Swans in Galway

One of the cool things about living right where we do in Galway is the Swans.

There is a colony (nest, roost, flock, whatever the name) of swans that live in the waterway about 100 yards from our apartment. Everyday, two of them venture up the canal next to our apartment. It is always two, leading me to suspect that they are the same two as there is a big one leading and a smaller one always behind. And no more than two ever come in the canal for some reason.

But one cool thing about them being close is whenever we have bread for dinner and don't finish, that means a visit to the swans the next day.

They are kind of intimidating (okay really intimidating), but once you get used to feeding them you can have them take the bread directly out of your hands:

This is the last day of the Spokane Tobin's visit:

The background is a famous portrait of Galway. Many of you might have received a postcard with this exact portrait. Just without the US and Mexican contingent:

We just have to time our feeding so that it does NOT coincide with this guys visit as our feeding one piece at a time system gets drowned out when he starts throwing whole loaves of bread at the swans:

But this photo gives you an idea of just how many swans live here.

They are not exactly a replacement for Porfi, but at least the swans keep our avian care gene fullfilled.

DONE!

Well my crazy idea has now been completed.

1 hour 51 minutes and 33 seconds later, I finished the Prague Half Marathon. 13.1 miles or since we are in Europe 21.0 Kilometers.

Before the race:


With me is my buddy Reid and his girlfriend Heather. They were also doing the race.

Km 2, going well:

Km 11 (halfway), still doing okay:

Km 20.5, finish line in sight!

Right after the race, on my 'cool down' drink:

The after picture, none of us the worse for wear (maybe).


Going to be a long night in Prague tonight! Celebration time. There is a European Championship qualifying soccer game between the Czech Republic and Germany in town tonight. We are going if we can secure some tickets. The only problem is they might be standing room only. Not really an ideal situation for three of us in the group.

Life in Brussels

In case you didn't know, and many of you might not be keeping minute by minute track of the Tobins (I have a hard time keeping track myself lately), we are in Brussels.

I really like Brussels. Maybe that didn't come through in my September visit here. But that was mainly because I just wanted to get moved to Galway and start 'the next chapter'. Not like me to be impatient or anything?

So we got to Brussels on Sunday night after taking the high speed train from Paris. And when I say high speed, I mean it. 1 hour and 22 minutes, non-stop Paris to Brussels. That is equivalent to going from Seattle to Portland in about 45 minutes. Well, maybe an hour. But that drive would be a minimum of three hours with no traffic and the train is much faster.

You might be wondering what do I do in Brussels whilst Paty is at work. Good question, not much. Yesterday I went on a run in the middle of town. Not the ideal conditions. Lots of streets and lights and stopping and starting. But I did spend a good 15 minutes running on cobblestones just to get my ankles ready for Prague.

The rest of the day I spent mainly wandering around the city.

Okay, so that is a lie. Our hotel had wifi, so I mainly surfed the web and did some reading on the big dance.

WSU a 3 seed? Hell has officially froze over. I just hope my guys from Winthrop can beat Oregon for a sweet 16 berth. Tough draw for the Eagles though, their 11/6 matchup against Notre Dame is going to be good.

I had to check out of the hotel at 2 pm today, so currently I am sitting on the periphery of the 'Grand Place' and writing this blog. I found a building that is shooting out free wifi, so I am stealing the signal from them. It is in the mid-60's here temperature wise, so I am in my full tourist gear. Guinness rugby shirt and all. But no jacket. Of course I do have the requisite Stella Artois in a can beside me. Europe is not so tight on the public drinking as the USA.

No pictures on this post. I actually packed the camera already. How many pics of the Grand Place can you have?

I have 15% left on my battery before I have to find an outlet, going to play a little Warcraft to kill time while waiting for Paty. Our flight isn't until around 8 PM tonight. Brussels-Dublin then Dublin-Galway. No driving from Shannon airport for once. But we only have about 15 minutes to connect in Dublin. Going to be close.

Okay I lied, one picture from the archive:

I am basically sitting right where those people are sitting behind the girl taking the picture. I am currently leaning against the same lamp post. So just FYI, there is free wifi in that EXACT spot if you are ever in Brussels and you are bored and happen to have a laptop.

Dijon Post

We had a weekend free before Paty had to be in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday for work, so naturally Paty decided we needed to go somewhere. She is still a little jealous that she was unable to go to Rome with Lexi and her parents.

We looked at the RyanAir flight schedule and ascertained that we could fly out Friday evening to the Paris Beavious airport. Being RyanAir, this means that the airport is labeled Paris, but it is analogous to flying to a the Chehalis regional airport in order to get to Seattle. Doable, but not exactly convenient. Although it was a VERY cheap flight, so off we went.

Since we had been to Paris, we decided to rent a car and head into the wine country. We found a hotel in Dijon, France and started driving. I didn't realize that from the airport to the hotel would be 400 km (250 miles) but off we went.

Needless to say we got to our hotel in Dijon quite late, but thanks to the NeverLost navigation unit, we were never lost.

We were greeted on Saturday with a beautiful sunny day:

'Breakfast' Dijon style. As we got in so late we got a little later start than was ideal, so I needed to catch up. Thus the double fist espresso and white wine:

Dijon is known for mustard, but it also happens to be in the heart of Burgundy. Burgundy is the home of Pinot Noir. One of the first things we did in town was to arrange a wine country tour with a driver. Again, the weather was great. And the contrast to Galway made it even that much better:

Above is a typical Chateau that populate the area. Almost every Chateau produces wine.
The most expensive plot of grapes in the World:

This is where the Grand Cru, Romaine Conti comes from. Only the small vineyard behind the stone wall. If you could buy the wine, you can't, you would expect to pay upwards of $3,00-$6,000 per bottle. According to our guide, over 60% of the vineyards production goes to Las Vegas.

The tasting rooms in the Cote d'or are pretty much like you would find in Napa:


The photo didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, but we are in one of the many caves that they use to store wines:

Strangely enough, our tour driver was from Oregon. Born and raised in Dijon, but he had just started a wine import business based out of Portland, Oregon. So he lived in both Dijon and Portland. Just a note from the 'it's a small world after all' department.

After the wine tour, we did a little sightseeing in Dijon. More cool stone churches. Dijon is pretty small. But there were a few REALLY good mustard shops.

We also did a little shopping. Went into a sports shop on their main pedestrian only avenue and they had a bunch of NBA jerseys. Being as we were in France, there was an abundance of Tony Parker and Boris Diaw jersey's (both French) to go with prerequisite Lebron, Wade and Kobe, but in the midst of this I saw a stack of nice authentic Sonics jerseys. Then I remembered that we have the French rookie Mickael Gelabale. I just figured that was the answer. But this is what I found:

I still have no idea why there are a stack of authentic Damien Wilkins Sonics jersey's in the heart of France, but at least we are represented!
On a side note, Paty almost got tackled by the store staff while taking this picture. Apparently the #19 Sonics jersey is proprietary information......

Sunday saw another beautiful day in Dijon. A little sightseeing in town before we drove north to the Paris Gare du'Nord train station.



Our Citroen, which was a suprisingly nice car being that it is French. Wish I had this car in Germany last summer, we had no problem getting it up to 200 km/h on the French version of the Autobahn. Even at that speed I was passed a few times!

On a side note, at one point during the drive north to Paris I was passed by a car with a French liscense plate. Not an event in and of itself, but after the car passed me I noticed a big green zero sticker on the rear window. Well that zero ended up being the ever present Oregon logo sticker.

I felt it was my duty as a Washington Husky supporter and as an American to make an approriate jesture to this French Duck. In case you were worried, mission accomplished.

Now it is off to Brussels and a subsequent post.......

Shannon Airport, again

Hmm thinks my loyal reader.
“Another Friday, another blog post from Chris. That must mean he is at the Shannon Airport again.”

Yep, the obligatory Shannon airport free internet blog post is here.

But Chris you ask, where are you going now? Weren’t you just in Rome last weekend and Venice two weekends before that and Prague in another two weeks? Don’t you just want to stay home and relax? Maybe play some Warcraft, watch a little footy on the telly at the pub?

While this might be true, but you forget to factor in one thing. Mrs. Tobin did not partake in the Rome trip and it turns out she was a little jealous. So this is what she planned.

Paty has a farewell lunch at the Brussels office on Tuesday, these are the people from her original Europe assignment, thus she is going to work Monday from Brussels. That leaves us with the weekend to spend somewhere close to Brussels.

So we are again partaking in the low cost phenomenon that is RyanAir and we are flying to Paris’s Beauvais airport. We will immediately rent a car from the company that will not be named on this blog (my grandma always said, ‘if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all!’) and are driving to Dijon tonight. We will stay in Dijon tonight and Saturday night. Tomorrow we have a wine tour in the Coits du Noit region of France. Basically the appellation outside of Dijon. Also if I am not mistaken, there is a good mustard factory in town!

Sunday we are driving back to the train station in Paris, Gar du Nord and dropping the car there. Then we catch the high speed train to Brussels where we will stay two nights at Paty’s usual hotel before heading back to Galway on Tuesday night.

Kind of like our own version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles. The timing of this trip isn’t the best, as the NCAA brackets come out on Sunday afternoon (Monday really early here), so I might be sad but there is a really good chance I will spend most of my free time in Brussels holed up in my hotel room studying and trying to defend my bracket title, again. The Tobin family has won the Embo pool (50+ players) 5 of the last 6 years.

It is going to be really hard to defend the title this year. I looked at the ESPN website earlier today and thought that hell might have frozen over. Why you ask? WSU had a single digit in front of their box score and it looks like UW is wishing just to host an NIT game, while Duke is a ‘bubble team’?

It just makes the WSU/UW game at Hec Ed next year that much better. Yes, for those of you wondering, I am renewing my season tickets. Hopefully things will be back to normal when I am back in town!

Roma Post

As part of the Spokane Tobin’s visit to Ireland, we decided to go to Rome. Unfortunately the flight schedule and Paty’s work schedule did not mesh at all, so it was just the Spokane contingent and I. Paty had to stay home and make some money to pay for all of these trips!

Our apartment was very nice, we had a great location and we saved a decent amount of Lira versus a hotel. The place was located 50 feet from the most famous pizza joint in Rome, Baffetto. And also four blocks from the south end of Piazza Navonna.

As I was in Rome exactly 9 weeks to the day earlier, it was my time to continue with the ‘tour guide Chris’ persona. Since we were so close, our first stop was Piazza Navonna.

This was very early in the day and I think the Spokane contingent was a little overwhelmed by the myriad sights and sounds of Rome. It is somewhat of a sensory assault after the calm of Galway. Later in the day, Mike and Kate asked if we were going to Visit the famous Piazza Navonna. I told them that we already had, then since they were questioning my guide abilities I had to scroll back to this picture to prove it to them.

Next stop, the best Cappuccino in Roma, according to no less source than the NY Times. Café Estuchia. In keeping with the spirit of the trip, this was Mike’s first cappuccino. Not first in Italy or first today, but first EVER. Going here for your first cappucinno is kind of like getting your first dark beer at the Guinness brewery, so I think his expectations are not set very high. As much as I love and miss Starbucks, I just don’t think it will match up. We went back here every morning of the trip after the initial stop. Needless to say, it was good!

Continuing with tour guide Tobin, it was the Pantheon.

It is impossible to do the Pantheon justice by taking pictures inside. With all the great sights of Rome it might be sacrilegious to say it, but I think that this is my favorite monument/building/historical sight in Rome. Okay, after the Sistine Chapel. That ceiling really is something else.

Next it was the Trevi fountain.
I was able to pry Lexi away from Kate for a minute:

Notice, the coin toss. One coin means you will come back to Rome. BUT, you need to throw said coin over the left shoulder with the right hand. Notice that someone is blocking my left shoulder:


Then it was north through the shopping districts to the Spagna Piazza, better known to us English only speaking people as the Spanish Steps. Built by the French for the Spanish in the heart of Italy. There is a really good story that goes with that, but I will not bore you on this blog. I am sure you can google the story if you are really curious.

Next on Tobin’s Grand Roman Tour it was Piazza Popona:

At about this time the Spokane Tobin’s realized that Lexi really hadn’t ate for, well let’s just call it most of the Roman journey, so no better place than the steps off some beautiful random Roman church to feed the baby:

There might have been some lingering guilt that helped out, but notice Lexi’s brand new designer Euro-baby poncho:

This photo was taken in front of my favorite wine bar in Rome, and also known as Lexi’s first wine bar. On a side note, the floor of this bathroom is also where Lexi got her first #2 diaper change in Rome.

Yes, there are good Irish bars in Rome:

And yes, they do let babies in. According to the Guiness factory tour, Rome has the second most Irish pubs of any city in Europe outside Ireland. In case you wanted to know, the most are in Berlin.

The next day in Rome, we kept up our impersination of a tourist. The Spokane contingent took the touristy business to the next level here:


Then it was back to the apartment to drop off the portait and pick up our passports as we were heading to another country:

Vatican City.

Inside Saint Peter’s Basilica:

From this point on you might notice a very large bump on Lexi’s forehead, no we did not drop her. She just learned the hard way not to do a header on the marble floor of Saint Peter's Cathedral.

The next day we got a guide to take us on a walking tour that Natalie Tobin recommended. She did this same tour one year and one day ago.

Lexi is either really happy here or Kate just pinched her and she is about to burst out in tears. Either way, good pictue:


Back to the Trevi fountain to throw the coin over the 'correct' shoulder:

We ended our walking tour at the Coliseum. It was a very clear night with a full moon. Nice evening for a stroll through the city.

When the baby has a #2, you have to change her. And sometimes you just have to make the place you are work. Besides, how many people can say they had their diapers changed in the shadows of the Coliseum?

Since I am holding her here, it is safe to assume that she is all cleaned up and again a happy baby:

Family portrait:

Here Lexi is entralled by 'cool Uncle Chris':

Some more Lexi pics:




Sadly, our Roma stay could not be indefinite. We are heading home, but before we leave I decided to impersonate a pregnant lady:

Another month or so of growth and the baby bjorn is going to no longer be a viable option for hauling her around.

Venice Post

My mom came to visit Galway, so we decided to go to Venice for a quick three night jaunt. The added bonus was that it was the beginning of Carnival. So the atmosphere was very festive in Venice.

The obligatory St. Mark’s Square photo, first thing we did when we got in:

Then we found this little bar with a jazz trio, very nice. I took a picture mainly to memorialize our good night there.


Day 2 in Venice, as you can see it was pretty rainy. The view from the upper level of Saint Mark’s square:



There were a lot of people dressed up, but we never really were able to ascertain where they were going. Their main purpose seemed to be taking pictures with tourists, of which I was one:


Typical Venice canal view:


Being one never to shy away from attention, Paty decided to dip her toe into the tourist experience and this is what happened:

I think the wine might have ‘encouraged’ her to wear the mask more.

The Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal at night:


Rialto Bridge during the day, this is the view from right in front of our hotel:

We caught a break in the weather so we picked up a bottle of wine and headed on our gondola ride. I know that this is the typical tourist thing and that it is way overpriced, but if you are ever in Venice this is something you NEED to do. It is unique and totally worth it.

While on the canal as part of the Carnival events, these guys were rowing vigorously through the canal.


In keeping with the spirit of Carnival these guys seemed like they were in a race or something, but they were just rowing vigorously with nowhere to go.

The weather held up, so we decided to cruise around the city more and just see the sights. This was the second full day of Canival, but the first nice weather.

So everyone was out and about all dressed up in their outfits with no where to go. Again it seemed as if posing for pictures and showing off was the order of the day.


This girl was standing on the fountain just posing and acting as if she was a Veniatin court courtesan:

Some people’s outfits were even more elaborate:

I had to get in on the action as well:

That one might be a candidate for my new wallparper.

As usual, some people liked to show off more than others:


We had to catch the flight back to Shannon in the evening, so we spent the day walking all over the city. We saw another church that was very imprssive just for the sheer size:


A masterpiece by some renaissance painter whose name escapes me:

Stopped for pizza with the Academy bridge in the background.


Before we left, Paty decided to feed the pigeons. Brave girl.



All done.

Let’s just say that these birds were a little more aggressive than Porfy! But their beaks were much less sharp.

All and all it was a great trip, we ended up with some good weather towards the end. We saw most of the sights. This was Paty and my second trip to Venice, but my mom’s first time. I hope she enjoyed it, I know we did.