16 July

We had homemade apple juice and strawberry jam with our breakfast croissants on the veranda. I gave my German phrase book to the innkeeper to hopefully pass along to someone else, and we hiked to the station. At least when you stay at the top of the hill, the beginning of the day is downhill.☺... Read More

17 July

I gave our Swiss power adapter to the desk clerk on the way out, and we headed for the station. We checked on TGV seats again this morning, to see if they had freed up any for pass holders, but nothing had changed. The regional train served us nicely, as we had power available for the computer and a cool, private compartment. We traveled through a lot of farm land this morning. They are starting to harvest the grain now.... Read More

18 July, Sunday

Steak and eggs for breakfast fortified us for a day's sightseeing. We rode the metro to the Lyon train station and strolled the Promenade Plantée, supposedly the skinniest park in Europe. It is on an old train viaduct that runs for a couple of miles near the zoo. We tried to go to the zoo, but it is closed for a complete renovation until 2013, so we just wandered through the extensive park and woodland paths in its neighborhood. The rowboats on the park lake looked just like Saurat's painting Sunday Afternoon in the Park. We had a lot of trouble with our apartment's key cards, requiring multiple trips to the service desk, but we can both now get in the room with our own keys. Janene's pedometer ticked over the 700 mile mark today.

French keyboard

Paris Metro

Viaduc des Arts

narrow park

building split by park

Jardin de Reuilly

artichoke thistle

Why this photo?

Because this.

Palais de la Porte Dorée

sub-floor seating

turkey-leg foosball

circular sink

Guide Dog School for the Blind in Paris

Lac Daumesnil

Sunday Afternoon in the Park

Eiffel Tower Lights video (21s, 1.2MB)

19 July

We started the day at the Arc de Triomphe to find huge crowds and a long line to get tickets for climbing to the top. We decided to try again later and strolled down the Champs-Élysées to the Louvre. Along the way, we walked through the Place de la Concorde, where, in a triumph of efficiency, they set up the guillotine during the French Revolution and chopped 2800 folks.... Read More

20 July

We got an earlier start today and got to the Arc before the ticket office opened. After viewing it from ground level, we climbed the 306 steps to the rooftop terrace. The views from there are great, and it's especially fascinating to watch the insane traffic as it circles and weaves its way around and around the monument. From there, we went to the Sacré-Cœur church.... Read More

21 July

We hustled over to the Eiffel Tower early to make reservations for tomorrow night. Everything to do with this structure seems to involve standing in a line, but we got our tickets relatively quickly. Women who we presumed to be Gypsies kept coming up and asking if we speak English. Rather than listen to their pitch, I found it to be very effective to say "I don't understand" in Italian. Fortunately, none of them spoke Italian and they moved swiftly along to the next target.... Read More

22 July

Today was a random sort of day, since we've completed our list of targeted sites. We tried repeatedly to rent the community bikes that are scattered all over town, but finally determined that it just can't be done unless your credit card has a chip in it. We didn't bring such a card with us, so we're destined to walk.... Read More

23 July

Efforts to secure BritRail passes consumed much of our day. They can only be purchased for North Americans in North America, but the British Rail agent we contacted worked around the problem for us and is getting passes issued from Montreal. Then we had to find a place to receive them. Our first thought was the U.S. Embassy in Dublin, but they are about impossible to contact, so we emailed a hostel in Dublin that agreed to hold them for us until we can pick them up. Between bouts of email activity, we managed a few hours out and about on our last day in Paris. The local news did a story about a man-made beach on a riverside street that sounded interesting, so we walked along the Seine upstream from the Eiffel Tower looking for it. There was controversy about the project because of feared increases in traffic congestion, and the opponents must have prevailed, because we never found the beach. But we visited a few places that we had walked past earlier without really investigating.

Monument in memory of the Tunisian campaign	Pont Alexandre III		Charles de Gaulle statue
Grand Palais museum	inside Grand Palais	Petit Palais art museum

24 July

A final check of email verified that our plans for the BritRail pass were in place, so we placed the order. We'll keep our fingers crossed until we actually hold the passes in our hands. We checked out of the Paris condo and took the Metro to the train station, where we headed for Cherbourg, France.... Read More

25 July, Sunday

We took the local train from Caen to Bayeux where we ended up wandering much of the town based on bad advice about where to hook up with a tour of the D-Day sites. We visited the British cemetery before connecting with a tour company and making the rounds of Gold and Omaha beaches, plus Pointe du Hoc and the American cemetery. It was an afternoon well spent. Janene left her camera battery in our hotel room, so we are depending on the kindness of a fellow tourist and the wonders of the internet for photos of the D-Day sites.

As the tour guide was driving us to the train station, we passed a huge convoy of cars and SUVs pulling a wide variety of travel trailers. There was also a larger than usual number of police about. I asked our guide if they were people on holiday, or Travelers (Gypsies). They were Gypsies on the move after camping in the area. The whole Gypsy/Traveler/Romani issue is a huge political headache in many parts of Europe. It's also a complex social issue that I don't begin to really understand. Nevertheless, for two gaping tourists, it was another interesting episode in an area that seems so much like home, yet is so very different. Back in Caen, we had our final supper in France at a little sidewalk café called Pizza Hut.

J&J at Normandy American Cemetery	J&J at Pointe du Hoc	Statue of Joan of Arc in Caen
Église Saint-Jean	Église Saint-Jean	Église Saint-Jean	church tower
	church organ	church interior	sidewalk café

26 July

Today marks the 100th day of our adventure. We celebrated by sleeping late, and then buying cookies and breakfast rolls at a local bakery we found on our first day in Caen. We took the train back to Cherbourg and had lunch at McDonald's so we could use their Wi-Fi. We're really going to miss this French food!

The biggest grocery store we've seen since leaving home stood between us and our bus stop, so we stocked up on food for the ferry crossing. Our brief brush with the gypsies must have rubbed off, because the clerk asked us to open our daypacks to be sure we weren't shoplifting snails or something, I guess. We passed inspection and were allowed to buy our goods and go free. I guess we should be flattered that we appear dangerous to at least one person on the continent.

We had about an hour to wait for our bus to the ferry, but after sitting and staring about us for a few minutes, we decided to just walk. Check-in was a breeze and we boarded and settled into our cabin before exploring the ship. We're sailing on our 5th ship, the Oscar Wilde, and they have a little walking tour around the decks which follows a trail of plaques with tidbits about Oscar's life. After the walking tour, we had a drink at the forward lounge's happy hour. Supper was enjoyed in our cabin from the aforementioned provisions before we attended a magic show in one of the lounges. The ship is literally crawling with small, mostly red-haired children. I find myself shuffling along in fear of stepping on them as they swarm madly about. We've deduced that most of Ireland has been on holiday in France, and it's time for them to go back home.

Caen FD at work

Fort du Roule

Irish Ferry:

Oscar Wilde

boarding the ferry

Cherbourg harbor: Fort Central

leaving Cherbourg harbor

ferry cabin

Appletini - a warrior's drink

magic show

ferry passes

27 July

As we approached the Irish shore this morning, the passengers of the Oscar were treated to a rescue drill by the Irish Coast Guard. The ferry has no helipad, so they practiced rescuing someone from the deck with a basket. I think most of the passengers turned out for the event.

After weeks of traveling freely about Europe, we had to produce our passports to get into Ireland at the port of Rosslare. Fortunately, we were able to find them quickly and were admitted with no delay. Finding the train station was a bit of an adventure, but we managed it along with two young couples from the States. They are all fresh out of college. Maybe we gave them hope for their golden years. We made it to Dublin where we stayed at the Avalon House Hostel. Directly across the street from the hostel is the church where the remains of St. Valentine are buried. It seems that the saint got moved around back in the early 1800s and ended up in Rome. A hotshot preacher from this area by the name of John Spratt impressed the Pope so much that he was given what was left of St Valentine, which he brought back to Dublin in 1835. I never knew that Cousin John did so well for himself.

gathered crowds	the copter approaches	rescue drill underway	Rosslare Europort
	Irish Coast Guard	drill completed
gangplank at dock	covered walkway to terminal	Midget truck	Avalon House in Dublin

28 July

We caught an early train out of Dublin, traveling south to Tralee. There, we transferred to a bus to Dingle, where we had reservations at a B&B for two nights. Our room was on the outskirts of the town, with a really nice view of the hills and bay. After checking in, we walked around the small town, bought groceries, and rented bikes for tomorrow's exploration of the surrounding countryside. We got the bikes from Foxy John's, a combination pub, hardware store, and bike rental facility. Janene thinks it got its start when the village men would tell their wives that they needed to pop down to the hardware store during the day.

heading to Dingle

on the Dingle peninsula

Dingle area

Dingle area B&B bedroom bedroom view	Full Irish
view from B&B down by the pier "It must be Dingle!"

dolphin art

Dingle Pub

theatre arts building on "The Mall"

Only in Ireland

29 July

Our landlady is Vivian O'Shea. I'm tempted to believe that she changed her name just to lure in the American tourists. After she fed us a wonderful breakfast, we mounted our bikes and headed off on the loop road of the Dingle Peninsula, which follows the coastline for the most part.... Read More

30 July

We were both able to get out of bed unaided, but our bottoms are exceedingly glad that bicycle saddles are not in today's plans. The best news of the day was an email telling us that our BritRail passes are waiting at the hostel in Dublin. We both opted for the traditional Irish breakfast this morning, and that kept us fed until well into mid-afternoon.... Read More

31 July

The weather was damp and cool today. We are beginning to understand why everything is so green here. The 0930 train from Limerick to Galway was well populated, but not jammed full like the ones yesterday. We took a room in a hotel near the station, registering with a lovely lass we called Polly because she reminded us of Polly on Faulty Towers – running the desk, answering the phone, and working in the pub/café all at the same time. We found the visitor's center, and made reservations for a driving/walking tour tomorrow to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren Mountains. The tour is with a local company and will also visit the guide's family farm, so we have high hopes. This is a major three-day holiday weekend in Ireland, and the Galway horse races are going on (a big deal in these parts), so there are lots of people and a high degree of revelry. Actually, it doesn't seem to take much to set the locals off into alcohol-fueled celebration. As we took a walking tour of Galway, we saw numerous examples of the stereotypical drunken Irishman staggering the streets. We had some wonderful chowder served by Polly in the bar/café downstairs. She even brought us glasses of water with ICE CUBES in them; we got a little choked up, since these are about the first ice cubes and the first non-bottled water we've found in a café in over three months. We hope to get to bed fairly early tonight, but the noise from the street below may make that difficult.

Tait's Clock

leaving Limerick

Columbus Memorial

close-up of inscription

Galway racers	"Embrace the Pear"	Invisible Drummer	Salmon Weir on River Corrib
Galway Cathedral	Galway Cathedral

1 Aug, Sunday

Our fears about noise were well founded. We could tell when the bars closed at 0300 because the amplified music stopped and the parties moved out onto the sidewalks and streets. This continued for about another 1.5 hours, when the beer they'd purchased at last call must have started running out. After that, the din was sporadic rather than continuous, seemingly caused mostly by transient bands of celebrants as they passed through our area. By 0630, things were fairly sedate. We arose at 0800, packed, left our bags for Polly to store for the day, and walked to the bus station for our day of touring.... Read More

2 August

It was still cold and damp today – quite a change from the heat of the mainland. We booked a hotel in Belfast through the internet for tomorrow night, but I realized that I entered tonight's date just as I hit the "submit" button. So I had to fiddle around with email and a couple of phone calls to get the reservation changed. We took a guided walking tour of Dublin for about three hours, hitting many of the politically and culturally historic sites around town. As always, it was informative and entertaining. We had lunch in a pub with most of the group afterwards, and then strolled around town for a few more hours. I tried sitting on a bike, just to see if my behind was recovered. It didn't hurt too much. We had soup for supper, trying to get warm, and spent the evening processing and emailing pictures. ... See Photos

3 August

After another hearty hostel breakfast of toast and jam, we headed for the train station. Along the way, we traded what Euros we could for British Pounds and spent the rest on snacks. We must admit to not seeing much on our train ride to Belfast, but we had access to newspapers, and it was such a treat to be able to read something in English that we didn't spend much time looking out of the windows. A lot of the paper related to ongoing investigations into riots that occurred in NW Belfast on July 12th.... Read More

4 August

We made it to the ferry terminal unscathed, and are both happy to put Ireland, and especially Northern Ireland, behind us. There was a bit of excitement when we had to evacuate the ferry terminal due to a malfunctioning fire alarm, but we still managed to cast off on schedule. We got to watch an American movie in English on the ferry. When we landed in Stranraer, Scotland, we hit the local tourist office and got set up at B&Bs for tonight and tomorrow night. We wandered about town, used the library's computers to check mail, and visited the local castle, which is very nice. It's small, but interesting and, best of all, free. A proper meal in a hotel bar topped off a good day. ... See Photos

5 August

Today, we took a bus from Stranraer to Kirkcudbright. We could pronounce towns in Croatia, Germany, France, etc, but now that we're in a supposedly English-speaking land, we find that we cannot read a map. Kirkcudbright is pronounced Curcoobree. At least that's as close as we can get. The two towns are only about 30 miles apart, but it took two buses and about 2.5 hrs to get here. We got at least a quick glimpse of every little burg along the way.... Read More

6 August

Our landlords took us back to the bakery for more cookie bars, then gave us a lift to Castle Douglas, and we caught a bus from there to Dumfries. We were told that exact change for the bus might be needed, so I went to a Bank of Scotland branch for change. I presented two twenty-pound notes to the teller and was informed that they couldn't be changed unless I had an account there because they were Bank of Ulster notes. I had read that Irish pounds could be confusing outside of Northern Ireland, so I dug in my pocket and produced a Scottish £20. That was also no good, since it was a Clydesdale Bank note. Apparently, every bank prints its own money. It can be spent anywhere, but the other banks must not like the competition. It's like if Wells Fargo wouldn't take bills from Chase. It's possible that I just encountered an idiot teller, but I ended up buying a candy bar so I could get change.... Read More

7 August

We re-traced our train tracks from Loch Lomond back to Glasgow and connected with the train for Inverness, where we changed once more for Thurso, on the northern coast of Scotland. The ride north through the highlands was just great. There is a huge amount of unspoiled land with seemingly endless hills to compliment the sea views and shorelines. We arrived in Thurso in time for the Gala parade. We're not exactly sure what the Gala entails, but there was a reasonable amount of celebration. We found a room at a downtown hotel and took the walking path along the river. Supper was at Charlie Chan's Restaurant. It's definitely not a heat wave here. We ended up wearing almost all of our layers tonight and were not overheating. ... See Photos

8 Aug, Sunday

There are no buses from Thurso to Scrabster, where the ferry terminal for the Orkney Islands is located, so we hiked the 2.5 miles. It's a 90-minute ferry ride to Stromness, which is on the largest of the Orkneys. The ferry passes some impressive cliffs and rocks along the way.... Read More

9 August

A light mist was falling as we walked downtown for today's activities. First, we tried to get a cabin for tonight on the ferry back to the mainland. We thought we would spend the night on the boat (it sails at 0600) and arrive bright-eyed and rested back in Scrabster at 0730 the next day. Sadly, all cabins were already booked. That means we either spend another night in Orkney, or take the 1645 boat. We opted for the boat.... Read More

10 August

We awoke to sunshine, and got the day off to a good start. The local tourist office let us leave our bags while we finished our walking tour of Thurso. After retrieving our bags, we hopped on a bus toward John o'Groats which dropped us off at the front gate of Castle Mey. Castle Mey was the summer home of the Queen Mother from the mid-1950s till her death. Prince Charles had just left the day before, so it was open to the public.... Read More

11 August

This morning's plan was to take a bus six miles south to a three-mile archaeological hiking trail, then return to Wick and catch the noon train for Inverness. That all fell apart when we arose to rain and heavy clouds. The TV weather-guessers were equally gloomy, so we scrapped our plans and took the 0800 train instead. Our landlady had fixed to-go breakfasts for us to take on our hike, and we ate them on the train.... Read More

12 August

We trained into Glasgow and inquired about lodging for the next few days. We had planned to travel to Fort William, spend the night, take the Harry Potter train to Mallaig, and return to Fort William. Then we would return to Glasgow for the weekend. After yesterday's adventure, we wanted to have rooms reserved. The tourist office painted a gloomy picture. There's a big bagpipe festival in Glasgow this weekend, and no rooms are available. Not every lodging place registers with the tourist office, but it sounded bad. The lady was also pessimistic about Fort William. We considered calling it quits in Scotland and heading for England, but decided to go ahead and trust to luck. The train ride to Fort William was terrific! The route winds through the wilds of the highlands and often runs along lochs, streams and gorges. We saw several magnificent stags along the way, and miles of glacial moraines.

Fort William is in the heart of the Nevis Range, where the highest peaks in Britain are found. In winter, it's a skiing center, and in summer it's swarming with backpackers and hikers. Grouse season also started today, which is a really major event here. So things were not stacked in our favor for finding lodging. The tourist office had nothing, but they pointed us in the direction of the town's concentration of B&Bs. The first few we found had the familiar NO VACANCY signs, but we found an acceptable place with a nice landlady for ₤50 per night. We've decided to forego Glasgow for a while and plan to stay here for three nights. Time for a bit of a slowdown.

leaving Perth	Loch Long	Beinn Dorain	Allt Kinglass Viaduct
crossing the viaduct	from base of Beinn Dorain	magnificent stags	another shot of stag

hummocky moraine

Fort Williams map (larger map)

important notice

13 August

We took the early train from Fort William to Mallaig. This follows the same route as the Harry Potter steam train, but is a normal train. It is billed as one of the world's most scenic train routes, and to my mind delivers. It winds along through highlands that seem empty of everything except sheep. In Mallaig, we found time to do a little shopping at an outdoor clothing sale in the community center. I bought a pair of gloves and a rain cover for my pack, and Janene bought some gloves.... Read More

14 August

Today was outdoor adventure day. We took a bus to the base of Aonach Mor in the Nevis Range, which is at a major ski area. Major for Scotland, at least. In the summer, the gondola mostly hauls bicyclists to the top so they can careen down a couple of paths to the bottom. There are two hiking trails at the top of the gondola, and open access to the upper part of the mountain that is serviced by T-bars during ski season. We climbed up the slopes, past the tops of the highest lifts, and found the summit at 1221 meters.... Read More