Lovell first. This is a small village with an old church that you can walk to. Thatched roofs and folks out walking around made for a nice stop. We next stopped in Burford, but this was a main street with lots of shops all targeted for older people with money. Lastly, we stopped in Northleach and Kacey walked out to the Old Wool Church. We stopped in Gloucester for dinner and got in to Cardiff Bay in time for bed.

Pictures from the Cotswolds can be found here.

Cardiff

We got up and walked around the Bay a bit. This is a neat little area to walk around, but only a few things to do. We got on the road to meet our ferry around lunch.

Pictures from Cardiff can be found here.

Liana is Eighteen Months Old!

My how time flies! She is a brave little explorer. She loves to climb and is learning how to get herself down from situations. She also knows she can ask me for something not in the room so she has time to climb up on the couch. She says water, baby, happy, memaw, papaw, Nolni (for Nolan), dada, momma, apple, nana (for banana), cat, and a few more words. She loves to say neigh-neigh for a horse.

She hasn't enjoying sitting still to read as much as Nolan did, but we are starting to do a little more lately. I have been reading some color books to her. She also likes to build things with her blocks occasionally. She is a happy girl and likes to dance to music. She makes silly faces with me too.

Pictures of Liana

St. Paddy's Day in Dublin

Last weekend we spent some time in Dublin for St. Paddy's Day! And, by the way, it is Paddy's, not Patty's. We had heard the parade is crazy, but we decided to go for it anyway. We got to a spot on the route almost 2 hours ahead of the start, and within 15 minutes of being there, all good spots on the fence were gone!

We brought some snacks, as well as two strollers, and we needed both. There are many foreigners here, and lots of young Irish in for a good time. The fence was maybe 10 people deep where we were by time the parade started.

There were several American marching bands, and many groups with strange dancers and props. Many of these groups were quite colorful.

Pictures can be found here.

Southern Spain, Gibraltar, and Morocco

What a trip! Nolan had mid term break, so we planned a week traveling around southern Spain. Also, we wanted to see Gibraltar, located in southern Spain. Then as we researched, we added a day trip to Tangier, Morocco. It was a lot to see, but we tried to make it reasonable with the kids. We flew in to Malaga out of necessity, but left as soon as we landed.

Ronda

First we stopped in Ronda on our way to our hotel in Gibraltar. Ronda is a hill town with a large, well-known bridge connecting the old and new towns. Even though we had mapped to a parking lot ahead of time, it was still hard to find. We had 4-5 hours to walk around and eat. Our first site was Spain's oldest bullfighting ring. While we didn't tour it, this is our one regret as we didn't even try. It is pretty small compared to what we have seen previously. We peeked in a few shops in the area and took our first look over the Puente Nuevo bridge. It was just incredible!

After buying a couple treats, we walked out to the viewing area of the hillsides. From there we could see the hike down to the viewing point of the bridge and it definitely looked reasonable. We walked across to the old town and stopped in a few more shops along the way. We made our way to Santa Maria la Mayor. We decided to pay to walk around inside for a bit, and then sat in the park for a few minutes outside. Then, we did the hike down to the viewpoint for the Puente Nuevo bridge. Just as we started taking pictures, the sun popped out! It was quite a view!

So eating dinner with kids in Spain while traveling is hard. We couldn't find anything open serving food for quite a while, but finally found some little touristy restaurant next to the bullfighting ring that was good enough. We got on the road for the 100 minute drive to Gibraltar in the dark.

Pictures from Ronda can be found here.

Gibraltar

I had read horror stories about the border (due to UK/Spain tensions), but I figured going south at night would be quick. I was correct; there was no line and neither side cared much about us possibly we were American. It was late by time we were ready for bed at the Queens Hotel, but the itinerary allowed for sleeping in the next day.

After english breakfast, we walked to the cable car for our ride up. Great views! We had perfect weather for the day too. At the top, there are several good viewing platforms to look different directions. Also, the apes hang out up here, and tried to grab Nolan's bread (we didn't know they were this high up away from the trees). We made the hike to St. Michael's Cave next. These are pretty small, but included in the Nature Reserve ticket, and Nolan liked it. We decided to skip the Mediterranean Steps to conserve energy; we were already enjoying the views.

We walked next across to the Great Siege Tunnels (skipping the Ape Den). Nolan enjoyed stopping and playing with the hundreds of iron hooks attached to the rock. The lookout near the tunnels provided great views of the frontier, aka the airport runway. We saw it blocked off while one plane landed, and another took off. It was interesting, and something extremely unique. The tunnels were interesting, packed with information about their creation and use. Next we walked down to the Moorish Castle. This is basically a tower with views similar to the free ones above, so we didn't climb it. Nolan had fun playing next to the pond for a few minutes.

We took the well marked short-cut stairs down to Main St. It was full of pubs and english shops. We ate lunch at the Gibraltar Arms and headed to the car for our drive to Tarifa.

Pictures from Gibraltar can be found here.

Tarifa

Tarifa is a little sleepy surf town with a big port. The ferries to Tangier city leave out of this port, so we booked a room for the night prior to our departure. The town was pretty inactive this time of year; most places didn't open in the morning until 8:30 or so, and on Sunday afternoon when we arrived, most things were closed. (A nice culture, but not when you are a tourist!)

Pictures from Tarifa can be found here.

Tangier, Morocco

Originally, we were planning on taking the 9am ferry and returning at 4:30. But, on Sunday, we decided to ease up a bit and catch the 11am ferry. So I bought tickets early Monday morning and upon arrival, we learned there was no 11am ferry this time of year! Boooo! So, went back to the travel agent and he arranged a one way ticket at noon on one ferry line, and another one way ticket back at 4:30 on a different ferry line. So, we rolled with the punches and accepted that ~2.5 hours in Tangier would probably be enough to soak it in.

We arrived and knew approximately where to walk and which way to get there. We headed toward the Bab Elmarsa gate to walk up to the Grand Socco. We kind of missed the gate the first time, but found the other smaller gate to walk in to the old city. We stopped in some shops along the way. The shopkeeps were all very nice, and most spoke english well (we heard they would not). We enjoyed talking with a few guys for a while! We made our way to the Grand Socco. We took a few minutes to take it all in.

We then walked around behind the mosque to possibly see the park, but we ended up in a market buying tagines. They were cheap, so we bought some extra! We decided it was time to start meandering back to the port. We stopped at a couple more shops along the way and by the last shop, we realized we needed to walk kind of quick back to the boat.

We were excited to have the chance to visit Africa; a culture so different than anything we had ever seen before, yet so close to Europe! Except for a few pushy people wanting to be tour guides, people were very nice! The arts, crafts, and clothes for sale were interesting and beautiful.

Pictures from Tangier can be found here.

Arcos de la Frontera

Kacey had come up with the idea to stop in this little white hill town for dinner on the way to Seville. So we squeezed our car up to the Plaza del Cabildo, took in the view, and found dinner at Don Fernando. It was pretty good food! (Except that I think the first course made me sick that night) I also found the coolest light switches here; I want them some day!

Pictures from Arcos can be found here.

Seville

We stayed at the Hotel Petit Palace Marques Santa Ana, which was our first car elevator experience! We had two nights and one full day here, which would have been perfect had I not been ill. But, I was in bed until 1pm so I had a bit of a late start. Kacey took the kids out for breakfast/lunch and shopping. We all met at the bullfighting ring at 1:50 for our tour in english. This bullfighting ring was similar to Madrid where we toured a few years ago, and I think the tour was better in Madrid. But, Seville had some interesting things in their museum.

Next we walked to the cathedral, the world's largest gothic cathedral, and the world's third largest church. By the way, the streets are lined with orange trees in this region! Anyway, this church also contains the tomb of Christopher Columbus! We spent a lot of time walking around, taking it all in. Unfortunately, the world's tallest High Alter is closed off for renovation. Some areas were well lit from windows, and some areas were very dark. The Christopher Columbus tomb was very dark, so the pictures are dark, but it was cool to think about its history. I didn't climb the tower due to not feeling well. The church also had an orange grove, quite cool!

Next we walked across the street to the Alcazar, or palace. We had about an hour before closing, and it was trying to rain, so we ran in and started walking around. We didn't follow our guide very much, we just kind of walked around and enjoyed. As we left, the sky cleared up giving beautiful views of the cathedral. We then searched out and found nun cookies! So there are a few places where nunneries bake cookies and sell them, and one of here (one was also in Arcos, but we missed it's open hours). The shop for this one is not run by nuns, which means you see the person selling you cookies (others where the nuns run them, they are hidden from site). We went to the room to rest for a bit before tapas later that night at Restaurante Cinco Jotas.

The next morning I went back down the street to Los Angeles Bakery. It was so good! One of those places you wish you could stop in and visit each morning.

Pictures from Seville can be found here.

Cordoba

Our plan was to drive to Cordoba for a few hours, then continue on to Granada to our hotel. On our way to Cordoba, we saw the Gemasolar Thermosolar power plant. I am sure most foreigners would be confused as to what they saw, but I knew what it was. We found a lot near El Mezquita and walked over the verify its hours. We then grabbed some tapas for lunch at Bodegas Mezquita. The meatballs were amazing! We were pretty happy with lunch, except the aubergine never made it out. I was feeling much better today, so I got Liana up on my back and we headed for El Mezquita.

We had heard this is quite the site, but we really didn't know what to expect. It is such a mix of two different cultures, it was neat to investigate and walk around. It is about half muslim and half Christian, and the history of how it came to be was intriguing. This church also had an orange grove. After about an hour, we walked outside to the Roman Bridge and Islamic water wheel. The islands in the river now inhabit many birds, instead of the old flour mills from centuries ago. We then walked around the Jewish quarter for a while, snacking on some pastries. By 5:30 we got on the road for the ~2 hour drive to Granada.

Pictures from Cordoba can be found here.

Granada

We arrived in time to park the car and walk down the street to one of Rick Steve's top rated restaurants in the area, Bodegas Castañeda. It was awesome! Our hotel, Hotel Anacapri, was in a great location with very helpful staff.

When we got up, our plan for the day was Alhambra. I had heard it could almost take all day, but in actuality you really need about 4 good hours. Booking tickets here is a little tricky, but being off-season, our hotel helped us book the night before. We got up there around 10am, and our Nasrid Palace ticket was for 11:30. We first walked around the Alcazaba, which has awesome views of Granada, as well as Sierra Nevada.

After bathrooms and a snack, we went to the Nasrid Palace. This was a very unique place; so many different architectures not seen before. It wasn't huge, but everything was very detailed. Some of the ceiling textures were amazing and unique; I tried to capture it with the camera, but it's three dimensional nature (looks like miniature stalactites everywhere) made it difficult.

Next we checked out the Carlos V Palace and museum. I thought more would be here, but it is mostly just a big round arena-type area without much to see. If you buy the full ticket, you can go in the museum, but for us it was a quick walk through. We then walked up to Generalife, which we had to be in by 2pm. Generalife seems to be a palace built up the hill a bit to "get away" from the real palace. Garden spaces and fountains make this a more tranquil place. We enjoyed walking around and taking in the gardens, scenery, and architecture.

We headed to the hotel for a bit of a rest, then walked to the Cathedral. We first, unknowingly, went in the Royal Chapel. Then, headed to the Cathedral. This was massive, and reminded me somewhat of the Lesser Town St. Nicholas church in Prague. Nolan made a couple friends here; a family with two boys was also walking around, and they got a little loud at times running around. Apparently this family had been on the road for a month, so the kids had a bit of fun.

For dinner, Kacey found a Moroccan restaurant highly recommended, and only a couple blocks from our hotel. As soon as we walked in Restaurante Arrayanes, we smelled deliciousness and knew it would be good. I got a tagine with lamb, prunes, and almonds. It was all very tasty! And, the manager was very friendly, and Mustafa, the popular owner, even popped in for a bit.

The next morning, we walked to Plaza Nueva for some yummy pastries and then took the bus up to the San Nicolas Viewpoint. The clouds were in today, but it was great views of Alhambra (and I am sure Sierra Nevada too, but too cloudy). After taking in the view and letting Nolan play in the dirt, we headed back down for some lunch. Kacey found Los Diamantes in Plaza Nueva. It is mostly seafood tapas, but everything we ordered was lightly deep fried, so pretty tasty! Eggplant, calamari, and chicken; the aubergines were like little french fries, so the kids liked them. It was time for our scenic drive to Malaga, driving south to the sea first, then west along the coast.

Pictures from Granada can be found here.

Sierra Nevada

So funny story... I had no idea Sierra Nevada was just outside of Granada. As we drove in to Granada, we saw a huge snow-capped mountain sitting behind the city and said "What is that?!" So, we did a little research and learned about the road that goes up to the ski-resort town of Sierra Nevada. We decided to drive up there after Granada (we had some float time on Friday) and just check it out. Since this day was cloudy, once up there, we couldn't see down, but it made for beautiful views of the snow covered mountains once up there! Nolan and I even got out for a little snowball fight!

Pictures from Sierra Nevada can be found here.

Nerja

Kacey was doing some reading on the drive up Sierra Nevada and with our new route we would be passing by the only town recommended along the coast, Nerja. This town has a cliffside balcony walk, and some caves just outside of town with the world's largest stalactite/stalagmite column. So we checked the GPS and learned we could get to the caves an hour before they closed, so we adjust coordinates and headed there! The caves started off a little slow, but then we got in to the big room with the column. This thing is massive! Someone estimated that it took one trillion drips to form the column. The cave is a little expensive, we think because when it rains in the peak-season, everyone in towns comes to the caves for something to do. It was still cool to see, and there was a playground there as well, so the kids got some play time before we headed in to town for dinner.

We parked in the main lot close the shops and stuff in town, and walked out to the balcony as the sun was setting. It was a very pretty area! For dinner, we didn't want to wait too long and wanted something easy, so we popped in a pizzeria with a view. It was good enough, and we saved room for gelato. We got loaded up for the 50 minute drive to our hotel next to the airport.

Pictures from Nerja can be found here.

Conclusion

Here is a map of our driving route (https://goo.gl/maps/tBUXrxmBeT52). This was a good trip that wasn't too busy (per our standards). Seville is a town that one could easily spend an additional day in. Tarifa kind of shuts down off-season, making food a little tricky. Tangier is a day trip I highly recommend, but it can be intimidating to not-well seasoned travelers. I found the drivers in this area to be terrible, worse than any country I have driven in. Speeds vary widely (a 90kmh zone will have people going 50 and 130), no one signals for anything (especially in roundabouts), and roundabout cut-offs are quite bad (and people pass at night on blind corners). The roads were pretty good, though. The road from Granada to Malaga (along the coast) is fairly new, and coarsely cut through the mountains. Driving is definitely the way to get around southern Spain. The hill town Ronda is definitely worth a visit. It has a great feel, wonderful views, and interesting history.

Liana is 16 Months!

Liana is 16 months old! She still gives great hugs and kisses. She even blows kisses to people. She has become a little shy around people, and will only wave and say hi when they aren't looking. It is almost a little funny. She started saying her first 2 syllable word; happy! She is also trying to say water, but it sounds more like aqua. She had two bottom molars break through a few weeks ago. She is pretty fast and likes doing the slide at play time (even though she still falls backward occasionally, ouch!). She is very close to climbing up on the couch unassisted, but sometimes she moves something to stand on so she can get up. We are currently working on sounds that animals make. She kinda knows a few, but only the cat sounds obvious. She still usually takes 2 naps a day, and I am trying to work out a new schedule, but she really likes 2 naps still!

Currency exchange rates and moving money between currencies

People need to move money between currencies all the time for many different important reasons. For me, we get paid in USD yet have to pay bills in EUR. So, we have to move enough money over to pay bills from a local bank account. I have seen many people doing this and many think they are saving money with their methods they use. But, there is a hidden fee hidden in many services; the adjusted conversion rate! And worse off, many people don't even know they are paying this fee! Below, I will do my best to explain these hidden fees, show how to find out these fees, and then show ways to avoid them.

At the time of writing this post (January 2014), the USD-EUR exchange rate is ~1.367. So if you withdraw €100 from an ATM, it will cost you ~$136.70 from your US-based account. For the following math examples, I will use this rate. But beware; this rate slightly changes daily, and even more so in the long run. A great place to check the daily exchange rate is here (xe.com).

Ways Banks Get Your Money

Trust me, people make money off of you when you move money! There are 3 ways institutions can make money from you. One is the currency conversion fee, or CCF. Your US-based bank may, depending on this bank's ATM you use, charge a CCF. Some US-based banks never charge this, some (like my credit union) sometimes charge this, and I am sure some always charge this. My CU charges 1% if I use the wrong bank's ATM. Generally, Visa is the reason you get charged this. (For me personally, if I use an AIB ATM, I do not get charged a CCF, but if I use an Ulster ATM, I will get charged a 1% CCF).

The other way your bank can make money from you here is just a flat rate fee, common in the US. This is usually disclosed at the terminal, but not always. So, I generally take note when I get charged this to ensure not to use these ATMs in the future. Also, you may not know if you are charged this until you see your monthly statement (if you don't reconcile your accounts, you may never find out).

The last way banks can make money from you here is the adjusted conversion rate. You won't necessarily get charged a separate CCF, you will just get a conversion rate that has been adjusted. So, this is a hidden fee that you only realize if you do the math from the amount withdrawn and compare that rate to the daily exchange rate. In my experience, banks adjust your rate by .05 (not percent) for their wallets.

Lastly, let me state that this isn't always banks performing the above methods. Maybe you use PayPal to move money (very popular and easy to get around restrictions). Maybe you write a check to yourself and cash it locally. Maybe you perform international wire transfers (IBAN and SWIFT codes). Maybe you use a service like CurrencyFair. Maybe you use other services not listed here. But trust me, everyone is doing something to make money from you; some just don't disclose how much, yet lead you to believe they are charging nothing (by using a hidden adjust rate).

Am I Really Losing That Much?

Sometimes I believe people don't think they are losing that much money, or are losing none at all. And, yes, I said losing money, because you could be costing yourself hundreds of dollars more than you need to. Let me attempt to show some examples with some math. We will acquire €1000 to Europe in our example. We will use an exchange rate of 1.367. We will use a 1% CCF (sometimes this can be 2% or even 3%). We will use an adjusted rate of 0.05 as I have seen this quite often (if you like percentages, 0.05/1.367*100 = 3.66%)

Your bank charges a 1% CCF:
€1000 x 1.367 x 1.01 = $1380.67

Your bank adjusts the rate by .05:
€1000 x (1.367 + 0.05) = $1417

Your bank scheme charges both:
€1000 x (1.367 + 0.05) x 1.01 = $1431.17

You find a method with no CCF or adjusted rate (how much you should get):
€1000 x 1.367 = $1367

With this example, you lost $64.17, just moving money, that you didn't need to lose!

Well Then, How Should I Move Money?

You may have to do what I did. I moved $10/€10 with a few different services to calculate what rate I was really getting. Here is what I learned.

Paypal: Paypal generally charges no fees. But, when I transferred money, they adjusted the going conversion rate by 0.046. On €1000, this equates to $33.82 in added fees that you didn't realize. This method does easily work both ways (USD->EUR or EUR->USD).

ATMs: I found a bank in Ireland (AIB) that when I withdraw euros here using their ATM, my CU doesn't charge me a CCF or a flat fee at the terminal. Also, I have gotten 0.005 better on my exchange rate than the average daily rate, so I know that I am generally getting a great exchange rate using this method. But, when needing to move thousands of dollars, and having a withdrawal limit of $500/day, this takes several trips to the ATM and then the bank. This method starts to break down. And, this method only works to get USD to EUR when in Europe. But, I do frequently use this method to get money to Europe.

IWT: International wire transfers can be tricky. Fees can vary widely depending on both banks, and the conversion rate won't be disclosed until you are done. My CU does not have IBAN, so I was unknowingly charged a couple percent by JP Morgan, the intermediate bank. But, some banks actually have free transfers! I believe some Charles Schwab accounts do this for free, and I do know Charles Schwab gives very competitive conversion rates. So if you have good banks, this can be easy and cheap! If you have bad banks, this can be very costly. Try moving a small amount of money first to test the waters. If you have a CU like mine which charges a large standard fee to send money out ($40 for me), then it isn't really worth testing this method.

CurrencyFair: I found this company and after doing some sanity checks, they became my favorite way to move money. They charge a flat rate per transaction (~$4-6) and they show you the exchange rate before starting the transfer. They adjust the rate by ~0.003, quite small! (http://www.currencyfair.com/) This method works great both ways as well.

Selling a US check to your European bank: Some banks will buy a US check off of you (similar to buying actual currency). They will have a combination of a flat fee or adjusting the exchange rate. If you can find a good local bank that gives a good exchange rate by testing the waters, this can be a good option too. You won't know how competitive their rate is until after the fact once all the processing is done. So, try a small check first and then calculate their rate, and look up the historical average on that day. XE.com lets you pull up the average exchange from a given day.

But What About...

I am sure there are some other options out there, but the same rules apply. Find out how they are making their money, and compare their competitiveness with other methods.

Finally, I will delete any comment that appears to be spam. So if you have a service you like, make sure you don't sound like a representative of that company :) Show me the math!

Nolan's First Lost Tooth

On our red-eye flight home to Ireland, Nolan lost his first tooth! It took us by surprise; he had only just said something hurt in his mouth when we got to the airport, but he said nothing felt loose. Then, just a few minutes later, there was some blood and it looked loose, and he acknowledged it felt loose. Then after dinner on the plane, he had something in his hand. He said "Mom, I have something that is white". It was his tooth! So we let the tooth fairy know where we were and hid it under his armrest. When he woke up, he had a dollar in his armrest!

German Christmas Markets!

This past weekend, we traveled to Frankfurt to visit a German Christmas Market! We got there at lunch and enjoyed walking around and grabbing random food to eat. Potato pancakes with apple sauce, pretzels, bratwurst, and gluhwein. It wasn't too crowded on Friday afternoon, which was nice. We also visited the large St. Bartholomew church. We checked out lots of little shops and a few stores. We had dinner at Schwarzer Stern and it was quite yummy! We talked about Saturday and decided to train to Cologne for their Christmas Market.

Saturday morning we woke to a very light snow, quite nice. The breakfast buffet at the Ambassador hotel was decent. The bad news was train tickets were twice the price of renting 2 cars, so we rented cars and headed toward Cologne. We mapped to a car park that looked close, but alas, the entire area was completely packed and crowded with people. It was quite a nightmare finding parking. After maybe 90 wasted minutes, we headed toward the Christmas Market. We checked out the huge mosaic discovered from the ancient Romans. Then we toured the HUGE cathedral. It really towers over the city.

It was hard to get around the market, it was quite crazy. We got a little food, some warm drinks, and watched a brass band play some Christmas music. We decided to walk to another market in town. It was not as crowded, but still hard to get through some areas. We bought a few gifts along the way, and found random snacks for dessert. The drive back to Frankfurt was quick on the Autobahn!

Sunday the Frankfurt market was a little more tame and enjoyable. We ate at a place with a big meat swing, it smelled so good! Had some beer and warm drink and some more yummy snacks. We had a good time, and I had fun practicing old german phrases I remembered from high school.

Pictures from Germany can be found here.

Big Week

This week, Nolan started reading books! Kim the Kid, Meg the Hen, and Rex the Dog!




And, Liana turned 14 months. She loves to say hi to everyone, and is starting to like reading books more. She is very silly, too.

Kinsale and Jameson Distillery

We finally made it to Kinsale last weekend! I visited here 6.5 years ago for work for 2.4 days and luckily my boss was able to show me around the area a little bit while we were there. It is a beautiful area with good seafood. It took us so long to visit, because we wanted to meet up with an old coworker who live there, and we have all had pretty busy summers! The three hour drive turned in to four due to traffic leaving Dublin, UGH!

We got in barely in time for dinner, and we walked down to The White House for dinner. They did a pretty good job, as do most places in this town. The food culture is very strong here, and bad restaurants just don't make it long. The White House had a random 9/11 Memorial wall inside, quite nice.

The next day we were going to walk around town in the morning. It really is a nice little town to walk around, with a lot of little shops. This place gets crazy busy in the summer. The museum was unfortunately closed for the winter, which I didn't know. After some lunch at the Lemon Leaf Cafe, we drove out to Charles Fort.

Charles Fort is pretty in tact for its age. There are a couple exhibits and nice views of Kinsale Harbour. After walking around for almost an hour, we decided to drive toward James Fort next. I knew it was small and in ruins, but I didn't know you had to hike to it and since it had started raining, we just drove down to Old Head. I remember visiting the area years back, and it all came back to me while visiting. The cliffs are pretty impressive, with absolutely no barriers at all, so we left the kids in the car.

Next we drove to Garrylucas Beach and since the rain had stopped, we let the kids play in the sand for a while. After some play, we drove to the 9/11 Garden of Remembrance we learned about at the White House. I knew the general, and if driving slow enough, you will spot the red gates along side the road. I went in and a man was collecting the American flags from the trees, all 343 of them. Yes, 343 trees are planted there, each with a tag of a firefighter who lost his life that day. Very, very nice site. An Irish nurse who lived in NYC for 30 years had always regretted not helping out that day, and she made this garden outside a family farm. This woman died in 2011 to cancer, and the gentleman I met is this woman's nephew, who helps take care of it. Several unofficial websites talk about this site, here is one, here is one, and here is another. This is a really incredible site and any American in the area should check it out!


Pictures from Kinsale can be found here.
The next day on our way home, we decided to stop in Cobh. There is a Titanic Experience there, but we had already done the one in Belfast, so we skipped it. Cobh does have a grand cathedral! Built on top of the hill overlooking the town, and it is huge. We happened to show up at noon right as mass started, so we didn't go in. But, we did drive to the other hill across town for great views of the cathedral.

Pictures from Cobh can be found here.

Next, we decided to stop by the Jameson Distillery in Midleton for a tour. We had read that this was the better option, as opposed to their Dublin tour. When we got there, we learned that on Sundays now if you buy lunch, you get a free tour! We actually saved money as our lunches cost less than the cost of entry, so a great deal! The tour covers their old, original distillery, which hasn't been used since the 1970s. But, they keep a lot of stuff in working order, like the grist mill, and steam generator, and the stills. The tours are interesting and you get a sample at the end. If you are a really big whiskey fan, stand toward the front of the group at the end of tour for when they ask about the special tasting at the end. Eight people get a special tasting, but you have to get chosen! It was definitely a neat stop, even with kids. And, their lunch was pretty good!


Pictures from Jameson can be found here.

Galway, Connemara, and Cliffs of Moher

We were able to visit the west coast as Galway is only 2 hours drive from home. We arrived in Galway Friday night and got checked in to the Victoria Hotel. This is a nice enough place, and very close to everything. The plan was to get up Saturday morning and do a driving tour around Connemara. We didn't have everything exactly planned out and would change course as we went.

We started off driving north to Cong. This is a quiet little village with a nice abbey to walk around. We then decided to skip Castlebar and Westport and drive through the country to Leenaun. We had some great views of the countryside and some large lakes. It started raining while driving, so we found a place open for lunch, the Leenane Hotel. They did a pretty good job. After lunch the rain had stopped, so we drove up to see Aasleagh falls. The rain was trying to spit again, but these falls, while not high, were flowing impressively. Next we drove south to Kylemore Abbey. It was raining some still, but we went in to the gift shop. Our travel guides said walking to and paying for the abbey is not necessary as it is expensive, and the view from the parking lot suffices. We drove a bit further and saw the sign for Connemara National Park visitor centre. My research indicated that it had closed the weekend prior, but the sign said open. So we stopped and learned that the sign was for the park, not the visitors centre. Oh well, still a neat area. We drove next through a little area called Letterfrack and then saw a sign for Avoca! We didn't think Avoca was that far away, so of course we stopped. It was small, and had no food, but was having a huge sale. We continued our drive with many great views and pull-offs, including Gurteen Bay beach. We didn't get to drive all of the Sky Road, but a pretty good amount of it, before heading back to Galway for dinner.

Pictures from Connemara

Sunday morning we woke up and walked around a bit before heading south. We walked through the Spanish Arch and up toward St. Nicholas church. We stopped in a few shops before starting our drive south to Cliffs of Moher.

Pictures from Galway

The drive through the burren was nice, with a good view of Galway Bay on our way up. There are other sites in the area, but we were only out there for one thing at this time. We got there and it wasn't really raining, but it was not clear. So, since it rains a lot out there, we were happy with it. The views are pretty impressive. One could spend quite a bit of time walking around the trails. They keep the edges pretty well protected, so you don't get real close to the edge to take pictures.

Pictures from Cliffs of Moher

Belfast and the Antrim Coast

A couple weekends ago, Mike and Maggie arrived for a visit and we went to Northern Ireland for a bank holiday weekend. We planned to pass through Belfast and visit a museum or two (depending on time) and then drive up to our B&B near Bushmills in County Antrim. We first visited the Ulster Museum, a really nice, free museum. Just give yourselves some time to find parking! This is a good museum with a wide variety of subject matter. We spent enough time here that we decided to put off the Titanic Experience until our return on Monday afternoon. We drove to Victoria Square for dinner, which is a indoor/outdoor mall area with plenty of parking. We walked around for a bit while we had the light and then picked dinner at St. George's Market Bar and Grill. The food was pretty good here, I would return for another meal. The market looked like a nice market, but only open a few mornings a week. We walked back toward the mall for a milkshake, but too bad everything was shut down by 7pm on a Saturday!

We started our hour drive to the Causeway Tavern B&B. This place is ok. Located very close to the Causeway, and the rooms are typical size. They have a full english breakfast, and he does an ok job with it. The owners are nice enough people and he ended up talking my ear off as we were leaving. We first drove a few minutes to the Giant's Causeway. As advised by a friend, we parked at the railway museum for £6 instead of £32 up the hill. The rain was holding off on our walk out to the causeway, just barely. It was quite a neat area, but as tourists are allowed to go anywhere, they kind of ruin it a little. As we were about ready to head back, the wind and rain started. We had all of our gear, but I hiked Liana up the hill quickly to get out of the wind and rain.

Next we drove to Dunluce Castle. Again, the rain stopped for our visit until we were almost done. This was a neat ruins castle and we enjoyed exploring. On our way out, we saw several rainbows over the water. We decided if we saw a place to eat, we might stop, but we ended up driving to Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. We took the scenic route along the way and stopped along a few docks down near the water.

Mike stayed behind with the kids for the rope bridge. It was raining when we started walking, but again stopped within a few minutes. It was quite windy by the bridge, but were still able to cross. Once on the island, it is mostly blocked off. So after only a few minutes, we headed back toward the car. The bridge is quite sturdy and secure, but pretty high in the air.

We stopped in Ballycastle for some lunch at Thyme and Co., and then drove back to Belfast to find a place for the night. The next day we would visit the Titanic Experience.

Pictures of the Antrim Coast can be found here.

The day we visited was a bank holiday in ROI, so we weren't sure if people may be up visiting, causing long queues. But, we were able to pretty much walk right in to the Titanic Experience, so we got an early start. It isn't cheap, but really covers quite a lot of information. There is just enough to keep kids occupied. Afterward we walked down to the Pumphouse and dry dock where Titanic was built.

Pictures of Belfast can be found here.

Liana is One Year Old!

Liana turned one last week! She is such a big girl, and her personality is really coming through. While things were a little unpredictable during her birthday, we got to see some family. She is around 20 pounds (we weighed her on the airport luggage scales). She runs around pretty quick. She can go up stairs pretty well, but is terrible about getting down. She can kiss and hug if you ask, and gives really good hugs! She is starting to like read a lot more and brings me books to read. She even helps me pet the furry things in the books.

Summer Holiday 2013 - Belgium, Luxembourg, and Paris

This past week we finally took a long holiday, but had a lot planned for the week. We first started out in Brussels for 2 days. The only non-stop was the 6:40am Aer Lingus flight. We were up pretty early on Saturday!

Brussels

It was a pretty easy train ride in to Centrale from the airport, but most machines at the station would not take US credit cards. It was causing quite a lot of confusion with passengers, but luckily we had our european chip card. We stayed at the Ibis hotel, a couple minutes from Centrale, and a couple minutes to Grand Place. We had a very nice view of a little square and our triple worked well for us.

After unloading, we walked out toward Grand Place. It was lightly sprinkling, but we came prepared for that. We walked around, gawking at all the chocolate shops, trying to learn the right way to order waffles. We walked in the very old St. Nicholas church for a few minutes. We headed toward Manneken Pis. It gets crowded in waves as tours come through. It is also much smaller than I expected.

After this we finally sat down for some waffles. They were decent, but we were still learning and ordered a different kind from what we wanted (there are many kinds). We headed back to Grand Place since the rain had stopped. We learned that tours in english are Sundays mornings and Wednesday mornings, so we learned about how to get tickets the next morning. We continued walking around shops and then walked through the St. Hubert Galleries. It was just more chocolate!

We decided to go back to the hotel for a little rest before dinner. It was good timing as a huge storm rolled in right as we got back. The kids played and we napped (I think). We went to a place from the Lonely Planet book (and learned throughout the trip that this book series is bad at that) called Chez Leon, or something like that. Not great, but had a good brown beer called Grimbergen. After dinner we walked around and found some more delicious treats. We stopped at Rose de Damas; this place was amazing and beautiful and tasty!

The next morning we had our tour of Hotel de Ville (town hall); it was pretty cool. Afterwards we walked up toward the Royal Palace. We first walked down toward the Sablon area to see Notre Dame and look for food. The church was having mass, so we walked around, looked at more chocolate, and came back a little later. After the church, we hung out in the gardens across the street for a few minutes. On our way to the palace, we walked in the Church of Saint Jacques-sur-Coudenberg. We grabbed some food at the Belvue Musem cafe and then walked to the Royal Palace. The palace is free, so it was pretty full, but there wasn't really a line to get in. It was a typical palace, lots of big chandeliers. There was also a kid exploration room toward the end, kind of neat.

Next we strolled toward the St. Michael's Cathedral. There was a nice crypt and it was a nice church. We walked around a bit for dinner and found Les Chapeliers. The rabbit stew was good, Mort Subite Gueuze beer was good; it was a good find! After a few treats that night, and taking a few pictures of Grand Place at night, we got to bed in preparation for the next city.

Pictures from Brussels can be found here.

Bruges

On Monday morning we took the hour long train ride from Brussels to Bruges (after some more waffles of course!). It was pretty full on the train, but we got there. We bought our bus tickets and headed in to the Markt. This is the big town square, and our hotel was just a block away. The Crowne Plaza on the Burg had a good rate on a family room. We dropped off our bags and started walking around Markt. Kacey got some pommes frites with andalouse, while I grabbed a bratwurst to snack on. The line was long for the belfort, so we figured we would come back later. We walked down the street toward St. Salvator's Cathedral. The door we tried to go in said closed, but the door on the other side was still open, but closing. So I took a few pictures from the back and we headed on.

We walked along the back streets toward the Church of Our Lady. We walked by the St. Jans Hospital Museum and determined if we had time, we would visit. The church was nice, and contains a marble statue of Madonna and child by Michaelangelo, quite rare outside of Italy. We strolled along the street over the canal, stopping in shops to see chocolate and other things (and bought Nolan's Bruges flag).

Next we walked back to the Markt to go up the Belfort. The line wasn't too bad (down the steps took about 20 min) and the climb wasn't too bad. It was tight, and they didn't really want me to backpack Liana up, but I told them I was experienced and they let it go. The bells sound quite often, and it is really cool. There are 47 bells, and on the way up they describe how the system works. It is hard to get good pictures from the top due to the fencing installed, but it was a nice view of the Markt and the whole city.

We bummed around the Markt for a little afterward and then walked over to the Burg to see the Basilica of the Holy Blood. Supposedly, this church contains a relic of blood from Christ, gathered by Joseph of Arimathea. Next we bummed around the Markt some more, stopping in to shops along the way as we kind of accidentally walked out to 't zand square. There is a big water feature here and we hung around for a few pictures here. We started walking back toward the Markt to find some dinner.

After walking around some back streets for a while, we found an area behind the Burg with some restaurants. I had some yummy stew and a couple different beers, including Brugse Zot. We headed back toward the Markt to take a horse and carriage ride around town! This is big here, and was a nice treat. Afterward, we went out in search of ice cream. There isn't much super close to the Markt, which surprised me, but we found one a couple blocks away.

The next morning we changed our plans a little. Originally, we were going to pack up early and head to Ghent for a few hours to check it out. But, this was going to be stressful and hard with the kids. So we decided to skip Ghent and stay in Bruges a little longer, letting us relax and see a museum. We visited the St. Jans Hospital Museum and Pharmacy (Apotheek). It wasn't quite what we expected, but still neat. We found some sandwiches and pasta for lunch and got ready to head on the long trip to Luxembourg City, via Brussels.

Pictures from Bruges can be found here.

Luxembourg

We had train issues along the way to Luxembourg, requiring a few train changes. The instructions were only in french, but when you hear an announcement, and then everyone gets off the train and walks to another train, you follow. Also, I always kind of loudly ask in english what is going on in hopes a bi-lingual person will confirm our suspicions, and this usually works out well, especially when they see you struggling with kids and lots of luggage. We got in to Luxembourg about an hour late, and we were tired, so we hustled in to city centre to find some food.

We found an area with a couple options and actually stumbled in to an authentic Luxembourgish restaurant. Restaurant Kniddelkinnek served up yummy Kniddelen. It is like potato dumplings, and mine with served with bacon and cream. I had some Battin beer, but it was nothing special. We walked by Notre Dame on the way back to the hotel to see it lit at night.

The next morning we set out toward the city centre again. We randomly found the big market that was set up (which is next to the Town Hall and TI) at Place Guillaume II (William Square). We ate some fruit and pastries for breakfast and grabbed a walking tour guide. It is hard not to notice the large equestrian statue of William II. We started to notice these colorful elephants everywhere; it is part of the Elephant Parade. It was also at this time I was getting very curious about the languages being spoken in Luxembourg. I usually do a decent amount of research about the culture we visit, but this time, I just wasn't quite sure about something. I assumed they spoke french here, but I kept hearing german-sounding words. It turns out they speak Luxembourgish, a mix of german and french; but, most people understand english and french very well.

As the city centre is not very big, in a couple minutes we were outside the royal palace. This palace is not very big and tucked right in amongst other buildings. It was closed to the public on the day we were there, but we probably didn't miss too much. Next we strolled around Place d'Armes. This is the place with the Chi-Chi's restaurant; we had quite a laugh at this!

Next we walked out toward the Place de la Constitution. This is a war memorial with great views of the valley below. There were some friendly "Ask Me" folks here so we asked about the casemates. There are two in the Old Town; Petrusse Casemates has guided tours below the Place de la Constitution, and the other is the self-guided Bock Casemates on the other end of Chemin de la Corniche. We decided to do the self-guided Bock Casemates later in the day when we got there.

Next we checked out the Notre Dame church. Nothing big stood out here, but the downstairs had a blocked off chapel that looked interesting. Next we passed through Clairefontaine Square on our way to Chemin de la Corniche. Chemin de la Corniche, known as the most beautiful balcony in europe, is quite beautiful. I just couldn't stop taking it in and taking photos of the area; the little river passing by the church below in the Grund is quite picturesque.

We walked a few blocks in to find some food to eat. Along the way we briefly stepped in St. Michael's Church. We grabbed our take-away and walked out near the Bock Casemates to eat. We headed in to the Casemates next, and walking through the tunnels was fun for Nolan. There was a very deep well to look down, and lots of little nooks and crannies to check out. We got pretty far down a tunnel with no outlet, along with another family, and had to backtrack a ways out.

Kacey identified an area to visit called Fort Thüngen. She thought there was a carnival in the area, but we spotted it in the distance as we neared, realizing it was clearly in another part of town. There isn't much left of this fort, and it doesn't look like it is visited much, but we walked around for a few minutes, contemplated the museum, found some water, and started walking back toward the Grund.

We were going to finish our walking tour through the Grund, walking through the area that was so picturesque from above. By this time we were all getting tired, but we made it back to the area below the Place de la Constitution. We hiked up the steps for one last view of the valley below. We stopped in the TI to enquire about dinner, but they are not allowed to give recommendations. They could answer questions about possibilities of Luxembourgish food, and that led us to a brasserie on Place d'Armes. We had some decent food (pork neck with tasty beans), and they had pizza for Nolan. Also, the Ourdaller beer was pretty good. We were tired, but never too tired for some ice cream, so I got some yummy dark chocolate gelato on our walk back to the hotel.

On our way back, we decided to detour to the station to pre-purchase our train tickets. This way if there was a line or any issue in the morning, we would be set, as there are not a lot of trains to Paris from there. The next morning, we caught our 10am train to Paris!

Pictures from Luxembourg can be found here.

Paris

We arrived to Paris Est a little after noon. I already knew what route we would take to the hotel, we just had to buy metro tickets. After some frustration with the machine, we learned that you can not buy discounted childrens tickets one at a time, only in packs of ten. Still, a great deal! We made our way to Maubert - Mutualité square and walked a block up to California Hotel. We were able to secure a family room for less than €200/night, pretty close to the metro and in a nice area. The hotel wasn't that great, but it worked. We dumped our things and headed out. We had roughly planned our few days there, and Thursday was reserved for the Rodin Museum and Arc de Triomphe.

We took the metro to the Rodin Museum. The family rate was unreal; one euro more than a single adult! We walked in and first stopped in the gardens. Casts of his works are outside in the gardens, while his small originals are kept inside. The weather was great and there were some nice views of The Thinker with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Next we walked by the Musee de l'Armee, as it has a large gold dome visible all around the area. The tomb of Napoleon I is here, but we didn't really have a desire to go in. We hit the metro out toward Arc de Triomphe. While about what I expected, it is nice to see how much they guard and protect this, and admire it is a real memorial. We just happened to show up right before the weekly lighting ceremony of the flame, so we stayed for that. Next we strolled down Avenue des Champs-Élysées and stopped for some snacks, and to check out a few stores. While the Sephora was crazy, I think Laduree was the favorite (the creator of the macaroon). It was dinner time, and while french food is supposed to be great, we were not looking forward to finding decent places here. You have to just walk the backstreets and hope you find something decent. Thursday night we found Le President not too far from where we were. The food was ok but forgettable. After dinner, we wanted to catch the Eiffel Tower at night, as well as the 5 minute light show at the top of every hour. Also, this would be a test to see how to get in and out of the area on transit. We got to the Trocadéro stop to change lines, but Kacey realized we may be in a better position at this point, and she was correct. We had the best seats in the city for the light show, right across the river. Although late, we stayed for a while to just enjoy being where we were.

The next morning we had reservations for the Eiffel Tower at 11am. We got there about 15 minutes early in hopes to find some quick food, but surprisingly there wasn't much there for breakfast. Even with tickets to cut the queue, it still took about 10 minutes to get to the first level, and then another 35 minutes to get to the top (you don't cut that line). The weather was great, but still the haze limits your view; it was hard to make out Notre Dame from the tower. We had a nice time walking around, then coming down to the second level to walk around some more, enjoy the view, and eat some snacks. It was a great visit.

We headed over to the river to find some food, but we found a merry-go-round. So Nolan took a ride, then we looked for food to enjoy in the grass beneath the Eiffel Tower. It took a while to find some food, but we found some on a side street to the south of the tower. We enjoyed playing in the grass and eating some food. Our second activity for the day was the Louvre, so we hit the metro and arrived around 3:45.

We had tickets already, but the lines were not bad at all. Also on Fridays (when we were there), the museum is open later in to the evening. We were going to use the free map, along with our Lonely Planet guide, to get through the museum by dinner. It was a little slow to start (tricky with a stroller, areas don't connect as you would expect), but we saw everything we wanted to see by dinner. Having a 3rd party guide book can really help you see everything you should see. Pictures are allowed almost everywhere (surprising), including at Mona Lisa (even more surprising).

We thought it would be a little more easy to find food in this area, but we still had to walk around for 20 minutes or so before finding a side street with some real options. We found Bistrot Richelieu and liked the menu. I was able to try escargots and we all enjoyed some delicious food. We decided to walk to the hotel and stop at Notre Dame along the way (and find some dessert). Notre Dame at night was busy! Lots of people, entertainers, and the church is open late.

The next day we started off at Notre Dame after eating breakfast at the market next to our hotel. Pretty typical church, just large, crowded, and displaying some very large, beautiful Rose windows. For our next stop, we took the RER to the Orsay museum. No photo here, but I was able to step outside for a few pictures of Sacre Coeur in the distance. A lot of the art here is really up Kacey's alley, so we enjoyed a long visit here. After grabbing some sandwiches, we took the metro up to Sacre Coeur.

We wondered why everyone was queued up to take the lift in this station; it was a long hike out! Along the way, the signs indicated which way to go to take the funicular up to the church. Well, despite our best efforts, we hiked all the way up; quite tiring! There was a concert going on outside the church that we later learned was Christian music. The young people of Sacre Coeur seem to be having some sort of revival to reach out to young people in the community; it was nice! No photo inside, but it had a more warm feeling inside, probably due to the young people walking around encouraging prayer and singing. Kacey stayed down with the kids while I went up the dome for views of the city. The views were nice, but with the haze, it was hard to see things by the river. We took the funicular down the hill and learned it really didn't help out much. Kacey did some shopping while I watched Nolan play at the bottom of the hill (playground!).

We took the metro down to Odeon to walk around looking for food. We didn't really find something we liked for about 30 minutes, but eventually found Les Gourmands de Notre Dame. This place was nice and close to Notre Dame. On our way to the hotel, I was looking for some dessert. We walked by Raimo, and I was treated to some of the best ice cream in my life. The two flavours I had were lemon-basil and strawberry-mint leaves. It was just outstanding!

Our final morning, we decided to visit the Pantheon (since we had been staring at it's dome from our hotel room) and the Luxembourg Gardens before heading to the airport. The Pantheon wasn't too crowded (or super interesting), but it did contain the tombs of Marie Curie and Louis Braille. After eating some crepes for early lunch, we only had 5 minutes to see the gardens, but oh well, it was still a very nice day.

I think we did Paris is a reasonable way. It is impossible to see everything, and you just have to take it slow sometimes (I forget this easily).

Pictures from Paris can be found here.

It was a great trip in all! We saw lots of things, had a lot of great food, and except for just the first day, had great weather. We had no real issues, except for train problems on the way to Luxembourg. If we had been kidless, we could have maybe fit in Ghent, Belgium, but we were pleased to have spent more time in Bruges.

Prague

We have been wanting to visit Prague for about 3 years, and we were glad that Aer Lingus has direct flights out of Dublin to visit. Prague lived up to the hype, and it was a great trip!

We caught our flight out of DUB around 11am and arrived in PRG around 3pm or so. We knew we wanted to take a taxi in because the public transport options looked slow. The taxi was a good way to the Old Town Square, where our hotel was located; it was about 600 Koruna with tip, and quick. We were staying at the Hotel Černý Slon; a reasonably priced triple, steps from the Old Town Square. We were generally pleased with the hotel and would stay again. After checking in, we just wanted to walk around a bit. We thought maybe this afternoon would be good for a sightseeing tour, something we don't normally do. (We are trying to adjust how we run our trips due to 2 kids).

We did the green train that takes about an hour and drives by the castle. I do not recommend this method. There is a recording in 4 languages that plays, and the ride is quite bumpy. Even Nolan was done by the end of it! It only kind of stops once by the castle, but you don't ever get out of the thing. And, views are partially obscured by the plexiglass on one side of the car. You might be better off splurging and taking one of the old time cars around (even though these looked like they might get hot in the sun). We were actually wanting to do a golf cart tour, but couldn't find any!

After our tour, we went up the tower in the Old Town Hall for some views of Prague. Going in the late afternoon meant that we couldn't get good pictures of the castle due to the sun, but there were still good views of the square and Old Town Prague. Nolan was a little too scared to walk around the outside part. That night for dinner we just booked at our hotel as it had a decent rating. The food was good, but the menu was limited. The crispy duck with red cabbage was yummy.

Sunday was our day for the castle. First we walked over to the Old New Synagogue. This is quite old, and is the oldest active synagogue in Europe. It was no photo, but a very simple, small interior. We considered going to the cemetery because we heard it was a good sight, but the ticket was a lot more just to do that, and we were ready to go to the castle. We decided to take a quick taxi up the hill to preserve tired legs, and it was already getting hot.

The Prague Castle does not look that big at first, but it took us about 6 hours to do almost all of it, including lunch. We bought the full ticket to the castle, but quickly learned that the full ticket did not cover everything... what a pain! But buying the photo pass was definitely worth it, as it is cheap. First we saw the permanent exhibition "The Story of Prague Castle" which showed the history and growth of the castle over the years. We then ate lunch at the Lobkowicz Palace Café, rated well with a good view. The food was good and the view was nice.

Next we went to the Rosenberg Palace. This wasn't too big, just a couple rooms, but started off with a large chapel. They also had on display there many gargoyles on display from the castle. Next we walked the Golden Lane. This narrow passageway shows many of the old "homes" of people who used to work and live in the castle. This place was pretty packed and not much room to enjoy things. Next we stepped in Daliborka Tower. Once we got in, we realized this was a torture tower. Don't think Nolan really knew, but still we didn't linger.

St. George's Basilica was next. From the outside entrance, there was a nice view of St. Vitus. Inside the basilica was pretty simple. It reminded me a little bit of St. Francis of Assisi church, just not as big. Next we visited the Old Royal Palace. This started off with a large room and while mostly roped off, it was still a good place for Liana to run around a little bit. She was attracting a bit of attention! There are a few nice views of the cities from the balconies. There are also several little rooms in which to explore and see exhibits, including a room full of family crests.

Next we went to St. Vitus Cathedral. There were loads of tourists at the back who were not going to purchase a ticket I suppose. Once in, I happened to be stuck between two tour groups while walking around the back; I couldn't escape them! This church had several little chapels/prayer areas around the back of the church. They also had many areas blocked off that you normally don't see blocked off, but you could still see most of the areas just fine. Then while Kacey rested with the kids, I quickly went up the tower. There was a massive bell just barely visible on the way up. The views were pretty nice, though! It was a little hard to take some pictures due to all the iron gates over the window openings, but I was able to manage.

Next we visited the Prague Castle Picture Gallery. The air conditioning felt great! The picture gallery wasn't super special, but it is part of the full ticket and was a nice break from the sites. We lastly visited the Powder Tower. We got here just before they closed, but this is just a small military museum. We only spent 5-10 minutes here before heading out. There was a neat view of St. Vitus against the sky from near the entrance to the Powder Tower.

As we left the castle, we decided to walk back to Old Town via the Old Castle Steps. We snapped a few more pictures of the city here, and turned to look back behind us to see a HUGE storm system moving in. As we prepped the best we could for the impending rain, we scurried down the steps and quickly moved toward the Old Town. By the time we got to the river, it seemed like it was making a break, so we hung out on the bank of the river and took some pictures of Charles Bridge while picking out dinner. We picked a place, and as we started walking, the storm clouds grew even more menacing. By the time we got across the bridge, huge straight line winds blew in from over the hill and it quite out of control for a few minutes! We started nearly running toward the hotel. The rain started slowly right as we entered the Old Town Square. As we were steps from the hotel entrance, it really started to rain. We really lucked out! But, now it was raining and we had no dinner options. I peered out the window and saw one of the golf cart tour guys just sitting down there. I asked him how much to take us to our restaurant, just down the street. He said since he was done for the night, and that was on his way home, no charge. Awesome! I did tip him nicely, though.

That night we ate at Kolkovna. Non-smoking section was downstairs and while a little warm, the food did not disappoint! I had the Traditional Bohemian Platter; a wide array of meat, dumplings, and cabbage. Once dinner was done, the rain had stopped. So we decided to walk around the Old Town Square a bit at night. We stopped in a bakery because Kacey was wanting something; she ended up with a piece of chocolate cake. The Old Town Square at night was nice. I also ran over to take some pictures of the Castle at night from the bridge. Our Lady Before Tyn Church is nicely lit at night.

The next day we were just planning on a few random sites not too far away. We first tried Our Lady Before Tyn Church, next door to our hotel. It is closed Mondays! So we decided to try St. James Church. This church does not allow photo, or even walking around. It was a nice example of baroque, and had me hoping to see more at another church. Finally, we visited the St. Nicholas church. This was a nice little church with a grand chandelier in the centre.

We then decided to try a tour of the Old Town Hall, and we just barely caught the english tour. It was pretty neat, and we got to see the inner workings of the 12 Apostles inside the Astronomical Clock.



We searched around a while for lunch and finally found Klub Architektu. The flavours were good, but my meat was low quality. We headed toward the famous Charles Bridge after lunch. As expected, it was crowded, but interesting. Once we got across the bridge, we saw some gelato and it really hit the spot! We headed toward the other St. Nicholas church, this one in Lesser Town Square. Photo was allowed here and it was a grand example of baroque! We were even allowed upstairs for a picture gallery and nice views of the church.

We were now headed off to do a few things for Nolan. We were looking for the funicular up Petrin Hill to check out some things up there. Getting a ticket to go up is quite a pain, and confusing! You have to have exact change, there are no change booths, and a ton of people forming random lines to squeeze their way on the tram. Our plan was to take Nolan to the Mirror Maze. We weren't sure what to expect here. It was quite small, but we lingered in the crazy mirrors area and goofed off for a while. Nolan enjoyed it. It isn't quite a maze, it is just a path with mirrors. After about age 7 or so, it would stop being neat I suppose.

We were then going to just walk around before heading back down. On top of the hill is also the tower, but we already had lots of views of the city, and Nolan would not have liked climbing up. Kacey went in for the restroom and found a children's exhibit in the basement! So we went in and Nolan built for a while and Liana walked around and stretched her legs. Our next stop was supposed to be the big one for Nolan, where we would relax for a while. Detsky Ostrov, which translates to Children's Island. Yes, an island in the river with a big playground on it. We got there, and it was closed! We took a picture of Nolan in front of the mean, poorly spelled construction sign, with a frowny face.

We decided to cross the river and take the metro to Wenceslas square since we were getting tired. We strolled around a bit, did some shopping, and started the short walk back to Old Town Square. It was getting late by time we picked a restaurant, but we walked over to Lokal as it was rated well. It was hard to get a seat, but we managed after a few minutes and ordered a plethora of items off the menu. I recommend eating a meal here! Different beer pours, lots of meats, and yummy dessert.

The next day we flew home, but we had time to visit a museum in the morning. We picked the Museum of Communism. It looks a little small at first, and a little hard to find, but it was packed with info and exhibits. I recommend westerners to visit and spend some time reading the material.

Prague was great! Even in the heat, it was doable. AAA Taxis are readily available, there is lots to see, food is good, and people are generally nice.

Pictures from our trip can be seen here.