The Lake District, England

Goodbye France and hello England. It was quite an eventful trip. We took the Eurostar from Paris to England. It was our first high speed train and first time through the chunnel. I have to say, I love train travel compared to flights. Things just seem easier. You can get up and about easier and everything is just more relaxed.
With that said, we/I made some mistakes. We decided earlier on that we were going to spend the night in Manchester before driving to Ambleside for the next two weeks. We had no issues with Eurostar, but our train from London to Manchester was cancelled while we were enroute. We had to change train stations and it was about a twenty minute walk with our luggage. When we got to the train station I realized that I left my iPad on the Eurostar. Luckily they found it and sent it by courier to our Airbnb.
Back to the train to Manchester. We found out that if they cancel your train you can board the train before or after your scheduled train. We ended up getting on the earlier train. Before we left the station we were delayed. Apparently someone fell in front of a train at one of our intended stops and was killed. They ended up rerouting us around that station and we were about an hour late getting to Manchester. I had intended to get our rental car so we could leave early in the morning for Ambleside, but the rental car office was closed.
We got to our hotel, the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel, and relaxed for the evening. The hotel was beautiful, and after a good night sleep and a hearty breakfast, we were on our way to the Lake District.
Kim has been looking forward to some nature photography, and the Lake District doesn't disappoint. I have seen quite a few places in my lifetime, but Ambleside is one of the most beautiful towns and the surrounding hills and lakes are magnificent. Unfortuatnely, Kim came down with a respiratory infection and has been laid up in the condo for most of our time here. She has wandered around town a bit with me, but most of the time she is recovering and taking the medication that the doctor prescribed. Hopefully we can get out a bit before we leave for London next weekend. The most important thing is for her to get better so she is able to enjoy one of her most anticipated stops of the year. We are going to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio.
I will finish up with one of the perks of being where we are in the Lake District. We are under LFA17, which is a low altitude training route for the RAF. We have been able to see fly by's five days a week. They aren't at a scheduled time, so I am usually rushing out when Kim yells, "they jets are here!" I will see if I can get some better photos before we leave.

Mont Saint Michel, France

When we planned our visit to Normandy Kim had one request, to see Mont Saint MIchel. We decided the only way to do it was to spend the night there. We spent one night there and then headed back to Paris to catch the train to England. If I had it to do again, I would probably have scheduled a night in Paris so we could wander around more in the evening and morning to get more photos of the Mont. Unfortunately, we had a train to catch, so we caught the first bust to the car and off to Paris. Here are a couple of tips for those that want to spend the night. Make reservations for the restaurant you want for dinner. There aren't many places open after the daily tourists leave at 6 pm. We found one that was good, but missed out on the place we really wanted to go. Second, don't expect air conditioning or a fan. We went at a nice time of year, but I am sure it gets hot and stuffy during the summer months.

Normandy, France

When we started planning this trip, Normandy was one of the key areas I wanted to see. It did not disappoint. I am a huge history buff and we started the week in Normandy the right way. We took a tour with Johann Giethlen. He is a licensed tour guide that was born in Bayeux, moved to Paris when he was 12 and studied history in college. He moved back to Bayeux and provides tours as well as helps people find their relatives who fought in France. He said he is often asked to research people's family members history while fighting in WWII. He takes them to the sites where they fought and provides them any information he was able to find.
In 2018 he and his friend travelled around the United States talking to veterans of D-Day and getting their stories. They put them together into a documentary called They Won't Die Twice. Here is the link to it on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RntWkjlVp0
He had some great stories. The one that really hit home with me is his story of meeting a man named Higgie when he was doing the documentary. Higgie had never wanted to return to Normandy and was haunted by it his entire life. Johann talked him into coming over with his family several years ago. This time it was Higgie providing the tour to the tour guide. They went to all of the places he fought and he was able to show his family part of his history. At one point they were on Omaha beach and kids were playing and running around. He said that Higgie was crying and his daughter asked if the children playing on a place where so many of his brothers gave their lives. He said, "No, it makes me happy to see them playing. That is what they fought for."
After our day of touring things slowed down. Kim has been fighting an illness for a few weeks, so we didn't get out as much as originally planned. With that said, we still managed to see all of the key sites we had planned.
We went to the museum in Caen, the British D-Day memorial, and Longues sur Mer battery (this is where they still have three 150mm guns from the invasion).
We were fortunate enough to arrive when the British Normandy Memorial had the "Standing With Giants installation. This is the third time they have put the 1476 silhouettes on display that represent the men and women who gave their lives fighting on Sword and Gold beach.
I hope a few of the photos below inspire more people to come visit Normandy. This is a piece of history that we can't forget. The people of Bayeux certainly haven't. There is a deep respect they have for those that fought to free France.
Now it is time to return to the UK. We have a brief stop tomorrow at Mont St. Michele to spend the night on the island. After that we head back to Paris to hop on the Eurorail for our first high speed train to London and then Manchester. We will be spending the next couple of weeks in the Lake District. You can expect more photos from Kim, as she loves landscape photography.

Les Catacombes de Paris

This is one of the things I have really been looking forward to doing. The catacombs in Paris have been closed for renovation since last year. I was worried I would miss them, but they reopened to the publin on April 8th. As someone who researches like crazy, I managed to get a ticket for 12:00 on April 8th. This was one of the few tours I did solo. Kim is not a fan of enclosed spaces. The catacombs are about 20 meters below ground and the tour goes for about 1 km. There are no places to exit early, so once you go down you are committed.

The tour gave me a chance to use some of my French and my first time on the metro. I didn't have any problems, and once again everyone was very nice. I keep sayng it, but bonjour is truely a magic word in France.

After taking the metro back home I walked the streets to our Airbnb. It was a beautiful day out and I couldn't resist taking a few photos of how Parisian's relax during the day. This isn't a weekend, but rather an afternoon during the week. I have noticed that the work/life balance seems to be much better in Paris. People aren't rushing around constantly. They tend to grab a baguette and sit in the park relaxing for a lunch break instead of sitting at their desk scarfing down something from the vending machine while trying to catch up on emails.
I know there are quite a few photos in some of my posts, but I love to look back on memories.

Champagne Tour

Kim and I don't always have the same bucket list items, but this was one of them. We have both been looking forward to. We usually prefer to tour things on our own, but neither one of us wanted to be the designated driver, so we booked a tour. I am so glad we did. We visted a smaller coop house as well as Taittinger, which is one of the oldest and largest houses. One of the most interesting things at Taittinger was the tour of the wine cellars. They age their champagne in caves under the city that have been in use one way or another since the ancient Roman times. During WWI and WWII people lived in the caves to avoid the conflict above. We got to see where people had carved faces and various other things in the chalk walls thousands of years ago.

Our driver also took us to his "office" where we had a tasting of champagne that he brought overlooking the valley and city of Epernay.

The champagne tastings were excellent. I was surprised that the smaller coop had, in my opinion, the better champagne. We had an excellent lunch and I tried foie gras for the first time. I liked it and had it during our dinner cruise the next night.

The best part of the tour was saved for last. We visited the Notre Dame de Reims. I had heard it was more beautiful than Notre Dame de Paris, and it didn't let us down. There aren't the crowds you get in Paris and it is much more ornate. This is where the coronation for the kings of France were originally held.
Kim and I both agree, we will need to return to Reims and Epernay again for a weekend so we can do a slow tour on our own. Apparently a 12 hour tour just wasn't long enough.

Paris Week 1

Now that we have luggage and are settled in, we are getting out and doing some wandering.
We haven't really gotten into the tourist stuff yet. That will come this week. Instead, we walked/boated around Paris and got some ideas of where we want to go take photos. As avid amature photographers, we see a difference between pics and photos. Pics are what we randomly shoot while we are walking around with our phones. You will see a few of those in this update. Photos are when we make a concerted effort to set up a scene and do proper edits on the final product. You may notice the differences in our posts. Key tip, if you see us post it on Facebook it is probably a pic.

For those that were worried I might starve in France because I don't speak the language, don't worry. I have semi-masterd the art of buying a baguette at the boulangerie next door. Today thee only thing they said in English during our conversation was to ask me if the baguette was for dinner tonight. I'm getting there, but I did say bonjour when thanking the vendor at the marche for something first thing this morning. In my defense, I hadn't had my coffee and it was my first conversation of the day in French. He and Kim got a kick out of that one.

Yesterday we took the botabus to get around Paris. The botabus is just what it sounds like. It is a boat that stops at 9 places along the Siene near the major tourist sites. We purchased our Navigo weekly cards Friday, but they are valid from Monday-Sunday each week. We knew that, so we did the botabus instead of paying for the metro each time.

We took our walk around cameras, so all of my pics are in black and white. It is my preferred look for street photography and what I shoot when I want to take a camera, but don't want to be all that serious.

This weekend consisted of walking by Notre Dame, the Louvre, and Eiffel Tower. We have some ideas of where we want to take photos over the next couple of weeks. We usually dedicate an entire day to photography when we get out. I am guessing there will be two or three in Paris.

After walking around yesterday we got up this morning to walk to a new to us marché. We walked by it on our wanderings earlier in the week and we have heard good things about the Marché Grenelle. It is only 1.2km from our Airbnb, so it was a good way to start the morning. As we were walking there I commented to Kim that we would have never gotten up first thing in the morning and walked two miles round trip to get dinner while carrying our groceries home. For one, that isn't how we shopped for groceries. We shopped a week at a time. Since we started travelling we buy groceries for one or two days at the most. Things are always fresh and we are feeling better. Kim commented last night that she hasn't had a headache since we got to Europe. I believe it is all of the chemicals in the food we ate. I have heard so many people that travel comment on how they had the same reaction when they left the States for a month or so and once they returned the headaches, joint pain, and stomach issues returned.

That pretty much sums up our first five days in Paris. Tomorrow starts touris week. We have a tour of the Champagne region tomorrow morning. Tuesday night we are doing a dinner cruise on the Seine, and Wednesday starts with me touring the catacombs (they have been closed since November for rennovations and open up Wednesday) and finishes with a closing tour of Les Louvre with a guide. This was recommended to me by a friend of mine. We plan on hitting the major attractions that night and then going back later to see more.
Until next week.....au revoire

We made it to Paris

We have arrived in our third country since beginning this adventure. The flights went well, but our luggage didn't agree. We flew from Dublin to Paris via London, Heathrow. British Airways is having some issues worldwide with their luggage system, so our bags didn't arrive until seven hours after we landed. We had a very short night of sleep and both wanted to get settled into our apartment, so we Ubered to the airport and picked up our luggage instead of waiting another day for them to deliver them.

After unpacking and showering we felt much better. We headed to the market on Rue Cler and bought dinner and the mandatory baguette. The hype is real. The bread in France is soooooo much better than anything I have ever had in the U.S.

That brings us to today, Friday. We both woke up much more rested and ready to do our next chores. Once again, it was off to the market to get items for dinner. Kim is much better than I am at asking for things in French. I shouldn't be shocked that she would be a natural shopping in any language.

I am muddling my way through French, but it is true, a friendly bonjour when I walk into a shop and every exchange has been pleasant and helpful.

I don't know why the French get such a bad reputation. We have had nothing but pleasant conversations with everyone. One perfect example was yesterday morning. We were tired, wearing our clothes from the day before, and the only French I was able to work out was bonjour and merci. We stopped into a coffee shop for a quick pick me up. An older woman who didn't speak a lick of English sat down next to us. The tables were very close together, so I moved ours just a bit so she could sit easier. She smiled and said merci monsieur. A bit later she asked me something in French. She and I worked out that she was asking me what time it was, so I showed her on my watch and she was very thankful. It just goes to show, politeness and a friendly jesture translates in any language.

Today was another step toward us settling in. We walked to the metro to get our Navigo Découverte cards. They allow us to pay weekly for the metro instead of each time we use it. It is more cumbersome, as you have to get it from the person at the information desk, go to a photo booth to get passport style photos, and then put everything together. The good thing is that we can refill the cards at any kiosk in the future. The first time was just a bit difficult.
Now, that we are settled in and ready to go, the next week should be amazing. More photos to follow.....

Week #3 in Dingle

Well, just like that our time in Dingle is drawing to a close. We have two more days left before we leave this beautiful fishing town and head for the City of Lights.....Paris. Over the past few weeks we have had several storms, but the sunny days made up for them. I will recommend anyone who travels to Ireland stay in Dingle for 3-5 days. One day will be spent doing the Slea Head Drive and you need to spend a couple of days just taking in Dingle. It isn't large, but it is beautiful and exactly what we were hoping for to kick off our travels.

With a few days to go I spent the day wandering around town and taking a few photos. I finally got around the point and saw the old light house. I walked the piers and saw the boats. I made sure to get some photos of the boats Kim keeps track of everyday. Our Airbnb has the perfect view of the piers and streets, so Kim keeps me updated when a tour bus arrives and we head out after most of them have left for the day. We don't want to be caught up with all of the "tourists". It is a different vibe in town when the tourists (Rednecks as some of the locals call them) arrive. It is louder and crowded. While we will never be locals, we always get a warm greeting when the locals find out we are here for more than a few days. Everyone seems to be surprised when we tell them that we are here for three weeks.

Our plans for the weekend are to eat at the Fish Box. It doesn't sound like much, but Kim and I agree that they have the best calimari we have ever eaten. I am sure we will stop by Foxy John's once or twice more. We fell in love with that place right away.

My next update will be from the big city of Paris. Wish me luck!!!!!!!

Week #2 in Dingle

From the afternoon of St. Patrick's Day through the end of the week we have had nothing but perfect weather. The wind finally calmed down, the clouds broke, and it was nothing but sunshine. That meant it was time to get in the car and do some road trips.

We started with one of Kim's bucket list items, a trip on the Slea Head Drive. It is the road that circles the Dingle Penninsula. The views are amazing and she got to do the most touristic thing since we arrived, hold a baby lamb. There are some photos and video on her blog and my Facebook page if you are interested in seeing those.

While on the drive we stopped into the most westerly pub in Europe, Kruger's Bar. It had some of the best views I have ever seen in a pub and the barman was great craic. Unfortunately I was driving, so we couldn't stay long.

Later in the week we drove to Kenmare and through the Killarney National Park. We decided to make a trip later in the year to the park when things are in full bloom. Things are still coming out of hibernation right now, so it wasn't at peak. Kenmare was a great little town. We walked around, stopped in for a bite to eat and headed back to Dingle Town.

On the way back I got to stop into what was supposed to be a highlight of my trip to Ireland, a stop into the South Pole Inn. It was originally owned by Tom Crean, who was on Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica that started out as a disaster and ended up a triumph when they all survived and took a row boat to Elephant Island after their ship was crushed by ice and they had to abandon their attempt to traverse to the South Pole. Unfortunately, the latest owner died last year and his family sold the bar to a new owner, they kept all of the memorabilia and the new owner hasn't decided if he will reopen the pub. I did manage to take a few photos in front of the Inn to at least say I was there.

Once back in town that meant a stop into our favorite pub, Foxy John's. This has become our local and they now recognize us. We got to know Tomas a little better. He is a local retired school teacher who I would guess is in his late 70's and a fixture at the local pubs. He proposed to a couple of women while we were there and had us all cracking up. If you are ever in Dingle, make sure you stop into Foxy John's in the late afternoon. It is great craic and much more to our liking than at night when it gets a bit too loud and full of tourists. As we were told the other day, we aren't tourists, we are travellers. That pretty much describes us.

St. Patrick's Day, Dingle

When we started planning our journey spending St. Patrick's Day in Ireland was one of the first things we decided we wanted. We chose to spend the holiday in a smaller town instead of with the masses in Dublin. It turns out we were 100% right. The day was magical.
We started out with some relaxing time in the morning followed by the parade at lunch time. For a small town the parade was much bigger than I expected. There were people from Italy, France, Ukraine, and the U.S. as well as a couple of people from Ireland. I have noticed there are quite a few immigrants from Ukraine living in Dingle. The community seems to have welcomed them and they even had a group marching in the parade.

After the parade we wandered to what has become our go to dinner spot, The Dingle Pub. Things were a bit hectic, as would be expected in Ireland on St. Patrick's Day. We had a pint and decided to move on after another rendition of John Denver's Country Road.

I have been wanting to stop into Foxy John's since we arrived. It is a quaint pub/hardware store. Much like Dick Mack's, one side of the place is a working hardware store and the other side is a pub. As soon as we stepped in, we found what we had been hoping to find when we started planning our Ireland trip. There was a family sitting in the snug, grandad, parents, and young boy. In the corner by the bar was a group of older Irish men chatting and having a pint. Past the bar was a sitting area with a peat fire going to keep things warm.

We sat down at the hardware counter and before we knew it the whole place broke out in traditional Irish songs. This wasn't a band playing, but rather locals who were enjoying themselves. Shortly after a woman came in with her squeezebox and starting playing songs. She kept it up for a while and four young men from Italy made a request for something Italian. Before we knew it they were belting out old Italian songs. I recorded it on my phone and offered to send it to them. It turns out they are from Venice and gave us some local tips on where to visit when we are in Venice.

After a few too many pints, we headed home for the day. Dingle did not disappoint. It was exactly what we needed.

Next up is the Slea Head drive and some photography. The weather looks great tomorrow, so we are going to take advantage of the sun.

Dingle, March 2026

We finally slowed down. After a hectic few weeks in New York City, London, and Dublin we are finally relaxing. We got to Dingle on Monday and we haven't left town yet. We needed some relaxing days of just walking around a small town, stopping into a few pubs, and just putting our feet up.

Today, Saturday, we are relaxing again and watching the Ireland v. Scotland ruby match. This is the final day and Ireland has an outside chance of taking home the Six Nations Title.

Next week we will be back at it. Tuesday is St. Patrick's Day. We are getting up for the parade that starts at 6:00 am. They march to the church and then take a break for mass. The big parade starts at noon. I am sure the pubs will be slammed, but we didn't want to be in Dublin. It was full of tourists last week. I can only imagine what it will be like on Tuesday.

The rest of the week we will be headed to Cork and driving around the Dingle Peninsula to see the sites. We still have a couple of weeks before Paris, so we will be driving around and seeing the sites now that we have rested up and recovered from being "tourists." The most difficult thing has been explaining to people that we aren't on a vacation. We would be exhausted vacationing for 15 months straight. We are just living in different locations and seeing what there is to see while we are there.

Speaking of locations, we finally locked in next year. We added Spain and took Morocco off the list. We will go there another time, but the flights just weren't working out. The schedule above has been updated.

Dublin, March 2026

As some say, on to the next one. March has arrived, so it was time to head to Ireland. We are almost done with our 8 days wandering around Dublin. We have hit most of the major sites and are ready to hit a smaller village for some down time. The big cities are fun, but it is difficult for me to relax completely with major crowds everywhere.

The week started with a tour of the Guinness Storehouse. If you are a fan of Guinness, it is a must visit. Personally the facility is nice, but we did the connoisseur experience that included a tasting of various expressions of Guinness in a small, private bar. The bartender was very knowledgable and a great host. I still haven't turned Kim into a Guinness fan, but she did seem to like the Guinness West Indies Porter.

We spent the rest of the week wandering around, trying pub food, and drinking my share of Guinness. Yesterday was the tour Kim was most looking forward to, the Book of Kells experience at Trinity College.
With our time in Dublin coming to a close, it is time to have one last pint at O'Connell's and pack our bags. Monday we leave for Dingle!

London, February 2026

New York City was great, but we have been waiting to get to Europe for years. The first couple of days were a little rough with the jet lag, but we pushed through. By pushed through I mean we each got 13 or more hours of sleep the first day.

Since then we have walked all over Zone 1 and mastered our use of the tube. We even took a day to preplan our May trip. We decided we wanted to get a little farther out from Central London and chose Nottinghill as our next stay while we are here.

Wednesday was our first "photography day." We got up before sunrise so we could get some of those golden hour photos. We are a little rusty with our gear, so there were a few hiccups along the way. We will be ready to show London at it's grandest when we return in May.

Thursday was a walk to the Borough Market for lunch. We both got some excellent paella. I added some tiger prawns and Kim had to add the lobster tail.

We grabbed some pastries for breakfast over the next couple of days as well as some cheese and sausage for snacks.

We still have a couple days left before heading to Ireland. The rest of the week will be some relaxing and packing for the next adventure.