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Showing posts from May, 2018

Red-Haired Lasses of Ireland

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We had a relatively untroubled trip to Dublin.  Me and Jean.  The bikes and luggage all stayed in Iceland for an extra day, and then took hours of hassle to encourage them to join us in Dublin. I spend so little time in cities, that I'm not sure what of things we see are just cityscape, and what is unique to Dublin.   I think the woman pictured is like 90% of the rest of the people in town dashing about while staring at their phones (including those who stare at the phone and walk 10 feet in front of the light rail train before being grabbed and pulled out of death's imminent arrival.  She survived despite being deafened by the clanging train bell in her ear).  I'll suspect that is not unique to Dublin. The funny named streets are probably unique - in both Gaelic and English.  I talked to a young woman about the "official" Gaelic tongue - she tells me the locals just call it "Irish."  "They make us take it in school, but I don't kn

Off to Europe

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Getting ready to go: India was such an extraordinary experience, that this time we're going for something a bit more familiar.  Paved roads, plenty of English speakers (though in Scotland might be hard to understand), food that doesn't make me scream and breathe fire and break out into a sweat, traffic that moves on a predictable (even when "wrong") side of the road.  Temperatures that don't rise above 30 (let alone 40 - we peaked at 45=113 F) Celsius, clouds that are made of water vapor not smoke and fumes. Another TDA tour - this time from Dublin to Copenhagen - by way of Ireland, Norther Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, and Denmark. Joined on this tour by our Canadian friends Rich and Louise, and our son Nate, and for the second half of the tour, by Nate's SO - Courtney Buckland. We expect it to be cool and damp.  Sedate.  Plenty of coffee shops and pubs, and history, and art, and music.  We expect to have relatively f