Visitors from Home and Spain trip

Hello again to our family and friends - wherever you may be! About a month ago Maggie's Mom and her S.O. Eric came for a two week visit. We had a grand time, and discovered that two weeks goes quickly! Even with a full two weeks to spend in Dublin and surrounding parts of Ireland it feels like we only were able to give them a small taste of what this country really is like.

We hit the ground running on the day they landed (to fend of jet-lag) with a tour of Guinness. Other sights in Dublin included the Botanic Gardens (amazing, we will return), Chester Beatty Library (better than the Book of Kells I hear), Christchurch Catherdral, and some crazy museums! Travis took a few days off and we did some day trips to Newgrange/Knowth in Country Meath just north of Dublin where we also stumbled upon the Hill of Slane and Hill of Tara where the High Kings ruled Ireland for centuries. We also did an overnight to Kilkenny which gave us some more time to explore the parts of the country a bit south and west from Dublin.

Other highlights included lots of eating - cheese sampling and whiskey tasting! We also made a dent in the candy sampling, Cadbury and Nestle both have more candy bar varieties here than you could imagine!

We then had a couple weeks to recover before heading off to Spain to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. We took a quick flight to Barcelona and spent a few days there before driving up the coast of the Mediterranean to an area called the Costa Brava. We stayed one day in a town called Cadaques where Salavador Dali lived. The town had plaques posted all around that had paintings Dali had done while he lived there that depicted actual buildings/streets in town. This part of the country is empty and has some very interesting geology, we took a little drive at sunset and marveled at the crazy rock outcroppings.

After Cadaques we headed to the Pyrenees and a tiny town called Torla. Surprisingly as I was planning this trip this town looked like fun and some friends of ours that were just in Spain also came back with a recommendation to stay there. It turned out to not even be on our map! Torla is at the gateway to a National Park with loads of hiking, caving, canyoneering, rock climbing, etc. We stuck to hiking :) We worked in a brisk 18km/11mi hike that was well worth it, fantastic scenery and Travis got to see some amazing mountains that look nothing like mountains he's seen before.

We left Torla and headed to the north coast of Spain (the Bay of Biscay) to Bilbao where the Guggenheim Foundation opened a museum in the '90s. The museum building itself is something to look at, and the art inside is just amazing. Unfortunately as we were there during off season the museum was changing exhibits and only one floor out of three was open, but it was still a great place to go. There was a hall with 12' tall steel sheet sculptures that you walked through. They were designed to test your perception, so sometimes you felt as if you were losing your balance or getting dizzy. We had a good time shopping and eating in Bilbao, also - great tapas bars (tapas are single serving snacks or appetizers that you graze on) and really affordable restaurants.

From Bilbao it was back to Barcelona for just one afternoon before heading back home to Dublin. We're both in love with Spain now! It was such an easy flight, just about 2 hours. No longer than driving to go skiing. Travis really enjoyed driving on the right hand side of the road for a week :)

Now it's back home for some fall weather, it's gotten slightly cooler and the days are getting noticeably shorter. I think we change clocks at the end of the month which will make the mornings better but nights will be getting dark much to early then! We don't have much in the way of fall leaves, a few trees change but for the most part the leaves just seem to turn fall off and turn brown or turn brown and fall off. Our next door neighbors have a vine on their house that turned a violent red color, it was amazing! I think that may be about all the fall color that we get. The gorse has been blooming, making the hillsides bright yellow, that feels a bit like fall.

Cheers to you all, Travis and I hope this find you well and happy.

M&T