So we arrived in Dublin about 5 days ago and hung out there for awhile. Guiness really does taste better in Dublin… at the end of a tour of the plant and learning how they make it and then becoming an honourary apprentice. Okay, so the tour was lame, but the free beer at the end was good. We also checked out the cathedrals in Dublin – Christ Church (where Strongbow, the Norman warrior is buried and where the North wall leans out and has for over 500 years or so, and where all the Irish church treasury is) and St. Patick’s (where Jonathan Swift was Dean and where he is buried) and the Book of Kells at Trinity College (as well as other ancient illuminated manuscripts and one of the largest old book collections in the world. They had to raise the roof in the 1800s to make room for them all). We mailed some postcards from THE postoffice on O’Connell St. where the 1916 Easter Rebellion started from (bought the stamps from there too come to think of it) and went to the National Museum (where they have a bunch of “bog men” and lots and lots of ancient Irish/Celtic jewelry).
Today we took the train down to Killarney, county Kerry, in the south west. Its green like Ireland is supposed to be, and the highest point in Ireland is visible from here. Tomorrow we are taking a tour around the Ring of Kerry which is supposed to have some magnificent scenery and stuff. You’ll see pictures later I hope.

I know, you’re thinking “More beaches, when will she stop talking about beaches? Its winter!”
Well, these were not sit in the sun beaches. Natalie and I spent the last 2 nights at Bayeux, a small villiage in Normandy about 10km from the D-Day beaches. After lots of drama and frusteration with not being able to get out to the Canadian sites (Juno Beach), we ran into a family from outside Ottawa who we shared a room with in our hostel in Paris for 1 night. They had rented a car and we asked them if we could go with them to Juno this morning before we caught the train back to Paris. So this morning we drove out to Arromanches, where the Allies built a harbour using concrete blocks they towed over from England, then over to Juno Beach at Courselliers sur Mer and walked along the beach (tide was high unfortunately so we didn’t have the same look as it would have when they landed), saw some pill boxes and then went through the Juno Beach Museum and learned about contempory Canada. It was a pretty good little display and there were lots of people going through it. We finished it off by visiting the Canadian War Cemetary before catching the train (the first time… but thats a story for another time. Suffice to say that Natalie still has her camera) back to Paris. Tomorrow we fly out for Dublin – back to English (or some form thereof) for the rest of our trip. The whole trip out to Normandy was a moving experience, especially since I know some people who landed at Juno on D-Day.

Paris is just how I thought it would be. The buildings look like they are supposed to, there are cafes like there are supposed to be, and there are pigeons everywhere. It is grey but not raining. Notre Dame was amazing as was Ste Chapelle, you can see the Eiffel Tower from just about everywhere and we have a view of Sacre-Coeur from our hostel. What more could I ask for? I love it, I am looking forward to strolling down more streets tomorrow in the hopes of seeing more wonderful things.

Spent yesterday in Eze Village, a medieval town on the top of a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean before heading out to Monaco for the afternoon. There may only be 2 square km to the city/principality but they manage to fit a lot in by going straight up. There is, of course, Monte Carlo which is magnificent looking although too scary to venture inside of what with all the security guards. Then there is the Grimaldi family palace up on the cliff-top overlooking the town. And there was also a race going on… not the Monaco Grand Prix unfortunately, but a go-cart race going on in the harbour near all the massive Cayman Island yachts.
Today we are just being lazy. We slept in and then wandered down to the fruit and flower market to buy breakfast/lunch before finding a spot on the beach. I went for a nice long swim in the Mediterranean and then dried off in the sun. This afternoon we walked up to the Matisse museum only to find out that they have decided to close it for the winter, which they normally don’t do. And now here I am, sitting in a net bar in Nice…

So… since I last wrote, we visited Munich… and were given some stinking huge (ie 1L) beer steins from Oktoberfest. They are pretty heavy so I’m not sure how people managed to life them with beer in them. Thanks to Elisabeth for bringing them back to Canada for us so we don’t have to lug them around for the next month and a half.
Then it was off to see Liz in Freiburg for 2 nights and we got to see where she is at uni this year. Its a pretty city and I think she’ll be just fine… 😉 We also got to go to church in English!!
From there it was on to Switzerland. Switzeland = Very cool, lots of mountains and fabulous chocolate! Thanks Heidi and Elisabeth for letting us hang out! Heidi very nicely drove us around and over 2 2000m+ mountain passes and to a huge glacier then over to Lucerne and then Liechtenstein. That was pretty cool. We ate Raclette (sp?) and reminisced about college days. Elisabeth put us up for 1 night and showed us parts of Lausanne – Roman ruins, the lake, part of downtown…
Then it was a 7+ hour train to Nice. That is where we are now. Haven’t seen much of the city yet, but we will over the next few days. Tomorrow maybe we’ll got to Monaco and try to make some money to finance the rest of the trip…!

Today we took the train 2.5 hours out to Füssen and back for the day. What is Füssen, you might ask? Well. Ever watched a Walt Disney movie and seen this? Walt had to get it from somewhere, and that somewhere is none other than Neuschwanstein Castle just outside of Füssen in very southern Germany (Bavaria). It poured rain in the morning, but late afternoon was quite nice. We wandered around the area (walked about 13 km all told), and went through the castle. King Ludwig II who built it had a bit of an obsession with Wagner’s operas and with swans, but it was still a pretty cool castle.

After spending a very cultured evening last night in Saltburg, we are now back in Germany.
We left Prague 5 days ago (I think) to Vienna. Vienna was… well… honestly… disappointing. It didn’t help that we were there on Saturday/Sunday consequentally nothing, and I mean NOTHING, was open and we were coming off of an awesome experience in Prague. Don’t get me wrong, Vienna is a lovely city with amazing buildings, palaces, the Danube, Freud’s house… but the hostel was sub-standard and nothing was open so there wasn’t much to see or do. After 2 nights (one day), we took off to Salzburg which is much cooler. There is a better vibe to Salzburg – more like Victoria – with narrow, treelined streets (Cook St Village type), winding roads, nice river through town, mountains, Mozart… and a cool fortress on a clifftop above town (Ok, Victoria doesn’t have the last 2, but it has everything else). We wandered around town and last night treated ourselves to dinner at the fortress followed by a concert. And it was not just any dinner – 4 fantastic courses of dinner! The concert was just 3 pieces- the first 2 were by Mozart (a string quartet and a piano quartet) and the last was a Dvorak string quartet. For those of you who want more details, I have the programme…!
So now we’ve headed back to Germany for 5 days or so. This time we are in the south. We arrived in Munich today. Oktoberfest ended yesterday and we have seen surprisinly few signs of it except tacky souviners everywhere. Not sure how they took down the rides and beer tents in less than 12 hours, but apparently they have accomplished it. While we are here we plan to head out to Fussen to see the crazy prince’s castle Disney based Cinderella’s on and then, Saturday, its off to Freiburg to see Liz!

We’ve been in Prague for about 2 and a half days now, and I have to say that I love it. There are about a million old buildings here, and some incredible churches. We went to St Nicks today, which is a magnificent Baroque church. Yesterday, we went to one that is the centre of Hussite Christianity – just outside is a monument to Jan Hess.
We’ve been hanging out with some Australian guys the last couple of days, so that has been fun to spend time in a bigger group. Tonight we’re off for a duck feast. The Czech Republic is super cheap so our duck feast of 150 Czech whatever they use here will be about 7 dollars canadian. Not bad for a feast. Tonight we’re off to visit a castle in town.