Making plans...

So the planning has finally begun in earnest for my October trip to Europe with my travel companion Don (aka: Big Poppa Shields). 

Originally it was going to be fly in to London for a few days, then go to Ireland, then back to London, then train to Paris....then leave.  But, after thinking it over...that seems mighty stupid!  More jumping around from country to country with London as base was killing our chances of doing stuff.

So a plan was hatched. Fly into Dublin, stay for three days and leave for London on the fourth day. Stay in London for three days, leave for Paris on the fourth. Three days in Paris and then home to the States on the fourth.  Seems like a solid plan....until I realized that some of the things I wanted to do would be left out in the cold with that plan...namely Scotland!

One can never underestimate flexible travel plans! This is why I didn't want to get roped into a group tour. I can't even commit to a dinner choice long enough to order sometimes.

Now, I think we have a time table hammered down that we can live with...or at least not deviate too far from! 

Day One: Get into Dublin around 7am...rent car and drive south! On way to Cork stop in Co. Carlow and visit Duckett's Grove Castle. Carry on to Cork to take in the sights and stay the night.

Day Two: Get up and drive back to Dublin. Grab hotel, hang out in Dublin and head north to Belfast for the afternoon/evening. Get back to Dublin late and crash.

Day Three: Fly from Dublin to Glasgow on early flight.  Rent car make trip to Loch Ness. This was a must for me and one of the reasons that the travel plans were changed. I, for some reason, thought it was a much shorter trip from London to Loch Ness...not so much the case!  Spend time in Loch Ness and then meander back to Glasgow in the the early evening....enjoy.

Day Four: Fly to London.  Originally this was going to be a train trip through the English countryside. But, a rail pass (as far as I could see) was actually going to be about the same price, if not more expensive, than a quick flight. The flight would also cut out about 5 hours of travel...unless Google maps lied to me! Arrive in London and do typical touristy type things for rest of day.

Day Five: Stuff in London....trip to Stonehenge ("The Greatest Henge in the World"....I'm going to be seriously sad if I can't get that on a t-shirt!)

Day Six: Stuff in London

Day Seven: Stuff in London...and a trip to Cardiff. As a fan of British Sci Fi I can't pass up a trip to this great Welsh city. Home of the Millennium Centre, shopping, Cardiff bay...and of course the fictional former home of team Torchwood. (yeah that's right, I am planning vacation locations based on Russell T. Davis' Dr. Who spin off!)

Day Eight: Bullet train to Paris...hotel...food....museums

Day Nine: Paris...food .... Museums

Day Ten: Paris ...maybe out of the city travel...

Day Eleven: Wake up and get my ass to the airport to fly home and hate the fact that I am only a few days away from going back to work!

Now I need to find the small things to fill in those wide open days in London and Paris. Also, need to make sure that my netbook has plenty of space for movies (for the trip) and photos (of the trip).  Probably would be a wise decision to renew my Flickr pro account too.

Things that will fill the gaps in time I am sure will include: eating, drinking, tours of places you can drink, tours of famous places, tours of infamous places. Shopping---oh God the shopping is going to kill me! Lounging in awesome locals...sadly it will be October so probably going to be indoor lounging.

Blogging, Facebooking, Twittering and generally lamenting the fact that I will eventually have to leave should also factor heavily into the rotation of things to do. Sadly the one thing that will not be on the schedule is the planned NFL football game between my beloved Chicago Bears and the Tampa Bay Bucs. Not necessarly because the game may not happen (boo)! The real reasons tends to lean more towards the fact that it would be cost prohibitive to stay the extra two days.  Between tickets to the game, getting back to London from Paris, two more nights in a hotel and switching flights AGAIN, it would add about another $1200 to a trip that I already am on the boarder of not being able to afford!

But, stuff is purchased, plans are made...money can be made with extra work! It's all a go! Pretty sure that Europe (and myself) will never be the same after this trip.

The Times They Are a Changin'

Pretty sure Bob Dylan never saw this one coming....

Libyan plane destroyed by French jet

I can fondly remember a time, just a few months ago, when the French were simply a bunch of  "cheese eating surrender monkeys" (thank you Simpson's for forever etching that phrase into my mind!) Now they are bona fide warriors...striking fear (or at least mild confusion) into the hearts of the Libyan Air Force.
 
Which brings up another thought.... Was I the only one shocked to find out that Libya had an Air Force?
 
I know, I know, I'm not all that up-to-date on the status of other countries armed forces. But, for some reason that kind of shocked me.
 
Maybe it has something to do with the news reports that showed Libyan rebels who were heading to the front lines and didn't even know how to load their guns!! I get the fact that those are rebels with found guns. Essentially, the modern day equivalent of a peasant uprising with pitchforks. Still, that's kinda of sad, it also colours my view of their actual armed forces.
 
Now, I'm not a big gun nut but let's face it. How hard is it to figure out that you need to slide the clip with the bullets into the gun from the large hole in the bottom of the grip.  I'd say that's something that really needs to be worked out before you jump into your ass old Toyota and head to the front lines!
 
That's almost as funny to me as the report a month or so back where Chinese State television used a clip from the movie Top Gun and claimed it was news footage of their Air Force doing practice maneuvers. Pay no attention to the fact that their 2011 Air Force was made up of 80's era F-14a Tomcats and 80's era Soviet MiG-28 fighters! (those are just details).
 
I don't point these things out to make light of what is a very serious situation in Libya...but it does make you step back and realize that there are people out there who have issues that may or may not far out weigh you and your problems.

European Bucket List.

With my impending travel to Europe (you know...where History comes from) I have decided to think about the few things that will be readily available to be added to my to do list. I was thinking of amending my actual bucket list. But, now that travel plans have been made and the actual trips is in sight I feel like that may be cheating. So some of these will be lifted from my original bucket list of a while back, while others will be new and improved. Right now the plan is to visit England, Ireland, France and maybe a few other countries.I think I'll break them up into a few sections. -- submissions are welcomed, encouraged even!

Section I: food and beverage.
1. Drink a pint of Guiness in an actual Irish pub.
2. Slam down some Absinthe in France
3. Fish and Chips in England...possibly from a lunch van..
4. Eat TRADITIONAL Haggis (not from a can)
5. Try at least one traditional dish in each country that I can't get in the states.
6. When possible eat local. Skip eating anywhere that I can find at home (unless desperate and/or broke)

Section II: Locations and events
1. Hit as many nerdy Dr. Who spots as possible...including a trip to Cardiff
2. Some sort of Ripper tour
3. The Louvre
4. Buckingham palace
5. Stonehenge (the greatest henge of them all)
6. South Shields
7. Eiffel Tower
8. Try to find some sort of local concert to go to...up and coming bands or established acts, comedy...whatever!
9. Visit a Castle....check the tapestry! (get it? get it?)

Section III: Unk
-- this is the section that I will leave open for suggestions and late arrivals to my brain!