Galway, Ireland, our first official stop on our tour. Dublin will come later.

Dear Family and Friends,

We met up with our travel group in Dublin.  We had a welcome dinner and the next morning did a drive through Dublin and then headed out to Galway.  

Galway was not destroyed by bombs during WWII which means that the town was preserved and the buildings are original.  The town is a very popular tourist destination for the Irish people.   

A couple of photos from our drive.  FYI, pictures are very difficult to take from a tour bus.  The scenery was as beautiful as we expected it to be.

I loved this little cottage.

Here are some holiday campers.  

When we got to Galway, we visited Galway Cathedral.  This cathedral is special for several reasons.  One is that an old prison was destroyed in order to build this church.  The other is that while he was president of the U.S., this church was visited by President Kennedy.

The church is built with the stones of the prison.  

The inside is beautiful.

After the assassination of President Kennedy, this mosaic was designed as a tribute to him.

After visiting the church, we walked into town.  

This town was so crowded.  I took pictures but all I seemed to get was the crowded streets.  There were so many people you can hardly see the buildings.  It is, believe me, a very charming town and I think it would be fun to visit and explore in the fall after schools are back in session.  Less people means better photos.

I included this photo because my maiden name is Powers.  Maybe we have Irish roots.

We went to a tapas bar for a light dinner.  

The menu had food from all over the world.  

We ordered three tapas.  Here is the first tapa to come to the table.  Calamari with a coconut, chili dipping sauce.  It was absolutely incredible.

We also ordered skewers with duck meat and chicharrons, which was pork belly with crispy skin attached.

Somebody that was in charge of photographing the food, dove into the other dishes and did not even think about pictures until the end of the meal.  

A fun time was had and I am glad we came to visit this little town.

Next post I will share some gorgeous pictures of our visit to Kylemore Abbey.

Love,

Nancy

A walk along the Rhine in Dusseldorf

Dear Family and Friends,

Chuck and I slept in a bit this morning.  We were going to take the Hop On - Hop Off tour bus.  First on the agenda of course was to find a good espresso.  

After getting fueled up we started to walk.  From the map we knew the general direction of where to go to get tickets for the bus.  We started walking toward that section of town.  

The sign on this church said Johannes Evangelical State Church in German.  

Maybe that is what it said because directly across the street was the court.

We never found where to get the Hop On - Hop Off Bus.  It didn't matter we were enjoying walking.  Everything was beautiful and we happened upon a botanical walk.

After this lovely walk, we decided to try and find some lunch since we had only had coffee and no breakfast.

We found a German beer house that also served lunch.  Chuck had veal sausage and sauerkraut.

I went with the veiner schnitzel again.  This time it came with a cranberry sauce to go with it.

I cannot say the meal was outstanding, but it served it's purpose.  We did not leave hungry. After lunch we kept walking and shortly there we were.  On the river walk next to the Rhine river.

Here is a barge carrying autos to ????   Besides hauling tourists up and down this river, it is used as a shipping river with barges carrying goods back and forth.

Along the river was lined with bars and restaurants.  Since today was Saturday, the crowds were out.  I could not believe how many people were in this area.  We certainly happened upon the place to be.

Yours truly completely amazed at the crowds of people.  

And like children all over the world, they are easily entertained with bubbles.

Noe I will share the Nancy Watson version...I do not think Dusseldorf is one of the tier one tourist destinations for U.S. tourists, like us because it was over 90% completely destroyed in the war.  Unlike a lot of German cities that still have centuries old cathedrals, Dusseldorf has been totally rebuilt since the war.  

I am so glad we went, it is a lovely diverse city and is definitely visited by German and European tourists.  Those tourists had to come from somewhere.

Mainly, I have just shown you pictures I took of our day out.  I just shared things as I saw them.  With no tour guide you are getting the Nancy Watson version of things.  

Tomorrow we will take the train to the Amsterdam airport and spend the night in a close by hotel.  We leave early Monday morning for Dublin.  That is where I pick you all up again.  

For the next couple of days we will be traveling by train and plane.  

See you in a few days.

Love,

Nancy

Train ride from Heidelberg to Dusseldorf Germany

Dear Family and Friends,

Yesterday we took the train from Heidelberg to Dusseldorf because, for one reason, we wanted to get closer to Amsterdam so that we would not have such a long train ride on Sunday. Another reason, we have never visited Dusseldorf before and decided to check it out.

This is the train station in Heidelberg.

 

Because it is a large station, it has all the convivences (elevators and escalators) for getting you to the platform to catch your train.

Here is Chuck waiting for our train.

and everyone else.

Masks are required on public transportation in Germany.  

Because there were delays, our 2.5 hour train ride turned into an almost 4 hour train ride.  Our train followed the Rhine river for awhile.  I was happy to see a Viking cruise boat.  Never done that before...maybe one day.

There were castles high in the hillsides,

and beautiful little villages.

Even with the delays, the train ride was enjoyable.

After getting to Dusseldorf, we walked to our hotel located near the train station.  We got rid of our luggage and hit the street to find something to eat.

The area we were in had lots of Turkish restaurants.  We choose one with outside seating.  

Here is our dinner.  Delicious bread

a nice salad each

Chuck had lamb.

I had calamari.

After dinner we walked the neighborhood.

Tomorrow we have a full day to explore this city.  I'll share what we see in the next post.

Love,

Nancy

Schwetzingen Palace and Garden

Dear Family and Friends,

The doctor that repaired Chuck's hand suggested we take a day trip to Schwetzingen Palace.

The palace is located in Schwetzingen, a town about a 45 minute bus ride from Heidelberg,  and was a summer retreat from May through October.

Although the weather was cold, rainy and windy, we decided to make the trip anyway.

We walked from the bus stop, at the train station, a few blocks on tree lined streets to the palace.  We got glimpses of it before we actually arrived.

Chuck had read that tours inside the palace were available but unless we were there on the weekend, our tour would be in German only. 

When we inquired about a tour, the lady told us we were in luck because our tour guide spoke English and would include us in the tour.  We bought the tickets for about 10 euros each.  There turned out to be 3 couples on the tour.  Only one couple spoke German, the other couple besides us were from North Dakota and also spoke English.

The fellow in the red sweater was our tour guide.  Although he lives in Germany now, he is from Scotland.  His English was very easy to understand.

We did not tour the whole palace.  We only toured the apartment of Carl Theodore.  

We started with his bedroom.  As was the tradition of the day (1700's) the wallpaper and drapes were made out of the same pattern.  

Another room we saw was the room for playing cards and other games

The Ladies bedroom is below

This is the attached bedroom of her personal maid.

Below is the dining room.

This peacock thingy in the middle of the table was probably peacock pate our guide told us.

The side board shows examples of the exotic fruits and other foods that were offered here.

The tour was very interesting and lasted about an hour.  

After the tour we decided to hunt for a place to have lunch.

Although there were tons of outside eating restaurants, the weather was cold and rainy so we wanted a place to eat inside.

We found a nice place and we ordered:

Me:

Veiner Schnitzel with salad and fries.

Chuck:  Don't know the name.

But it was on a very light crust.  Topped with camembert cheese and loganberry jam.  It was yummy.

We both left stuffed and we have half the veiner schnitzel left for our train ride tomorrow.

After lunch it stopped raining so we decided to go back to the palace and tour the gardens.

The huge fountain had several statues of nymphs on swans.

I even spotted one sitting on the edge of the fountain.

So many beautiful hidden sights.  

These three babies are playing with a goat.

And..YES, we found the perfect piece of art for Chuck to pose by.

We really enjoyed our visit.  The weather held off enough so that we did not get drenched in the rain.  

We took the bus back to our hotel.

We have decided to leave Heidelberg tomorrow and travel to Dusseldorf.  We have never been there and would like to get ourselves a little closer to Amsterdam so our train ride will not be so long on Sunday.

I will take you there with us of course.

For now, we are tired babies and are going to get a good night's sleep before getting on the train in the morning.

Love,

Nancy