Funny Signs

Driving (traveling) in a foreign country is always pretty interesting, but these signs made for a few laughs.

Who needs a GPS when you have all these signs to guide you?

Not really funny, but just really nice.

We saw tons of these cow crossing signs, and several crossing signs for sheep

I wouldn't want to live on this street in St. Andrews (sorry, immature, I know...)

This refers to buying a parking ticket for a parking lot, but it sounded funny to me.

From St. Andrews Golf Course

One of the hundreds of roundabout signs we saw. This was one of the first ones we encountered when we were still confused by them. We literally probably only saw 5 "Stop" signs the whole trip.

So, I guess this one isn't funny either, but it was interesting. This is displayed several times near the Cliffs of Moher.

Brady's Book Review - Freight Train

Brady loves pretty much any book...but Freight Train by Donald Crews is his new favorite. He pretty much knows it verbatim. We actually checked it out from the American Women's Club library a few months ago, and then rechecked it out the week before we went on vacation. While I was perusing the travel book section, he started reading it in the library. Here is his take on the book. (Sorry for the choppy edit job...I haven't completely figured out IMovie yet.)

What's on Brady's IPOD

In the spirit of other "famous" people who have made public what's on their IPOD, we thought we'd list some of the songs on Brady's playlist. Now, not to be mistaken, Brady has several playlists, but most of these include Baby Einstein songs (from when we played music for Brady at nighttime) or Music Together kids songs. The listing below is from Brady's first playlist of "real" songs. (The word "real" is used loosely here as you will probably think some of the below don't warrant the word.)

1. Old Time Rock and Roll - Bob Seger
I've blogged about this one in the past. Brady refers to this as "Wok and Roll". It was added to his playlist one day after naptime. When I went to get Brady up from his nap, he was wearing his nice white/nautical sweater he got for Christmas, but no pants. The way the sweater collar was up around his neck and coupled with the diaper/no pants/white socks look he had going onreminded me of Tom Cruise in Risky Business. You can probably figure out the rest. I started singing that song and he's loved it ever since.

2. Real Gone - Sheryl Crow
The first song in the Disney Cars movie. Brady loves this movie and loves the songs too. Mom and Dad love how Brady says, "Weer Gone".

3. 1, 2, 3, 4 - Feist
(See the blog post with the same name for explanation)

4. The Locomotion - Little Ava
I started singing this one day when Brady had played with his trains all afternoon and it (unfortunately) got stuck in both of our heads. I downloaded this from ITunes for Brady's playlist soon after.

5. Life is a Highway - Rascal Flatts
Also from the Cars movie

6. Take a Chance on Me - ABBA
Again, unfortunately, I had this song stuck in my head one day and was singing it. Brady loved it and now loves the song.

7. Golden Girls Theme Song - ???
This one is embarrassing. Bea Arthur died a few months back and I saw some synopsis of her life on the web that included the theme song. I got it stuck in my head and yet again, Brady liked it. He actually requests it by saying, "Mommy, Thank You". He even knows part of the lyrics. I actually found this on ITunes and downloaded it for him.

Lesson learned: I need to refrain from singing annoying songs that are stuck in my head. The upside is that Brady catches on to songs very easily and loves singing. So, we have some fun...even if they are annoying. We played in Playlist on the driving parts of our trip many, many, many times!

Travelling Europe - Coyle Style

We have returned from our 9 day Scottish/Irish adventure and will be posting lots of stuff over the next few days. We had a great time and really loved everywhere that we visited. We (Bill) did lots of driving (probably trying to fit a little too much into our 9 days). But we can't really decide on which place we wouldn't have nixed if we had to do it over again. Below is a map of the places we visited.


View Scottish/Irish Travels in a larger map

We started off in Scotland and then took a ferry from Stranraer, Scotland to Belfast, Ireland. These ferries are awesome. For those of you who are interested, this was a wonderful way to travel. The ferries are HUGE (holding tractor trailers and buses as well as passenger cars). We used the Stena Line. The passenger part of the ferry was wonderful and even housed shopping and a nail salon. After driving around Ireland, we flew back to Zurich via Dublin.

We do plan to make a long weekend trip back to Killarney because we LOVED it and because we didn't get to visit a lot of the places we wanted. And we loved the hotel we stayed in while there.

Bill did a wonderful job of driving on the "wrong" side - apart from one curb hit, a few choice words during the first few roundabouts and the tiny Irish/Scottish roads.

However, as we were driving along one day while Brady napped, we came up with a few observations of how we travel. We've traveled enough with a small child to know that we have a bit of a routine down.

Here are some that we have found to be true for the Coyles (especially when traveling with Brady):

Coyle Travel Tip #1: City Tour Times = 50% x Travel Guide Stated Time.
We don't like cities and tend to breeze through the sites. With a stroller we are usually stuck walking around - not using public transportation, which also limits how much we can/want to see. Oddly enough, afterwards, we are usually completely happy with the amount of time we spent in a particular town.

Coyle Travel Tip #2: Playground Tourism Times = 400% x Travel Guide Stated Times
We even have found playgrounds not mentioned by the likes of Rick Steves, Fodors or other illustrious travel guides.

Coyle Travel Tip #3: Child ACTUAL snack requirements = 350% x ASSUMED requirements
I CANNOT believe how many puffs/cookies/apple sauces/goldfish crackers/craisins Brady ate while on this trip.

Coyle Travel Tip #4: Read the synopsis of a historical site AFTER seeing it.
This tends to be how we roll in the Coyle household. Not sure why. This creates a situation where we know something is historical significant when we see it, but don't know why until later.

Coyle Travel Tip #5 - Arrive WAY early for everything.
No one could ever accuse us of being late, but we have the opposite problem of constantly arriving too early. We habitually seem to arrive 2.5 hours early for flights, ferries, etc. We were the first folks who were waiting to get on the ferry in Scotland. We were in line at Edinburgh Castle before it opened. The list goes on...

Coyle Travel Tip #6 - Scope out airports/ferries/rental car returns the night before.
Yes, we are nerds, but we are prepared nerds. See also Coyle Travel Tip #5.

Coyle Travel Tip #7: When arriving to a new European locale, immediately seek out Mexican or Indian food establishments.
Because we don't have a good selection of Mexican or Indian food in Zurich, we seem to habit these spots often in other European cities. We've hit up Mexican food places in London, Prague (it was excellent!), and now Edinburgh. We also had some of the best Indian food ever in Galway.

Anyway, our travels are always a bit crazy, but fun. Hope you enjoy the next few posts.

1, 2, 3 ,4

Thanks to Brady's fascination with trains, he has easily learned his numbers. All trams here in Zurich have their numbers posted very clearly on the front and sides of the trams. The trams in Zurich are numbered 2 through 15 (with the exception of the number 12...not sure why it's omitted). One of Brady's favorite past times is yelling the number of the tram and which direction it's going ("other direction" or "right direction"). He now can tell these numbers when not associated with trams. It's pretty cool! And thanks to Feist's song "1,2,3,4", he's even started counting and putting it all together. Amazing!

(Photo taken from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2005_zurich_tram_cobra.jpg)

Irony

The above sign means that the speed limit is no longer restricted to 100 km/hr. You are now allowed to go 120 km/hr (Swiss autobahn) or unlimited km/hr (German autobahn). Unfortunately at the time of the photo, we were going 0 km/hr.

Random Swiss Times - The Catch Up Post

So, I've had every intention of doing tons of posts about every little event or weekend escapade that we have attended while here in Switzerland. (And we really strive to do something every weekend!) I also like to scrapbook events. I'm pretty much double dipping on the family memories and not doing a great job with either medium. So, in order to feel "caught up", I thought I would post some cool photos from some of our smaller jaunts around the country. And I plan to keep the commentary light. Enjoy!

Zug Day Trip

April 14th, 2009 - Took a quick mini tour of old town Zug and ate lunch along Zug See

Island Mainau

May 17th, 2009 - Trip to Island Mainau (in Lake Constance - border between Switzerland and Germany)

Island Mainau is an island that has been turned into a botanical garden. We enjoyed a nice picnic and stroll around the gardens, concluding our visit with popsicles!

Ballenburg Open Air Museum

May 30, 2009: Ballenburg, Switzerland

This is a museum that homes actual historical buildings from various parts of Switzerland that were dismantled and reassembled here. The museum also boasts handworks (like linseed milling, weaving, etc.) that have been done historically in various parts of Switzerland. This was a really cool museum and a fun hike. The museum is located in the Berner Oberland, which claims to be one of the most beautiful areas in Switzerland.



While touring the Ballenberg Museum, we stayed in a small town called, Meiringen, which is "famous" because it's waterfall is mentioned in one of the Sherlock Holmes stories. We stayed in the Sherlock Holmes Inn (as was evidenced by the carpet). And we also came across the Guinness Book holder for largest cowbell. We want more cowbell!!!!

Bern, Switzerland

May 31, 2009 - Bern Visit

On our way back from Ballenberg, we stopped in Bern. This town is actually the capital of Switzerland. Bern is named for “Baeren” or bears. Apparently the man who founded Bern said he would name the town after the next animal he hunted...hence Bern. The town actually has a bear pit where bears usually are living - although during our visit they were held somewhere else. They are in the process of building a new bear pit. This city was beautiful and we enjoyed a beautiful day outside, walking around.

The Bundeshaus - Capitol Building of Switzerland (Flags denote that it is in session.)

Playground hiatus

Ye Olde Bearpits

Berner Oberland 4-Wheel Excursion

June 11th, 2009 - Rebecca participated in an American Women's Club excursion to the Berner Oberland where the group drove 4-wheelers into the mountains. (After trekking through Interlaken streets). I was not brave enough to drive, but had fun taking in the countryside. We were serenaded with Alphorns at lunch and even had the chance to experiment. (I am even including the embarrassing photographic proof!)

My attempt to play the alphorn ended in failure!

Let's leave the playing to the professionals!


Rapperswil Day Trip

July 5th, 2009 - We took a quick trip down Lake Zurich to the town of Rapperswil. We enjoyed touring the old castle (built in the 1200's!) and walking along the lake. It was fun day out!

Brunch Ship - Lake Zurich

July 26th, 2009

We've wanted to try this brunch boat for some and finally made reservations. And we had a wonderful Zurich weather day to accompany us on our voyage. We departed from the dock in Zurich at 11:00 and enjoyed a 2 hour buffet brunch which included eggs, ham, various breads, cheeses, hams and cereals. It was lovely way to take in brunch, while getting beautiful views of Zurich and its suburbs!