With strict orders for an 8:10 am meeting-up with our Driftwood Tour group at the Grand Canal Hotel, we set our Tuesday morning alarm for 6 a.m. The Academy Plaza staff was kind enough to accommodate my request to leave a suitcase intended for Croatia in their manager’s office for the duration of our tour. Another remarkably friendly and chatty taxi driver sped us through Dublin commuter traffic. He pointed out the building across from the Grand Canal Hotel that had once been a bustling slaughterhouse employing over 1,000 Dubliners, but was closed down some 20 years ago.

We easily found Ciara, our lovely, patient, and efficient guide, in the lobby of the hotel; she checked us in and quickly loaded up the luggage in our 16-seater tour bus. There are 15 travelers on our tour, remarkably with 3 nurses (2 from Australia and me), and 5 Los Angeles County retirees (Mike and two other couples). There is also a dentist, teacher, engineer, and others I’m forgetting. Most of the folks are retired.

8:10 a.m. on the dot we headed away from the meet-up hotel and joined the Dublin morning traffic. Vagabond’s 11-day Driftwood tours go either clockwise or counter-clockwise around Ireland. We learned as we pulled away that we would be going clockwise, and our first destination would be the Rock of Cashel in County Cork.

The story goes that the Rock of Cashel originated in a mountain 20 miles north of the town of Cashel when St. Patrick banished Satan from a cave. Some explosion in the cave caused a giant rock to blow out and land on a hilltop in Cashel.   A cathedral was built, now in ruins, but, interesting to us, the cathedral’s cemetery continues to be used. Some of the headstones listed people who died as recently as 2016.

After Cashel, we continued southerly to Blarney, familiar to most for the Blarney Stone. Our group was able to speed past the line-up at the entrance to the Blarney Castle and grounds. The grounds are lovely, with beautiful formal gardens, a gorgeous home, and the castle remains. The queue to climb the stairs and kiss the Blarney stone was an hour long. Ciara asked who wanted to kiss the stone – I raised my hand, of course. Couldn’t believe that only I and one other group member, Chris from Australia, wanted to do it. I mean, geez, when would I ever be in Blarney again?!?! So, Chris and I stood in line, chatted the time away as we climbed the spiral stairs, and took each other’s photos as a burly Irishman prevented us from falling down to our deaths as we kissed the stone upside down. I had to buy the 10euro commemorative photo.

Back in the bus, we drove another hour into County Cork, passed through the city of Cork and onto the outside of town where we came to our first night’s accommodation. The Gouganne Barra Hotel is situated on a stunning site in a valley surrounded by mountains and with the Gouganne lake in front. In the 6^th century St. Finbarr founded a monastery on an island in the lake. We had a great dinner in the hotel and a good night’s sleep, still a bit off schedule, but getting there.

Monday was a day of flawless travel plan execution. We used the small, family-owned Gig Harbor Taxi service for the first time. Our driver, who owns the service with her daughter, was great, showed up at 8:30am as requested and dropped us at the Inn at Gig Harbor where we caught the Kitsap Airporter to Seatac airport and parked ourselves in an airport lounge 4 hours early. United checked in our bags all the way through to Dublin in spite of the airline change in San Francisco. United service was typically pedestrian, but they got us into SFO safely and on time.

Aer Lingus was terrific. I felt especially lucky to be flying in a plane with a shamrock on its tail. Air Lingus really takes their Irishness to heart – all the seats are upholstered in bright green, they serve entrees like shepherd’s pie for dinner, and I’d never seen so many redheads on a flight in my life., flight attendants included. I slept for about 6 hours of the 9 hour flight; Mike, less than that, but I caught him snoozing now and then.

The Dublin airport was easy to navigate. Our bags arrived quickly and intact, and there was no customs inspection on the way out. The taxi queue wasn’t too long. Our friendly driver regaled us with stories of the success of his recent knee replacement and the love the Irish have for Americans.

By 1pm we presented ourselves to the reception desk of the Academy Plaza Hotel on the north side of the River Liffey, the major river that runs through the center of Dublin. Our room was ready.

I know I was jetlagged, but I swear to God and all that is good, I saw a bus advertising “Angela’s Ashes, the Musical.” We clearly had arrived in Ireland.

Though my goal to quickly overcome the 8 hour time difference was to stay awake until 9pm local time, I couldn’t do it. We set our alarms for 5pm and napped for 4 hours. We scouted out dinner, walked a half block down to bustling O’Connell Street and were drawn to the restaurant of the Gresham Hotel. After a series of delays and order mix-ups, we realized our waiter had a “trainee” label on his name tag, and so forgave the hiccoughs – we were hungry and ate whatever was put in front of us

I had a great view during dinner, large windows looking out at the busy intersection of O’Connell and Cathal Bruga streets. The ebb and flow between determined pedestrians and a constant parade of double-decker buses seemed choreographed.

We were back at the hotel and asleep by 9pm Western European Time.

Dear family and friends,

Nothing I love more than checking in for a flight to Europe.  We’re packed, boarding passes printed, coffee pot set up to be ready by 6am.

Mike and I are off on a 3 week adventure – a two week tour of Ireland followed by a week in Croatia with family.  Mike has been so indulgent in supporting my search for my Croatian family, we thought it was high time to discover the country of some of his ancestors (there is a strong “Kelly” line on his father’s maternal side.

We’re taking a small group tour offered by Vagabond/Driftwood Ireland Tours.  Here is the link to their web site, if you’re interested in following along.  The Vagabond tour version is very active, riding bikes, climbing mountains.  We opted for the Driftwood lighter-activity version and are taking the 11-day Discover Ireland Tour, with stays in Dublin, 1 day in the beginning, 2 days at the end.

Following our trip to Ireland we will fly from Dublin to Zagreb and meet up the our Croatian relatives.  A day in Zagreb at the beginning and end of the week, with the rest of the time in Kajgana and Garesniča.  This trip to Croatia is much shorter than usual, and we picked what is likely the hottest time of the year, but it seemed foolish to be so close and not drop down to visit our family.

If you’d like to be notified of new postings on the blog, and you didn’t already do this before, see the little blurb on the right titled “SIGN UP FOR EMAIL NOTICES.” You enter your email address then click “subscribe.” You might get one email from “A Habitable Realm” asking you to confirm that you signed up, but subsequently, you’ll get an email every time I post a story or photos.

Have a great summer, and I hope you enjoy our trip.

Maggie

Family Tree with Manda Trkać as Primary Individual – she and husband Ivan are the common ancestor.  2017_26_Jan Family Tree

Now here is one with Manda’s father Josip and Evica as Primary Individual – six generations to include descendants of his daughter Manda and her (currently unknown named) brother.

Trkać Family Tree 2017 January

The last few days of our Danube River cruise were great, but for now I’m fast-forwarding on to Croatia and fully intend to eventually fill in the blanks regarding Austria and Hungary. As river cruise-lines go, Viking Cruises is as good as any, but one can only take so much queuing for buffet meals before the thought of launching out on your own starts looking mighty attractive.

My thought in planning the third segment of our European adventure was to transition with a romantic train ride through bucolic countryside between Budapest and Zagreb, and on Sunday the 21^st we planted ourselves in our reserved window seats with the confidence and pride of seasoned travelers.

Budapest Zeleti train station with porter

Helpful porter

Budapest train station monitor

Spy #1

Spy #2

The confidence and pride lasted for an hour after departure until our non-stop train stopped at a remote station labeled “Sarobogard.” Our portly conductor waving all the passengers off the train across rough tracks and onto waiting buses followed a static-y overhead Hungarian announcements. We had absolutely no clue what was going on and no one to ask. There was great competition by the more agile among us to load their bags into luggage compartments and grab the prime bus seats. One of the bus drivers saw us struggling, took our bags and motioned us on to his bus. We rode along in our seats made even more cramped by our smaller luggage as I followed our progress on my iPhone, posting slightly frantic updates to my Facebook account without regard to the global data charges I was incurring. We shared a hope that we’d just keep heading in the southwesterly direction towards Croatia. At just over two hours, we stopped at a station labeled “Kaposvar” and reversed the process, back onto the train and into our 1^st class reserved seats. This time we were joined by some lively English 20-year-olds who kept us entertained with a variety of trivia and riddle games. In the last hour I glanced at my ticket and noticed “Autobusz: Sarobogard – Kaposvar” – uh……

Passing Hungarian town

We finally pulled into Zagreb train station an hour late and immediately spotted the smiling faces of our family – Domagoj and his girlfriend, Ivana – waiting for us on the platform. We knew we were now in good hands.

Zagreb Train station

Sunday June 21, being the first day of summer, is also World Day of Music, and as we exited the Zagreb train station a concert was underway at the Zrinjevac Park. We waited for the #2 tram that brought us directly to the Hilton Doubletree Zagreb at the city’s edge. We checked in, had a late dinner, and fell immediately into deep and relieved sleep.

[Sorry for the delay – I finally have some dependable wifi. The wifi on the river ship is by satellite and we have travelled through some narrow gorges.]

Between Nuremberg, Germany, and Vienna, Austria, the Danube River courses past towns and villages whose character seems frozen in time, at least from the vantage point of a river cruise ship. Our tour stopped at three of them, Regensburg and Passau, Germany, and Melk, Austria.

Regensburg, our first stop, apparently one of Germany’s best-preserved medieval cities highlights the Gothic St. Peter’s Church, Old Town Hall and the 12th-century Old Stone Bridge as Germany’s oldest bridge. It is also claims to be home to the oldest sausage kitchen, located near the bridge. I don’t know if we were just hungry or if they truly are the best sausages I’ve ever eaten, but I do know that we were pleasantly surprised at how good were the sausages on sauerkraut served with crusty rolls – that the dark beer, even to this non-regular-beer-drinker, was absolutely fantastic – thirst quenching and flavorful.

Regensburg mural

Regensburg old stone bridge

Regensburg – woman on the right plucking petals – he loves me? loves me not?

Regensburg portal

Regensburg river

Regensburg sausage kitchen

Regensburg sausages

Regensburg St Peters

Passau, Germany, is a beautiful historic city at the confluence of three rivers – the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz – and thus susceptible to flooding. High water marks are kept on buildings throughout town, and the mark for the flood of 2013 was only exceeded by that for 1501. Rather amazing that 500+ years later they just keep rebuilding and carrying on. Cobblestone streets and historic building are carefully restored; our guide explained that, two years after the 2013 flood they still have difficulty finding enough skilled craftsman to complete the restoration today.

A guided tour barely scratches the surface of the patina of these towns. After our visit I happened upon a CNN story about Passau being used as drop-off point by refugees from the Middle East wars. I would so have liked to learn more – why Passau, why this quaint little town? Were we passing refugee ships in the night as we cruised down the Wachau valley? What are their stories, and how can we help?

Passau cathedral

Passau shopping

Passau shopping street

Passau rivers confluence

Passau high water marks

Passau cruise ship

In the night we cruised into Austria and docked at Melk. A Jesuit Abbey dominates Melk, Austria, and during our tour I caught sight of one of the brothers skirting the edge of the courtyard, skillfully avoiding the tour groups on his way. The Abbey contains a middle-high school that is growing in student population and currently has 900 day students – tuition is only 80 euros a month! They no longer board students in order to have more classrooms for the burgeoning student population drawn from the local towns.

The cruise ship passed through the beautiful Wachau Valley in the late evening – at this time of year it stays light past 9pm. One of the most peaceful times aboard the cruise ship is standing on the top deck during a warm evening, alone at a rail, wondering about the lives of those we are passing.

Melk view

Melk town

Melk marker

Melk brother

Melk Abbey

Cruising evening

Cruise dropoff of the evening’s entertainment

I thought I uploaded these once but they don’t seem to have posted.  Here are the photos I described from Normandy, and here is a link to the video of the winds: Winds of Normandy

Tour guide Magali and guest Abby & Eliza celebrating Eliza’s high school graduation

D-Day re-enactors – note the clerical collar on one – they disappeared before I could chat with the