Haggerty In The Hague

Lindsey and I decided to take a long weekend in London during the winter.  We got in late on Thursday night and started the tourism early on Friday morning.  First stop was the Tower of London, which was introduced to us by an excellent Beefeater tour.  The Beefeaters, also known as Yeomans, used to be the people looking after prisoners and watching the crown jewels, but nowadays mostly serve as tour guides.

The Beefeater gave us a tour of the grounds, showed us the Inner Ward, the famous ravens, and an old church.  After this, we went into see the crown jewels, which was impressive, especially with no other tourists around to share them with.  We also viewed an exhibition, “Dressed to Kill”, on the history of armor which was very interesting.

After the Tower of London, we walked around the town to see some of the major sights.  We walked on the London Bridge and checked out St Paul’s Cathedral.

We ultimately made our way over to the Government section of town to see the PM’s house at 10 Downing Street (not too impressive, the Parliament building and Big Ben (very impressive), and Westminster Abbey (excellent).

We spent the better part of the afternoon in Westminster Abbey.  We started off with getting a tour by one of the Abbey vergers.  The Abbey has a number of vergers that are non-religious positions used to support the church and its operations.  The verger took us around the entire church, showing all of the great people that are buried there, including Darwin, Dickens, and William & Mary.  The verger recommended we stay for that night’s evensong and saved us a seat in the pews nearby the young boys who sing there - the service was exceptional. We topped off our night with a visit to a Cornish pub recommended by our friend Rob, which did not disappoint - offering a good selection of tasty cask ales.

The next day we started off with a walk through Hyde Park.  This large park was quite nice and was just nextdoor to Harrod’s Department store, which we went to after the walk.  The department store was amazing - unlike any other department store we’ve been to before.  They had a huge Wizard of Oz display in the display windows and outside the store.

After Harrod’s we went over to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.  The place was packed with tourists, but we stll managed to get a decent spot nearby a statue in front of the palace.  The show itself was interesting, but probably something we don’t need to do again.

Next we went to check out some of the shopping areas in the middle of town, including Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus.  There was a lot going on around these areas, as there was a shopping festival being held to get people out shopping for Christmas.

That night we went to dinner and a show at one of the theaters around Leicester Square.  We saw 39 Steps - a comedy play adapted from the Hitchcock film.  It was in a quaint, old theater, so we felt like we got a good experience.

On the last day we went to the British Museum before we left town.  The highlights of this were the Assyrian, Eqyptian, and Greek exhibits.  On really cool part was the special exhibit on the pieces from the Parthenon.  In the early 1800s, Lord Elgin legally obtained the pieces from the Greek government, because they were unable to care for them.  The whole exhibit is a controversy now, as Greece maintains it’s able to care for the marbles now, but the British do not want to give them back.

No trip to London would be complete without seeing some Harry Potter fanfare.  We saw the Platform 9 3/4 from the Harry Potter novels, which is the start of the track for Hogwart’s Express.

We ended our trip with a nice Sunday meal, taking advantage of the many Sunday roasts available.  The food in this country was perfect for cold weather food that will warm you up!

Click here for a link to all of our pictures from London!

Travel, United Kingdown, Winter

Sorry it took so long to write Part 3 of my Ireland travels.  Better late than never, I guess…

On Friday morning we drove from Galway back East towards Dublin.  We arrived to find Daimler had already arrived at our rented apartment, as he flew in just for the weekend.  I tried to handle my passport situation, but was informed that the earliest they could help me would be on Monday - not good for a Sunday flight.

After everyone got into town we settled into our apartment and enjoyed the view of the city.  That night we went to Temple Bar, a district in the center of Dublin that’s known for its bars and lively night scene.  We went around to a few places bar hopping and reviewing our week of fun.  As we walked along the streets we found a band on the street playing Oasis songs, so we all stopped to sing along.

Saturday morning we all went out for a great Irish breakfast at the restaurant named Gruel.  That afternoon did a little touring around before we headed to the Guinness Brew Factory.

The Guinness Storehouse tour was great.  It was a 7 level self-guided tour that told you everything from the history of Guinness to the brewing process and advertising schemes.  The best part was the Gravity Bar at the end - where everyone gets a pint of Guinness in a bar with the best view of the city.  We timed our visit right, as we had views of the city both in the daytime and at nighttime.

After the Guinness tour we headed into the middle of the city, where the guys had rented a sweet room right on Dame Street for us to play poker in.  We had a few beers, some good food, and hung out for a few hours playing poker.  Later that night we headed out to a super pub to continue the fun.

The last day was spent trying to handle my passport and changing flights.  We did manage to get out of Dublin to the seaside town of Howth - about 25 minutes outside of town.  We got this idea after watching Anthony Bourdain eat a seafood shmorgishborg in Howth on his show “No Reservations”.  We found a great restaurant and had a fabulous meal.  We also found an interesting little construction company while making our way through the Dublin train station…

Ireland was great - I’ll certainly be back!

Ireland, Travel, Winter

After a few days of working while Mike was touring around the Netherlands, we flew back to Dublin on Wednesday. Upon arrival we hopped a bus to the Dublin Heuston train station, then took a train to Galway. After an easy 2 hour train ride, we arrived in Galway and walked to the hostel where we were meeting the rest of the crew. We met up with them, caught up on the craziness we had missed while back in the Netherlands, then went out for dinner and drinks in Galway.

Brothers reunited and enjoying a Guinness

Galway was a cool little town with a lively music scene. Walking along the pedestrian only downtown, we saw a few musicians playing outside. We also went into a really nice looking pub and heard some really good music from the live band playing there. We ended up calling it a relatively early night, due to our early morning departure for the Aran Islands the next morning.

Our Ferry over to the Aran Islands

We had a 9am ferry for the Aran Islands from a town about 30 minutes outside of Galway. Luckily we managed to get everyone up and made it to the ferry dock on time. Our destination was Inishmore - the largest of the three Aran Islands. We arrived after about an hour of enjoying the open ocean swells, and immediately set out to rent bikes for the day. Everyone got a bike and we started off exploring the island. We first found a surfing break named “Haggerty’s Left” - the locals told us that groups of 15-20 surfers come over to the island when the waves are really good.

Haggerty’s Left: About shoulder high and reeling

Next, we began our trek to the main attraction on Inishmore - Dun Aengus. This place is an ancient stone fort first built about 3000 years ago. It sits perched above the vertical cliffs that fall hundreds of feet down into the crashing waves of the Atlantic. While I wasn’t too impressed by the actual structure, the view of the island on one side and the never-ending Atlantic Ocean on the other gave you this spiritual feeling that was incredible. We took lots of pictures and spent a while pondering what it was like in 1000 BC when the first people built this fort.

Dun Aengus on Inishmore, Aran Islands

Bill - pondering life while perched hundreds of feet above the Atlantic

Brett and Landon jumping off the huge cliffs (they lived)

On our way to and from Dun Aengus we enjoyed biking around and viewing the scenery. Mike even met an Inishmore local that’s lived on the island his whole life. We climbed hills, gained incredible speeds on the way down, viewed the local goats, cows, and sheep that lived on the island. Inishmore even has a pretty nice beach that faces the mainland Irish coastline. We finished up the day with a pint of Guinness at the local pub. Good times on the Aran Islands.

Mike chatting with his Inishmore friend

Maze of dry-stone constructed walls on Inishmore

Mike, finishing the day up with a Guinness

That night we regrouped back at our hostel and ran into a couple of local Irish women. A little hesitant at first, we were pleasantly suprised at their wit after they joined us and proceeded to roast every one of us. These ladies had come over from Dublin and were heading to some television show cult following the next day on Inishmore - guess we had gone there a day early. They ended up bringing us out with them to a club that night, which was a blast. Unfortunately, later that night, a few of us had our jackets stolen from the local park. It wouldn’t have been a huge deal, but my passport was in my jacket, so I knew I needed to get back to Dublin as soon as possible.

Ireland, Travel, Winter

I somehow convinced 8 of my friends to fly over to Ireland for my bachelor party in early March. Many of them, realizing they’d be spending at least 8 hours on a flight (closer to 20 for Brett), decided to turn the trip into a week long adventure.  I spent the first weekend in Ireland with them, went back to the Netherlands for a couple days of work, then came back for the long weekend and bachelor party.

Landon was the first to arrive in Ireland, so I grabbed a cheap Aer Lingus flight to Dublin from Amsterdam with plans to meet him that night.  Our meeting point was the little Bed & Breakfast in Wicklow where we were staying - about an hour drive from the airport.  So I picked up a rental car at the airport that I had previously booked for a cheap rate online.  Unfortunately I was rudely awakened to find out the price of insurance tripled the cost of the rental, but I soon found out the insurance we well worth it after my first experience driving on the left side of the road.  First mistake: I tried to get in the car on the left side, quickly realizing the steering wheel was on the right side.  I smoothly played it off by pretending I was inspecting the car…  After figuring out how to drive stick with my left hand, I was off and following the Google Map directions.  Having not reviewed them beforehand, I was a little surprised to find step #11 told me to “Take the exit”.  Miraculously, I took a random exit and eventually made it to meet Landon.

Landon and I headed down to the town of Enniskerry for dinner and our first Guinness in country.  There was only one pub open in this sleepy town (population: 2600) and it was packed with locals watching the Wales/France six nations rugby game.  They were all interested in the game because Ireland had a six nations rugby match the next day.  We had a fantastic meal of mussels and Irish Stew, and the Guinness was out of this world.

The next day, we explored the beautiful area surrounding our B&B before heading back to Dublin to meet up with Bill, Brett, and Garcia.  Brilliant shades of green and flowering plants were abundant amongst the rolling hills of this countryside.  The B&B was good (breakfast wasn’t great) and I’d recommend it to anyone wanting to get outside of Dublin and go to Wicklow.

That afternoon we walked to Croke Park (pronounced “Crow Park”) to check out the scene and to try to scalp some tickets for the Ireland/England rugby match.  Brett was the only one that was able to score a ticket, while the rest of us had a great time hanging out in the bar watching the game with a Guinness in hand.

The next morning we met up with Mike & Mark for a bit, before everyone departed for Cork, except Mike & I, who were heading back to the Netherlands that night.  We took a quick tour of Trinity College and saw the Book of Kells and the more impressive Long Room.

It was a short weekend, but filled with lots of action and well worth the trip.  It was a great preview for my return in a few days for the bachelor party.

Ireland, Travel, Winter

Lindsey flew into town for a long weekend in February over Valentine’s weekend (sorry, I’m obviously behind on my posts).  Since we’d already gotten the gist of Den Haag, we decided to make a weekend trip to Paris.  After staying the first night in the Netherlands, we took the Thalys train from Den Haag Holland Spoor (the other train station) to Paris Noord train station.  It was about a 3 hour trip and was very pleasant as we packed a lunch and ate it on the train.  Upon our arrival, we pretty quickly figured out the metro/RER system to get close to our hotel.  After we got off the RER (B line), we had a 10 minute walk to the hotel, where we passed by a group that was protesting - that’s when we knew we were in Paris…

Lindsey with French bread on the way to the hotel

We stayed at the Hotel Grande Ecoles in the Latin Quarter, which was a very nice and quaint hotel.  The room wasn’t anything special, but the location was great and the gardens around the room were very nice.  This would be an excellent place to stay in the summer.

The first night we went to dinner at a really nice restaurant with a view of Notre Dame.  This dinner was an engagement present to us from Eric & Courtney, and we had a blast.  Really good food and the view was incredible.  Unfortunately, our waiter “accidentally” charged us about 75 euro too much, to which we quickly alerted him of his mistake.  He corrected it, but it left a sour taste in our mouths.

Notre Dame during the day

Thoughout the next two days we saw all of the great tourist attractions: Notre Dame, Musee D’Orsay, Eiffel Tower (at night), Arc Du Triumph, Montmarte, Sacre Couer, Musee Du Louvre, and St Chapelle.  My favorite was the Sacre Couer because it offered a fantastic view of the entire city.  We first had to climb the towers to the top and were rewarded with a 360 degree view.

Artistic Shot from the top of Sacre Couer

Another highlight was visiting St Chapelle with its beautiful stained glass windows.

Musee D’Orsay and Musee Du Louvre were both excellent in their own right - I didn’t particularly favor one over the other, I’m glad we did both!

Matt & Polynesian Statue

When we weren’t going around the touristy sites, we made plenty of time to visit cafes and to relax.  Next time we’ll plan to do less on the tourist side and more on the relaxing side.  While we had great weather overall, it was still only in the 40s since it was February.  This probably helped to keep the crowds down as we didn’t have to wait more than 10 minutes at any tourist attraction.  We’re definitely looking forward to going back during the summer

Matt and Lindsey in front of the Eiffel Tower

France, Paris, Travel, Winter

Because my flight didn’t depart until 7pm, I decided to stick around town and snowboard at the Les Houches resort right down the road.  I knew the conditions would be good, because it had been snowing around town the entire day before.  Everyone else either had earlier flights or had enough snowboarding, so I went by myself.  A short walk down the road had me at the ticket counter.  Instead of the Italian greeting from the days before, here I was greeted with a “bonjour”.

The conditions were great, although the mountain itself wasn’t as tall or large as the Italian one from the day before.  Snowboarding alone, I was able to cover a lot of ground and got a number of runs in before noon.  After taking a particular lift a few times, I spotted my idea of the perfect French lunch spot: Les Vieille Luges.  I noticed this restaurant from the lift, but realized it wasn’t visible from the piste.  However, there was a small sign and turnoff from the nearby piste that held a long, narrow trail to reach the restaurant.

After missing the turnoff once, I found the restaurant on the second attempt and it was packed!  I made my way through the 5’10” entrance and found the owner who fortunately spoke English.  After searching around, he managed to find a small table where he could fit me, because all of his other tables were full with reservations.  A couple minutes after seating me, he approached me with a “parlez vous francais?”.  After I replied no, he asked if I wouldn’t mind having another individual without a reservation join me for lunch.  I said no, and he said, “Great!  But he doesn’t speak English”.  Needless to say, we had a pretty quiet lunch, but the meal was fantastic.

Later that afternoon I made my way back to Geneva, then eventually to Amsterdam and Den Haag.  All in all, it was a fantastic trip!

France, Snowboarding, Travel, Winter

This is the second article in the series about my Chamonix Valley Ski trip.  Although we were staying in the French Alps, the first two days of snowboarding were spent at the Italian Alps resort named Courmayeur.  A 25 minute shuttle ride had us through the 11km long Mont-Blanc tunnel, which connects the Italian and French sides.  The exciting part was entering the tunnel on a perfectly nice day on the French side, only to emerge in Italy to find yourself in a snowstorm.

Upon arrival I immediately knew we were in Italy with the multi-lingual “Welcome” signs (even though this picture is showing the English & French words).  The gondolas taking you up the mountain were standing room only and wow did they pack the people into those.  I think they crammed about 75-100 people into a 10 foot by 10 foot space.

Up on the mountain, avalanche homing beacon testers were placed throughout the resort, and many skiers walked passed these testers to hear the accepting “beep” that let them know their beacon was fully functioning.  Unfortunately, this didn’t do anything to calm my nerves, as I had no homing beacon and the avalanche danger was a modest 3 out of 5.  Fortunately there were no problems, even though the snow was great.  We made it up to the top piste that was open where we had powder up to our knees.

The most exciting part about the experience was going to lunch.  We made reservations at a small Italian restaurant on the mountain that served fantastic Italian food.  Between the two days there I sampled three types of pasta, sausages, pizza, and lasagna – everything was fantastic.  The owner was there both days, shouting loudly at the wait staff from the seated section above.

Food, Italy, Snowboarding, Travel, Winter

I recently took a three-day weekend to join a group of coworkers in the French Alps. Because most people took a full week vacation I made the trek south from the Netherlands myself.  To start I had to make my way to the Amsterdam Schipol airport via train ride from Den Haag.  I managed to get to the train station on bike, carrying a laptop over one shoulder, snowboard over the other, holding the handle of my rolling suitcase in one hand, and steering with the other hand.

After a relatively quick flight from Amsterdam to Geneva, I took an hour-long shuttle van ride to the Chamonix valley.  The Chamonix valley is the general area, which is composed of at least 6 resorts, including the one we stayed at: Les Houches (pronounced: “lay ooochhh”).  Even though the driver didn’t speak a word on English (and my French was limited to “bonjour”), I safely made it to the Chalet.

The Chalet itself was fantastic: spacious, wooden/log cabin décor, sauna, and hot tub.  We even had our own staff that would serve us breakfast and a three-course dinner with unlimited beer and wine.  The whole trip went well, and I made it back after three full days of snowboarding in great conditions!  Check back for posts about the Italian and French Alps experiences.

France, Snowboarding, Travel, Winter