This is my last post from Ireland. We have just 18 days to go. It's all very sad. We went to a play on Saturday (Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy) and they had a sing song (what Americans call a sing-along) at the end that left me in tears. Who knew that a song about being in prison would move me to tears. I think it was just the sing song, a very common occurrence in Ireland and another of the things I'll miss a lot.

I had a very nice break in County Wexford at Rosslare and Mt. Usher with my friends Mary and Dierdre on Thursday and Friday. Dierdre and I took the train there on Thursday morning and met Mary, who was visiting friends there earlier in the week. We had rooms booked in Kelly's Hotel in Rosslare, a really nice old spa on the sea. In addition to two lovely walks on the sea, we had Irish Peat treatments in the spa and a really great dinner. I would definitely recommend a stay at Kelly's to anyone visiting Ireland.

Next week Alan and I are going to Powerscourt, another place I've wanted to visit before leaving. This is another spa in the Wicklow Mountains. Alan's booked a massage and I'm going to have a facial.We are looking forward to another bus adventure, similar to one we took when we first got to Dublin. Some of the bus routes are very long, and this one goes from Dublin City Center and ends at Powerscourt. Assuming it doesn't make every stop, we can expect a ride of over an hour. If it's busy it will be longer than that. Since April, I've had a free ride card for all busses and trains in Ireland, so this will be another benefit of that card. Another thing to be missed when we leave.

We've had several farewell meals and have several more planned, including one at The Rustic Stone with friends Sarah and David tomorrow night. They are friends we made during our trip to Majorca where we met Sarah on that walking vacation. We've had several very nice outings with them both. Last night, Mary and Leo, friends from my book club, came for dinner, and next Sunday we will see John and Mary, our old family friends and the only people we knew in Dublin before we arrived. (There are a lot of Marys in Ireland.)

We took a quick trip to Donegal earlier this month where we paid our last visit to my mother's grave in Frosses and saw our family, the Flynns for dinner. Again, there were tears on departing. I think that was the hardest because I will so miss visiting my Mom regularly.

We are pretty much packed with 3 of our 4 50-pound case allotment already full. Each one is so close to the maximum weight that I hope we leave on a dry day because if anything takes on any additional moisture we will be pulling things out at the airport. I know that moisture can add weight from my days doing mail surveys. If the mail piece was right on the edge of a second stamp I prayed for a dry day because a wet one would mean double the mailing cost! One of the bags weighs in at 49 pounds on our bathroom scale, so that's cutting it close. They really are sticklers for that maximum weight, and we have to do it twice since we have a connection in Chicago for our final destination of Indianapolis.

There is one big plus, returning to friends in America. It will be so nice to be closer to people with whom we have a long history. I don't want to minimize that great benefit of coming back. It's the one thing that has sustained me and kept me from utter despair. That's the silver lining.

We are just back from our final trip to Donegal. We left on Saturday the 4th and returned on Monday (yesterday), so it was a quick trip. We did see most of the people we wanted to see, visited my mother's grave every day and had two very nice side trips. I was sorry to miss my cousin Mary Boyle but we saw the extended Flynn (Burke) family during a lovely dinner at Teresa and Seamus Flynn's house. They are such a delight, I'm so happy to have gotten to know them better.

Our two side trips included one to Lissadel in Sligo, a grand house that I'd wanted to visit during our trip to County Clare last month but proved too far a drive then. The second was to the Glenveigh National Park, and castle in Donegal. The former was the home of the Gore-Booth family, a large ruling class family before independence. The most famous member of the family was Constance, the Countess Markevitz, a commander in the Irish Republican Army during the Easter Rebellion of 1916. She was quite an interesting person, uncommon for her class in sympathy with the aims of the Irish struggle for independence. She was also great friends with both Yeats brothers, the poet William and the painter Jack B. and the exhibition at the house covered all those connections, as well as the eccentric Gore-Booth family in detail. The house is just ugly, although situated in a beautiful setting on the Atlantic with a great view of Ben Bulben, a noted tabletop mountain in Sligo. Glenveigh on the other hand, was amazingly beautiful. Situated in the northern part of Donegal, it's the last inhabited place in Ireland. It was purchased after the famine by a rich man from County Laios (pronounced Leash) who apparently evicted everyone and build a castle for himself for the summer. He seemed like a real rat, but after several owners in the early part of the century, the land and castle were given to the Irish government and they made it a national park. Except for the castle, it's just miles and miles of beautiful mountains with not a structure of any sort in sight. Just fabulous.

Our trip to Ballyvaughn and subsequent sightseeing around Dublin with friends Linda and Bob was all we expected. We did several good walking tours in Dublin with them before we left for our weeklong stay in County Clare. I learned some new things about the wonderful city we've adopted during our time here. I really tried hard not to feel sad and note "this is the last time..."at every turn.

Ballyvaughn is just outside the Burren, an area of stone mountains in the west. We toured every day and saw quite a number of ring forts and other antiquities. We also visited the Father Ted house for tea. Father Ted is a television series that was filmed in Ireland from 1997-1999 but still plays regularly in reruns. Alan and I really enjoy it and we showed Linda and Bob several youtube episodes before we went to the tea. It was fun. We had some great meals, including a nice lunch in yet another great house (now hotel) Gregans Castle Hotel. We all enjoyed the meal but were shocked to learn that a glass of wine was 14 euro. Good thing we didn't have two! Still, it was a very nice place to spend a few hours. We had two more days in Dublin before our guests left and I was happy to introduce my good friends here (Mary and Deirdre) to Linda on a very nice walk from Greystones to Bray on a warm Sunday afternoon. On the last evening I took Linda to set dancing (the men didn't go). She dispatched herself really well, I was impressed and hope she's caught the bug and will find a set dance group in Virginia.

The next few weeks will be devoted to tying up loose ends here and saying our goodbyes. I will take an overnight trip with Mary and Deirdre to Rosslare and Mt. Usher next week and will have lunch with another friend Mary this week. We are hoping to see our other friends Sarah and David for dinner sometime next week and have someting in the works planned with John and Mary, friends we've known for many years predating our sojourn here in Ireland. I'm still working on not being depressed about our departure. Although there's not much to do in preparation for the move, since the shipment is gone, we have our return flights booked and a place to stay in Bloomington, I continue to keep busy with dance, bridge and walking.

I'm going to start really thinking about that book now...

Returned from the Camino trip last Tuesday. While my walking was very strong, I was disappointed with the trip overall. The first two days of walking were through an industrial area so there was a lot of walking very near busy highways. The first day included 3 KM through an industrial park, with warehouses on either side as far as the eye could see. The second day was not as dreary but much the same. The following three days were just beautiful and I enjoyed the terrain very much. I was generally tired at the end of the day, but found the walking very satisfying.

Unfortunately, the first day I got a taste of the issue that would make the trip much less enjoyable than the one we did last year.One big factor was the addition of three more people, last year we were 11 and this year 14. But more to my dismay was the change in the group dynamic.

The woman who organized the trip this year and last traveled both times with her husband, the only man last year and just one of two this year. This year he didn't have a cell phone and he tends always to walk far out in front. I guess I didn't notice it last year because she would call him periodically and they made their plans as they walked along. Since he was without a phone, he just kept walking. The man doesn't "like" to eat and seems to want to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible and definitely first. She wouldn't stop if he was ahead without letting him know, impossible under the circumstances. So on day one, despite passing several nice places for lunch once we got into the town, we persevered until one of our group caught up with him and forced a stop. We all descended on a too small cafe, pulled many tables together, made a lot of noise and fuss and asked for a menu. It was siesta in a small town in Spain, so while there was one staff member working, there was no English and not much food. It was insane. One of our group fancied herself a Spanish speaker and so while there were three others, including me, who could get along in Spanish, she insisted that all orders go through her. This made some sense because the server was completely overwhelmed, but her Spanish was not that great and there was much toing and froing while all of us put in our orders. I was embarrassed to be with such a loud group. We really made a spectacle. This was my first inkling that this trip was going to be very different from the last.

Last year, we walked in fluid dyads and tryads and stopped along the way as we wanted. This year, there was much herding up after the first day. Apparently there'd been words between the couple causing him to stop quite a lot and pressure everyone to assemble periodically, so it was very hard to keep going along once he'd decided that an assembly was in order. I didn't want to stop that much, so after day two I just ignored that, but getting out in front caused him to break his neck to catch up and pass. There was never time to just walk along at my own pace. I really began to resent it. My friend Dierdre began to walk with me and we walked ahead and mostly alone for days 3-5. It wasn't until the end of day 5 that I discovered that she really didn't want to do that. She didn't want me to walk alone. Despite my many protests to her over the three days that I didn't mind being alone and that I'd stop along the way when I was tired and surely connect with one or more of the group that way. This really disappointed me, and made me feel that I was keeping her from fully enjoying her trip, so I decided to pass on walking the last day. I just couldn't in good conscience cause her to go against her more social nature by continuing my quest for some solitude and quiet and I knew that I also couldn't supress my frustration with the continual herding up. So, while my walking was very strong; much stronger than last year, I opted to take the train to our final destination on the last day. I didn't care so much about not "finishing," that seldom bothers me, but the knowledge that I would not be happy doing another Camino with this group was a sore realization. The others really enjoyed walking as a big group. Several have said how that aspect of this trip was better for them, so I know that I'm the odd woman on that score. The story of my life!

I'm glad that I stopped though, it made the last day much more fun and, although I felt a little alienated from the group, we had a good final reunion in Santiago, a nice dinner and good return trip home. Had I walked that last day, I'm sure my frustration would have shown and that would have caused tension during our farewells. This way, I had a chance to relax and calm myself and explore the great city of Santiago at leisure. It's a really beautiful place. I would highly recommend a trip there even without the walking.

So, back to Dublin. Our shipment has gone, our return arrangements are made and we have just 8 more weeks to go. Our friends, Linda and Bob, will come on Wednesday, and we are looking forward to showing them the best of Dublin during the week they are here bracketing a week we will spend together in a house in Ballyvaughn, County Clare in the West of Ireland. We've also planned our last trip to Donegal for October 6-8 when I will say farewell to my family there. We are already planning our return for another extended stay in the coming years. As long as I can travel, I'm hoping to have a month or so a year here.

It's been a long haitus, but I'm back to the blog. I left off midsummer just after the Willie Clancy Festival of set dancing and our 37th anniversary on July 2. As I expected we have stayed pretty close to home in Dublin most of the time since then, although we took a quick trip to Wales this week from Tuesday to Thursday.

I've spent a lot of time in preparation for walking The Camino, with two long walks of about 16 km each with the group of people that will make the trip this year. Both were in the area north of Dublin called Howth. Dublin is situated in about the center of Dublin Bay sheltered on both sides by two headlands, Bray to the sourth and Howth to the north. There are good, scenic walks on both heads, although the Howth head is higher and the walking route is longer. I've done both walks and while I like the Bray walk, it's mostly coastline, just 8 km and fairly flat so there's not a lot of challenge. Howth is quite different, with a lot of climbing, higher elevation and twice the distance to get around the promontory. I organized the first walk there on July 27th and the group was so pleased with it that we decided to do the same walk in the other direction on August 17th. The second was equally successful, although we did have a little rain and the summit was quite blustery. The group is a very nice one and we've gotten to know one another better during these delightful rambles. I'm looking forward to the trip, which starts in two weeks, on September 2. Seven days of walking and 125 km on the Portuguese Way, which approaches Santiago de Compostella from the south.  Last year we did the same distance approaching from the west. I'm still a little concerned about the two days we have to walk over 25 km, particularly the first day, which also looks like there's a pretty significant elevation from the start to the finish. At least this year I'm sure of my shoes and don't expect a repeat of blistering under my toenails (which I didn't even know could happen) and ultimately losing one of the nails months later in while Aruba in February.

Alan won't make that trip. Aside from his lack of interest in walking for days on end, he's had an MRI on his knee and there's a complex tear of the medial meniscus. That's doc talk for you need knee surgery. He's going to wait on that until we get back to the USA and our health insurance.

We've also made quite a lot of arrangements for our move. The moving company will come next Monday or Tuesday to take 150 kilos of our stuff. Except for what we take on the plane that is all we will take from Ireland. It was hard deciding what to take and what to leave behind and these last two months are a little sparse. I save odd shaped jars and bottles but Alan has been vigilant and none of them made the cut. I have been able to take a few of the great bowls I bought in charity shops here. The shipment will go by boat and they tell us it will be 60-90 days in getting there. I hope it's the shorter, but it all depends on how long it takes to fill the container in which our small shipment will be included. I've also bought a few things that have been shipped direct from the stores. We know, for example, that our new everyday silverware from Newbridge has already arrived and a set of porcelain dishware is also on the way. I want to be ready to set up housekeeping -- and welcome guests -- as quickly as possible once we arrive in Bloomington. I suspect we won't have as many out-of-town guests in Bloomington as we've had in Dublin, but hope springs eternal. That sure has been one of the many highlights of our stay here.

We've already found a place to live temporarily while we look for a house to buy. It's good to have friends! Once I put the word out that we had a return date, a friend at Indiana University sent an email to her colleagues and we found a small house within hours. There is even some basic furniture so we won't have to sit on hastily bought lawn furniture and a matress on the floor while we await the rest of our stuff from storage in Virginia. The best thing about this place is that the owner is very flexible about timing and we don't have to sign a lease, so we have some time to find the right place. Another friend in Bloomington has put us in touch with a great realtor who has already sent us several listings in the neighborhood in which we are hoping to buy. I have to say, we are both looking forward to reuniting with our stuff, I'm particularly anxious to get my piano back. Still, I'd rather we stayed in Dublin and would happily sacrifice the piano if that were a possibility. It's not and I've adjusted to it.

We had a nice trip to Wales earlier this week after a harrowing first few hours. We took the ferry from Dublin to Holyhead with our bikes in tow. It never ceases to amaze me how optimistic I am about biking. We initially decided that we could get off in Holyhead and bike the 55 km to Caernarfon [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caernarfon] where Alan booked a hotel. Ha, ha. We got about 5 miles on a "dual carriageway," which means highway where you can (legally) ride your bike if you are completely crazy. Unfortunately, one aspect of these roads is that there aren't many exits. We got off at the first opportunity and took the train to Bangor, just 9 km away from our destination. When we got off the train in Bangor we missed the tiny, tiny sign for the bikeway and wound up on another dual carriageway. We didn't realize it until it was too late and we couldn't get off, so when the 18 inch paved siding ended abruptly walking on the grass was the only option for me. Alan continued riding and would wait ahead periodically. He is able to ride on a white line, a talent I don't have at all. It was quite terrifying seeing him up ahead with no margin for error. But, we made it safely, although completly drained and exhausted. The following day was a beautiful, sunny one and we had a lot of fun seeing the sights of Caenarfon, including one of the oldest castles in Europe. It was quite interesting learing a little about the history of Wales and the fierce independence of the people. Fortunately our return ride to Bangor was on the bikeway, a beautiful coastline ride, I was so sorry to have missed it coming out.

Today we are going to see a play by Enda Walsh, one of Ireland's leading contemporary playwrites. It's been characterized is "Waiting for Godot" where Godot arrives. We've seen that play, penned by another of Ireland's great playwrites, Samuel Beckett. I'm hoping this one is better because I just couldn't get it. I was convinced to buy the tickets because it has Stephen Rea and Cilian Murphy [http://ballyturk.com/gallery/] two actors I like very much. (I've provided the link because most of you will know them once you see a picture.) The third guy, who I'm guessing is the arriving Godot is unknown to me yet. I'm hoping I've either matured or the play is more accessible than "Godot," otherwise an afternoon snooze in in my future.

Finally, we are eagerly awaiting our final visitors. Linda and Bob, longtime friends from Washington are coming on September 17. After a few days in Dublin, we have taken a house is Ballyvaughn, County Clare for a week. This is an area in the west of Ireland near The Burren. We spent a nice week with them last year in Clifden in Galway and are looking forward to seeing them again.

I'll likely post more regularly now, until the end of our stay.

The day after we returned from Holland was our 37th wedding anniversary. Like the 36th, we didn't remember it till mid-afternoon. I called Alan from the bus on my way to dance class and he bought a cake and champagne to toast it when I returned. Hopefully we will remember next year in time to plan something.

On Monday, the 7th, I left with my friend Mary for Willie Clancy Week in Miltown Malbay, County Clare, for a week of set dance workshops. I did that festival alone last year so it was good to have the company. We also stayed in the workshop hotel so it was much easier in that way as well. Last year I had a room in a house 4 miles away, so it was impossible to do anything after dark, when all the fun starts! Over the 5 days we were there, we danced 6 hours a day and walked at least 6K each day to the little town where there were lectures and other activities after the morning workshop. Amazingly, I gained 2 kilos.  There's no justice.  I'm going to try and come back next July for the festival again.

I've completely accepted that we have to leave here in November. We've booked our return voyage for November 7 and we are looking forward to spending Thanksgiving in Atlanta with my much missed friend Dorothy and her great family.

The next adventure is another walk on the Camino de Santiago in early September. This time we will start in Portugal and walk a week on the northern coast and into Spain. All of the Camino walks end in Santiago de Compostela in Spain. This year there will be 14 of us going, Alan will stay behind again. His knee is still not good, I'm worried that he will need surgery as soon as we return to the USA. He's determined to tough it out till then, hopefully there won't be big consequences for waiting.

Following the Camino week we have friends coming from the States for another week in the West of Ireland. They will stay a total of two weeks with a stay with us in Dublin bracketing the week in the West.

I'm happy to spend the remaining days of July and all of August here in Dublin, although there's no dance as both the contemporary dance class and the set dance classes are on summer haitus, so there likely won't be much by way of posting for the next 6 weeks.

Well, we didn't get to Alan's home place of Kloosterburen in North Holland after all. We got to the archives in Groningen (like the county seat of North Holland) by train on Tuesday morning from Amsterdam. It took about two hours. We got info from the very well organized archive, housed in a great library and facility. Then we walked around the small City of Groningen. Going further to Kloosterburen (KB) would have required an hour or so bus ride and we had GPS pictures to suggest that KB is really just a wide spot in the road. I've done that in villages in Ireland and it's not good, sometimes it's 4-5 houses and a pub that's generally closed.

I would have gone on and maybe if I pressed it, we could have taken a taxi there and back, but I figured it was Alan's history. Also, if truth be known, I was pretty annoyed that he was able to just scratch the surface and get a lineage to the 1600's. I've always thought of myself as the only one in this relationship who had a long knowledge of family history. Ah, it's always this way. When we went on our honeymoon bike trip so long ago, he lost 11 pounds and I gained 5! It's so annoying.
He's not really that charmed though, because his knee continues to bother him. I feel bad about that, he's really laid up.

We are really tying up our Amsterdam experience. The landlord will come on Sunday to 'check us out.' By this time I realize that there is no way on earth that the landlord could have been 'surprised' by the impending renovation, even if the government dictated the timing. They knew it would be 'June,' just not what date in June, but they weren't really surprised at all. Still, she did offer to let us go, it is an amazing location and place, it was not too expensive and we continued to have fun, so...

We got another visit to the Rijks Museum in today. I was able to see Vermeer's letter and milkmaid up close with the hoards. Of course we got there and Alan didn't hazard the crowds around the two paintings hung together in a great juxtaposition. People really hogged close up, so I can't say any more then I got really, really close to them. It was fun though. We now finished 1600 to 1650, the height of the Dutch period. We might get to that museum one more time. If so, I think I'll skip far ahead, so that my coverage of the museum in the four visits will be more balanced. I only have two days to meet that goal.

This might be my final post from Amsterdam. Right now, the month here has felt like a week, at most. I just can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. I'm dreading my return to Dublin where I feel our last three months, we fly by as quickly. Oh, I am sad...

A minor disaster struck when we returned from The Hague and our so, so successful ancestor search last Tuesday! When we arrived, the building was being covered in scaffolding. It seemed like a surprise to everyone, including the retail businesses on the ground floor. Scaffolding is bad enough but they also cover it in mesh, so you are in a cocoon when you pass the threshold. Oh, it was an alarming development.

In the end there's nothing to be done. We can rail at the stars, threaten to sue, leave in a huff (to nowhere) or accept our fate. We chose the last. We had two glorious weeks of unfettered view that is not to be had elsewhere in Holland. The silver lining is that we are on the top floor (4th//5th floor) and the mesh only comes to the middle of the beautiful windows looking out over the Western Market and church. The workmen are very polite, the apartment lends itself to being partitioned off, as do so many apartments we've encountered in Europe. Also they are working on the lower floors just now. They will be painting. The apartment owner seems as genuinely surprised as everyone else that the job started this week. She offered to refund the unused portion, we didn't accept because we only have a week to go and so far it hasn't been too bad.  Of course, after the workers put up the scaffolding, "at the weekend" kicked in. So it's been quiet. We'll see how it goes this week. To our great sorrow, the Amsterdam is coming to an end in ONE WEEK.

It's been fun being in yet another culture. For example, both Alan and I have remarked on the difference in the walking style of the Dutch compared to the Irish. The Dutch don't stop in the middle of the sidewalk to chat or adjust the pram or light up. The middle of the sidewalk (path) is for keeping moving, preferably fast. This we like. But for another, unlike the Irish, they fill up any available space, so if you hesitate for one second in claiming your little spot on the corner or in the square, too bad for you! And they don't smile or say: "Ah, go on love." This we don't like.

We've had to use all our reasoning power when we first got to Ireland to convince ourselves that the locals weren't intentionally trying to annoy us when they would stop, for no apparent reason, right in front of us, usually at a pinch point. There are so many of these small cultural nuances that seem to make the difference between day to day living and observing a culture as a visitor from elsewhere. These things are so small they don't glare out at you. But, if you spend even the smallest amount of time, you discover on your own. Some you like, some you get used to and some you tolerate. Seeing these things is what I like most about this adventure.

The first few days in Amsterdam we were pretty terrified of getting run down by any type of conveyance. Trollies, trucks, cars, tightly clustered pedestrians on tours, horses and bikes, bikes, bikes seem to come at you from every angle. It's all amazingly orderly once you get the hang of it, but you must conform. This is so against my nature that I've taken to acting quite passive in the streets and letting Alan lead me around. I find if I can relax as much as possible, he can pull me along quite easily. I'm like his zombie. Problems arise when he lets go, or a shiny thing catches my eye.

We haven't gotten back to the Rijks Museum. On our way there last Wednesday, we were distracted by the Amsterdam City Museum on the way and went there instead. We've been to that museum several times in past visits, and they have a new interactive Amsterdam City history exhibition that was quite good. We both enjoyed it.

On Friday, we rented bikes and rode to Haarlem. It was a nice ride, the bikes you can rent are good, but it wasn't very picturesque, kinda boring really. The real disappointment was that Haarlem isn't that nice a place either. Not bad but like biking from The Mall in DC to Hyattsville. Once you get there you wonder why you came.

On Saturday we took the ferry across The Eye to Norrd. This is a newer neighborhood of Amsterdam across the bay. The more I'm here, the more I'm impressed with the first bike guide's reminder that the 'forrest' we were riding through was, like everything in Amsterdam, "built environment". Nothing naturally occured where you are standing that wasn't first built by the Dutch. It's really astounding.

On Sunday we went to Delft. The train ride was fun as was walking around the old city early Sunday morning (before 11 a.m., things start late, much later than I thought). Otherwise I thought the city was pretty touristy, like Williamsburg, only the set is real too. Bruges in Belgium was a much, much better example of the period. Still, it was nice. I was disappointed that the Delft Factory, and many of the antique shops, were closed on Sunday.

Today we caught up on housekeeping, both corporeal and organizational. I see I have a preference for Mondays for that...Hmmmm.

During the time it has taken me to write this, I've advanced from acceptance to grim acceptance of the building maintenance. When I began to write this post, the workers had been on site for at least two hours. Alan, ever the early riser, was up at 7, so we can count on the punctual 8 a.m. start time as he's seen it twice now. It was quiet and except if I passed the room where I could see the scaffold veil, I didn't care. Alan spent the morning preparing for our trip to his home place tomorrow. When we broke for lunch, I got my first whiff of paint, and it reminded me of what's to come. Now they are using a grinder on the facade, not the trim. This causes the entire building to vibrate. But, they WILL stop at 4.

I'm now motivated to ensure that we use our last week here to good use. Tomorrow we go to Groningen and Kloosterburen, Alan's ancestor's last home in Holland. We are about to go to the town that nurtured the guy that brought the Balkema name to America. This is akin to my going to Moate, the town in Ireland from which my father emigrated to bring our branch of the Dignam family to America. What a moment! Hopefully it will be fun and we don't find it's Holland's Amityville.  

We went to a concert on Saturday evening in the Concertgebouw: Hayden's Symphony #98, two Strauss songs and Mahler's 4th Symphony. The concert hall is just beautiful. Very similar to others we've seen in Europe. Really ornate and fitting for such a wealthy city. The music was good, I much prefer Hayden to Mahler and was sorry the bill wasn't reversed, with the Mahler the shorter selection. Still, it was good to get out to hear music. Earlier in the day we did another part of the Rijks Museum, I'm up to 1800. I was resolved to remember one thing well and I focused on the Roentgen Writing Desk. This is a truly amazing piece of furniture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC5Hqk7wl7U


On Sunday, we went on a bike tour to "the countryside". It was a very well led group. The young man leading the group, Stuart, reminded me of the leader of a Bikecentennial adventure way back in the olden days of 1976. It was fun to follow someone so fit, who really knew how to keep the group engaged, interested, and moving! On a bike, that's pretty critical. It was a fun adventure. We were exhausted when we got back in the evening.

We took it easy on Monday, catching up with laundry and the like. And today we took our first trip outside Amsterdam. We went to The Hague to start Alan's ancestor search.

The trip to The Hague was quite successful in finding information about Alan's family. In fact, finding all he needed to really get into the community we will visit where the Balkema name and Alan's ancestor, Jakub, originate has been made available. It was quick and easy. He was able to get in a half hour, what would have taken months otherwise. His brother had earlier done some digging, but Alan's research was the first among official documents. He started with Jakub's self report to the marriage license place in Lafayette, Indiana (home of Purdue), that he arrived in New York from Amsterdam in 1851. Turns out it was 1850, but one could see how he would get that wrong since he didn't have any paperwork. From that, Alan got the town and a list of the parents and siblings of his ancestor. It's a wealth of information. He's pretty engaged in it I think.

We are planning to do another area of the Rijks Museum tomorrow. Alan will plan the next trip to his ancestral region. We also made a commitment to return to The Hague because a museum that's been highly recommended, the Mauritzhuis is closed for the next 11 days. There's a countdown flag in front of the museum and it looks like it's been closed for a long time. Still, it also looks like the perfect museum, small, interesting rooms and an amazing collection. We will likely combine that with a trip to Delft.The time is going so quickly, I'm starting to wonder if we will even fit all this in.

Alan is doing much better, so much so that he cancelled the acupuncture treatment that was scheduled for yesterday morning.  We went to the Rembrandthuis Museum instead, had a nice lunch out and got back after a full day for yet another great home cooked meal. Since we had a visit from our friends Mark and Judy and Alan brought up that it had devolved that he does "all" of the cooking, we have had made a good compromise in that we alternate cooking responsibilities. This is one great thing about a long and successful marriage, we're still learning how to live with one another. That divergence was prompted by my thoughts about the great food we've had here. Both that which we've prepared for ourselves in this great apartment, and meals outside. We continue to benchmark against the $300 fiasco in the restaurant with no stove in Stockholm. I don't think we've spent that in the supermarket yet.

Anyway, back to Alan. His knee was much better the morning after the last treatment and he was willing to walk for a mile or so. We have been keeping a routine of going to a small museum in the morning (not too early) then having lunch and doing a good walk in a new area of Amsterdam. Alan is a very good pathfinder and now with his bum knee, he's not so inclined to just start walking just by looking at the sun. So that makes it better from my perspective. He's got really good wayfinding abilities, but I'm always nervous that, particularly in these old cities, the path turns and becomes blocked by centuries old terraced houses. There are definitely secret pathways, but even when you go searching for them, as we did yesterday, you can't figure out how to get in unless someone tells you.

The windows to the back of the apartment where we are staying view a very quiet and private courtyard. In contrast, the building front faces Vijelstraat a busy trolly stop (Westerkirk). We also face the church, also Westerkirk, the first one in Amsterdam built for protestants during the reformation. The buildings on the street are the western wall protecting this little courtyard within from the busy world out front. There are lots of trees and birds sing throughout the day. Our walk adventure yesterday was to try and figure out how to get in. There has to be a way because there are at least a dozen roofs to be seen from our fourth floor (5th floor) aerie. The courtyard is not big, but like so many Dutch things, it is very well laid out. We had a little luck in one of the small hotels that is within the warren of roofs we see from our window. They had a cafe in their tiny part of the courtyard and we (well Alan) could get bearings. I'm still a little confused, but I do see the church (the one behind, not Westerkirk) so I know there's a way. Alan wants our walking exploration today to be a reattempt to get inside.

I thought we would be doing more adventuring around Holland, but we've been here 12 days today and have not ventured too far afield. I must say, Alan is being a good sport about his knee. Of course early in his convalescence he was free to play computer games all afternoon without me nagging him, so he got his fix. Plus it was only a few days of complete lay-up.  During those two days I went to the Rijks Museum and bought us Museumpass cards that are good for a full year. They were expensive, 54.90/each, but we are resolved to go to a museum a day and I think they have really already paid for themselves. We will give them to friends when we return to Ireland because they will continue to be good for months afterward.

That first day, I stayed in the Rijks and did the first floor rooms, from 1100 to the 16th century. I went through it pretty quickly because it's heavily religious in subject and I don't find that particularly interesting. My plan is to do the Rijks in stages, and this pass really facilitates that plan. Alan says he will go back for the next section (1700-1800). This should be the most interesting in the whole collection, I think, and I want to be fresh for it. If we can, we will push on to 1900 the next time. I just don't see how I will be able to get the whole way through that museum alone.

We've been to three smaller museums included in the Museumpass on our daily forays since Alan has been feeling up to walking. Mostly my favorites, house museums. I'm especially excited to see a lot of them because of our impending move. It's so interesting to see people's old stuff!

The first one was the van Loon house. As we were walking through I was just overwhelmed with the wealth everywhere on display. It seemed so pretentious and over the top. Still, I could see how one could get used to living that way, if you didn't think at all. All the way through the house I had a feeling of unease and when we got to the basement kitchen, I saw the "family crest" predominently
displayed on every piece of china: two black men in chains facing one another. All this wealth was a result of the slave trade. It was creepy. We capped that morning off with a good walk around the Rembrantplein area. 

The next day we did the Willet-Holthuysen House, a really nice house with interesting furnishings, history and owners. The last owner, Louisa H. gave the house to the city of Amsterdam in 1894 to be run as a museum and it has ever since. The must have been a good endowment with that house. She was the owner through her father, she married Abraham W. late. They seemed to have an interesting relationship and I think in these times, both sounded like they would have been happier living openly but I think they did OK. He was known then as a bon vivant and they both were called collectors. I don't think either did much, but they lived well.

Yesterday we went to the Rembrandthuis. It was interesting, but as I reflect on what I saw, I realize that I can't call to mind a single painting. In fact, I think most of the collection on display in the house was not authentic. I was much interested in the house, and saw that it was the type of lifestyle Alan and I might live today. It was very like our house on Lake Drive in Milwaukee in ambiance. Poor Rembrandt met a sad end though, still he wasn't tortured for years like Van Gogh, but it sounds like no picnic.

The acupuncture guy has done the second treatment and continues to advise Alan to keep off the knee. What a drag. Up to today, I've done excursions on my own, yesterday visiting the open air market at De Pijp. That's near the Heineken Experience, in the south part of the city. It was an interesting market, many streets long, with an array of diverse goods in stalls that were bigger than they looked. There was one of everything there. Alan wouldn't have liked that either, so I was happy enough on my own again.

I have been able to figure out the trollys and it's been fun to do it. Still, I would like to do an adventure further afield, like the Friezen Islands. The "doctor's orders" prevents thinking about that for now. He will get another treatment next Wednesday. He is feeling incrementally better again today so it might be doing him some good. I hope so. We are planning to go to a movie tonight.

Our auspicious start has been scuppered. After the first day walking around the uneven stone streets, Alan's knee struck out. He was totally laid up yesterday.

I went for a shopping excursion, which was quite fun as I usually like to do that by myself anyway.When I returned, he'd about finished his book and was happy for the beer I brought up. On my way back I stopped in a Chinese herbalist and masseuse and she said Alan could come back either at 5 p.m. or this morning at 10. He was up for it this morning, but I didn't really formalize the 10 time with a call and when we got there it was closed. He was pretty undone by that time but after a half hour or so (while I had a coffee) it opened and Alan had an acupuncture treatment. He seems to feel marginally better. We made another appointment for Friday morning. It is hard to believe that we will have been here six days by that point.

This place is still very nice and well equipped, it's just that now we see that it is about the size of our condo in Washington. That was a small place, but well laid out, like this one. Still, I don't think I could go back to that now that we've had so much more room in Dublin.

I'm hoping Alan is better tomorrow. He's encouraged me to go out and purchase the pass for Amsterdam museums and I think I will do that later this afternoon. I'm suddenly conscious of the time a fleeting.

We got to our great apartment in Amsterdam yesterday afternoon. We have been in Holland a lot of times and have never had such good digs, so conveniently located. It's on a tram stop at the Western Market. There is plenty going on in the neighborhood but the working elevator takes us to the 4th floor in ease. When we get there, we are in a quiet, roomy apartment with really comfortable furniture. It's all we were hoping for.

I had a field day integrating our stuff into the amazingly well appointed larder and housekeeping items already here. Our all broiled veg meal last night was perfect. Cooked in a kitchen well equipped with good appliances and crockery. There is a supermarket downstairs that carries really fresh produce, dairy and meat. What an auspicious start.

After a good night's rest, during which I wasn't awoken with allergy woes for the first time in two months, Alan and I spent the morning walking around the neighborhood. We did a similar walk in February, during our stop-over here on our way to Aruba. It was interesting to compare the same neighborhood in the season change between then and now. We stopped and had a really nice lunch, returned to the neighborhood and hit the supermarket, returning just now with another load of groceries. I think I might have more to blog about and hope to get back here before too long...

We are in final preparations for our month-long trip to Holland. We will stay in a great location in an apartment in Amsterdam near the Western Market. For any of you that have been to Amsterdam, that's just around the corner from the Anne Frank Museum, so it's a great location.

We're hoping the apartment, which we've only seen from the outside and in pictures, is as nice at it appears. The building is well maintained and the pictures make it seem that we are renting a palace. Pictures lie though and it might be very small. Once we rented an apartment in Holland for a week and the bedroom in the "one bedroom" was a closet. In order to get out of the bed you had to crawl to the door and exit the room. The one thing I made sure of in this apartment was that our fourth floor was accessible by an elevator that works. The one thing about the Dutch, if they say something works, it does. So we are confident that at least we won't have to climb four flights to get to or from the street. In Amsterdam, the stairways are usually very narrow with high risers and a 4-inch platform which constitutes the "stair".  We call them ladders, because that's how you have to orient yourself on them. These are very difficult to maneuver and scary for anyone like me who obsessess about fire.

In other news, we made our final decision about our tenure in Ireland. To my great sadness, we will leave in early November. The combination of the unfavorable exchange rate, combined with the sluggish performance of the stock market make our continuing here for another year unsustainable. As I've mentioned several times in posts here, things cost about the same in Euros as in Dollars (generally something that costs $100 in the US will cost about 100 Euros). So, the exchange rate, which has increased from $1.29 to $1.40 during our time here has never been good for us.

This is a very, very sad decision for me. I've been trying not to think about it too much and trying to focus on the good things about coming back to America. First and formost will be the closer proximity to my dear friends and easier access to them, especially my best buddy in Atlanta (you know who you are). I will make arrangements to see her, first thing! Throughout our remaininng time here, I will keep her in my thoughts and heart.

Other good things about returning will be reuniting with our stuff. Both Alan and I have been thinking about all the possessions we have in storage. I'm most looking forward to having my piano again and Alan is anticipating seeing our art collection, photos and cast iron pots! We are both eagerly anticipating the joy of blended water. Not scalding or freezing when you wash your hands is an unsung benefit of American plumbing. I think that Alan is also looking forward to reestablishing his love for Bloomington, Indiana, a prospect that is OK with me, except that it's surrounded by the rest of Indiana. That's cold, I know. There are a lot of really nice things about Indiana, but I'm already railing at the prospect of hearing all about the lord and the virtues of being conservative in offhand conversation. I'm frequently reminded that I'm in a place that doesn't generally reflect my core values. That's going to be hard to take.

But, back to the positives.We have good friends in Bloomington and there are several people there that I've met through my work so I'm hoping our little network will expand pretty quickly. Alan has agreed to participate in a dance group there and we will be able to have a dog! What's not to like about all that.

Since my last post we had a little side trip to Donegal. I always love to go there. It was a midweek deal in which we got airfare for the short hop from Dublin to Donegal, a rental car and two nights accommodation in a good hotel for 350 Euro for both of us. It was a great deal, a promotion through Donegal airport.  We've been through Donegal Airport before so knew what to expect. It's just like any of the scores of tiny airports in the States, just with the wild Atlantic weather. Those who run the airport there are not fazed by bad weather. So what if the aircraft pummelled by wind, sea spray and rain, we're going! Naturally, I visited my mother's grave and our family while there. All good.

I'm going to miss Dublin while we are in Holland, but we have lots of adventures planned, including a trip to the Friesian Islands, the place where Alan's family name originates. He doesn't know much about that so it will be interesting for us to explore there. We will also likely go to Paris and some places in Germany. The Dutch rail system is great, so it will be a good home base for exploring.

Birthday in Stockholm was fun. It's a very, very expensive city, but we had a good time there from April 30th (my birthday) to May 4th.  The city is very clean, the people are nice, and the sights are very interesting. I was frequently mistaken for Swedish with most people starting their conversation with me in that language and continuing until I said "English only". I could definitely see why; most people have light blue eyes and either light blond or white hair, like mine. I really saw my Viking roots while there!  

We got a three-day Stokholm pass which gave us free entrance to most museums as well as public transportation. I think we saved by doing so because we did two museums a day and took public transit everywhere. 

The museums are just great. We arrived on the Kings birthday, which just so happens to coincide with mine, and a holiday weekend. On our first walk around town we noticed lots of young people wearing what we took to be naval caps and initialy thought the king must be a sailor. It turned out the caps were equivalent to our mortarboards and this was the time for celebrating graduation from high school. It was very cute to see how much of a rite of passage this is.  In most of the public spaces, there were scores of young people out celebrating. Unlike in Dublin, this didn't seem to involve the singular objective to get drunk, although there did seem to be a lot of drinking going on. 

The city is just filled with museums including one that covers an entire park (Skansen) which contains many old buildings moved from throughout the country. It reminded me a little of Colonial Williamsburg, except it was a celebration of most of the history of the built environment in Sweden not just one period. That was the one I liked the most. It is a very walkable city. We enjoyed ourselves there.  

On the down side, everything cost so much, it was hard to fathom. Although they are in the Euro Zone, Sweden is like England in keeping its own currency, the kroner. There are nine kroner to a Euro and seven to a dollar, so it was pretty easy for me to keep track of how much things cost, although at the beginning I was thinking something was 3 Euro and a "great value" and it would really be 30 Euro and a terrible value. This happened the first day with a salad, who would think a salad could cost 30 Euro in a place that was the local equivalent of Starbucks? 

The worst experience was on my birthday. We went to a restaurant that we'd seen touted in the Irish Times as "one of the best" in Europe. Alan made the reservation a month in advance. It was quite a disappointment. I wouldn't take any recommendation for a "gastro" anything in the future. I'm thinking that means small portions of wierd stuff offered by snooty staff. It started out badly. When we arrived, I discovered that not only was there only one menu, from which everyone at the table had to choose the four- or six-course option. The first course on both options were smoked lamb sweetbreads (the thymus and testicles). This, even though there was a third course pork option on the six-course. When I told them that I didn't eat sweetbreads, you would think I said I had an a-bomb in my purse. We should have just left at that point, but after getting the chef involved they agreed that we could switch the sweetbreads to the pork belly. Then we discovered that they had no oven or stove, everything was cooked over an open fire and either charred or smoked (including the desert). I don't mind smoky food but it was just too much, fortunately all the portions were small. The staff were quite unhappy about my giving most of my food to Alan and shot disapproving glances my way throughout the meal. Finally, the bill, over 2100 kroner or $300. Alan had one beer and I had one glass of champagne, both of which were about 180 kroner, so I'm glad we didn't order any more liquor because none of it was offered with the price. We left immediately following the presentation of an excessively sweet smoked pancake thing. It was truly awful. Fortunately it included a few tablespoons of coffee ice cream, so presumably they have a freezer. Unfortunately for Alan, he didnt bring lactaid so couldn't eat that and they switched for sherbert. 

I did get two great birthday gifts. My "free ride card" for transit in Ireland and eligibility for social security. The first came without a hitch, I had my official card in the mail this morning. I'd just posted my application before I left for Stockholm. The second involves more bureaucracy because although when I made the application they said they would direct deposit into our Irish bank, they really won't do that and now I have to go to the US Embassy to get it sorted. That would be OK since it's just up the block from us, but I can't get an appointment until May 29th, just two days before we leave for our month in Amsterdam, so that means more delay and it probably won't start till June. Ah, the problems of the retired! 

Anyone who has known Alan for a while will know about his solution to all economic problems is the "free ride card".  This is something that in his version of Utopia, would be issued to anyone that wants one. They wouldn't have to DO anything, but get out of the way of the people who want to work. So, while my free ride card only covers transit throughout Ireland, I was never going to get his free ride card anyway, so this one is close enough for me.  

The Claremorris Festival was really great.  Alan's play won for Best Actress and Best Director. Unfortunately he didn't win for best script, but the judging for that wasn't based on the perform-ability of the play, and the winner was someone from California with connections to the actress Tippi Hedren, so we didn't feel the script judging was particularly fair. Anyway, it was received really, really well and that's what counts. He's been encouraged to expand the one-act submission into a full-length play. Right now he's focused on finishing a book he's been writing so I don't know how it will all work out. I taped it using his mobile phone but the quality is very poor and you can barely hear a word so I won't post it here after all.

Also, in the face of the ever increasing exhange rate, which has only gone up since we arrived here and now stands at 1.40 Dollar per Euro, we have decided that it's time to plan our return to the USA. Things here cost about the same as in DC (food, rent, utilities, etc.) so we are essentially paying an additional 40 cents for every dollar we spend and that has really taken a toll. We can't continue to do it so we have to go back.

Alan is more OK with our leaving here than I am, although it has been extended from the one-year commitment he made when we came to two and a half years, so I really can't complain (too much). It will be very, very sad to leave.  Right now we are planning for that to be in late October or early November. Not the best time to relocate to Indiana, but it should mean that there will be better housing options available. As a college town, Bloomington real estate is at it's most stressed in the summer and fall and least in the winter and spring, so this should work out OK for us.

We have a busy summer planned, starting next week with a four-day visit to Copenhagen. We are also planning a short trip to Donegal mid-May, then a month in Amsterdam where we have arranged for an apartment in the city center. Immediately after we return to Dublin I'm going to do the Willie Clancy festival in Miltown Malbay, County Clare, again this year. That starts the first Saturday in July. My friend Mary and I will go this year for the weeklong set dancing workshop. Then in early September I will do another week walking on the Camino de Santiago, this time walking in Portugal. Following that, our friends Linda and Bob will come again this year and we will take a house for a week near Galway to do more exploring of antiquities.

So there are more adventures ahead, but all tinged with sadness. I'm going to work hard to NOT say "this the the last time I will do ..." but I'm already feeling very, very sad. Maybe we will win the lottery!

A red letter day! I just had to post today to commemorate the historic visit of Ireland's President Higgins to England, the first state visit between the two countries ever. It is so wonderful.

Tomorrow we leave for Claremorris in advance of the performance of Alan's play at the festival there on Thursday.  On a personal level this is pretty poignant because this play is based on a conversation with my sister Pat.  Also this week, her son, Joseph's murderer finally has come to justice.  On Monday, he was sentenced to 18 years, 22 years after he shot Joseph dead in a home invasion robbery.  I hope Alan wins the competition but regardless it will be great to see the play.  I hope we can tape it. If so, I'll post it here.

All in all, a good few days.

Well the month of March wasn't boring at all. We didn't travel outside Ireland but lots of activities here have been occupying our time.

First, Alan's play at the Claremorris Fringe Festival (In County Mayo). He has both a director and an actress. Now he's been told to "sit back and relax" by the producer. This really means "don't interfere with the director". So he's a little anxious about the creative interpretation but there's not much he can do but take that advice. We leave for Claremorris on April 9, the day before the performance. We will stay there until Sunday the 12th. The awards are announced on Saturday evening. He's also learned that the winners are already decided. Since it's a writing award the performance doesn't count, so really getting it performed is a win in itself. If we can tape it, I will post here. I'm so, so happy for him, and also for my late sister Pat whose voice will be heard in Ireland. It's a story based on a conversation Alan had with her years ago. She would be happy to be heard.

Second, I did another dance performance with Cois Ceim Dance Company. This was a curtain raiser in advance of a fully coreographed dance performance in a proper theater and everything. It was great fun and both performances were sell outs so there was a big audience. It really went well. I know that one was taped and once I have the link, will attach it to this blog. It was a group performance and my good friend Deirdre was a feature, so that was nice as well.

My volunteering at OneFamily proceeds well. I've just finished working on an assessment of their evaluation processes. That took a while but was quite interesting, since I will help them establish their evaluation procedures going forward. I really enjoy that type of work. My next activity will be to try and help them get monthly reports from the data they currently collect. I'm learning a lot.

Finally, I've made my final preparations for Willie Clancy week in Miltown Malby (County Clare) where I will do a weeklong set dance workshop. I am really getting better at set dancing and look forward to finding a group in the States when I return so that I will continue with that regardless of where we live.

All in all, a good month, with the happy anticipation of starting Social Security soon.

Once again, a long time since my last post.  My posting is getting less and less frequent and I'm finding it hard to sustain the blog.  Yet, we continue to do a lot of travel and have new adventures.  I don't know why I have such reluctance to post.

Anyway, since our trip to Lisbon, we spent a week in Aruba at our timeshare there with friends from the States. We enjoyed the week but it was a long way for such a short time. Still, coming off weeks of very heavy rain here and flooding throughout Ireland that I know made the news worldwide, it was nice to have some sun. Ironically it rained two mornings on that desert island. We're bringing rain with us!  Still, the rain is better than the snow which seemed to close the eastern US during that same time. In fact, our friends were worried that they would not get home without significant delays. Fortunately the airport closings stopped the day before our departure so I think they were OK getting home.

We travelled via Amsterdam on a scheduled airline that had previously been a charter service, ArkeFly.  Operating only in Holland. We picked that so that we would have direct service from Europe, but re-learned that "direct" and "nonstop" are different things in airline jargon. Ater a 10-hour flight, during which we were crammed against 4 other travelers in a cabin that was reconfigured from two-three-two across seating to two-four-two we stopped for two hours in Curacao before rebording for the 20 minute flight to Aruba. After that ordeal we paid the extra 95 Euros to get "premium" service, which gave us 2 more inches in the seat. What a difference! It was by no means luxury, but boy oh boy, those inches made a world of difference.

Because the service was through Amsterdam, we had a chance to do an overnight there and were able to check out the location of the apartment that we've rented there for the month of June. We weren't able to see the apartment and hope the pictures do it justice, but the location is just perfect. We couldn't have hoped for better on that score. For those of you that know the city, even a little bit, the place is at the Western Market, very close to the Anne Frank House.  We were very, very happy with that.  We also had a few hours on our return and had a nice lunch in Amsterdam before completing our journey to Ireland the same afternoon.

In other news, I've taken the momentus step of applying for Social Security, that will start in April. There is some question about working in a foreign country while on SSA so for the moment, I'm assuming that I will not work for pay anytime in 2014. I've started volunteering for an organization here called OneFamily which helps single parent families here in Ireland. I will work on their database and data collection processes. I really like the woman in charge of that and also the Exec there, so I'm hoping it will be a better experience than my last volunteer activity here during which I just felt I was taken advantage of, with little return. Given my experience working for associations, I really expect organizations that use volunteers to have some understanding of volunteer management and recognition. When they don't, it's a pretty hollow experience. Anyway, I feel my skills are being put to good use so far. It's a pleasure working with a good database.

We don't have any travel plans for the month of March and will use this month to see how cheaply we can live here. We are still in negotiations as to how long we will stay and this test will help to get better clarity on that score, I think.

I will try to do better with the posting this month, though I expect it will be pretty boring....

Our trip to Lisbon was eventful. It's a beautiful city and the people are very nice, but there's a real problem with pickpockets and both Alan and I agreed we wouldn't go back because of it.  The pickpockets themselves are annoying enough but the attitude of the general population toward them is worse.

Our first encounter with a pickpockt was on the third day.  The previous day we did a walking tour with a very well informed guide, who took to most of the neighborhoods in this beautiful, compact city. We really enjoyed it. During that tour, he'd mentioned the pickpockets several times, alerting us to their presence "virtually guaranteed" on the trollys.  We appreciated the warning because the next day we spent taking the older trolly to the various neighborhoods we wanted to revisit.  We noticed a large group of people getting on at the cathedral, one duo with a very large bag and the other three with a city map.  The map ones made a big thing of opening and consulting the map, while the bag duo stood next to me and held the bag practically in my lap.As they expected, I was distracted by the map ones, particularly the one with missing teeth.  I thought it was odd that a tourist would look like a Roma and have missing teeth.  That's when I heard a 'click' and looked down.  My backpack/purse, which I was holding on my lap has a clasp that you turn and that's what I heard.  When I looked down, there was a hand in my purse.  I yelled, he pulled his hand out and said "It wasn't me!"

The really, really disconcerting part of this was that most of the people on the trolly laughed, like this was funny.  No one, including the driver, who didn't even turn around when I yelled, seemed to think this would be unexpected or that I should be particularly upset. We both thought this was very strange. The pickpocket came away empty but I was pretty shaken up.

The following day, we got on the newer trolly to take a trip to the suburbs.  We were targeted there again, with two men who separated Alan and me as we got on.  The one in back felt up Alan's back pocket, where he holds his phone, and the one in front blocked me from touching my payment card off.  Alan pushed hard on the back one and yelled PICKPOCKET! They beat a retreat, but again, amusement.  Not even a little sympathetic eye contact.

Finally, when we checked out of the hotel, we told the people at the desk about the two incidents and both said "you sholdn't go on the trollys."  So there you have it.  A nice visit, and Lisbon is a nice place, completely overshadowed by two really bad incidents and a very casual attitude toward it. This is clearly bad for tourism.

When I returned to Dublin, I told several people and all of them related a similar problem in Dublin in years past that the police really cracked down on.  The problem is not gone from here, as it's not gone anywhere, but there's something being done.  It's really the only way to keep it in check, otherwise they will just multiply and there will be places, like the trollys, that are just prime pickings for the unwary.  What's the sense of having trollys if you can't use them.Anyway, a city that was in the running for a further month's stay at the end of our European journey, is now out.

On a happier note, we are looking forward to our upcoming trip to Aruba.

We are officially in 2014.

We passed the New Year, as we usually do, quietly.  Except for a walk in the City Center (Centre), during which we saw a pretty good street band and a parade, we didn't do much on New Years Eve.  In fact, we went to bed at 11:40 so really only rang in the turn of the year when we got up this morning.  That was fine with me because we had a pretty eventful holiday season overall.

On Christmas we went to our friends, Mary and Tom, for dinner.  This was our first Christmas in an Irish home so that was very nice.  It's very like an American Christmas, except the trees are very small and the decoration is minimal.  I really appreciate that about Ireland, they don't go over the top everywhere with Santa and sleighs and Jingle Bells everywhere you go.  On Christmas Eve we went to a mass at St. Frances Xavier church in Dublin 1.  This is a little bit of a rough area, as rough areas go in Dublin (which is not much, compared to DC) but the church was just beautiful and filled to the rafters.  There was a pretty good choir, but I was disappointed that they didn't encourage singing.  The people were pretty focused on hearing the choir alone.  The mass was very nice, including a nice celebration of Pope Frances, a fellow Jesuit in a Jesuit church.  This new Pope is just great, and I'm glad he made Time's Man of the Year for 2013.

On December 28th, we had our first party in Ireland.  We really like to have parties.  I think this one was OK, but there are a number of things I would have done differently in the post mortum.  One thing for sure, is that I wouldn't have provided so much seating.  I think it's pretty unusual in Ireland to invite a disparate group of people into one's home.  People from Alan's writer's group didn't socialize with our old family friends, who didn't socialize with our new friends from walking and dancing.  The guests arrived and stayed planted where they landed.  If we do another party, I'm only going to provide minimal seating so they have to move around.  The big success of the party was the food.  I made about 9 different canapes, all finger foods, and they were very well received.  On the invitation I called the refreshments "heavy hors d'oeuvres" which was hysterical to the Irish guests, another cultural difference.  "Heavy" in reference to food is a very bad thing.  Anyway, we had just over 20 guests and they all stayed to the end, so that was good.  We might consider another party in the summer....maybe.

I realized this morning that I haven't had a bout with depression a single time since we arrived in Ireland. This is a record for me in my adulthood to not have a bout with the black mood for almost two years.  A big 'knock on wood' and another of my reasons for humility and gratitude going into 2014.