Scotland...again

We made trip number 2 to Scotland to visit Edinburgh and travel North to Loch Ness and Inverness. We got to see a lot of the Highlands which is a beautiful unique landscape. You may be shocked by what you see in some of our Loch Ness photos. I'm working on selling them on eBay as we speak!

Bordeaux

I've had some trouble with uploading our videos but finally here is Bordeaux. This is one of the areas of France I wanted to visit the most. We flew into La Rochelle and took a 2 1/2 hour train ride inland to Bordeaux. I didn't realize that Bordeaux was the 5th largest city in France but with all of its grand architecture and populace it didn't have the busy feeling you get from most big cities. The French people there were much friendlier than those in Paris as well. We took an amazing wine tour while we were there. The city existed simply as a wine producing region full of chateaus with owners, buyers, workers and sellers of wine. We started off in an old chateau that has been converted into a museum. We learned about the history of the region as well as how wine is produced, aged and stored. That ended with a wine tasting of a white and red wine from the region. We then walked through the area where the many of the chateau owners and buyers lived, many of which are still owned as family estates in the heart of the city. We then had lunch at this little whole in the wall place that you would never find out on your own. We had an excellent meal, lots of wine and access to a cheese room (see photos) with over 150 type of cheese some of which were mold city! We then went out to the region of Saint Emilion, the oldest vineyard region in the area. We took a tour of a working chateau complete with a wine tasting. Bordeaux is a must for wine lovers in my opinion. It was a great trip and now instead of rambling on any longer I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Restocking

My mom is here and she brought with her some goodies! Here are some of my favorites.

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 1 year anniversary in Ireland. It is a strange thought because it feels like yesterday that we packed up our lives and moved out here and yet it seems like we've been here a lot longer than a year. When we decided to move we wanted to take in as much of Europe as we could and below is a map of where we've been this past year. We'll be adding 2 and possibly 3 more locations before the New Year. There are so many places to go and see that we have no plans of slowing down. Next year we hope to visit Northern Africa, Maldives, Greece, Israel and hopefully more of Europe. If any of that sounds good let us know and we'll be glad to coordinate!


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From here to there

For those of you we haven't talked to real recently and who don't religiously check my calendar we have a few trips coming up. They're kind of in rapid succession. Next week we're back to France this time exploring the famous wine region of Bordeaux with a day at La Rochelle which is supposed to be beautiful. Next we're going back to Edinburgh with my Mom. If you've ever been there you'll know why there wasn't any arm twisting to get us to visit again. In October we are going to visit another famous port city, this time in Spain! Barcelona will complete our "planned" European trips for the year but there is a chance we'll get to Copenhagen in November if I get to go to a work conference there. That's life here as we know it.

America the beautiful

Pete has made an excellent and maybe somewhat over-looked point. America, with all its faults, is still the greatest country in the world and I'm still proud to call it mine. We have privileges and rights other countries fear and envy. Russia is in the news again for being everything that America is not. Thank God for that! I think we all wish America would return to the original ideals that founded it and maybe someday it will be completely unrecognizable. For the time being bring on the compliments and criticism allowed by our great constitution.

Song of the week

Here is a new song. It is a cover by the New Frontiers. It isn't sophisticated technically or lyrically but it has something appealing about it. Hope you like.

NewFrontiers- Look...

Damage control

They say you should never discuss religion or politics amongst friends, however I think we're all friendly enough to avoid being butt-hurt.

First, I think Obama will be a good leader some day if he completely changes every view he holds. He lives in an anti-white, anti-capitalist "Utopia" that is frankly...dangerous. Can you really believe that the pastor he had been relying on for guidance and truth suddenly fell off the deep end and started preaching America the white devil for the first time in 20years? Sounds a little familiar...like something that comes out of extremist mosques all over the world. He actually has a Che Guevara flag in one of his campaign offices...a revolutionary??? Try another mass murdering communist.

Ryan, the "Hitler vs Stalin" comparison is hardly applicable and all though I don't think Ron Paul is completely wack (although I'll NEVER respect a man that believes 9/11 was our fault...we can get into a "man is responsible for his own actions"/"terrorists simply want to terrorize and send the world back into the 7th century where fear rules") I know he will not win the election. Do you really think that economically and socially the country will be in the same place regardless of who gets elected? I tend to agree that the president has relatively little power compared with congress and the judicial system. McCain actually hit it on the head when he said that one of the greatest weapons of the U.S. president is the bully pulpit and I believe he will stand up and say what needs to be said to leaders around the world while Obama will studder along with no conviction. The rest may be up for grabs.

As a side note, the U.S. is not a welfare state. Not yet anyway, and you had better hope that the socialism that is preached by liberal democrats (like Obama) never comes to be. I have seen some of the real evil that sneaks in with all the government control over every aspect of society. Ryan, I hope you're wrong about America being lost...but I wouldn't bet on it.

McCain

Last night we watched the McCain v Obama interview at Saddleback. I was a little worried before watching it that I would be even more skeptical about McCain but it turned out to be quite the opposite. Obama looked like a lost puppy about to be run over by a freight train every time he was asked a question. To be honest I'm not sure he completely answered any question that was posed to him relying on his rhetoric to get him through the interview. I mean, when asked who is one of the three wisest people he knows that he would rely heavily on in his administration, Obama actually said his grandmother...seriously. McCain on the other hand had answers so fast that Rick Warren didn't have time to complete the question on many occasions. I particularly liked McCain's stand on taxes, drilling for oil and greater school choice. McCain also has a little something called a sense of humor (see the bear DNA joke...really funny!) I did find a sound bite that should convince you to vote for McCain if all those other reasons fail. See below.

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U.S.A.

This may be the most amazing swim in Olympic history. What makes it better is that the anchor swimmer for France guaranteed they would "smash" the Americans. I don't know if you've seen this (I don't know how you could have missed it by now), but just in case.

...more Germany

More from our latest expedition to Germany. These are just some various sites we saw and some pictures from inside a couple of the castles that we were able to tour. As most of you know we ended our trip in Mainz which just happened to be holding a beer festival. I mean, what's a visit to Germany without a beer festival??...am I right? Hopefully you are getting excited about seeing Germany because you might just be able to twist our arms to go back.

Castles and fairytales

We are back from Germany and here is my first slide show. We took so many pictures it was hard to narrow down what I wanted to show so I think I'll just keep making slide shows until I run out of good pictures! This was from our trip down the Rhine river. I tried to keep everything in order and added some shots from the river side towns and vineyards along with the castles of course. Dana usually does a better job of describing our trips so I'll let you read her account of our weekend. I'll just say that this part of Germany was beautiful. I always think of it as part of the old Eastern European block with its impoverished, war ravaged buildings and cities. From what I've seen of cities like Berlin and Munich I'm sure that impression would be somewhat reinforced but the Rhine river valley is fairytale Germany. We enjoyed touring some of the castles (we have 16 more for anyone that wants to join us!), enjoyed the small villages, relaxed on the cruise and even took in a beer festival! Wunderbar! Hope you enjoy the pictures.

For Mother Nancy

Sorry about the delay! Here is Ray Lamontagne who's music I have been a fan of for the last couple of years. He doesn't get a lot of play time but he is quite a good singer songwriter.

The Bourne Disappearance

As the charade that is the Zimbabwe elections now enters the "counting" phase I have one question...where is Jason Bourne? Mugabe has proven himself to be nothing more than a junkyard dog ready to rip the flesh from anyone he deems an intruder into his world of power and money. There are nearly constant news images of opposition supporters who have been tortured or slaughtered for having the courage to stand up for democracy and yet the West has done nothing. Gordon Brown has threatened to ban the Zimbabwe cricket team from play in Britain and has had talks with Tesco, a major food chain, to stop selling to the country demonstrating the stark contrast with his predecessor's action over talk policies. The U.S. is no doubt caught in a catch 22over the international anti-violence/anti-action stance all the while calling on America to "do something." I want to know where Jason Bourne has been all these months. Surely Mugabe can simply have an accident or be killed by a member of his own staff right? So Jason if you're listening, the people of Zimbabwe need you.

Song(s) of the Week

This song of the week is more like artist of the week, but there are 2 artists. Really it's just play whatever I want of the week. As you know we saw Clapton last weekend (awesome!) so here are a couple of songs he played as tribute to that great event. Also included are 2 songs off the new Augustana album. I really like these guys as they fit neatly into my taste of solemn pseudo-indi rock or something like that. They have a good sound. You can preview their entire album on their website here and if you order on iTunes you get a free acoustic version of Sweet and Low.

Age old problem

I'm under the impression that I've hit another milestone (30 years on Earth) and since I've looked 30 for some time now and I'll probably never act it, I figure now is as good a time as any. I think middle age is now 40 so at least I'm not included in that label yet but I will admit that I already miss being 20 something. This is turning out to be quite an event over here though. My boss took us out to eat at a restaurant her nephew is the head chef at and included are some crude cell phone pictures we took. Mine is a rib eye with ox cheek won-tons, mashed potatoes and breaded broccoli. I had a tomato salad with rare South American tomatoes that are only produced by some Dutch company now. Dana had a stuffed chicken with sweet potatoes. The desert picture is of a pineapple parfait with a sort of honey lace decor on top of it. I actually tried black pudding and sting ray. I can now turn down black pudding as an experienced taster but the ray was surprisingly good. It was quality and presentation rolled into one. Felicimo!

Dana has gotten me amongst many other things, a trip to Portugal to watch one of the Portugal World Cup qualifying games at the end of the summer and a chance to see one of the world's best players Cristiano Ronaldo in person! We planned for my birthday some time ago to see Eric Clapton who played last night at Malahide Castle. The weather was menacing for the first part of the night but cleared to make a beautiful evening. Clapton mixed some classics in with his new songs and it was a pleasure to watch one of the music legends live. Here is another very crude phone video which won't do it justice.


Thanks to everyone for their cards and gifts. I only wish that I could have received them in person.

For my one and only

I've counted and we've been to 8 countries in the 10 months we've been here. That's not too bad! We've seen Edinburgh castle, the Colosseum, Eiffel Tower and Big Ben to name a few of the great sites. I've come to believe that what makes it all special is not where I've been and what I've seen but who I was able to share it with. All of these places have been unforgettable and what has made it so is my travel partner. So I wanted to pay her a little tribute and thank her for sharing this great adventure with me...plus tell her I love her along the way.

Turks!

We've been back from Turkey a few days now and after processing the trip and trying to tell everyone how my holiday was I think I've figured out what the trip was all about. I originally wanted to go to Greece this summer as a birthday gift to myself but after deliberation and concurrence with Ryan and Yunuen we decided on Western Turkey. I have to admit that I didn't know much about what I was getting into and I was a little scared of being an American in a predominantly Muslim country.

Kusadasi is a tourist town for lack of a better description on the West coast. It is near to a number of the ancient cities such as Ephesus, Didyma and Priene to name a few. While in town you are accosted by shop workers trying anything (especially the question, "where you from?") to start a conversation with you and get you into their stores. We talked to a few Turks who explained the situation to us which is basically that they work in Kusadasi for 6 months during "high" season around 15 hours/day, 7 days/week. Once you get the hang of just walking down the street you get a chance to talk to a few of them. Yusuf is the owner of a hookah bar near the bus pick up in town that we spent almost every night with. He was one of the nicest people we met, always with a smile and he even put American service to shame. Med was another young man who worked at our hotel and had brain teasers for us every time we saw him. Yunuen jokingly said we have more friends in Turkey than in Ireland and sadly, at least for a week, that was true.

We saw a number of great sites, my favorite being the library at Ephesus. We spent time on the beach and even took a boat cruise for a day. Really the trip meant a lot to me for several reasons. Obviously having Ryan and Yunuen along made it a lot more fun. Ryan and I smoked more cigars that week than I had the six months prior! I also learned to be weary of presuppositions about other people. The Turks were some of the friendlies most welcoming people we've met and I would have never gone if my travel companions hadn't wanted to go. That would have been a shame on a number of levels, but mostly because I wouldn't have learned this one valuable lesson. Surely Eastern Turkey would have been a different experience (or so I assume)...well, I guess it's a lesson that I'm "learning."

Song of the Week

This is turning into more like the song of the month so I'll try to be more consistent. The Kaiser Chiefs are probably over played now in the States but it is still a fun song to listen to.

Ruby

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Irish Flat #2

We are finally ready to post some pictures of our new flat. We are actually "sorted" and the place is feeling like home. We've loads more space and an extra bedroom (hint, hint). We are the top floor of a 4 story building which gives us a lot of light (2 skylights) and windows galore and a sweet view off our balcony. Green/blue carpet (not so good) is one of the drawbacks but we have a bike shed and quiet streets. We could hear the Springsteen concert the last couple of nights which was pretty cool. The cats are...well, cats and don't need much encouragement to settle in. Hopefully the calendar will fill up with visitors. See you soon.