Tag Archives: Ireland

Baden-Württemberg

Visit number two to Tommi’s Bistro in Unterjettingen…

Since Bill has to go away next week, we decided to have dinner at Tommi’s Bistro again.  The weather was very agreeable.  I didn’t even need a jacket, though I brought one just in case.  Our first stop was at the bank for some euros.  There is a Sparkasse right across the street from Tommi’s.  It even has a handy air pump for those who ride bikes.

Clever ad campaign.

We crossed the street and entered the restaurant where the same bartender/waitress who was working three weeks ago was behind the bar.  She immediately recognized us and gave us a smile as we took a seat.  Not many people were at Tommi’s last night, so the mood was rather relaxed.  I immediately recognized Lou Gramm’s vocals.  It was apparently Foreigner night at Tommi’s, because that was what played on the sound system the entire time we were there.  Given that we’re Americans and everybody else in the restaurant was German, I guess it was appropriate.

Bill ordered a nice bottle of Argentinian wine and some fizzy water.

 

Naturally, we also ordered steaks.  I decided to go with the three hundred gram dry aged rib-eye from Argentina.  Bill had the three hundred gram rib-eye from Ireland.  We wanted to compare them.  At 21.50 euros, it was a pretty fair deal.  I had pommes (fries) as a side and Bill had the oven baked potato with sour cream.

Before our steaks arrived, we enjoyed a complimentary house shot of sherry.

I mentioned in my last review of Tommi’s that it’s also a music venue.  Next Saturday, a CCR cover band is playing.  I might want to see that, though Saturday is the day Bill returns from his trip.  He might be too tired.

I hear these guys can jam!

If you like pulled pork, you might want to visit Tommi’s April 24-26.  We will be in Vienna during those dates.

My steak from Argentina.  I didn’t bother photographing the fries.  You’ve seen one plate of fries, you’ve seen them all.

Bill’s steak and baked potato.  I did try the baked potato, though I’m not really a sour cream fan.  I like my potatoes plain with butter and salt.  I will admit the baked potato was very good, even with the sour cream.  I might have it next time.

 

I preferred the Argentinian steak to the Irish one, though both were good.  To me, the Argentinian steak had a different flavor and texture.  It was more tender and had a more appealing flavor.  Unfortunately, I can’t really describe it in words.  Bill agreed, though he enjoyed the Irish beef and would have no issues ordering it again.  I also discovered that the 300 gram size is more than I can handle.  Next time, I’m downsizing.

Dinner was very leisurely.  We finished after a couple of hours and Bill decided to order us a round of Williams pear schnapps.  He has a funny story about pear schnapps that involved underage drinking and a sleazy bartender back in the mid 80s.  Fortunately, last night’s round was more mundane.

 

The chef came out and greeted everyone.  I don’t think he spoke English, but we were able to thank him and tell him the meal was excellent.  For those who like karaoke, there is a “live karaoke” night on Thursday of this week.  It basically involves singing with a live band, which I would love to do.  I wish Bill would be in town this week, though, because I don’t want to go by myself.  In fact, as I was explaining this to the waitress, I taught her the English slang term “chicken”.  That’s what I am.  Perhaps I’ll get another chance sometime soon. 

Standard
Uncategorized

Irish pubs are apparently a "thing" in France…

So, we’ve been back from Europe for about ten days now and I’ve been reflecting on the trip.  One thing I noticed when we were in France is that Irish pubs are apparently a “thing” there.  In Lyon alone, Bill and I actually visited three Irish pubs.  There were quite a few more that we didn’t visit.

Since Bill and I had been hoping to go to Ireland on this last trip, we found it kind of funny that there were so many Irish pubs in France.  I mentioned it to my American friend, Audra, who lives in France.  She said, “Not a one of them is very authentically Irish, are they?”

Some places seemed more authentic than others did.  In one bar, they had a good drink list that included several Irish suds and whiskeys.  But none of the Irish pubs we visited had Irish music or anyone from the Republic working there.  In fact, most of the Irish pubs we visited in France were decidedly French in terms of their menus and atmosphere.

This all made Bill and me decide that we need a trip to Ireland next.  Unfortunately, there’s no telling when that can occur.  We need to find employment and a place to settle first… then we need to do some fundraising.  I trust we’ll get to Ireland someday, though.  It will happen.  And when it does, I hope to find some real Irish pubs.

This one in Alexandria, VA comes pretty close…  Bill and I used to go there when we lived near DC.  They had quite a few Irish people working there.

Standard
Uncategorized

I think we’re gonna do it!

Bill and I have been talking and I think we’ve decided it’s worth it to risk a trip abroad.  If we’re going to be broke, we’re going to be broke.  Staying home in the meantime won’t change anything… and we may never get this opportunity again.

We were going to try to fly out of McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, but now we’re thinking we may have to try flying out of McGuire Air Force Base near Trenton, New Jersey.  They have been offering flights to Shannon, Ireland lately, with 59 tentative seats.  Granted, if we go to Ireland, we will probably have to fly out of somewhere else… either Germany or England.

I would rather fly out of England, since I do want to visit Mildenhall if we can.  This is all still very tentative, though.  We still have to arrange for everything.  To complicate matters, we have to be around for a house inspection on the 13th.  We don’t really have to be here for it, but I want to be… this house has some issues and I want to be sure to explain them.  I also don’t want to leave the dead bolt unlocked while we’re out of town.

I am a little worried that we’re getting too close to summer and that may make things more difficult.  The whole thing could fall apart, too.

In preparation for a potential trip to the Emerald Isle, I got a free downloaded guide, which has resulted in an Irish tourism firm trying desperately to get Bill and me to sign up for some tour program.  Maybe we will; maybe we won’t.  I really would rather just wing it.  That’s where the best stories come from.  I look forward to having more pictures to post here on my travel blog!

Standard
Uncategorized

Hop dilemma…

So Bill and I really do want to take a hop.  It’s a good time to take one because he has all this time off and is still being paid.  However, he’s also still job hunting and probably should keep plugging away at that task.  There is no telling how long it will take for him to get work, though I hope his looming unemployment won’t go on for too long.

We’re trying to decide if we want to risk taking a trip.  If we do take one, he can still look for and apply to jobs as long as we have Internet access.  But what if someone wants to interview him?  Again, if it’s over the phone or even via Skype, he could probably do it if he had to.  But an in person interview might be tough… and then there’s the issue of the money we’ll be spending.  There’s food, lodging, and boarding the boys.  And there’s the fact that we want to get out of this house and that will involve spending money too.

We probably shouldn’t take a trip… but boy do we want to.  And the time is right, even if there are a number of issues that may make traveling unwise.  I want to go to England and Ireland in the worst way.  But I don’t want to be broke.  So we may have to wait on this plan…

Standard
Uncategorized

England next month? Dare to dream!

So Bill is about done with the Army and has until July 1 before he’s unemployed.  In these last weeks, he and I have been thinking about going on another Space A trip.  Once July 1 rolls around, he will be a retiree with less priority on Space A trips than he has now.

We both want to visit Ireland and there are regular trips to Mildenhall AFB that leave from McConnell AFB near Wichita, Kansas.  If we can get to Mildenhall, it wouldn’t be too difficult to get to Ireland.  We could just take a train to the Welsh coast and then hop on a ferry to Dublin.  Of course, when it comes to Space A travel, one must stay very flexible.  It could turn out we start this trip and end up somewhere totally different.  Or it could turn out we end up nowhere.

Bill has a job interview this week.  If it goes well and they offer him a position, we could take this trip as a way of saying goodbye to Army life.  If it doesn’t go well, maybe we won’t…  We probably shouldn’t spend the money.  But travel memories are precious and can’t be repossessed.

It’s fun to think about it.  I would love to take one last trip before we become civilians.  And it seems fitting that we would visit Mildenhall, since that’s where my dad ended his Air Force career.

Standard
anecdotes

Now where?

I usually have someplace I want to visit next after I take a big trip.  Right now, I have to confess, I can’t think of where we should go next.  It’s probably because I’m pretty nervous about what Bill is going to do next.  Leaving the military is a big deal.

April 25 is when Bill goes on transitional leave.  He’s out of the Army on July 1.  It’s going to be odd having a civilian husband.  It looks like the Army isn’t going to have a lot of jobs available when he’s done, either, so we may end up moving.  I think it’s likely we’ll move anyway, because we hate this house we live in.

I was hoping we’d squeeze in one last cruise before we leave the Army… and maybe we can do that, though it might not be the kind of cruise we usually do.

I’d really like to go to Ireland, but that may be more than we can afford this year, since we are still recovering from Spain and Portugal.  I’m still interested in doing a river barge cruise with European Waterways in France or Ireland.

This looks like it’s about my speed!
Standard
Uncategorized

Ireland? or France?

So I think Bill and I are definitely thinking we’d like to go back to Europe for our next trip, whenever it may be.  We are definitely interested in barging or perhaps doing a river cruise, even though I read with some dismay about troubles river cruisers have been having because of flooding in the Danube.  I’m not linking to any particular thread on Cruise Critic.  Just go there and have a look if you’re interested.  There are a few folks who have had their river cruises suddenly turn into bus tours.

I do worry that if we did a river cruise, we might be a bit on the young side.  But then, we were among the youngest on our Hebridean cruise in November and it wasn’t really a problem.  In fact, I would love to do another Hebridean cruise, even if it’s a river cruise.  I hope they offer them next year.

Barging would be different because only a few couples go at a time and the barges go so slowly that you might be able to walk faster.  You run the risk of being on a barge with people you don’t like, of course… or perhaps they won’t like you.  But you also get a lot of personal attention and the chance to really get into the local scene.

European Waterways has put out some very enchanting looking videos.  We were looking at Ireland for next year because I haven’t really been there and Bill hasn’t been in almost 30 years.  And Ireland is where his “people” are from.

However, France is barging country and Bill loves France.  He loves the wine, the cheese, and the cuisine…  I like France too.  So we’ll see what happens…

I would hope I’d be less likely to get seasick on a barge, too…

Standard
anecdotes

The champagne bucket…

The champagne bucket…

 

The champagne bucket pictured above was a wedding present from one of my husband’s relatives.  In the past, we’ve used it for chilling wine.  Last year, it became useful for another purpose.  We now use it to help us decide where we’ll travel next.

Bill and I have many places on our bucket list.  It can be difficult to make a firm decision about where to go next.  Last year, when we decided to go to Italy and Greece, we did so with the help of the champagne bucket.  Since we had a pre-booking for SeaDream that we needed to use, I wrote down the names and dates of four cruises that were in our price range and occurred at a time during which Bill could more likely get off work.  I cut the names into small pieces and folded up the papers, then put them in the champagne bucket.  I shuffled them around and got Bill to choose.  The May 11th Rome to Athens cruise won!

We’ve taken to doing this whenever we’re too overwhelmed with choices and can’t decide what to do next.  It’s sort of exciting to pick vacations this way, since it’s kind of reminiscent of Germanwings’ blind booking deal.  We’ve done “blind bookings” with Germanwings three times.  Basically, what it means is you pick a group of cities you wouldn’t mind traveling to.  You pay extra to eliminate any cities you don’t want to see.  Pay your fare.  Then you find out where your next vacation is!  It’s a lot of fun to travel this way, especially since most European cities are a treat to visit.  We saw Barcelona, London, and Munich by doing blind bookings.

The champagne bucket is somewhat different in that it’s not really binding when we make our choices.  But it’s still exciting to find out where we’re going next instead of trying to pick one place over another.

I broke out the champagne bucket the other day because we were talking about where our next trip might be.  Bill chose “river cruise”, which means that if Hebridean Island Cruises offers river cruises on Royal Crown in 2014, we may be aboard.  On the other hand, a lot depends on what happens next year as Bill makes his transition out of the Army and into the civilian sector.  We may decide to just stay home next year or go somewhere stateside.

Of course, we’re also very attracted to the concept of barging in Europe.  We were leaning toward Ireland, but after watching some intriguing videos of barging in France, we may opt to go there.  Bill loves France, even if he is very Irish.

I think it would be a dream come true if Bill got another job in Europe…  I can dream, can’t I?

Standard
Uncategorized

My overall thoughts about our latest SeaDream cruise…

A friend of mine sent me an email yesterday and said he’d been reading about my latest SeaDream cruise.  He wrote, “you know what, I can’t actually tell what you REALLY thought about SeaDream.”  I told him I would write a post giving my honest opinion about our latest cruise.

 

Just to give you a little background, I met this friend on our second SeaDream cruise in November 2011.  That cruise was a lot of fun, but there were some issues that came up that we both had complaints about.  The air conditioning wasn’t working properly on that voyage and we also had some problems with a lack of hot water.  We also had issues with the Internet not working very well a couple of days.  Some people were complaining on that cruise because a couple of large groups had booked and were kind of “taking over” a bit.  

 

I’m happy to report that on our latest voyage, we had no problems with the air conditioning, hot water, or Internet.  Also, I can report that there weren’t any obviously obnoxious large groups of people, at least that I noticed, on our latest cruise.  Most everyone was basically pleasant and well-behaved.  I didn’t notice anyone sneaking behind the bars to help themselves to liquor and there weren’t any fights in the piano bar…  and no one ashed their cigarette on my luggage (that happened just before embarking on our first SeaDream cruise).

 

Overall, I would say it was a very enjoyable cruise.  It was great to see some of my favorite crew members again.  The food was excellent, as was the bar service.  The stateroom was comfortable, even though it was on deck 2 (actually, I think I might even prefer the “cheap” deck).  We had a great stewardess who kept everything clean and stocked for us.  I had no serious problems with seasickness.  And… to top it all off, we had a fabulous itinerary.

 

So why wasn’t I moved to pre-book another voyage?  The last two times I was onboard, I felt almost compelled to book again and lock in a 15% discount.  This time, I wasn’t feeling that way at all.

 

Well, there were several reasons I didn’t pre-book.  The main reason is that we don’t know what the future holds.  My husband is leaving the Army next year, which means that he will be looking for a new job.  We don’t know how long that will take.  I suspect we will have time to squeeze in a final big trip before he retires, but we’ve already determined that SeaDream doesn’t go where we want to travel next (either Ireland or a river cruise).  Once he’s out of the military, vacation time may be sharply curtailed.  Also, we would not have been ready to choose a specific voyage, which would have meant putting down $2500 for an “open booking”.  That’s a lot of money for us, especially right before a big move.        

 

The next reason has to do with some of the passengers.  As I explained in an earlier post, Bill and I are not well-to-do.  Many of the folks who cruise on SeaDream are very nice people who are at least somewhat friendly and polite.  But some of the others are a trifle entitled, which can be off-putting.  They are entitled not just in their attitudes and behaviors toward staff members, but also toward other passengers.  Since SeaDream is a very small ship, it can be difficult to avoid people with whom you don’t click.  Of course, I understand that plenty of people don’t click with me, either.  The point is, it can be uncomfortable to be on a small vessel among people with whom you don’t mesh.  Even if you don’t have an actual unpleasant run-in with them that makes things awkward, you’ll still bump into them often and unavoidably.      

To continue on that point, remember that SeaDream is small enough that if a large group books, you may find yourself an afterthought.  Or it may feel like you’re crashing someone else’s party.  I think that would be less of a problem on voyages where there is a lot to do in port.  If you’re on a cruise where the ports aren’t very interesting, you may not enjoy a cruise with large groups booked… especially if they’ve also brought children.

The next reason has to do with the fares.  SeaDream is not an inexpensive cruise.  Even if you score a great fare, you also have to pay additional fees for taxes, port fees, handling, etc.  One thing I loved about Hebridean Princess is that the price advertised was the total price of the voyage.  Each leg of that back to back cruise was $1960 a person.  We got a 5% discount on the second voyage, so the second cruise was more like $1830 a person.  Those fares included everything.  Once we paid for the trip, we were done.  We could have bought expensive wine or cigars (if we were smokers).  Maybe we could have bought something in the tiny gift shop.  But everything else was included and we didn’t have a bill at the end of the trip.  On SeaDream, we spent about $750 onboard the ship.  We didn’t mind spending the money on extras like laundry, better wine, internet and a visit to the spa.  I do wish, however, they’d just roll the cost of the taxes and such into the fare.  

 

One major reason against pre-booking for me personally is that I have a tendency to get seasick.  I didn’t have any serious seasickness issues this last time and SeaDream does have a doctor on board who can administer a shot for motion sickness.  However, no one wants to spend thousands of dollars on a vacation that involves repeatedly puking.  

 

The last reason is that after the third time, being on SeaDream is somewhat less of a thrill.  Having been on Hebridean Princess last November, I realize that there are other great ships out there and they are going places SeaDream doesn’t go to (yet).  I also find that being on different ships reminds me what I do and don’t like about SeaDream, which I think is good for the soul.  The truth is, as lovely as SeaDream is, it’s also a bit hyped.  In my opinion, it’s not the only game in town.  However, if SeaDream really is as special as the hype suggests, trips on other lines will only confirm that.  We’re ready to investigate other ships to determine how accurate the hype is.


The bottom line is that I was awestruck after our first trip on SeaDream in April 2010.  The second time was still magical, despite a couple of maintenance issues and annoying large groups.  The third time was very pleasant and enjoyable… it was probably the best voyage on SeaDream we’ve ever had.  But I’m ready to try something different. I will probably go back to SeaDream at some point, but it probably won’t be for awhile yet.  On the bright side, those who didn’t “click” with me on my SeaDream voyages don’t have to worry about bumping into me again anytime soon!

Standard
Uncategorized

Barging in Europe…

As if I didn’t need any other temptations, now I’m tossing around the idea of taking a barge cruise through Ireland or possibly France.  I had already been watching French Country Waterways’ Web site for some time, but their prices seemed a bit out of our reach.  They also only do cruises in France.  I would love to do a French river cruise sometime, but I think I might want to visit Ireland first, since I have no real memories of ever going there (if, in fact, I did).  I lived in England in the 70s, but I was  a wee lass at the time and don’t remember everything about the experience.

But then I started looking at European Waterways, which offers French cruises, but also has barging in Ireland, Germany and Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium, Scotland, and Italy.  Barging is different, really, than regular cruises.  The vessels are very small and intimate, with only about a dozen people or so at a time, sometimes more, sometimes less.  And you travel at a very slow pace… slow enough that you could get off the barge and walk if you wanted to, easily keeping up.  It’s all inclusive and informal, yet the food is supposed to be very good.

Of course, yesterday, I got an EOB from my dental insurance provider.  The fuckers denied my claim for payment for my cleaning and exam.  I think it’s bullshit and plan to raise hell about it.  Met Life Dental sucks, though.  It actually makes me miss United Concordia.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand…  I showed the video to Bill and he was delighted.  We might just do this.

Standard