Eliane in Ireland

After we met in Edinburgh, Eliane visited Dublin (without us), then flew to Cork. We picked her up and toured the Ring of Kerry. The next day we toured Dingle. The third day we toured Tralee, then drove to the airport in Cork and had a great lunch with her friend Aine, who had been at a conference in Brazil in August - what a small world. We loved meeting Aine. She then put Eliane on a plane to Liverpool to visit her much loved Beatle spots! On Dingle, we found a new (to us) very old church - there are quite a fewaround there! And, we loved the monk statue in Cahersiveen celebrating Kerry's win of the All Ireland Gaelic Football championship!

Edinburgh, Gustavo, Renata, and Eliane

We made a quick trip to Scotland in the middle of September. Edinburgh is beautiful and we'd like to spend more time there. However, our main purpose was to meet Gustavo, his mom Eliane (we have waited 14 years to meet - funny it would be in Scotland and Ireland!), and his new fiancee Renata. This part of the trip was a huge success - couldn't have been better. We love Renata and think she is a wonderful match for him. She is an attorney in Rio - he works in the Bank of Brazil - a real "power couple"! Our meeting with Eliane was wonderful - she is a great lady and we had a lot of fun, both in Edinburgh and in Kerry when she came to visit us a few days later. So, here are pictures of the group mostly, a few of the beautiful city - very old and very dramatic with a castle on a hill. On the last day they all left early and we stayed, planning to visit the castle. Well, we did not find it, which seems impossible when it is such a dominant part of the landscape! We actually found it - from every side, we just didn't find the entrance until it was too late to do the tour. We didn't really mind as we had a great walk, saw some beautiful scenery, and enjoyed a wonderful open air market with a bagpipe band! Other highlights - Dana and I pictured with Bobby -the statue of a dog who attended his owner's grave for 14 years -of course, a story we love. We ate in his pub - which is also where the picture of the 4 of us is taken. Another find - at the Royal Botanic Gardens, which were very nice in their own right, was a great exhibit called "Hard Rain Falling". It is photographs displayed outdoors to go with all the verses of Bob Dylan's song - it was very sobering! We have a book of all the pictures for you to look at when you visit. The picture here is of the "hope tree", which I found a great way to end that very heavy exhibit. I also like my picture with John Knox - for you Presbyterians out there!




Here you see the pictures of the "group" - Gustavo, Renata, and Eliane. Dana took a bunch of shots of the happy couple - hopefully for a good engagement photo!