Craic, rainbows and blarney…with a side of Jameson

Our final European trip is in the books and we loved Ireland! The weather was pretty chilly, but probably a good reminder of what the Upper Midwest will be like in the coming days/weeks :) We rented a car and drove ourselves around the whole island, which is a great way to see all the spots that were on our list. While much of our time this summer has been spent in larger cities, our favorite Irish spots were the smaller and more charming ones.

We flew into Shannon airport on the western side of the island and our first stop was the Cliffs of Moher, stretching a few miles along the coast and providing a pretty dramatic view of the Atlantic. We managed to get there right as the afternoon’s rain was moving inland, so we were treated to a mix of the misty, hazy countryside behind us and the clear, crisp ocean in front of us. With the waves crashing below us and just a handful of other tourists around, it made for an excellent sunset. We spent the night in Ennis, which was a small town, and got our first experience with the Irish craic at dinner. It’s pronounced like ‘crack’ and means something like convivial conversation, and the guy next to us had had a lifetime of practice.

The next morning, we headed down south and stopped by Blarney Castle. I was wavering a bit about whether or not we really needed to see this one, fearing it would just be a cheesy tourist trap. Turns out the castle is set on some beautiful grounds and there’s also an old manor house and some walking paths along the river, so it was a perfect spot to enjoy a sunny morning and all the fall colors. For Midwesterners who spent most of the fall in big cities or the desert, it was really nice to see all the trees turning – while Ireland does have 40 shades of green in its landscape, there are several areas that make you feel like you could be in central Wisconsin. Speaking of Wisconsin, our next stop involved alcohol – we toured the Jameson distillery in Midleton and got to sample some of their delicious product. They’ve been making it since 1780 or something, so they’re getting pretty good at it. Finished off the day at our lovely B&B in Kinsale, which is on the south coast. As opposed to staying in nearby Cork, which is a much bigger city, we chose a quiet village and were very pleased with it.

We took advantage of some dry weather the next day for a long walk along the coast out to Charles Fort, built by the British in the 1600’s following an attempt by the Irish and Spanish to team up and take the English down a peg or two. That afternoon, we headed further down the coast to see the Lusitania museum, which was unfortunately closed. The upside of touring Ireland in November is you get the place to yourself…the downside is that a lot of those places are closed. The next day we headed back north to explore the Dingle peninsula, mainly because it sounds funny. It also has some pretty epic scenery, and thankfully the weather was cooperating again. The sheep and cows definitely outnumbered the humans, but it didn’t seem like they were truly appreciating the beauty around them.

Next stop was Galway, which is more ‘city’ than ‘village’ on the western coast, but had a lively pub and restaurant scene in the pedestrian-friendly city center. The following day, we were longing to see some more sheep, so we hit the road and headed up to the Connemara National Park area and also visited Kylemore Abbey. Like Blarney Castle, I was pleasantly surprised by our tour of Kylemore’s castle-turned-abbey and the beautiful grounds. It was built by a wealthy businessman-politician in the late 1800’s for his beloved wife and the estate was a model of many ‘modern’ innovations. After his wife’s tragic death, the property ended up in the hands of the Duke and Duchess of Manchester in 1909 (a bit like Downton Abbey as she was a wealthy American married to an old British title), who then lost it through gambling debts. It was purchased by Benedictine nuns in 1920 after they were forced to flee WWI in Belgium. I love this history!

From Galway, we left the good weather behind and headed further north. Attempted to see the 6000 year old Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery, which is one of the oldest in Europe, but it was closed for the season. Nearby, we decided to brave the driving rain to hike 1.2 km up Knocknarea, a 1000-ft limestone hill supposedly topped with Queen Maeve’s tomb. I couldn’t confirm that for you, though, because I quit about 100 feet from the top when the wind and rain and cold just became more than I could tolerate. Coco was shrieking like a banshee the ENTIRE way as Eric carried her, his hearing may never fully recover. After the Trail of Tears, we continued our rainy drive up to Derry, in Northern Ireland. Interesting history here, too, as it was established in the early 1600’s via a ‘plantation’ of Protestant English/Scottish into the Catholic Ulster area, who then felt it would be wise to keep the natives out by building a walled city (which was never breached in the following centuries). On the more recent pages of the history books, Derry had seen a revival of troubled times, but it seems like Bloody Sunday is in the rearview mirror and Derrians today are ready for peace.

We were well over 1000 km into our Irish road-trip at this point, so driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the narrow roads was pretty natural by now. Thanks to the Dramamine, Coco was tolerating Eric’s rally car driving style better than I was. North coast stops included the cliff-edge ruins of Dunluce Castle, the surprisingly small Giant’s Causeway, and the precarious rope bridge to Carrick-a-Rede island. It was a little sad to leave the wild Irish countryside behind us, especially now that the deluge had ended, but Belfast was next on our agenda. Again, we stayed at a small B&B, which was very quaint and helped us start our days with the usual aggressive breakfast including fried potato bread, Irish soda bread, baked beans, fried eggs, sausages and bacon. Despite dangerously high cholesterol levels, we managed to enjoy walking around the city and feeling the energy. We got some historical and political insights via Paddy Campbell’s Famous Black Cab tour, and checked out the Titanic museum, which had some top-notch visuals and a scavenger hunt to keep Coco engaged.

Continuing down the east coast from Belfast, we stopped off at Newgrange, a 5000-year-old passage tomb known for its Winter Solstice Illumination. Since we were several weeks early, our guide re-created the experience with a flashlight, and it was kinda cool…but it also just felt like you were inside a tiny cave in a big mound with a flashlight. Hopefully the fairies and spirits that inhabit the cave weren’t offended by my nonchalance – sorry, not sorry! Onward to Dublin, where we did some shopping and explored the Temple Bar district along the River Liffey. The following day we spent time at Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells in their library, went to Christ Church cathedral, enjoyed food truck lunch, wandered around Dublin Castle, and shopped a bit more. As we headed back to Spain for the final time, it was pretty strange to realize that it really was coming to an end.

Back in Granada, and the apartment is all packed up, Colette is ready for her final day of school here, and Eric and I are trudging through all the details that go along with moving away. Granted, moving away from Granada is a lot less work than moving away from Minnesota was, and we’re a little more experienced this time around, so I think we’ve got everything under control. We’re so excited to see friends and family in the coming weeks and try to get caught up on everything we’ve missed over the past 6 months. While it’s been tough to be away, the time we’ve had here as a family has been amazingly precious and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Yes, I know Africa's not in Europe!

Our penultimate European trip included our first and only foray out of Europe...we spent a week in Morocco with a good friend from back home, and it was definitely NOT Europe.

Nate arrived in Barcelona in early October, so Eric road-tripped up there from Granada to meet him and begin their week of climbing. I don't know the names of all the places they actually went to, but I do know that it rained - a lot. Now, I think this is rather uncommon for that area of Spain at that time of year, so I'm not exactly blaming Nate for bringing the rain with him, but you'll have to draw your own conclusions. We even had a rainy day in Granada, which of course happened to be a day that Coco's school was closed for 'holiday' so that was extra special for mom :) Thankfully, I've managed to meet a few very nice (English speaking!) moms and we get together a couple times a month, so we threw all the kids into the playroom and got to catch up.

Once the boys made it back to Granada, Coco was near bursting with excitement over seeing Uncle Nate, and we gave him the 1-day whirlwind tour of the city. The next day we hopped the bus down to Algeciras (across the bay from Gibraltar) and caught the ferry from Spain to Morocco. It was smooth sailing and we snagged a good bottle of booze from the duty-free shop on board. Good thing, because alcohol is HARD to come by in the Muslim world, although we did make some valiant efforts! We got our tiny little rental car at the Tangier ferry port (which had some mega-security, perhaps because 40% of the world's cannabis is grown in the nearby mountains) and hit the road. It was about an hour drive into town, with basically no gas in the tank and no cell service for GPS (gasp!!), but we made it despite one missed exit. As we were driving from the outskirts of the city, we were all a little surprised at how clean and well-kept everything looked. They drove a little maniacally (Eric fit right in!) but besides that, it didn't feel nearly as rough as we expected. We just spent one night in Tangier at a cozy guesthouse right outside the walls of the medina - no frills, but there was a nice rooftop terrace for the grown-up's to enjoy once the kiddo hit the hay. The next day, we had our standard Moroccan breakfast at the guesthouse (bread, rolls and more carbs, along with some coffee) and took a wander around the medina, which is basically the old city that was walled and has the narrow, winding streets.

From Tangier, we hopped in the car and headed south to Fes, one of the imperial cities of Morocco that also has history way way back. In Fes, our guesthouse was inside the medina, so we had to park outside the wall and a local guide who hangs out in the area showed us the way to our place. He was giving us his sales pitch, so we took him up on the offer for a guided tour of the medina the next day. We got to see an old Koran school, the neighborhood communal oven, the market, the rug shop and the tannery - this was probably where the differences from European cities were the most stark. Everything was rough and gritty and it was totally normal to squeeze to the side of the narrow street to let the donkey cart pass while you brushed against the camel head that was hanging outside your neighbor's shop and the geese nibbled a bit at your ankles. One evening, while discreetly asking around for a place to get a bottle of wine, we were directed to a restaurant just inside the city gate and seated at a rather prominent table right out front. I sort of figured there must've been some language barrier, since I couldn't imagine them plopping a bottle of wine down on the table for everyone to see. After about 10 minutes, they brought out 3 bottles of Coke filled with red wine, which was pretty clever - we winked and enjoyed them thoroughly.

After Fes, we had a long drive down to Marrakech for our last stop. Unfortunately, both Eric and Nate were having some tummy trouble by this point, despite how careful we were being about what we ate/drank. Passed along the outskirts of Rabat and Casablanca, two other imperial cities, but didn't have time to stop and explore either. Again, our riad was in the medina, and this medina was quite a bit larger than the last two, so we were at the mercy of the local guys to lead us (the long way) to our lodging. Once we finally arrived, the Moroccan hospitality was very welcoming, with a sugary sweet mint tea for each of us, extra sugar cube for Coco. By this time, I was not super enthralled with the idea of another dusty, crowded medina where I was alternatively watching for pickpockets and poop on the ground, while trying to keep an eye on Coco and make sure she wasn't getting run over by a rogue scooter or donkey cart. So when Nate and Eric prepared to head out of town for some climbing in the mountains, Coco and I went right along with them (she with her Dramamine, of course!). It was such a change to get up into the hills and breathe some fresh air and see no one but the local shepherds and hear nothing but the echo that Coco kept testing out. Another day, we wandered from the medina up to the 'new city' and I would tell you about our somewhat lengthy mission to find the liquor store, but you're going to start thinking we're alcoholics pretty soon... By the end of the week in Morocco, we were pretty accustomed to hearing the call to prayer 5 times daily, eating 4 varieties of bread and calling it breakfast, alternating between couscous and tagines for every other meal, trying to understand French by pretending it's Spanish, being sober, and searching for that one shop with the caged turtles out front to remind you which alley you should turn down to get home. I don't think I'll be staying in a medina again any time soon, but I do hope to get back to Africa and see at least a few of the 50+ other countries.

From Marrakech, it was a quick flight back to Spain and suddenly our warm sunny weather was gone and the chilly rain was back. We had one night in Madrid with Nate before he broke Coco's heart and headed back to the US...she's already asking how long before she can see him again. The rain didn't really quit over the next 3 days, but we tried to get out and explore anyway. Coco and I toughed it out at the zoo one day while Eric enjoyed the warm and dry art museums like the Prado and Reina Sophia that Madrid is best known for. As in Granada, dinner is a late-night affair, so we probably didn't get to experience the great dining scene like we would've if a certain 3-yr old wasn't in tow.

We capped off the trip with a few days in Lisbon, Portugal, which was just lovely. The weather was much better than we had in Madrid, and the city seemed to be cheerier and much more accessible. We waited in line for 1.5 hrs to ride the iconic #28 streetcar (which Coco pretended was Trolley from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood), had lunch at a cereal bar, rode the ferry to the other side of the river and checked out some old boats, went to the Oceanarium, and rode a tuk-tuk up to the hilltop castle that survived the devastating earthquake/fire/tsunami of 1755. The city surprised us a bit by feeling like the San Francisco of Europe, and it's a place I definitely hope to visit again in the future.

Now that we're back in Granada, it's sinking in that we're nearly done with this European adventure. As I go to the florist and renew the contract for our rental car and pay our internet bill at the internet store, I realize this is the last time I'll do these things - it feels so surreal to have parts of this life behind us already. While we're all looking forward to the new and exciting things that will happen in the coming months, there's no question that we'll probably never again get to spend so much time together.