Europe Day 14: Amsterdam, Our Last Day

Saturday July 27, 2019

We checked out of our hotel and stored our luggage with the reception desk, then made our way back to the center of town. We had a late breakfast at the Happy Pig Pancake Shop where they specialize in rolled pancakes. My daughter and I decided to get one savory dish, the Cheese and Veggie (Gouda cheese, cucumber, tomato, onion and lemon) with bacon, and one sweet dish, the fresh strawberry with whipped cream.

The food was wonderful however the pancake shop was tiny. There were two tables that had 5-6 stools and two counter spaces with two stools each, one against a wall and one against the front window. My daughter and I were lucky enough to snag a counter space. My husband decided to eat outside. It was HOT inside.

After filling up on pancakes we spent some time browsing the shops. G ended up with a dress and some gorgeous earrings. As we started to make our way back to the main street we saw that the Pride Parade was going by so we stopped to watch it. This is Pride Week in Amsterdam and there are people from all over Europe in town for it.

My husband then wanted to go to the Amsterdam Dungeon, then buy some cheese. My daughter and I wanted to continue shopping so we split up. Our next stop was at Café Blond Amsterdam, a bakery cafe and shop.

They had the most adorable dishes! My daughter ended up with a bowl and a mug. I just took photos.

Carrot Ginger Juice

We then made our way to Cottoncake, a clothing store that also served drinks and sandwiches. We got iced coconut matcha lattes.

It was a hot day

We were staying hydrated

By now my husband was done with his Amsterdam Dungeon experience so he got on the tram and met us for lunch.

Lunch was at Cafe Flinck.

Truffle Cheese with Chestnut Mushroom Sandwich

Carpaccio with Pesto Mayo and Parmesan

This was followed by and short walk to a gelato shop.

By now it was after 5 pm so we made our way back to the hotel to retrieve our luggage. We had to call an Uber to get to our next hotel out by the airport. It was a 30 minute drive by car vs. about an hour and a half if we used public transportation and we had 5 roller bags and 3 backpacks among the 3 of us so we bucked up $42 for the luxury of a ride.

The Courtyard by Marriott was our final hotel. Again, we arrived totally exhausted. So exhausted we couldn't figure out our room number!

Seriously... what's our room number?

Looked like "zug" to us!

We secured spots on the 9am airport shuttle then poured ourselves into our room. We used the last of our Euros to have a pizza delivered for dinner, then it was bedtime.

Europe Day 13: Back in Amsterdam

Friday July 26, 2019

A cool hotel room and some sleep fixed a lot of things. I felt much better in the morning.

If you have noticed in all the past photos of this trip, the weather appears gray. It was. When we left Indiana the Midwest was being scorched by 90 degrees temperatures day in and day out. When we arrived in Amsterdam it was is in the low 70's and spitting rain. Despite the rain, we welcomed the cooler weather. It stayed in the mid-70's throughout our first week in Europe. However, the weekend we went to Paris things started heating up.

Ireland remained nice and cool. I think I'm wearing the same fleece pullover in almost every picture due to the cooler temperatures. However, while we were in Ireland the European continent turned into an oven. The night we arrived in Amsterdam the city had set a new record high of 101 degrees during the day. When we checked in with our daughter in the morning she was miserable. The Hostel did not have adequate air conditioning and she was burning up. She was supposed to check out by 10 am Saturday anyway so we asked if she'd like to check out a day early and stay at the hotel with us. She said "yes" in a heartbeat.

We were originally booked at the Moxy for two nights but our room was not large enough for three people. After an hour on the phone with Marriott Bonvoy customer service my husband was able to get our reservation switched to the Residence Inn - which just happened to be the top several floors of the building we were already in.

View from the Residence Inn

We were definitely in a more industrial part of Amsterdam

Nice spacious pull out couch for my daughter

Nice air conditioned room for us

After moving into our new room my husband and I went back into central Amsterdam. My daughter had an end of session performance at 2 pm and my husband wanted to check out the cheese shops before then.

We found some incredible old aged goat milk gouda here but decided we'd better get it later rather than carry it around with us in 90 degree weather. We ended up getting some snacks for lunch and eating them in a park before heading to the theater.

After my daughter's show we went back to the Hostel and moved her out. By now we were all hot and cranky again. We took the tram back to Centraal Station and decided we were too hot and tired to try and come back into central Amsterdam again so we picked up some groceries and took the bus back to our hotel.

We spent the evening cooling down and resting. It was getting time to go home.

Europe Day 12: Ireland, Guinness Storehouse

Thursday July 25, 2019

Today we went to the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. This is a 7 story attraction which is roughly shaped like a pint glass inside and tells all about the makings of Guinness beer and its history. I was able to purchase tickets with points from my Citicard before going. The onsite admission price is 25 Euros. There is a free parking lot on the property that is manned by an attendant.

Once inside, the first thing we were shown on the ground floor was the contract that Arthur Guinness signed on December 31, 1759 for a 9000 year lease on the property. Arthur Guinness' signature from that lease is what is now replicated on all his beer products. Also on the ground floor are displays of how the beer is made.

The next floor has displays about cooperage. The coopers are those that made the wooden barrels for the beer. The wooden barrels have now been replaced with metal but it was a true artform.

The second floor is a tasting experience where we first smelled all the different components of the beer then had a miniature little glass of Guinness.

The third floor was all about advertising. There were numerous displays of past advertising icons.

The fourth floor was the Guinness Academy where you can learn to pour the perfect pint and the Connoisseur Experience where you can get a private tasting of their different beers. We skipped this floor and went up to the next floor which had a variety of restaurants.

The top floor was the Gravity Bar. This is where you got your free pint of beer. It was supposed to offer a nice panoramic view of the city while you enjoyed your beer. So... first problem was that it was wall to wall people up there. There was no place to sit or even put your beer down. Next, when you could finally get to the glass walls to see the city, well, honestly the city was pretty ugly. Miles of surrounding industrial buildings with an occasional historic church tower mingled among them.

We decided to take our beers down to the floor below us and have lunch at Arthur's Bar. After lunch we went back down to the ground floor and browsed their retail store. All in all we spent a good four hours at the Storehouse. Overall for this trip I'm glad we made the decision to do only one activity each day as I felt like it made the experience all the more enjoyable. We saw on numerous occasions people on tour buses rush in and out of places, trying to fit it all in. It looked a bit stressful.

After we were done at the Storehouse we headed to the airport to return our rental car and fly back to Amsterdam.

Goodbye Ireland

We had a late flight out and did not get to Amsterdam until 11:30 pm. We needed to take a bus to our next hotel the Moxy. The Moxy was not in the central part of town. The last bus left Centraal Station at 12:15 am. Our train from the airport got us to Centraal Station at midnight. We then ran up to the bus platforms, hubs spotted the right bus number and yelled for me to just get on, so we clamored aboard just as it was pulling out. Phew!

...BUT, then we discovered we were on the correct NUMBER bus, but it was going the WRONG WAY! Arghhhhhhh!!

We got off the bus as soon as we realized this but now we were already several miles in the wrong direction. We were standing somewhere in Amsterdam at 1am, not anywhere near our hotel, dragging our luggage around. We ended up walking to a large intersection and were lucky enough to flag down a taxi which took us to our hotel. By now we were both HOT, and TIRED, and our tempers were flaring. It was definitely time for bed!

Europe Day 11: Ireland, Newgrange Falconry

Wednesday July 24, 2019

Today was Falconry day! This was the day I was most looking forward to during our whole trip.
On advice received from my Facebook travel group (Travel Miles 101) I had booked a "Hawk Walk" through Newgrange Falconry.

Details from their website about the experience:

- An insight into the ancient art of falconry

- Meeting a magnificent golden eagle

- Going on a ‘Hawk Walk’ with a caste of hawks

- Seeing a falcon flying freely to the lure in beautiful countryside

- Handling and flying an owl or two

- Getting up ‘close and personal’ and holding these magnificent birds

- Photo opportunities throughout your lesson

- Viewing of falconry equipment

- Informational talks (Questions & Answers throughout the lesson)

- Having some homemade light refreshments on the hill

There were various falconry opportunities in Ireland including one at Ashford Castle however this one appeared to be the stand out favorite and I have no regrets! It was everything I wanted it to be and more.

The day started by meeting Brian McCann and his son Carl at the Lime Kiln restaurant in Julianstown. From there we followed their van to a hilltop vista to fly the birds.

Carl and Brian McCann

First Brian showed us the golden eagles. He handled them as they have talons that could easily crush your arm, or a small skull for that matter! There was a male and a female.

Brian with a golden eagle

After telling us all about them he set them out on their perches and got out the owls. He had vermiculated owl named Cindy. She comes from sub-Saharan Africa.

Then there was a male and female pair of barn owls. The male barn owl has snow white feathers while the female has spotted feathers.

Next was a beautiful female red tail hawk.

This was followed by tea.

After our tea we were introduced to a male and female pair of Harris Hawks. They flew from fence post to fence post as we walked along the hillside, then came to perch on a gloved hand when they were offered food. We spent quite a bit of time with these Hawks.

Click for video

Carl with the Harris Hawks

Once we were finished with the hawks, Brian set us up with a special photo op with the barn owl.

The finale was meeting to the perigrine falcon. A magnificent bird!

In all, our experience took about 4 hours. Perhaps the highlight of our trip!

We drove to Swords (in North Dublin) after that to check into our next hotel, the Carnegie Court Hotel. It is situated over the Harp Bar.

We had dinner there. I ordered to the obigatory fish and chips, tried the Bulmers Irish cider, then finished off the meal with a glass of Jameson whiskey. A perfect day in Ireland.

Europe Day 10: Ireland, Ashford Castle

Tuesday July 23, 2019

We left Ballyvaughan around 10:30 am and made our way across the Irish countryside towards Cong, County Mayo and our next destination Ashford Castle.

Ashford Castle was founded in 1228 by the Anglo-Norman de Burgo family. It was also once home to the Guinness family. It is now one of the top luxury hotels in the world and has hosted such guests as John Lennon, Prince Rainier and Princess Grace, and President Reagan just to name a few. The interior of the castle is only open to guests while viewing the grounds requires a reservation.

The main reason we went to Ashford Castle was to have Afternoon Tea in the Connaught Room.

I had made our reservations in May. Once we arrived at the gates we were met by a courtly uniformed gentleman who asked our names and confirmed them on a list. He then opened the gate and had us drive a winding road past a golf course to the castle. Once at the castle another gentleman directed us to the parking area. From to the parking area we walked across a bridge to the castle itself.

Oh, and the castle even has its own helicopter! The helicopter was preparing to leave the helipad in front of the castle as we were arriving.

We were greeted by a doorman who then checked our names off another list and showed us inside.

We had arrived almost an hour early so he invited us to walk around in the gardens while we waited.

I could really get used to this castle life!

Our reservations were for 1:30 pm. At this time the staff from the Connaught Room opened the doors and seated us. We were seated at table by the window that looked out across a formal garden to Lake Corrib. The Corrib River next to the castle connects the lake to Galway Bay and the ocean.

The next order of business was to select our teas. I chose the Marsala Chai while my husband chose the Irish Whiskey Cream. Both were delicious.

We were first given a small cup of strawberry lemonade with a delightful froth on top to tease our palate.

Our server then brought out our tea and sandwiches.

After we had polished off the sandwiches we were asked if we wanted any more sandwiches. I opted for another chicken avocado sandwich - those are the ones rolled in almonds - because they were fabulous.

    

We then received a basket of warm scones. We each had a cheese scone, a fruit scone and a plain scone accompanied by clotted cream, lemon curd, and strawberry and rhubarb jam. The cheese scones were my favorite. There were melty little bits of cheese in a scone that just dissolved in my mouth.

We finished with beautiful pastry desserts.

I had been worried we wouldn't get enough food for a filling lunch but that was not the case. I was almost too full to eat all the desserts! In fact, I saw that a number of people took boxes away with them with what they couldn't finish.

It was a delightful afternoon.

After lunch we drove across Ireland again to it's other shore. Our hotel for the night was at the d Hotel in Drogheda, a town north of Dublin in County Louth.

The room here was spacious too.

We got messy and used the extra bed as a luggage rack

We had a nice view of the River Boyne and the Boyne Viaduct.

My husband was craving a hamburger so we had dinner across the street from the hotel at Eddie Rocket's. It was bedtime after that!