Jessica Writes

How we got there

We flew Aerlingus to Dublin Airport from Amsterdam. It was a short 1 hour and 10 minutes. We took a 20 minute ride on a bus to town, it was cheap and makes very frequents trips to and from the airport.

Accommodation

We got an apartment for three nights through www.staydublin.com. The price was very reasonable, and it was located within walking distance of the Temple Bar area and Grafton Street (main shopping district). We did have several problems, though.

Our apartment had two bedrooms, a full kitchen with washer and dryer and a living room. A fuse was out, so the TV, washer and dryer, oven and mircrowave did not work. The iron was also broken, which caused Chris, an ironing freak, great distress.

When we informed the reception person, he promised the issues would be resolved, but it took them two days. Also, whatever chemical they used in the bathroom, it was so harsh I found it hard to breathe in there and we ended up having to prop the door open so I didn’t get sick just being in there to shower.

The beds were not good, and it was quite noisy. That wouldn’t have been too bad if the other issues had no existed. We did arrange for a 60 percent discount, but Chris has yet to call Expedia.com, who we actually paid and reserved through.

If we get the discount, this review will greatly change and I would probably reccommend them to others.

Transportation

We were able to walk to most places including Temple Bar, Grafton Street, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin Castle, Guinness Storehouse (we didn’t walk back, though) and other popular spots.

Entertainment/Eating

Oliver St. John Gogarty (Gogarty’s)

I got sick while we were in Dublin, so we only got to go to one Irish Pub, and we actually ate there as well. This was a large place, three levels: a bar on the first floor, a bar with small stage on the second and a nice restaurant on the third.

We ate dinner and then went downstairs to hear some music. The band was great, and featured a man and his grandson as part of the group. It was very lively and the crowd sung along. The entire building was packed with tourists but everything still felt authentic and didn’t lose its charm.

http://www.olivergogartys.com/restaurant/

Major sights we saw and would recommend

Guinness Storehouse

If you like beer the least bit, this is worth a visit just to drink a beer high above Dublin. For more details, see my post here. Or, check out http://www.guinness-storehouse.com/.

St. Stephens Green
This city park is quite lovely, and a nice place to picnic or take a rest after shopping on the busy Grafton Street shopping district. There is a large pond, and little hidden trails in the bushes, as well as a large green area with lovely flowers.

That’s pretty much all I can recommend in Dublin. If I didn’t get sick, I think I might have had some more for you.

Since we didnt get to blog every day during the trip, I am going to try to do a more thorough recap/review on the places we went, where we stayed and maybe even the places we ate. That way, if anyone of you ever wants to go to the places we went, you will know what we reccommend and what we don’t.

It would be a massive post to do this all at once, so I am going to start chronologically with where we went first.

Amsterdam

How we got there

We flew Continental out of Nashville, with a short layover in Newark. The airline had messed up our tickets and listed me as “Jessica Thomas” I guess it was some variation of my first name and Chris’ legal name, I dont know. By the time we realized it, it was the night before the trip and we had to call and get new tickets printed. When we checked in, they had us sitting in seats that weren’t side-by-side for the flight to Newark. I don’t like flying and I didnt want to sit with a stranger. Fortunately, we were able to get our tickets switched with no issues.

When we changed planes, we flew 1st Class on the rest of the trip. It was really nice, and neither of us had flown first class before. Chris’ electric seat adjustor didn’t work but he was able to move it manually. That was the only problem. The food and the flight were great overall. We even arrived one hour earlier, although I would not have minded getting spoiled a little longer.

Transportation

We took the tram about everywhere in the city. Amsterdam has a very good tram system. We flew in and out of Schipol Airport, a very nice and clean airport, and there is a train station there that also takes you into the city easily. Amsterdam was a great base for our trip, very convenient as a jumping off point. Its about at $25 cab ride to get to the city from the airport.

Accommodations

We have never stayed in a hotel here, just at Maarten’s and Veronica’s and I don’t think they are going to turn into for-profit B&B very soon. But, if they did, you would get to be spoiled by Maarten’s morning coffee making and maybe even his special ham and cheese (and sweet chili pepper?) eggs. Mmmmm!

They area of town they live in is just a short walk from a train station (15 minute walk) and two tram stops (5 minutes or less). There were stores and restaurants within easy walking distance. The center of the city is about 10 minutes away by tram. Everything was very convenient and its just a lovely little part of town. Its a great, quiet area near Merwede Square, where Anne Frank spent her younger, carefree years before going into hiding with her family.

Entertainment

We went to the Police concert in the Amsterdam Arena, which is one of the first stadiums ever built to have a retractable roof with a grass surface. Its a pretty cool venue but Chris hated it for one reason — you had to pay to use the toilet.

Drinking

There are plenty of good pubs in town, and it would be easy to just walk into any one of them and enjoy yourself immensely. On this most recent trip, we went to a few different pubs, including two Irish pubs. I am going to get the names from Veronica and Maarten, but really, you can’t go wrong with any of the pubs in town.

We did go to a trendy bar called Chocolate Bar. It was packed, that is about all I remember about it.

http://www.chocolate-bar.nl/

Eating

In Amsterdam, you can get about any kind of food you want. We even saw a Domino’s advertisement and plenty of McDonald’s, so even if you are home sick for American fare, you are going to find it easily.

Here are a few of the good places we ate:

Castell

We have eaten here twice, on both our trip this year and on last year’s trip. Its referred to as a Bar-b-que restaurant but its really a steak place. Its nothing like a typical American BBQ joint.

It has a nice cavern-like feeling, with dark room and large U-shaped booths that line the walls with a fireplace in the center. You eat your meal on a heavy tray, its different but its quite a good dining experience. The steak and the baked potatos are delicious. Chris really enjoyed the ribs.

http://www.castellamsterdam.nl/english.html

Caffe Oslo

We thought it was quite odd to be dining at a restaurant named for Norwegian city, yet the menu featured Italian. It was actually very good. Veronica and I both enjoyed the pumpkin soup and the men loved their beef carpaccio. The entrees were very good too, I had some sort of fish and Veronica had a very good risotto. Cool interior, too!

http://www.diningcity.com/amsterdam/restaurantcaffeoslo020/ipix_eng.jsp

I love Italian food. Apparently, all of Europe does too. I think we ate more Italian on our trip than we ever have at home — and not just in Italy! Chris, who is a huge fan of beef carpaccio, literally ate it at every meal where he found it on the menu - which was nearly everywhere we went. Well, he didn’t eat the beef carpaccio was frozen that was presented to him in Austria. That was different.

In Amsterdam, we went to an Italian cafe for lunch and and Norwegian-named restaurant that served only Italian dishes.

In Dublin, the only restaurant that was open on the first night we went out to dinner (it was late but not that late) was Italian.

London at least had plenty other options and we ate other food there.

But in Paris, we had Italian twice!

In Munich, there was no food, only beer. (Just kidding, just kidding)

In Austria, Italian! We even saw a restaurant that bore the sign, “You Like Pizza!”

And yes, in Switzerland, Italian twice! We were even in a part of Switzerland, Lugano, that wanted to be Italian so bad, that was the common language and almost every restaurant was Italian. That was really weird — I guess its like Montreal is to the rest of Canada.

And then we were in Italy, where one of our meals was the WORST Italian I have ever eaten. The other meal was quite good, though.

And, the first night we were home we had the fine culinary delight that is Chef Boy Ardee ravioli for dinner. We just can’t seem to escape it!

Yesterday was such a blurred, long day of travel.

It was quite emotional leaving Veronica and Maarten’s cozy apartment in Amsterdam, a place we had come to know as our transitional home during our trip.

Veronica and Maarten were delightful hosts, taking the day off work to pick us up from the airport when we arrived on our first day - and letting us crash immediately after reaching their apartment to catch a much-needed nap.

Throughout the trip, they did countless kind deeds for us, even washing, drying and folding our laundry while they were at their family vacation home in Austria so we wouldn’t have to wear dirty clothes or pay to wash them in a laundrymat.

When we were in Munich, they got each of us little gifts — Chris a feather that is traditionally worn in the caps men don for Oktoberfest, me a stuffed dog that looked like Simone that they won at a carnival game (and it probably cost them 100 euro to win). They were into gifting stuffed animals — gave Chris a won snoring bear which I said resembled his loud snores at night and snuck away and bought me a little animal wearing lederhosen and holding a frosty beer that when you pushed his foot, sang a song that was played about every 10 minutes in our tent. It was about “prost-ing” which is the way of saying cheers in Germany. They got Carrie a really cool necklace.

And, the list goes on and on about how their kindness abounded during this special trip. I just cannot thank them enough for letting us take over their apartment and their spare room/laundry room and run off for a week and them come back for a few days — this of course continued for three weeks! That is quite a long time to upset someone’s routine.

I have to say, that tears were shed on at least my part when we left yesterday morning. Veronica is a dear friend who I love, and I feel like I have know Maarten forever. We hope we can attempt to extend the same sort of kindness towards them when they come visit us in Nashville. I am holding them to that commitment! They are simply a joy to know and be around, and a lovely couple.

So to Veronica and Maarten — Cheers, Prost, Skal! We love you guys!!!

We have had sporadic Internet or I would have written more. We spend a day in Lugano, Switzerland and apparently the Internet is outlawed as we could not find it anywhere. Lugano was pretty unspectacular, it was a phony Italy. Stuff just wasn’t legit there. We spent yesterday in Florence, Italy - the only objective was to see the Ponta Viccio (I know I am butchering the spelling) which is a bridge that has all these lovely jewerly and gold shops lining it and to get me a leather tote for work at one of the famous leather markets. Check! Check!

Then it was off to Rome today to see a couple things we missed on our honeymoon - the Pantheon and Spanish Steps. It was horribly hot and I left most of the warm weather clothes I packed in Amsterdam. And, I am about ready to come home, tired and ready to hit American soil, so today was nice but not great. We are going to get some dinner and pack to head back to Amsterdam on a flight tomorrow…

Til then!

PS - Dont forget to check our gallery of pictures! There’s tons there!!

Take a look at our photos gallery on the homepage of this site - surely these pics (they will say the city or country and 2007) from many of our destinations from this trip are worth at least a million words?!?! We are currently spending the day in Bellagio, Italy — we are staying in Lugano, Switzerland but apparently Internet is not common there as we could not find a connection after several hours of trying … It is a gorgeous day!

Ok, so everywhere we go it just keeps getting better and better. Seriously, how is this possible? We are in Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, which is in a valley between the largest peak in Europe and another very tall mountain.

I am going to post pics from our amazing two days here later on. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!!!!!!!

Note: Make sure to click “blogs” on the top of our Web page to see my other post with pics if you missed it …