Europe Day 9: Ireland, Cliffs of Moher

Monday July 22, 2019

Another short night. We got up at 5 am to get ready and take the 5:40 am shuttle back to the airport. Our flight to Dublin boarded at 7 am. From our experience the night before, we knew it would be a 20 minute ride to the airport so we would be cutting it close. We got down to the lobby just before 5:30 am and met a couple from Jupiter, Florida. They too had an early morning flight but had decided not to chance it and had called a taxi. As luck would have it, a full size van showed up. We decided to split the cost of the taxi and all loaded up in the van. Yay.

Our flight on KLM from Amsterdam to Dublin was only an hour and 20 minutes. I dozed for a bit, then woke up to sounds of the beverage cart... and they gave us breakfast! God bless! I got a very filling egg salad sandwich on whole grain bread and coffee. Perfect. We landed shortly after that.

Off to our next adventure!

Quite honestly, I dozed off to sleep shortly after we got in our rental car. My husband was left dealing with driving a stick shift with his left hand and driving on the left side of the road in a right-sided steering wheel car. I woke up when he pulled into a gas station to get some coffee. He had slept through breakfast on the plane. The gas station was also a grocery store. He came out with a sandwich and a scone so I decided to get a wrap too. That would tide us over until we got to our next stop in Ballyvaughan, literally on the other side of the country, about 145 miles away.

Once we left the main highway it became apparent why you have to purchase the rental car insurance required by the rental car company. The narrow roads gave new meaning to the term "no shoulder." There were either stone fences or bush right up to the edge of the road. We had our lives flash before us multiple times when we encountered oncoming tour buses or cars hauling campers; they all passed inches from us!

As we neared the west coast we came to the Burren. From Wikipedia...

The Burren is a region of environmental interest primarily located in northwestern County Clare, Ireland, dominated by glaciated karst landscape. It measures, depending on the definition, between 250 square kilometres and 560 square kilometres. The name is most often applied to the area within the circle made by the villages of Tubber, Corofin, Kilfenora, Lisdoonvarna, and Ballyvaughan, and Kinvara in extreme south-western Galway, including the adjacent coastline.

The Burren

Our hotel for the night was at the Wild Atlantic Lodge in Ballyvaughan.

We arrived shortly before 2 pm so our room wasn't ready yet. We decided to eat lunch across the street at the Soda Parlour, then drove the scenic route on the Wild Atlantic Way to the Cliffs of Moher.

It was very scenic...

                                                                                              ... and it was very wild.

We got to the Cliffs shortly after 4 pm. I had read that this was an ideal time to go as most of the tour buses leave around 4 pm so it's not as crowded. Plus, sunset was supposed to be spectacular. Well, no spectacular sunset today. It was a gray misty day.

So... my husband would not go past this sign. The path had actually washed away some time past this sign but there was another clear trail past the sign as the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Center was only a small part of the Cliffs of Moher Coastal Walk, a trail which starts in the village of Doolin to the north and ends in the village of Liscannor to the south. The entire trail is 20 km in length. I would have loved to have hiked the whole thing but it's not the sort of thing my husband was up to, and he did not like the unprotected trail.

Anyhoos… I climbed over the rock barrier (along with hundreds of other people, some with their baby strollers - totally NOT kidding!) and continued on the trail for awhile.

It was very windy and I'm no good with selfies.

I was no where near the edge!

Misty gray sunset

Once we were done at the Cliffs we took the quicker less scenic route back to Ballyvaughan and checked into our room. It was spacious!

Nothing like the little shoebox in Paris

We could have each had our own bed!

Dinner was at Monks Seafood Restaurant and Bar.

So confession time... the main reason I booked our room in Ballyvaughan was that I read online somewhere about this restaurant and I had to go eat there! Monks did not disappoint. It was everything I imagined it would be.

I got the crab claws

We shared a chocolate torte for dessert

We stopped at the "snug bar" at our hotel before retiring for the night.

The Snug Bar

The bar was literally just below our hotel room. I was a little worried the noise would keep me up but that was not a problem. I pretty much passed out as soon as my head hit my pillow.

Another wonderful vacation day!

Europe Day 7-8: 19 Hours in Paris

Saturday July 20, 2019
The one place my daughter wanted to visit while she was in Europe was Paris. The only day she had completely free from any classes was Sunday July 21st.

Saturday morning I had a wonderful breakfast in the Executive Lounge. I ended up getting smoked salmon with cream cheese on whole-grain bread, fresh fruit, and pastries as well as coffee. There was Champaign available for Mimosas too but I didn't see it until I was ready to leave. There was essentially a whole brunch buffet set up in there. I decided having Diamond status was definitely worth it!

We got a late check-out so we didn't have to leave the room until 1pm. We made a stop at the grocery store next door for some premade sandwiches and drinks then went to pick G up from her Hostel. She was supposed to get out of class at 1:30pm but her class went a bit over so it was 2:30pm by the time we got on the road.

It took us five and a half hours to drive to Paris, including a 30 minute rest stop for gas and more snacks. Once we got into the city proper the route to our hotel took us past the Arc de Triomphe. Navigation was a team effort. The voice directions told my husband to "turn right on the 7th street" once we entered the "roundabout." I think my husband's brain fell out at that point. The Arc de Triomphe is more like an ARENA than a roundabout. There are 12 streets that dump out into a huge circle with no lane markers and a tourist attraction in the middle. It was anarchy. I counted streets while he drove and my daughter took photos.

No one died.

Our hotel, the Hotel de la Paix Tour Eiffel, was a half mile from the Eiffel Tower. We had to park our car in a parking lot and walk down several narrow streets to get to it.

We found some nice treats in our room

The room was the size of a shoebox with a pull out couch on the other side

Seen on our way to dinner...

After dinner G and I decided to see the Eiffel Tower at night.

We then debated on whether to see the sunrise over the Eiffel Tower in the morning. Sunrise was at 6:08am. It was now after midnight. We decided it might be a once in a lifetime opportunity, plus we could sleep on our ride back to Amsterdam, so G set her alarm for 5:30am and went to bed.

Sunday July 21, 2019

We made it to the Eiffel Tower for sunrise.

Dawn at the Eiffel Tower

Sunrise

Compared to the crowds the night before, it was really nice to be nearly alone at the Tower. Unfortunately there was trash everywhere. It was like everyone had had a party on the lawn the night before and no one had cleaned up. The grass was littered with empty bottles.

We got some nice photos anyway and the temperature was perfect for walking around. We got back to the hotel at 7am and went back to bed.

The alarm went off at 8:30am for breakfast and this time it was harder to get up. We had breakfast and checked out, put all our luggage back in our car, then went to further explore the city.

We took a bus to the 4th Arrondissement and walked over a bridge to the Ile Saint-Louis. We could see Notre Dame in the distance with scaffolding in place for repairs.

G wanted to get ice cream from Berthillon Glacier. We had just walked into an empty store then made our way back up to the front to look at the ice cream when suddenly we found 20 people lined up behind us. It was a bit startling. We quickly made our choices and got out of the way. Turns out a tour bus had just unloaded all its passengers just around the corner.

We spent a bit more time looking around the shops then had lunch at Cafe Louis Philippe.

Trying to choose a restaurant for lunch

Café Louis Philippe

Can't leave Paris without trying escargot!

We stopped at a bakery after lunch to pick up some macarons. It was time to head back to Amsterdam after that. We had to return our rental car at the airport before the rental car booth closed at 10pm. We got G back to her Hostel around 8pm but it was 9:30pm by the time we got the car returned. We ate at the airport after that.

Our hotel for the night was the Hampton Inn Schiphol Airport. I booked it because it had a free airport shuttle and it was, well, supposed to be by the airport. I knew we would be getting back pretty late on Sunday night and we had an early flight out to Dublin in the morning.

So... the free shuttle runs every 40 minutes. The next shuttle wasn't due until 10:40pm. My husband got a cab. Then... it took 20 minutes to get to the hotel. Turns out all the "airport" hotels are 15-20 minutes away. The only hotels that are actually at the airport are the Hilton and the Sheraton. Once we got to the Hampton we also found out that the first shuttle in the morning didn't leave until 5:40 am. That would be cutting it a bit close as we had an international flight that left at 7:40am. I started regretting not booking the Hilton. The Hilton had been twice as many points and I didn't want to waste points on a hotel we were staying in for 6 hours but still... it would have been convenient.

I was exhausted and a bit of a wreck by now. My husband went to print out our boarding passes for the morning. I took a shower and went to bed.

Europe Day 6: Amsterdam

Friday July 19, 2019

We drove back to Amsterdam today and checked into the Hilton DoubleTree Hotel at Centraal Station. It's a really nice hotel that overlooks the Het IJ.

Hilton DoubleTree

view from our room

We needed a rest day today. After checking in my husband and I decided to go to the Executive Lounge and just hang out there. This was one of the reasons I did the Hilton status match and got Hilton Diamond status. There are free food and drinks in the Executive Lounge. We got there around 4 pm. My husband had some work to finish up on his laptop and I got caught up on my email and the rest of my online life. We were the only ones in the lounge at 4 pm. Happy Hour is from 5-7 pm. They bring out beer, wine and hot snacks as well as desserts
that. At 5pm the place filled up. I was glad we were already camped out at a table. We stayed until almost 7, then left to meet G for dinner.

Dinner was at a vegan restaurant called The Meets. The food was delicious. I regretted eating so much at Happy Hour.

For dessert I had quite possibly the best chocolate mousse I've ever had. G had the lavender blueberry cake which was wonderful too. I got uncomfortably full.

Lavender Blueberry Cake

We rolled ourselves back to the hotel after that and passed out.

Europe Day 5: Dusseldorf, Burg Castle

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Short version of the day  - Got up, saw a castle, ate a huge meal then took a nap.

Longer version...
We decided to go visit Burg Castle aka Schloss Burg, in Solingen, Germany.

After touring the castle we had a choice of several picturesque little restaurants on a path behind the castle. We settled on the Waffelhaus where they offered a nearly  infinate variety of sweet and savoury waffles... and it was that I found it - the quintessential regional meal that I had read about...

Found it!

"Dessert"

So after that meal, we drove back to the hotel... and I went to sleep.

Europe can be exhausting.