by Jim Bellomo | Jun 15, 2019 | Uncategorized
Sitting in the Club World Lounge in Terminal 3, Heathrow, I think I have enough time to upload Belfast (their WiFi is pretty good and it is already written). We shall see. It was the next stop after we boarded in Dublin where I left off (other my WOW Iceland post and my Woeful WiFi post).
We awoke on our first day after leaving Dublin to a truly blustery day in Belfast. Due to tides we weren’t able to dock until almost 11:00 am. As soon as we were able, we walked four of our party who had never been to Belfast before out to a private excursion I had arranged through Tours by Locals that would take them to up the Antrim Coast to Giant’s Causeway. We had done this on a previous visit to Belfast and we along with four others in our group who had been here before decided to forego that and pay a visit to the Titanic Experience.
I fully realize that visiting a museum dedicated to a cruise ship that sank by hitting an iceberg while on a cruise seems to be tempting fate but we went anyway. If you are in Belfast, this is a must-see. They have done an excellent job of detailing pretty much everything about the Titanic, its building, the times it was built in and so much more. Not only are there a number of excellent exhibits, there is even a ride. Who knew? We were pretty surprised. It was a great tour and worth the money and time.
Our original plans after the Titanic experience had been to jump on the HoHo bus but since it was pouring rain, we crammed ourselves into a taxi and headed back to the ship. All and all, a pretty decent day.
Remember, you can click the first photo to see the pics larger and as a slide show.
Post note: Wasn’t able to upload everything in the lounge. Finishing up at home with my usual AWESOME WiFi. Exhausted but more about that later.
The Titanic Experience
The Experience had awesome exhibits
Looking up at the original scaffolding
Steve, Jamie, Holly and Kathleen take the elevator up to the Titanic Ride
Looking down from one of the cars on the ride
Inside the Titanic Experience
Inside the Titanic Experience
Was this bar in Belfast or Edinburgh?
Inside the Titanic Experience
Looking out of the Titanic Experience
Inside the Titanic Experience
Inside the Titanic Experience
A mural directly outside of Inside the Titanic Experience
Walking to the Nomadic
A dry dock plug (used to keep water out while they built)
The Nomadic. A glorified tender for the White Star ships.
You can tour the restored ship
There were hologram guides on the Nomadic and Inside the Titanic Experience
The Titanic hit the iceberg not because they could not see it coming but because they could not change direction. —Dean Devlin
by Jim Bellomo | May 31, 2019 | Uncategorized
After six days in Yorkshire we bid a fond farewell to Paul and Gail. Paul drove us to the airport at 6:00 am (thank you again Paul) and Gail got up to tell us goodbye (thank you again Gail). We caught our 8:22 Aer Lingus puddle jumper flight from Leeds-Bradford airport to Dublin. Arrived 10 minutes early, but unfortunately, our ride to the hotel arrived an hour late. After that snafu, we got a great driver who took us in to the city to our luggage drop where we…dropped our luggage. Then we walked a few blocks to meet our buddies Bob and Holly for lunch at a great little place called O’Neals. A real Irish pub. It was great seeing them again. Bob and Holly, not O’Neals.
After that it was back to pick up our luggage and head to our AirBnB where we got settled, welcomed my brother and his family around 4:30 (they were wiped out after flying non-stop from LA) and went out to dinner to Brookwood, an outstanding restaurant that turned out to be right across the street, we watched a little more of Britain’s Got Talent and it was off to bed.
A couple of quick thoughts about Dublin and our AirBnB. Dublin seems more crowded and crazy than Edinburgh and definitely more than wonderfully sedate Leeds and Yorkshire (where of course we were staying in a neighborhood and not right down town as we are here). For instance, we have a very famous pub (Toners) and a couple of bars across the street from us. Normally when I get up to walk in the morning (like today when I am up at 4:30), it’s quiet in the neighborhoods. Not here. There is still a loud crowd out in front of a bar down the street (I can see the bar from our front window). At 4:22 am??!! Do these people ever sleep? Our AirBnB is pretty cool. The host, whose name is Phil, met us and has really taken great care of us. A super guy. We have a big living room, a gourmet kitchen (not that we will cook) and a four bedrooms. Check out the listing at the link above. Another win for us picking great AirBnBs. It even has a bakery downstairs and we will see how great they are later today.
As I was finishing this up at 4:30 am I realized that for the first day in 10 days, I hadn’t taken any photos. Well, I took two. Both out the window from the living room. One of the world famous Toner’s Pub and the other of Brookwood, the restaurant where we had dinner (they make a wonderful lamb) so sorry, that’s all you get today. But as I am going out in about 10 minutes for an early morning walk, you should have much more tomorrow or tonight.
Fabulous place, Dublin is. The trouble is, you work hard and in Dublin you play hard as well. —Bonnie Tyler
by Jim Bellomo | May 27, 2019 | Uncategorized
Before I even start telling you about today, I have been very neglectful in not telling you about where we have been staying with our friends Gail and Paul Howard. We have been guests at their home since Saturday night and will be here until we go to Dublin on Friday. They just call their place, home but we call it Castle Howard. Here’s a picture and you can see why and the link will tell you all about it. It’s quite the place and we have loved meeting all their staff and the entire court. ?
Back to our travels—we have been getting quite the education about proper British pronunciation. So today we learned that Scarborough is pronounced Scar Bruh. We were there today and I didn’t see a single scar or a single bruh. Everyone had great skin and my brutha was still back in California. But it’s still pronounced that way.
Today was beach day. We were out the door at 9:00 am and headed to the North Sea (doesn’t that sound cold) coast, first to Whitby and then to Scarbruh.
Whitby is quite the town. We parked and walked it from one end to the other as well as crossing the old swing bridge and going up the other side of town. Then Paul and I went all the way up the 199 old stone steps to see the Abbey. Paul was very surprised at the Abbey with its brand new visitor center. When he was last here three years ago with our fellow Martini Mates Mike and Carol, it hadn’t been in existence and you could not walk around the ruins of the Abbey. The Abbey itself was built in 1539 but there has been a church on this site since 604 AD. (Now that’s old.) And not only that but the author Bram Stoker set part of his novel Dracula here as well. Paul and I climbed the hill and walked all around. Please see my photos for more. They are at the bottom of this post.
After descending and finding Kathleen and Gail ensconced in a cute little pub, (Gail having a cuppa and Kathleen tasting an ale), we headed back down the hill to the village to see if we could get in the line at the Magpie Cafe which as Paul related to us a number of times, has the “Best Fish and Chips in England.” I have to say, he may be right. After standing in line outside for about 20 minutes we had some incredible fish and chips. If you go to Whitby, eat there. It is worth the wait…which may be much longer.
After our wonderful and very filling lunch, we were off to the car to continue onward to the seaside town of Scarbruh. The best way to tell you about this is through the captions on my photos so please see those below. That was our day. We did a slow slog back to Castle Howard due to everyone coming home from the Bank Holiday (which is today) and once we got here that was it. There was a lively discussion about what to have for dinner but my cold is so bad, I knew I would not be able to taste anything so while I write this, Kathleen, Paul and Gail are having some of his world famous Yorkshire scrambled eggs in the kitchen.
Beautiful Whitby
Formally dressed man on the beach in Scarbruh
Beach cabanas obove Scarbruh
A Victorian hotel in Scarbruh
Part of the Scarbruh spa
The view of downtown Scarbruh
Scarborough
Scarborough
Surfers in Scarborough
Statue of Freddy Gilroy, please Google him. He was quite the hero.
The hills between Whitby and Scarborough
In the harbor at Whitby
Paul and Gail thought this would be great sign to have in my post
This is how I feel tonight
Downtown Whitby
Uptown Whitby
The harbor shot from the Whitby Abby
The sea shot from the Whitby Abby
The Whitby Abbey
The Whitby Abbey
The Whitby Abbey
The Whitby Abbey
The Whitby Abbey
The Whitby Abbey
These people are guides at The Whitby Abby
The Whitby Abbey
The Whitby Abbey
The graveyard at The Whitby Abbey
The village from the The Whitby Abbey
I liked this sign that Mike liked a few years ago
Uptown Whitby
Downtown Whitby
Whitby
Cool boat in Whitby
The local greeter
Some of my fondest memories are holidays by the seaside. —Mary Berry
by Jim Bellomo | Apr 16, 2019 | Uncategorized
Think you can do that? Visit every country in the world? Do you even know (without Googling it) how many countries there are in the world? I will save you some time—there’s 193. Late last week I was checking my Twitter feed and I saw a post from Conde Nast Traveler’s website about a guy (Sal Lavallo—that’s him at right) who actually visited every single country in the world. All 193 of them. WOW! (I want his frequent flyer miles!)
So I checked out the article. It was great. Instead of a typical travel log or interview, Conde Nast Traveler asked this great guy 193 questions. One for every country he visited. I read every one of them and I loved them. Sal is the is the kind of guy who I would love to meet and I would love to travel with. The article that you can read by clicking here is worth a look. And the best part is, it reads fast.
You can find out all about his life and his journey in bits and pieces by reading just a few of the 193 questions. You can learn some cool stuff like, which country has the best tap water or what was his worst mistake. Or the most unusual place he slept and the hardest country to get into. I am betting if you start, you will finish. It’s that good.
Were you ever bored? There was always something new to see and learn.—Sal Lavallo, the man who visited all 193 countries of the world.
by Jim Bellomo | Mar 24, 2019 | Uncategorized
The Snickerdoodle pancake
Kathleen’s waffle breakfast
The best huevos rancheros ever
Biosphere 2
An overall view of Biosphere 2
Inside “The Lung” at Biosphere 2
Inside the Desert at Biosphere 2
Inside the ocean at Biosphere 3
Lake Roosevelt
In the snow between Payson and Cape Verde
Our incredible Dahl & DeLuca appetizer
Kathleen’s chicken
My Romeo and Juliet at Dahl & DeLuca
Perfect cannoli
The headline and the pictures pretty much say it all for our last transition day from Tucson to Sedona. Let’s start with the morning food. If you are ever in Tucson and want an incredible breakfast, try one of the three Baja Cafes. Best breakfast we had on the entire trip and a truly cool place to eat. We were headed north out of town and stopped at their Campbell Ave. location early on a Sunday morning. The best way to sum it up is to say they had one of the most amazing dish of smoked brisket machaca huevos rancheros anyone has ever eaten. Not to mention that they give you sooooo much of it that even I couldn’t finish it. Kathleen had the waffle. I know, that sounds boring compared to my amazing meal, but it wasn’t. You see they make their waffles from dough and not batter. It is truly amazing. And the best part of the entire meal was the Snickerdoodle pancake. I need to mention that we did NOT order the Snickerdoodle pancake. About two minutes after our food (that we had ordered) our server came by and brought us this amazing pancake. Now I don’t really like pancakes but this one was amazing. If you are in Tucson, go to this place for breakfast. But get there early or you will wait a very long time on weekends. We got there around 8:00 and got seated right away. By the time we left around 8:45, there was a line at the door. Our server told us that it gets worse later in the morning.
After breakfast we had previously-purchased tickets to see Biosphere 2. It’s about a 30 minute drive north of Tucson. First, in case you are wondering where Biosphere 1 is, look down. You are standing on it. This particular fact was repeated to us a whole bunch of times during our 2.5 hours visiting Biosphere 2 which we found very interesting. One of our fellow travel agents (Thanks Jim M) had recommended it to me about a month before our trip. To be honest, I remembered it from back in the 90s but I had no idea it was north of Tucson but when Jim M told me about it, we decided to buy tickets. I am glad we did.
If you are in Tucson, make sure that you make it part of your plans. Doesn’t take long to get there and the time we spent on the included tour was outstanding. Learned so much about climate change and so much more. Check out their website and stop by if you are in Tucson.
After Biosphere 2 we were off to Sedona. But as we sometimes like to do, we took the back roads. The normal way to get to Tucson from Sedona is to take I-10 to I-17. That route would have taken us on a very boring 4-hour drive. Instead we opted for a 5+ hour drive up Arizona 77, 188, 260 and 89A through the great communities of Winkleman, Globe, along Lake Roosevelt, through Payson, Camp Verde right into downtown Sedona. Along the way we drove through deserts and mountains. Temps went up and down as we climbed from the low 80s in Globe to the low 40s at 7,000 feet where we drove through about two feet of snow. Quite a day.
And we finished off our day (after having that amazing breakfast and no lunch) with dinner at one of our favorite Italian restaurants in the world, Dahl & DeLuca. We had been there before and had a superb meal. After that we spent that night and the next one at the Sedona Rouge Resort and Spa, which was very nice but reinforced my belief that I much prefer AirBnB rentals to hotels. (More about that later this week.)
So the next day and the one after it were pretty much uneventful. We did a day in Sedona relaxing and then did a drive to Phoenix on the aforementioned boring I-17, and had brunch at the Daily Dose Grille in downtown Scottsdale. We have been there on many Arizona trips before and highly recommend it if you are in the Phoenix area. After lunch we stopped at the most amazing brick and mortar bookstore (yes they still have those), The Poisoned Pen, only a few blocks away. It’s a real, live bookstore and it’s all about mysteries and we are both really into mysteries. Then it was off to PHX for our 3-hour flight back to Everett. A nice get away. Hope you enjoyed joining us (if belatedly) for the trip.
