Emerald Isle - Ireland Series: Dublin, Ireland

When you arrive to Dublin, grab a taxi to get to your hotel.  It's cheap, safe & easy.  Drop your bags off at the hotel and jump on one of the Hop on/Hop off city tour buses.  The tour lasts 1 1/2 hours (start to finish), but you'll want to hop off to sightsee and take photos.  The buses pick up at 25 different well know locations and stop every 15 minutes.  No locals, only tourists use these buses.  It's a terrific way to get the lay of the land of the city and then use it over your stay to get around without having to pay for taxis.

Guinness 

Jameson


Do as the other tourists do, plan a visit to either the Jameson or Guinness factories.  It's one of those checklist items that make the trip memorable during your 1st time in Dublin.

O'Connell Street

Arlington Hotel

half penny bridge

Find a restaurant to enjoy dinner and a show.  We selected the Arlington Hotel because it hosted an "Irish Dancing Night".  Live Irish music, dancing and dinner.  We had a great time!  You can find the same set up at many of the restaurants and bars at the Temple Bar neighborhood or 
Bachelor's Walk.














One of the things that really stayed with me was how tourist friendly & safe Dublin is.  From the ease of getting around, by either walking in the city center, by using the hop on/hop off buses to see sites outside the city center, friendliness of the locals, use of the Euros and English is the primary language spoken.  More importantly was how safe we felt as we walked in the city, including at night.  Not saying that you don't have to be mindful of your surroundings, but you don't have locals seeking you out as targets.  Feeling safe made a much more enjoyable visit and willingness to venture out of the hotel at night which is when the city came alive.

Let's use Dublin as our starting point in our travels of the East coast.  How will we get from city to city?  We will rent a vehicle from Hertz on our last day in Dublin.  Next stop is Carlingford.

Happy Traveling!

Emerald Isle - Ireland Series: Ireland - everything you need to know before your trip.

Ireland - a place that most people dream of visiting, but rarely do.  Why?  My guess is that most travelers are not sure what there is to do once you arrive besides, drink and see beautiful, green, rolling hills and never ending ocean views.  

Let me unlock the mystery and you may finally plan that vacation to Ireland this Summer.  It's easier than you think.

Step 1:  Decide when do you want to go?  
Peak season is Summer when temperatures are 70 degrees or off season - early Fall when you may get wet and it can be cold.

Step 2:  What side of the coast do you want to see?  
West or East?  For this series on the Emerald Isle, we selected the East coast.  I'll explain in more detail throughout the series the differences in sites and currency.

Step 3:  How do you want to see the sites?  
Private driver, chartered bus tours or rent a vehicle?  We chose to rent a vehicle and I HIGHLY recommend it.  Hertz made it easy and provided a Never Lost GPS, which made planning stress free.  No exaggeration!

Step 4:  What sites do you want to see?  
Do the research and factor in driving time.  Remember that sunlight is limited depending on weather conditions and the time of year, so make sure you're giving yourself enough time to get to the site and take a few photos before heading to the next sight/location or hotel.

Step 5:  Bring a couple of devices to take photos.  
Trust me, you can't take a bad photo in Ireland.  I'll share lots of photos of our trip in this blog series of the Emerald Isle.

Next blog - Dublin.  Where our trip begins and ends.  

Happy Traveling!

Romantic Rhine series - Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a melting pot of cultures.  There's so much to see and do in Amsterdam that it's hard to know where to begin.  There are several museums, my favorite is still the Rijks Museum.  Now that it's been reopened and the construction is complete, it's worth another visit!  It's filled with the Dutch masters, but I especially enjoyed the way they refreshed the placement of the paintings.

Let's start with a boat ride around town.  After all, that's the best way to see the sites, unless your adventurous enough to rent a bike?

Flower market is on the right side of this picture.

Shopping:  Looking for a nice souvenir to bring back home and can't afford the Diamond district?  I would recommend picking up a piece of the blue pottery called, Delftware.  It's pricey, but very beautiful and will make a unique gift.

Restaurants:  When I'm in Amsterdam I want fish.  We received two recommendations from locals:  Lucius and Visaandeschelde.  We've been to Lucius before so we tried out Visaandeschelde.  So glad that we did because we had an amazing meal and the perfect customer service experience from our waitress.  I highly recommend this restaurant, but MAKE RESERVATIONS as it's popular with the locals.

http://www.visaandeschelde.nl/

This is the end of our Romantic Rhine Series.  We hope that you enjoyed it.  The next series will be on Ireland.

Happy Traveling!

Romantic Rhine series - Dusseldorf

Leaving Cologne and heading to Amsterdam, we got to see some beautiful sites as we floated on the Rhine River.  The evening was so warm, locals sat on the rocks with their feet in the water & some were hoping for a last minute catch of a fish.

Dusseldorf

Next trip we'll stop at Dusseldorf.  Until then, you will have to enjoy the shots we got from our River Boat.

Happy Traveling!

Romantic Rhine series - Cologne

Cologne is mainly known for the Cathedral, but there's a lot to see and do while visiting this city that has close to 1 million residents.  We arrived at Cologne on probably the worse day - day after Halloween.  So most shops were closed for All Saints Day.

Let's get started at the Alstadt houses.  These houses are considered some of the original buildings and therefore protected.  They lean into each other as to almost hold each other up from the weathering of time.

Around the corner are several narrow streets.  Mainly lined with bars, restaurants and shops for tourists to enjoy.  The night before was Halloween, so the streets were absolutely deserted when we arrived the next morning.

 Over each of the bars, they still have the signs/artwork depicting what's sold inside.

One souvenir that most people get is eau de Cologne (4711 Haus).  Inside the shop is also a museum.  It's easy to find as it's across from the Cathedral.

Another fun thing to do is sampling the freshly drawn Kolsch beer.  Which also describes the small glasses they are served in .2 liter glasses.  These small glasses make it fun to sample a variety of beers.

Next stop is the Cathedral - Dom from 13th century.  It's literally too big to get in one shot.  I therefore took several to give you an idea of the enormous size of the Cathedral.

Beautiful medieval stain glass windows

This is 1 of the actual tops of the spires.  It gives you just another reminder of the size of this church.

Inside of the church looking at the Chancel

The Cologne Cathedral is Germany's most visited building and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Miraculously it was almost unscathed by the blanket bombing of the city during the 2nd World War.  It took centuries to complete the building of this amazing church.

Once we arrived to Cologne everything was in walking distance and along the river.  Next stop is Amsterdam.  Before we arrive/dock there, we will float by Dusseldorf.

Happy Traveling!

Romantic Rhine series - Koblenz

Koblenz - confluence city:  What does that mean?  Koblenz is situated at the point where the Moselle and the Rhine rivers connect.  It has been of strategic importance since Roman times and the town was an important center of trade during the Middle Ages.  

The town is filled with parks along the rivers.  It was badly bombed during the WWII, but the downtown area has plenty of attractive streets and squares to stop and rest between window shopping.

Deutsches Eck:  The German Corner at the corner has the statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I.

I'd recommend taking the lifts up to Festung Ehrenbreitstein.  You'll get tremendous views and the fortification is from 1817 for all those history buffs.

These are 3 pieces of the Berlin wall when it was taken down in 1989.







Liebfrauenkirche:  The Baroque towers of the Church of Our Lady are the city symbol, but the interior dates from 1200-1500.  I took pictures from the front, side and back of the church.  Really pretty and unique views depending what side you're looking at.

Very close to the German Corner is the Ludwig Museum.  It has a collection of modern art which can be viewed in the former House of the Teutonic Knights.








This town felt very German.  Unlike some of the other towns we visited that clearly had French or Swiss influences, this felt uniquely German.  Not only through the buildings, but also the statues that seemed to be around every corner.

One of the stories that our tour guide enjoyed sharing with us, was about the little boys (little John) who attended the school.  They would spit water on locals.  These boys were seen as mischievous and the statue is a symbol of their youth and lighthearted fun. 

One of the creepy tourist stops is to see this clock named The Augenroller.  The eyes move side to side when the clock chimes and the tongue sticks out at the top of the hour.

The Augenroller depicts the knight Johann Lutter of Koburn who was accused of being a bandit. He was captured and after prolonged torture he is said to have confessed to his crimes and was sentenced to be beheaded on October 14, 1536. It is said that as he was led to the site of his execution he exclaimed in a loud voice 'Establish a monument to me and it will bring you luck!'. While on the platform he is said to have rolled his eyes and stretched out his tongue for the spectators and once his head lay severed it continued to roll its eyes and flap its tongue. This was taken as a sign from god so the citizens established the Augenroller monument.  The original Augenroller was destroyed during the second World War but a new one was erected and can be seen today under the clock on the tower of the beautiful gothic Mittelrhein Museum.  I'd skip this, but it's your call!  :)

Next stop is Cologne, Germany.  Until then, Happy Traveling!!