An Enjoyable and Memorable 1 Day Tour Around Dublin and Belfast Area

Of our seven day stay in Dublin, the most memorable time we had was taking the 1 day tour to three famous places around Dublin and the Belfast area. We went and bought our tour tickets at a downtown travel agency a couple of days ago. On the morning of the tour, we took an Uber ( our Canadian Uber app worked in Ireland!) shortly after 6 am and arrived at the Molly Malone statue on Suffolk Street in downtown Dublin.There were about twenty passengers; we got on a tour bus and off we went.

This was a whole day trip with the first stop at the Dark Hedges, aslo known as 'The King's Road for those who are familiar with the Game of Thorn show. This road was lined with 150 huge beech trees planted in the 18th century. After many years, the trees have grown big arching over the road. The day we visited this famous place, it was raining a bit, foggy and misty. It added a feeling of mystery to the place. We had to hurry in order not to get soaking wet. But it was beautiful; we felt as if we were in a medieval forest!

The second stop was the Giants' Causeway - It was made a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1986, Northern Ireland's most famous site. Since the tour bus could not drive us close to the causeway, we were dropped off at the parking lot close to the causeway's restaurant. From there we took a 30 minute walk to see this famous Giant Causeway. For those with mobility issues, they could purchase tickets and ride on the tram.

The Causeway was made from over 40,000 basalt columns during a volcanic eruption some 60 million years ago and regarded as one of the world's most prized natural treasures. According to local legend - this causeway was the remains of a bridge built between Ireland and Scotland by a mythical hunter/warrior Finn McCool. Interesting!

The most exciting part of the day for me was visiting the Titiantic Museum in Belfast. The Titiantic Museum was built to the same height as the ship itself. At the entrance, our tour guide gave us each a White Star Boarding ticket - the one the Titantic passengers received for the boarding of the ship. How cool was that. Once inside the museum, we looked out to the dock and got a sense of how tall the ship was. We took a self guided audio tour and walked through nine interactive galleries where we were introduced to the people and the city that made the Titantic. The most interesting interactive gallery was riding in a cable car taking us through the process of how the Titiantic was made in the factory.

We experienced the hammering and engine sounds, the sights, the smell, and heard the stories of the making of the Titantic and saw the tremendous craftsmanship and skills in building this gigantic vessel. However, we spent too much time on the first few galleries learning about the history and the life and the people of Belfast.

By the time we got to the Titiantic ship itself, we had to hurry and skimped through many interesting exhibits and artifacts quickly.

However, we did see displays on the interior decor of the Titantic and the opulance of the first class cabin and the dining room. It was realistic and awesome! I wished we could have a couple more hours at the museum to explore and learn more about this famous ship.

It was a totally enjoyable day trip. I don't thnk we could have seen so much on our own had we rented a car and driven ourselves. It was one of the best one day tour in a strange city for me. 2 thunmbs up for this tour! RT Dublin, Ireland 062024

The chq Building - Our Most Visited Place in Dublin, Ireland on Our Vacation

Our accommodation in Dublin, Ireland, was located in an apartment along the waterfront in Dublin. We just finished a mission trip in Germany and we needed to come back down to earth and spent the time in Dublin to relax.

Desiring to be close to everything, we booked a room on the waterfront within walking distance to many attractions and the downtown core. Our host advised us to stay away from certain rough areas in Dublin, therefore, we stayed mainly around the downtown tourist area during our stay in Dublin. Enjoying our walk to various attractions, each morning we strolled along River Liffey bypassing many modern and famous buildings located on both sides of the river.

One of these buildings we passed by was the Central Bank of Ireland where we visited an interesting exhibit about the history of banking and coinage in Ireland. It was free admission, courtesy of the Central Bank of Ireland.

One of the places situated along River Liffey we visited most often was the chq Building - ( Custom House Quay) building. It was built as a warehouse in 1820 to store large and valuable goods such as tobacco, tea and spirits. An interesting fact about the chq building - no wood was used in the construction of the building to ensure that it was absolutely fireproof. The chq buildind was made famous by hosting the Crimean War Banquet in 1856 recognizing the contributions of the Irish soldiers. But finding a venue big enought to hold a huge banquet was a problem until Henry Scovell suggested using his bonding warehouse at the Custom House Docks which had the capacity to accommodate 3000 soldiers. A great party took place on Oct. 22, 1856 offering a thousand welcome to the heroes of the Crimea!

The chq building has been renovated and modernized. Today it is an airy, bright, spacious welcoming building with an unusally huge eating area for visitors. We liked the ambience of the place - an abundance of available seats and a variety of food choices offered by the restaurants there.

Finding available seats easily whenever visiting there, we made ourselves comfortable sipping on our coffee, enjoying a delicious meal and immersing in whatever we were reading or doing at the moment. S. bought his book to read while I was afforded the opportunities to catch up on my blogging. Unlike being in a restaurant where serving staff would come up regularly asking if we needed this or that, there was nobody bothering us regardless of the length of our stay. I liked the chq building a lot as it was my retreat from the busy streets of the tourist area, an oasis to where I could relax and concentrate on my writing. It was perfect for us!

The chq Building also houses the EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum where one could learn about the devastating famine resulting in the emigration of millions of its people to North America. With a multitude of shops, interesting restaurants, creative work space and plenty of seating available to visitors, the chq is one of our most favourite places to visit in Dublin; we highly recommend it to travellers visiting Dublin if you are looking for a place to unwind, relax, read or write! RT, chq Building Dublin, Ireland 062024

An Aweful Experience with Air B&B in Dublin, Ireland

After leaving Germany, we flew to Ireland. Unfortunately, we had a frustrating and frightening experience with the Air B & B which we had booked online a few days ago prior to our arrival. We boarded our flight from Berlin and arrived in Dublin around 11:30pm on a Saturday night.

After we landed in Dublin, we took a taxi- K1579, and arrived at the AirB&B place as per the address confirmed by an email sent to us by the company. Standing outside the apartment building, we pressed the button for Apartment 24. After a few rings, someone answered our call. After he heard that we were looking for an Air B&B, he answered abruptly informing us that his apartment was Apartment #24 but it was not an AB&B. We then told him that that was the information we had received showing that Apt. 24 as an ABNB, then he hung up on us. We were confused fearing that this could be a fraud - someone took our AB&B fees but did not provide us with a place to stay. The time was then past midnight. We could not gain access to the inside of the building. Standing outside the apartment without any shelter and shivering in the cold, we were cold, exhausted, anxious and helpless in a foreign country. To add to this stress of having no place to sleep for the night, my husband just lost his cell phone during our travel. I had my cell phone but landing late in the airport, we were unable to purchase a local SIM card . Therefore, we had no data nor could we use my cell phone to call anywhere. It was a frightening experience for us being alone in the middle of the night in a secluded area where no one could hear our cries for help should some nutcase come, rob or attack us.

Without a cell phone, we were unable to call a cab or Uber, we were nervous as we were not sure what to do next without a tool for finding a hotel for the night as it was almost 1 a.m. Fortunately, a lady resident of the apartment building happened to be going into the building and she was kind enough to let us go inside, out of the cold. She even went with us to Apt. 24 and knocked on the door for about 10 minutes. There was no response. No one answered the door bell. We believed that the resident inside must be sick of our attempts to enter his unit. We thought we had been scammed by someone using the AB&B APP. This kind lady took pity on us, an elderly couple from Canada. Using her own cell phone, she made numerous calls trying to find a hotel for us. The hotels were quite full and the only room she could find was the Gibson Hotel which cost 300 Euros (Can.$ 450.00 )that night. We had no choice but accepted it. She also called a cab to take us there. Because of the kindness of a stranger, we didn’t have to spend our first night on the street of Dublin. We were totally exhausted from this ordeal.

The next morning, we did try to message the host from AirB&B's page, but we kept getting an OOPS message. Since our phone was a Canadian phone, we were unable to contact with the host. Finally, We used the local phone from the hotel and made a call to the AirB&B host. It was then we found out that the apartment number should be 6 instead of 24! Finally we knew what the problem was. Had we been unable to connect with the host, we would have called the Dublin police to report this as a fraud case.

Our Germany Mission Trip Came to an End!

We spent our last evening in Berlin at an apprecaition dinner thanking you our host and her family for looking after us and accommating our team in her son's apartment while we were in Berlin. We enjoyed a nice meal at a typical German restaurant and shared a good time together.

Sometimes we would ask ourselves this question - Is it really worth to spend the time and our own money going on mission trips when there seems to be little immediate results from these trips. Looking back, I feel that we often can gain a lot of experience and learn much from these trips. Though I was in Germany before, for our German mission trip this time, there were still many first for me in Germany, namely:

1. Teaming up with Rev. Jonathan, our senior minister from our Toronto church 2. A Mission trip to a European country

3. A Mission trip stay in an Air B&Bs 4. A Mission trip to a Mandarin speaking congregation 5. Flying with Aerlingus

Travelling with a team and sharing living space with four different people required some getting used to and adjustment. We all have our quirky habits but when we shared sleeping quarter with another person for about two weeks, it could put our patience and tolerance to the test.

With God’s grace, we were able to work things out and grow spiritually with our teammates. Meeting new people, sharing genuine fellowship and serving with the local brothers and sisters to spread God’s word were the best part of our German mission trip! I pray and hope that the little bit we did at the church in Berlin and the groups in the other small towns have helped and encouraged our brothers and sisters in their walk in the Lord. I truly thank God for the opportunities to serve Him and His people in Germany! RT, Berlin, Germany 062024

Visiting the Must See Places in Prague in A Day and Half

Since we were in Berlin, it was not difficult at all for us to visit Prague. The distance is about 350 KM from Berlin to Prague, about five hours by train. Since three members of our team never visited Prague, we decided to go there for a couple of days. We were initially upset by the loss of my husband's wallet but we were greatly relieved after making all these phone calls to prevent any frauds or anything being stolen from potentail thieves.

We could still enjoy ourselves in Prague - the capital city of the Czech Republic. Since we only had a day and half in Prague, we acted as tour guides for our friends and made accommodation booking for them as well. We were in Prague for about a week in the summer of 2018 and we had a great time travelling with our son. There were a number of places where we enjoyed visiting. Charles Bridge, the Palace, Prague Castle, the Town Square were a must see for us. Therefore, we took our friends there and they had a blast as this was their first time visiting Prague.

We went to many bridges in different cities, and Charles Bridge was one my favourites. There are many statues mounted on both sides of the bridge. To be exact, there are thirty of them and each one tells a different story of a saint or special person. Besides busy looking at these statues, we were also looking at all the vendors selling arts, hand made jewellery, artwork and enjoying street musicians playing their music on the bridge. It definitely was a lively and vibrant place!

The Town Square is only a short walk away from the Charles Bridge. The last time we were there, we saw many young people sitting in groups on the floor chatting away, discussing arts, politics and other topics. I was captivated by the energy and enthusiam in the square at the time. But this time, we didn't see any of that. It could be we were there at a different time?

From our hotel, it was about a 15 - 20 minute leisure walk to the Prague Castle - the historical seat of the Czech kings, and the current seat of the President of the Czech Republic . It was worth the visit with many interesting and grand buildings to visit.

One of the things we did was climbing to the top of the south tower at the st. Vitus Catedral and catching a bird's eye view of the entire castle complex. Amazing view and an excellent exercise climbing the 287 steps! Love learning about the history and the legends about the Czech Castle! RT, Prague, Czech Republic 062024

What to do After Losing Your Cell Phone While Travelling in a Foreign Country?

We have been travelling in Germany for the past week. We travelled from Berlin to Prague via the fast train. As soon we got off the train and walked into the Prague station, I saw the panic and fear in my husband's eyes as he realized that he lost his cell. He was in a panic mode as he had so much infomration on his phone and we were in a non English speaking country.

The following was what we did and I hope that this will help our readers in the future should he/she lose a cell phone while travelling. 1. Go and report to the Lost and Found office close by - My husband and Ken went to report it to the Prague train station's Lost and Found office. But it was around lunch time, the office was closed. We thought we would go back when it reopened later.

. 2. Find a quiet place to figure out what are the most important calls you will need to make and important things you need to do. Since we were at the Prague station, there were thousands of travellers passing by each day and it was extremely busy and noisy.

We found a quiet spot, calmed ourselves down and figured out we needed to make some important calls to stop potential thieves from stealing money and important data from our cell phone.

3. Call your banking institutions - Roaming is expensive while travelling. Often when we do make calls from overseas on our cells, we will be put on hold for a long time. Therefore you need to figure out which calls are the most important to call first.

The first thing we did was calling our banks in Canada and reporting the loss to them. The bank personnel informed us that they would block the bank app so that no one could access our bank accounts from the app. registered on our cell phone. That was a big relief once when we were sure that no one could access our bank accounts even if they picked up our cell phone.

4. Call your credit card company - Since S. has been using a number of apps connected with payments from his credit card on his phone, the next call was to the credit card company. After calling the credit card company, we were put on hold for a long time. But this call must be done so that whoever picked up our phone could not order anything or make any purchases from our cell phone apps. The Credit Card personnel informed us that they would lock our card number so that it could not be used any further. We didn't want to report the card as stolen as a new card would be sent to us. Since we were travelling and didn't want the new card to arrive at our house in our absence, locking the credit card number was a good option for us.

5. Stop someone from stealing information from your cell phone – My husband uses a few social media apps to communicate with family, friends, relatives . In these exchanges, there might be some important personal info, therefore, we requested that these apps and info be deleted from the lost cell phone. Our service provider assured us that they would lock our phone and prevent anyone accessing any information in it.

After we made these calls, we were relieved knowing that our banking, credit card and personal info would be secured and not to be fallen into the hands of any stranger happened to have found our cell phone.

We were also blessed as we were travelling with our friends and one of whom with a cell phone plan called Roam Like Home. This plan allowed him to call anywhere in the world as if he were calling from home in Canada. We borrowed his phone and were able to make all these calls quickly without costing us an arm and leg paying for roaming charges. Again, we saw God’s grace in an unpleasant situation where He still looked after us. RT Prague, Czech Republic 06062024

Wartburg Castle, Germany - Martin Luther's Hiding Place Where He Translated the Bible

We stayed at an Air B&Bfor two nights. Our team of five took turn turn sharing a devotional passage each morning on this trip. Today was Yans turn to share. After his sharing, we had breakfast at around 830a.m., at another neighbourhiod cafe. On our second day visiting the Erfurt/ Eisenach area, we visited the Wartburg Castle - the second most visited tourist attraction in the state of Thuringia after Weimar. From Eisenach, it didn't take us too long by train and a bus to reach the Wartburg Castle.

Wartburg Castle is situated on a steep hill. After getting off the bus, we needed to climb a few stairs to reach the castle. While the rest of our teammates were able to climb up the stairs without any problem, Ken and I felt the strain half way up and we had to stop and rest in order to catch our breath. If a senior is visiting Wartbury Castle, he/she will need to pace themselves for the stairs here as we found it a bit challenging for us.

The Castle, orginially built in the Middle Ages in the 12th century, is an excellent monument of the feudal period in central Europe. Because of its beautiful medieval architecture, historical and religious significance, the Wartburg Castle was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999.

However, the Castle is known all over the world because of one famous short term resident- Martin Luther who was hiding from religious prosecution and was sheltered by Frederick III of Saxony there from May 1521 to March 1522. It was during this period of exile at the castle where Luther began his German translation of the original Greek New Testament. Hence, the world knows of the Wartburg Castle as the very place where Martin Luther translated the New Testament Bible into German.

Our itinernary was tight and fully packed on this German trip. We wish we had more time at Wartburg Castle allowing us to take the tour inside this famous place. Unfortunately, we only had an hour there. We admired the scenery outside the castle buildings and its surrounding environment imagining what life was like during the 12the century. We were happy that we learned some important church history at Wartburg and visited the place where Martin Luther translated the bible into German! How interesting was that! RT Wartburg Castle, Germany