The Big Trip

It's been far too long since posting anything on here, but the positive side to this is that there sure is a lot to write about.  And I mean a lot, so this will probably be a long one.

Kayla and I recently just wrapped up a multi-country vacation with our family (Gerald and Chelsea) during this most recent block leave period.  It was an amazing experience, filled with memorable times and wonderful recollections.  All this would not have been possible though without the patience and support of my lovely wife.  I am little crazy when it comes to planning long range.  Something about all those flight times, people bringing too much baggage, and travel mishaps make me want to climb a clock tower.  Thankfully, my amazing wife took the lead on this after I asked her to and did such a great job!  There were a couple hiccups, but we learned from them and the next time it will be even better, some things just cannot be anticipated. 

A trip driving would take more than 2 days and cross over 3,884 miles!

The basic concept for the trip was to have Gerald and Chelsea link up with us in Shannon, Ireland and travel from west to east across the Emerald Isle for five days, finishing in Dublin.  After Ireland, we would fly over to London for three days of excitement, followed by Paris for four days.  After the City of Light, we would travel back to Germany to explore some of Deutschland that Chelsea and Gerald had not seen yet.  From here, we would send Gerald and Chelsea back across the pond, while Kayla and I continued on to Rome for five days. 

The first amazing feat for this trip would be convincing people not to over pack, and by people, I mean Kayla and Chelsea.  Chelsea set the standard by packing a truly minuscule bag, but ended up harboring items in other peoples’ bags.

Nice try Chels!

The second feat was renting a car in Shannon and learning to drive a right side driver car on the left side of the road.  Ohh and did I mention, it was a stick shift as well?  After a few scary turns, some interesting interactions with other drivers, this was overcome and we made our safely throughout Ireland. 

The first stop was the Castle Bunratty, which was a great time.  The evening was a reproduction of a medieval feast in the dining hall of the castle itself.  Complete with singing, mead, and of course entertainment from the castle’s residents. 

The next day we roamed over to King John’s Castle in downtown Limerick, set directly on the Shannon River.

King John's Castle Limerick, Ireland

Bridge across the River Shannon

Having fun in the castle tour.

Atop the towers of King John's Castle

After wrapping things up in Limerick we headed out to a much more rural section based on the recommendations of some locals in Limerick.  We went to a place called Lough Gur, which is 6,000 years old and one of the oldest stone rings in the world.  

Lough Gur Stone Circle

Chelsea kissing the Blarney Stone

 After that we headed to the town of Cork and enjoyed the sport of Hurling and checked out Blarney castle and kissed the Blarney Stone. 

Blarney Castle

 Since Kayla and Chelsea already are blessed with the gift of gab, we will just have to see how it effects Gerald and I.  

The Rock of Cashel

Hore Abbey

  

After hanging around in the Blarney area we head northeast to check out the Rock of Cashel and Hore Abbey. 









 Ireland is lousy with castle, I don't think you can travel more than a few kilometers up there without running into something castle-like.  

















Ended up taking a short break from writing this.  Some things came up and got pretty distracted.  Anyway.... back at it.

We wrapped things up in Dublin before hopping a short flight to London.  Dublin was great, excluding (in my opinion) where we stayed.  It was reminiscent of the West End of Louisville, very down trodden and rough around the edges.  The Guinness Storehouse however, was absolutely amazing!  Most definitely I could have stayed there and wandered each floor several times had it not been for the need to get to the airport and turn in our crazy right-side drive car.  But alas, all good things must come to and end.                                      So we closed it out and caught a much delayed flight into London.



Upon arriving in London at 2330 at night one comes to realize, the numerous modes of transportation that are normally available are few and far between.  We ended up flying into Gatwick as well, not Heathrow so no where near as busy.  Our taxi driver had already come and gone, having given up on us.  But the B&B that we were staying are was still up and sent him back to us.  The ride was long and somewhat awkward, the cab driver having revealed that his nationality was Afghan, and well we all understand that I have had a couple difficult days in Afghanistan.  But he seemed a decent fellow and delivered us promptly to our destination.  Which luck would have it was directly in his neck of the woods, along with the majority of London Middle Eastern population.  We stayed in Edgware, which still to me is a very curious melding of many different religious group in one small  footprint.

Big Ben and Parliament from the London Eye 

We did have a really great time in London, but certainly the highlights of the trip was making some new friends, getting to see Gerald dance, and getting to see a great old friend from back home!  We caught the aftermath of the Queen's Jubilee and had some excellent fish and nasty chips (in Kayla's best Smeagol voice)!














Our plan was to take the Chunnel from London to Paris, but after looking at ticket prices and the scare of service work strike on the train line from France, we opted to fly.  Flying back out from Gatwick to Charles DeGaulle wasn't too much trouble, but the drive from there to our apartment was an adventure.  Our previous trip to Paris for New Years, Kayla and I stayed outside the city and took the train in each day.  Kayla found a site that rented out owned apartments to traveller for this trip though.  This place as directly in downtown Paris and when we were driving to it, but ran into the packed street night-life that was Paris's club scene.  That cab driver had to almost push people out of the way with his car, and even then he was still having trouble.  Eventually, we got in the vicinity of the apartment and decided to walk the rest of the way. 

Once we got to the apartment it wasn't bad, you could actually see the top of the Eiffel Tower from the small balcony, but the fold out couch was broken.  So for the duration of the stay Chelsea ended up sleeping on the couch and Gerald on the floor.  Paris was nice to see again, but was considerably more dirty and unclean in the warm months.  We did end up going up in the Tower this trip as well as the Arc De Triumph. 

At the end of that stay we hopped onto another plane back to Nurnberg and headed up to the house to wash some clothes and take a day to reset.  After a day of chilling out at the house we took Chelsea down to check out Edelweiss Lodge for a night (the night Germany beat USA in the World Cup), a day in Berchtesgaden to check out the Eagle's Nest and lastly a trip over to Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Castles.  It was a really great way to finish out their trip.  At the end of this we ended up going with them to Nurnberg airport and flying actually before they took off and Kayla and I headed to Rome.

Rome was easily one of the best places I have been.  A little crazy around the tourist places like the Vatican and the Colosseum, but when broken up over a five day stay it was awesome!  And as nice as it was to see all these amazing places in Rome, the best was just getting to spend time with Kayla.  We so much love trying the amazing food and wine from around there, but just exploring with her was so much fun.  She did such a great job finding a place for us to stay as well.  We ended up being amazingly well placed to explore all of the great places in Rome and the lady who ran the place was so accommodating as well.  Truly a great trip and an awesome way to spend our 4th wedding anniversary.

We wrapped up leave with the last few days spent at home so get somethings done around the house, but after all that travelling it was just nice to sit around and chill for a bit.  I don't know how people who have to travel that much for their jobs do it.  That pretty much wraps up the leave and vacation portion of this post, so now on to something even more important!





We are having a baby!

Yep, most of you all know this, but come Monday we will know, probably, what sex the baby will be.  We are so excited about this, especially since so many of our friends are having kids right about the same time.  Eli and Malinda will be having their kiddo just about a month ahead of us!  The baby bear is due to arrive on 28 December, but I think he will hang in there till New Years.  We will just have to see.  Whatever, whenever it comes we just pray that it is healthy and that Kayla and I are good parents for it.  I can hardly believe this is really happening, and like I said it's awesome and exciting, but scares the hell out of me too.  But God never would give us something we couldn't handle, that is what is great about Him. 

There is more stuff to write about i.e.: Warrant Officer stuff, next move, where the baby will be born, but I think I am gonna go over that on the next post.  For now just know Kayla, baby bear, and I are doing fine and we miss everyone back at home.  God is great, love your family and friends, live life.