Issue #17…
Surprise! We’re 42, not 41!
It was much like the final 30 minutes of an Indiana Jones movie. The clock said 3:45 p.m. Our tour company deemed it to be the last day to sign-up for the tour. The Arenzville post office closed at 4:15. The race was on. Andrew raced from his school at the U of I Springfield, his mother dashed in from Chapin. They met within minutes of an awaiting KB at Triopia who had the forms in his hand. She signed. He signed. KB took off for the post office and slam-dunked the parcel into Uncle Sam’s hands with a scant seven minutes remaining on the clock. The result?
Andrew Hill, age 21, an upperclassman at the U of I Springfield with a major in…I don’t know..accounting or something obtuse like that..the son of Jeffrey and Karol Hill of Chapin. Long, tall, and loves to write music, sing, dance, play basketball, and box.
Welcome aboard, Andrew! If the rest of your trip proves to be as exciting as your entry into this touring group of crazies, you’re in for quite a ride!
Travis and our newest traveler, Andrew Hill, in their performance of "The Knollwood Tales" As usual, Andrew's playing guitar and Travis hasn't shaved.
Some Hot Tips from Anne..
This from a friend of Anne Wildrick after she’d taken a similar trip to ours:
Limerick--We drove through on one trip and our driver showed us where Angela's Ashes story took place but it is now modern housing so there is really nothing to see. Otherwise, nothing spectacular.
Adare - Absolutely beautiful to see. We stopped at Adare Manor and had drinks.
Killarney - One of my favorite Irish towns. We stayed at the Killarney Park Hotel and could walk into the town and shop our brains out in the quaint little shops. Great pubs, too, like the Danny Mann and the Laurels.
The Ring of Kerry is beautiful in the summer with all the purple heather growing on the hillsides and the beautiful lakes. Definitely worth the trip around.
Cork has the great Central Market and good shopping in downtown.
Blarney - You can't go there and not kiss the Blarney Stone once. Make sure you pay the money at the bottom to have them take your picture doing it, then pick it up at the bottom. They do let you use your own camera to take pictures if you prefer. Hope you have time to go to the Blarney Woolen Mills close by because they have every Irish brand imaginable.
Waterford - If you see a piece of Waterford crystal that you like anywhere during your travels in Ireland, just get it because it is the same price no matter where you go in Ireland, even at the Waterford factory. This tour description doesn't mention getting a tour of the factory and actually watching them make crystal pieces, just going to the visitors' center but the tour is pretty good too.
Dublin - The morning tour hits pretty much all the typical sites and the Book of Kells at Trinity College is pretty interesting. But in the afternoon when you are on your own, skip all the museums and go to Grafton Street to shop. It is foot traffic only and during the summer all the shops are open and the street entertainment is unique.
Reminders….
May 1st is the deadline for contacting banker Keith if you want him to get you some foreign cash.
Please let Keith or I know if you’d like to avail yourself of the transport from the Jacksonville-Springfield area to St. Louis.
If you’ve not signed up for your optional excursions, here’s a friendly reminder to do so.
A “Short” Report from Keith:
“I went to travelsmith.com and got throw away socks and underwear. The underwear comes in 5 packs (the pack is about the size of a good sandwich). I wore them and they are not too bad. Will save lots of room in a suit case and they cost about a dollar apiece.”
Staying in Touch…
Some of you have asked about contacting each other. Here’s our list of email addresses. (Sorry if you didn’t want yours divulged, but they’ve been printed on all my group emailings anyway. This is just a more organized list:
| Bradbury, Kenneth | |||
| Love, Wendy | |||
| Nobis, Erich | |||
| Stephens, Hannah | |||
| Stephens, Nicholas |
Top of Form
| Bradbury, Douglas | |||
| Bradbury, Jennifer | |||
| Bradbury, Keith | |||
| Bradbury, Nancy | |||
| Burnham, Lola-Virge | 601 S. Main, Virginia, IL 62691 | ||
| Burrus, Adelle | |||
| Chipman, Janet | |||
| Chipman, Robert | |||
| Crawford, Ellen | |||
| Curry Jr, George | |||
| Deaver, Travis | |||
| Downs, Rhonda | |||
| Flynn, Bonnie | |||
| Hall, Judith | |||
| Henning, Karla | |||
| Hubner, Billie | |||
| Johnson, Judith | |||
| Johnson, Robert | |||
| Long, Janet | |||
| Nelson, Claudia | |||
| Nobis, June | |||
| Pham, Y Nhu | |||
| Ryder, Margaret | |||
| Ryder, William | |||
| Seiz, Mary Jo | |||
| Seymour, Mary E | |||
| Toler, Sharon | |||
| Vicari, Maryann | |||
| Vicari, Sandra | |||
| Vicari Sr, Stephen | |||
| Vinyard, Rhonda | |||
| Welsh, Margaret | |||
| Wildrick, Anne | |||
| Wildrick, Maurice | |||
| Winters, Tamra | |||
| Woodside, Joyce | |||
| Hill, Andrew | | | |
An Irish Saying:
If you want to know what God thinks of money, look who He gives it to.
A Bit More Monetary Info:
Reggie Toler, husband of Sharon, found this and passed it along:
Acceptance of Visa, MasterCard, and Eurocard is almost universal for retailing and most services, including supermarkets, accommodation, railways, restaurants, gas stations, department stores, payment of parking tickets, airport parking charges, etc. American Express and Diners Club cards are also accepted by some service establishments. Very few if any establishments accept The Discover Card.
Note: All EuroCard/MasterCard ATMs also accept Visa, Plus, and Eurocheque cards.
It is inadvisable to rely solely on a plastic card when travelling in any country. The risks include:
- Loss or theft of the card
- Corruption of the magnetic stripe rendering it un-machine readable
- ATM failure*
- Network failures affecting the authorization process
Beware when travelling anywhere that the Visa and MasterCard organizations and their member banks have a poor record in communicating and enforcing standards, and card rejection problems can arise with cards that work perfectly well "back home" - due for example, to manufacturing tolerance variations affecting readability of the magnetic stripe, security features, the use of PINs at point of sale, etc. The ideal is to bring at least two cards, (preferably issued by different banks - with one a Visa or Visa Plus and the other a MasterCard, Cirrus or AmEx), with some travellers cheques and/or cash for emergencies. Credit cards are slightly more reliable than debit cards because they can be used for over the counter (ie offline) cash advances at bank branches, whereas debit cards usually can only be used in ATMs. Over the counter cash advances often require additional identification (eg national ID card or passport) and frequently cost more than ATM withdrawals using the same plastic. Be sure to know your PINs!
*While the Dublin area is reasonably well served with ATMs, the same can't be said for smaller towns and villages where there may be at most one ATM in the locality.
Here’s the website…a good one:
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