more countries, more rain...
10 june 2000

hi all,

if any of you are having a draught where you live, please feel free to contact "deb and gary, rain services provided". it just follows us. two weeks ago we arrived in geneva for a short weekend to see our friends who live there. barbara and i danced together in vail back in the early 90's and she now lives in switzerland with her husband, marco. they came to amsterdam a few months ago and kindly invited us to go there. why not? it's just too easy to toodle around europe being centrally located here in holland. of course, the weather had been great the previous two weeks but upon our arrival, it changed radically.

barb and i stayed up late blabbing away, talking of girl things, a real treat after not having any "old friends" to dish with since i left boulder. gary and i slept a little too late the next morning and barbara was off to rehearsal and marco was out and about too, so we were on our own with our trusty map. {my skills haven't improved much since i last wrote}. they live in a lovely neighborhood, surrounded by trees and pretty, wide streets, a concept that is non existent in a'dam so we enjoyed walking around orienting ourselves.

geneva is a beautiful city and looks totally different than any of the others we have visited. i know i say that all the time now, but it's really true. every place really emits a unique sense of itself and geneva has a very wealthy but not necessarily pretentious aura about it. the houses are set back on the streets and seem quite large immersed in lots of shrubbery and well taken care of lawns. after being in the land of the narrow, i am much more aware of space these days.

after a wonderful breakfast at noon, we wandered and found ourselves in front of a well groomed building which happened to be the "musee de horlogerie" or the "watch and clock museum". it's always fun to explore things that are specific to a certain area and this was certainly no exception. the swiss are of course famous for their finely made watches and there were myriad designs dating back to the 15th century up through the present. the quality was of the highest imaginable and we were in awe of the intricacy of the artwork. the windows were quite impressive as well.

speaking of swiss specifics, we went on to the "red cross museum". the entire history of its origin and development is cited there. of course, it was founded by a swiss man and the story is quite fascinating. when i was little, i liked reading about clara barton, red cross nurse, but even more interesting is the huge room that catalogues all of the p.o.w.'s from the first world war. what an operation, and presently they still track missing children and try to reunite them with their war torn families. their services are vast; i really gleaned a sense of what the organization is about.

now we decided it was time to view lake geneva. the rain had actually taken a time out and so we parked ourselves at a cafe right next to it. the lake is immense and there was a beautiful fountain in the middle, sporting a rainbow behind it. what a picture; too bad we had run out of film! gary buried his nose in the newspaper while i had a lovely chat with a japanese man. we had considered taking a boat tour but had missed the last one for the day. had a nice stroll around to the other side and stocked up on film instead.

marco and barbara have an exquisite garden, which i was drooling over. it is beautifully landscaped with giant roses, peonies, petunias and numerous other gorgeous flowers. the perfect spot for a pre dinner cocktail and a haven for their four very content cats. after re grouping from being tourists, they took us to dinner in the village where marco grew up. it is a charming area, bordered by a huge mountain that separates switzerland from france. not only do we enjoy being in their company but love the fact that they can order in french. such a beautiful language! i had the lake perch at their suggestion.... to die for.

our tour of out of the way villages continued the next day by car. after several attempts at finding a restaurant that wasn't full, we had another wonderful meal. i had the perch again, my new favorite fish dish. it was really relaxing having a sunday drive, taking in all new sights in a new country. it was a great getaway.

the dutch have lots of holidays, which makes it even more conducive to travelling frequently. last thursday was ascension day and gary decided to take friday off so we could go somewhere. we had planned to do one of our spontaneous trips but it so happened that on wednesday gary had to fly to dublin on business. the obvious thing to do was to have me join him on thursday so that's what happened. recently we had realized that ireland was a priority for places we wanted to visit so we were pretty excited about this opportunity. after all gary is a mcbride.

sometimes it takes me awhile to catch on. i didn't realize i was in business class until they served shrimp on the plane! he forgot to mention that those were the only seats available. this is dangerous because i'm now asking him if we can always fly business. the answer is no, in case you were wondering.

after picking up our electric blue rental car, we drove to a place called malahide castle. bad timing, it was exactly closing time but we did manage a jaunt around the lovely gardens. back in the car and driving on the left side which is always weird to me, we meandered over to the coast. late afternoon by the sea has the most pleasant feeling to it and this fishing village, called howth, offered a great view of the irish sea. we stood by the light house and observed the rocks by the shore and the multitude of colorful fishing boats. it reminded me of the movie "the secret of roan inish". within the first two hours of being in ireland, i had known that i loved that country! the people are incredibly warm and friendly, something i cannot say is true of other countries in europe. gary really enjoyed not having to spell his name three times! speaking the language helps, i suppose, but we really felt like they were genuinely interested in talking to us.

that night we went to a performance of a play called "the plough and the star". only minutes before, i realized that my glasses were missing. this was unfortunate as i'm pretty dependent on them. i never did find them and squinted through the weekend. luckily i have a spare pair here in a'dam. anyway, the play was directed by and starred stephen rea of "crying game" fame. the combination of not knowing enough about the history of the irish revolution, not having my glasses, and struggling to understand the irish accent made it less than great but it did have some nice acting moments. it wasn't london west end, by any means....

dublin is a wild city and we stayed right where the action was. finding a place to have a drink was more work than it should be. finally a spot at the bar and guinness. too bad i'm allergic to beer but i did have to taste it and it is like "buttah". gary had to break his all protein diet for the weekend but it was well worth the carbs.

we awoke to a rainy and cold morning which continued for the next two days. we were over it by this time. off to trinity college, at the crack of 10:30 which is pretty damn early for us. housed at the college, is the book of kells, which are specific books of the bible founded on an island off of scotland in the 14th century. there is also a very old library exhibiting interesting books on botany, anatomy, politcal declarations, and various other subjects. it's really neat to see how they were put together in the past.

being into museums, we headed to the national gallery. not before getting sidetracked into a department store that had the most unique ceramics. we were both drawn to a set of goblets and a matching pitcher in hues of pinks, blues, and purples and had to purchase them. what a cool store that was. the national was pretty cool, too, with the usual supply of wonderful paintings. i must say i never get tired of looking at art and have become familiar with lots of dutch painters other than van gogh. our experience was enhanced by the extremely jovial security guard who chatted with us, mostly about guinness. as i said, the irish are quite friendly.

our next intention was to go to the writer's museum but we were too dragged out. gary went back to the room and i went sweater shopping. i found a really nice one and don't think it was too warm to wear it in june; i also bought a fleece and wore that too. for dinner we went to a great little place and had boxty, which sounded traditional but was more like a "wrap". i did enjoy it and was pleasantly surprised at how good all the restaurants were. the irish film centre was showing "one day in september", about the tragedy at the '72 munich olympics. it was very well done, but disturbing and emotionally wrenching. definitely needed a drink after that one.

on saturday, we "got out of dodge" and headed for the countryside. we stopped off at "powerscourt", an 18th century mansion, in the process of being restored. loved the gardens, especially the japanese landscape. somehow, we took a wrong turn and ended up on a gorgeous drive through the countryside and through some lovely small towns. the buildings are brightly colored, orange next to green, for example, which is really pretty. you can also see different colors of georgian doors, arched, and plentiful throughout dublin and around. we took a wonderful hotel room in a town called wicklow. it used to be the rectory of a church and was elegantly furnished. our room had its own dining room table! we loved lounging by the fire in the sitting room, trying to stay warm.

sunday, our last day, dawned without rain and we managed to sqeeze in a walk around town before having to say goodbye to ireland. we found a beautiful hilltop spot overlooking the water, a perfect closing image. i became sad at having to leave because i really had a special feeling about ireland and would relish going back to explore other parts of the country. i highly recommend it! that makes 10 countries in 6 months, counting the netherlands.

but this weekend we're staying home to regroup and relax. we were very tempted and almost changed our minds. when i checked klm's "click and go" last night, madrid was on there for a great fare. we fought the urge to fly and will be taking the train to visit our friends in north holland tomorrow for the day. it's about time we saw some of this country, don't you think?

til next time,

with love, deb