Irish (and Dutch) breakfast

Although we moved to France more than a year ago, we have yet to really take advantage of being able to travel as much as we'd want to.  In fact, Strasbourg is often called the "Crossroad of Europe" because of its somewhat central location on the European continent. Jump in a car and we are actually just a few hours from a handful of countries.  Those few hours in a plane could pretty much get you to any European country at all.  Not a bad situation to be in.

Truthfully, with the big move and Jean concentrating on his job search we really haven't had time to travel much - until now. When we got an invitation to attend the wedding of Jean's former colleague in Galway, Ireland, it was hard to pass it up.  After a harrowing transatlantic trip alone with both kids, a mere 3 hours plane ride with an accompanying parent made it a total piece of cake.  So we packed our bags and set off on our first European family vacation.

It was short, just 4 nights, but we got to see a good amount of sights (also considering we had to work around cranky kids and nap schedules!).  We flew into Dublin and had dinner that night at the house of Jean's second cousin, along with his wife and two boys. The morning after, we took in the city of Dublin with a walk in the city center and stop by Saint Patrick's cathedral (and next door park with a playground).

         


I was not at all up for the whole "driving on the left" thing so the next morning, Jean bravely drove to the two hours from Dublin, due west to the beautiful city of Galway.  We met with the love birds at a reception for out of towners the night before the wedding and got to explore Galway a bit.  The day after the wedding we headed out to the Connemara coast for some incredible scenery.  Despite some minor meltdowns, the trip was a great success.    

     

  


On our way back - we missed our tight connection in Amsterdam.  Although I was pretty
upset at the time, it somehow was made easier by a free night in a 4 star hotel with dinner and a huge breakfast buffet included. Okay, KLM, I'll let this one slide.