Personal | Jim & Kathleen Travel

Dublin never sleeps and is CRAZY!

by Jim Bellomo | Jun 2, 2019 | Uncategorized

I am so serious. This city never sleeps. Went to bed with a huge, post football party going on at every bar on the street. Woke up to the party still going on. Seriously, drunks staggering down the middle of streets, trash everywhere. It even inspired me to write an Irish poem about it. Or I was inspired by the Irish House Party last night.

Dublin Sunday Morning
Beside the lovely Liffey, it didn’t make no diffy.
Dublin’s kind of iffy Sunday morning.
Trash and drunks all over, mixed in with poop from Rover
I didn’t see one clover,
Sunday morning.

Hope you enjoyed that. You will see in my pics from my early morning walk exactly what I am talking about. And there is another NSFW verse about something else I saw that you will have to ask me the next time you see me.

After my walk and breakfast we headed out to use the second day of our HopOn/HopOff (HoHo) bus pass with Big Bus Tours. Here’s what I have to say about Big Bus Tours…never and I mean NEVER use this company. There is another HoHo bus company. BigBus drives red buses, the other guys drive green. Use them. Let me explain.

There is a marathon going on today in Dublin. The finish line is on our street actually a block from our place. We realized yesterday that this would mean that some stops would not be available today due to the race. So we checked the company website and their app. Both said that the only thing that was rerouted would be the two stops near Marion Square. I have a screen shot that says these ae the only low numbered stops that were going to be affected. So we (just Kathleen and I) walked quite a few blocks to the other side of St. Stephens Square where we had seen the bus drop off and pick up yesterday. But guess what? The bus wasn’t dropping off or picking up there. So I called the phone number I had for them and asked. She said that because of the race, they were picking up and dropping off on the other side of the park. So with my bad knee and Kathleen neuropathy killing her legs we walked back across the park (it sucks to get old). When we got there, there was a bus. We asked the driver whether he was the red or the blue line (they have two routes) and said “I am neither. We aren’t using this stop today. You will need to walk to Stop 2 (about 10 minutes away.” Normally, no big deal but the way our bodies were working today—a very big deal). So I called the company back and was told that the number I was calling was not really the bus company but rather a number in a tourist agency and they would take a message. (No wonder the woman didn’t know about the St. Stephen’s Green bus stop change.) I asked for the number of the actual bus company and she said, she didn’t know it and even is she did, she wasn’t allowed to give it out. Please excuse me here but “WHAT THE HELL????”

But we did it anyway only to get there and find out that the stop only picked up Red Route (which we had done yesterday) riders. If we wanted blue we would have to get on and go three stops up and change busses. What the hell…again! See what I mean about this company. We took the bus to the next stop and were told it would be 20 minutes until the Blue bus came and we just gave up and walked back.

LiveGuides And one other thing. On the back of every bus was the ad at right. Only problem was, it wasn’t true. We rode four different busses and my brother and his family rode four others. On only two of them were their live guides. The rest had almost unintelligible, recorded (with music) narration. Boring with a capital B.

On our way we had a nice lunch, picked up some art and postcards for family and friends (yes, we still do that) and headed back through the marathon mess to home. On the way I stepped on a piece of pavement that was dry but had water and mud underneath it and shot straight up onto the other leg of my jeans that had just been washed. So now we are home washing them again and hoping they will dry tonight before we have to pack them to board the ship tomorrow. No dryer in this unit.

I am finishing this at 4:35 am Dublin time on June 3. We are off to the ship in about five hours. I am not sure how often I will be able to post while on the ship but I will try to do it on a somewhat regular basis. Our stops include Belfast on the 4th, then Reykjavik on 6th and 7th and Akureyri on the 8th & 9th before we head to Cork on the 12th and finally back here to Dublin on the 13th.

Early morning Dublin

Drunks walking barefoot down the middle of the street

Early morning Dublin

Typical street scene at 6:30 in the morning. A total mess.

Ha’Penny Bridge

On the Liffey

Early morning Dublin

Early morning Dublin in front of the needle

The Customs House in Early morning Dublin

Great squirrel mural

Early morning Dublin

The Famine Monument

The Jeanne Johnston, a famous famine ship

The figurehead on the famine ship Jeanne Johnston

Sculpture on the Liffey

Falling in on itself

Molly Malone statue

Early morning Dublin

Plate in sidewalk outside the local theater

I want this suit.

Oscar Wilde

Dublin in the afternoon

In St. Stephen’s Green

Street performer at Molly Malone’s statue

Below the green cross, the world famous

End of the Women’s Marathon

Paris is cafe culture, Dublin is pub culture, and that’s the best place to solve all the world’s problems: over a pint! One of the great joys of living, I think. The problems of the world seem to disappear. —Liam Cunningham

Wensleydale, Ilkley and back to Leeds to meet a special lady

by Jim Bellomo | May 30, 2019 | Uncategorized

Our last full day in Leeds was all about getting home and getting ready to head to Dublin tomorrow. When I posted last night we were on our way out to dinner at the Wensleydale Heifer. Their food is the main draw to the inn. It makes it a destination and the reputation for food is well deserved. I wish I had taken more photos but you will have to settle for dessert photos.

After a very filling dinner it was off to bed, a good night’s sleep and then I had my encounter with the Wensleydale Heifer shower. Our room came with a spa jacuzzi tub (that if you tried to fill it with hot water, would have taken more than an hour—worst water pressure ever) and a shower in that tub. No matter how I tried, I could not get that shower to turn on. Tried for more than an hour. Of course I did try to call the front desk to ask them what the trick was but that’s when I found out that no one is at the front desk until 8:00 am. Seriously, no night manager.

Finally at 7:30 I went down and found a very nice lady who was cleaning the lobby and she told me to look for a black cord on the opposite side of the bathroom and to pull it. If I did that the shower would come on. Seriously? How were we supposed to know that. At first I thought it was a British thing but Paul and Gail said they had never heard of it. Just crazy. Thankfully we did finally get showers (still worst water pressure ever!) Other than this one thing, the hotel and especially the restaurant were outstanding.

After a large and really great breakfast we were headed off to Leeds by way of some of the narrowest roads we have ever driven on. It was crazy. Paul did an amazing job of getting us back. We had considered a stop in Grassington but when we got there it was POURING rain and we decided to forego a stop.

It was on to Ilkley where we stopped for our last proper Yorkshire tea at the Ilkley Bettys (remember, no apostrophe) and one last Fat Rascal. After that (since the sun had finally started coming out and the rain had stopped) we decided to walk around Ilkley before heading back to Paul and Gail’s.

When we arrived back at their place we got to meet the best (and definitely the cutest) person we met on this trip, their adorable granddaughter, Jemima. We have never met such a smart and creative six year old (in case Maylee reads this, remember you are only five) and she was a true charmer. And Paul and Gail are obviously very proud and loving grandparents (another thing we have in common).

I am finishing up early tonight because we are going to dinner in a few minutes and then we will come back, watch a little more Britain’s Got Talent and then off to bed as we have to leave for the airport at 6:00 am to fly from Leeds to Dublin. See you there.

I took this while Paul drove 60 mph on our way out to Leeds

This one too

And this one

At Lake Windermere

Duck? No, goose!

For the boys in Colorado

A steam excursion boat on Lake Windermere

The town church in Lake Windermere

Loved the peony heart

And this awesome dog

This was the saying of the week here in Yorkshire

Downtown Lake Windermere

It’s bird frenzy

Swan hearts

A hotel in Lake Windermere

One of the most beautiful rhododendron I have ever seen on on Lake Windermere

Paddle boarders on Lake Windermere

Incredible homes along Lake Windermere

Ancient ruins along Lake Windermere

The same

Sailboats on Lake Windermere

More multi-million dollar homes on Lake Windermere

The same

Then this flew over at a very low altitude and woke us up.

More

There were a lot to them with amazing grounds

See what I mean

A ferry and a tour boat on Lake Windermere

Oops!

Climbing a rock in Lake Windermere

Leonberger alert!

Another taken from the car at 60mph near Hawes

We had a wonderful cheese tasting here in Hawes

In the village of Hawes

Along the road to the Wensleydale Heifer

Dinner at the Wensleydale Heifer

Paul’s dessert at the Wensleydale Heifer. Rhubarb and custard panna cotta

Gail’s dessert at the Wensleydale Heifer—cheesecake

Kathleen and I had the triple lemon plate.

Along the road to the Wensleydale Heifer

This morning in Ilkley

Outside Bettys tearoom in Ilkley

We had our last tea out at Bettys in Ilkley

This is a Fat Rascal

And this is a Fat Rascal after

A very cool church in Ilkley

A wonderful butcher shop…we saw so many…in Ilkley

You have to accept the storms and the rainy days and the things in life that you sometimes don’t want to face. — Bai Ling

Off to the Lakes and cheese!

by Jim Bellomo | May 29, 2019 | Uncategorized

Woke up today to get out of the house for a day long road trip to the Lakes District, winding up in Hawes, home of the Wensleydale Creamery (we bet you Wallace and Gromit fans know what we are talking about). We are spending the night at the Wensleydale Heifer, a truly British country inn that has been serving guests since the 1700s.

Our day started out with me feeling much better! I think my cold has turned the corner. That said, we were out of Castle Howard by Paul’s set time of 8:30 and headed to Windermere in the Lakes District. The drive out was beautiful. Not sunny but not raining either. Truly a typical northern England day (or so we have been told). We got to Windermere around 11:00 am and set off looking for a…what else…tea. We have really grown to love our tea stops and proper English tea is really good. It has helped me get over this cold. And this time we had it with scones. Yummy!

After our tea and conversation (we always have the best conversations over tea) we walked back through Windermere to the lake side where we decided to jump on a tour boat for a 45-minute run up and down the lake. It was pretty cool in more than one way. The tour was cool but the weather was COLD! We tried sitting on the open deck and Kathleen and Gail gave up and went in the cabin in about 15 minutes. Paul and I gave up at the 35 minute mark. One thing of interest that kept happening while we were in Windermere was that military jets and vintage WWII aircraft kept flying overhead at a VERY low altitude. I am pretty sure the first two planes were WWII RAF Spitfires. After that it was just jets. Nasty looking Blue Angel-type warplanes. They would buzz the lake at about 1000 feet or lower. Got a couple of good pics.

Back on the road after our boat ride, heading here to the Heifer we had the one real scare of the trip. As we came off motorway in Nateby all of sudden Paul’s Audi started making a horrible noise. We were able to get into a neighborhood where we could look at the car and some kind of cover that is supposed to protect the undercarriage of the car had somehow come loose and was scraping as we drove, making a horrible noise. Paul tried knocking it back into place but no luck, so we started driving again. It didn’t scrape unless the wind blew it down so there was no noise unless the car went over about 15mph. Of course at that rate we would reach Wensleydale around midnight. So as we were trying to figure out what to do, Paul drove (slowly) around a corner and lo and behold, an independent auto repair shop. In the middle of absolute nowhere. Seriously. It was a gift from God.

We pulled in and Paul asked the mechanic working on a car out in front if he could take a look at it. He put the car up on a jack, slid underneath, tightened three screws and we were on our way. He even refused to take any money. He told us there was a charity box on the desk in his office and we could put something in there. They got a bill out of Paul’s wallet and all my coins. What a champ he was!

Then it was on to the aforementioned Wensleydale Creamery where you can sample about 30 kinds of cheese—which we did. After that (and buying a couple of trinkets) it was back in the car and on to the village of Hawes where we walked the small downtown and stopped for…no, not tea this time…a proper half pint (Paul had to drive still and we didn’t want to make him feel bad so we got a half pint too) of beer. Delicious.

After our quick stop, back in the car for a half hour drive to the Heifer. If you look at the website (linked above) make sure and check out our room, the Heifer suite. Paul and Gail are in the Herriot suite. The rest of the rooms are totally themed and a hoot to look at. Check out the James Bond cow in the movie room.

We are here and in for the evening and in about so minutes will meet Paul and Gail in the hotel’s bar for a pre-dinner drink and then we have 7:30 reservations in their dining room (which is world famous…according to their website). I will let you know after dinner.

Sadly, I even though I can post this today, I don’t have any photos to add because even through I brought my Mac, I forgot the card reader so I can’t get the photos off my camera’s card until we are back at Paul & Gail’s in Leeds tomorrow. I promise there are some good ones.

Well, time for dinner. More tomorrow. PS: Not the greatest quote below but how often do you get to quote Amanda Peet, who I have always thought was awesome.

If I had to give up cheese or chocolate, I’d give up chocolate in a heartbeat. —Amanda Peet

Late to Leeds but we saw it all

by Jim Bellomo | May 28, 2019 | Uncategorized

Last night (Monday) my cold was at it’s worst so I popped two NyQuil tablets and that was a big mistake when it came to today. It knocked me out and that meant we didn’t get out the door this morning (Tuesday) until well past 10:00. But that was OK because Paul and Gail had planned today as a local day where we could see the local sites and architecture of Leeds which is amazing. I am going to let the photos speak for themselves. They don’t even really need captions. We had a nice lunch in a kind of a food court (where Gail recommended an outstanding Vietnamese salad) and headed home so that I could take a nap and try and kill this stupid cold.

After a little rest we set out tonight to go back to Harrogate for a lovely Italian dinner and then we stopped at the Bingley Arms, Great Britain’s oldest inn. Now I have to say that this is a pretty broad claim to fame but they have historical proof that this inn was founded in that same building in the year 970. That means this inn dates back more than 1000 years. Amazing. Think about what Washington State (or any other state) was like 970. A few native tribes and that was it (probably a lot better off than it is now). We were very lucky to come in on a Tuesday night when there was a very light crowd of regulars who were happy to tell us all about the Bingley and her history. The manager of the inn even took a few minutes to give us a quick tour and show us things like the “Priest Holes” which were holes carved into the inside of the fireplace in the main inn where Catholic priests could hide to evade capture and execution after Henry the Eighth founded the Anglican Church and ordered all priests to leave England or die. I even got to go in the basement to see the start of the tunnel that leads under the road outside to the church across the highway.

Stay tuned tomorrow. Not sure if I will be able to post on Wednesday as we are headed to Wensleydale and the Lakes district and will be overnighting at the Wensleydale Heifer. Not sure if I will be able to post. May have to wait until Thursday.

That was about it for yesterday. As I said, a very easy day.

The Bingley Arms

Britain’s oldest inn

Downtown Leeds

In Downtown Leeds. Love all the small shops like this butcher

The Corn Exchange in Downtown Leeds

Just liked this shot

Downtown Leeds

One of the many arcades in Downtown Leeds

Downtown Leeds

Detail

I guess Boy Wizards are just not that popular anymore

Downtown Leeds

The new mixed with the old fairly well

A sculpture that reminded us of the Kelpies in Downtown Leeds

Downtown Leeds

You know I love street photography

Downtown Leeds

What is history? An echo of the past in the future; a reflex from the future on the past. —Victor Hugo

Whitby & Scarborough (Scar bruh)

by Jim Bellomo | May 27, 2019 | Uncategorized

Castle Howard 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.

Yorkshire Day 3-115 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.