My Journey to the Fields of Athenry with Patsy

About the Book

Our Story ends as the Canada 3000 plane lifted off the runway at Gatwick and I sat back for the nine-hour flight home and thought about the past thirty days in Europe. What wonders we had seen what wonderful people we had met and what grand adventures we had enjoyed. We have, in this book, attempted to share some of those adventures with you.

I have added some historic and cultural information to the story after we returned home because I wanted the book to be more than just another, they saw this tourist attraction and ate this meal at this restaurant chronicle. And I think the book is more than just another “travel book.”

While the work did start out to be a diary of our trip, it took on a life of its own once I started to write it. I was compelled to search out the stories we touched on – like the story of William Wallace and the fate of Anne Boleyn. I researched the history of the Athenry Castle and the Tower of London and added some interesting facts about the Eiffel Tower to our story.

Did you know, for instance, that the Eiffel Tower was originally intended to be a temporary structure? It was.

Did you know that all the statues in Dublin are given rhyming nicknames? They are.

Did you know that the tune, It’s A Long Way To Tipperary” was not written about the town in Ireland? It wasn’t!

With me forever are the memories of our walk through the heather in Buchholz, the lessons about the gentle Heidschnucken, the Buchholz Market Square on Saturday and the delicious sausages we ate with our fingers.

Of course, I will never forget the weeklong trip through Germany with Dieter. My high speed drive on the autobahn, the wine in Rüdesheim, the ancient, walled city of Rothenburg and the freshly squeezed apple juice in the town square, are all the other delicious memories now, forever planted in the library of my mind.

My visit to the Museum of Criminal Justice, where I saw any number of horrible torture devices, which had been used on people in the middle ages, was chilling. Ever spend any time in an Iron Maiden? Those that did never were the same.

In the city of Berlin we stayed at the Hotel California (I’m not kidding). I loved the irony of staying in a hotel in Berlin, named for the state where I was born, but I suspect the hotel was named, not for the state of California, but for the classic song by The Eagles. You do remember the last lyrics of that song, don’t you?

Welcome to the Hotel California,

where you can check out anytime you like,

but you can never leave.

I would check into the Hotel California, but before our visit was over I knew I would never completely check out of the City of Berlin.

In a square near our hotel is the bombed out remains of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedaechtnis-Kirche (Emperor Wilhelm Rememberance Church).

The once magnificent church was built in a Neo-Romantic style between 1891-1895 in memory of Emperor Wilhelm, I. All that remains of the once magnificent five-spire church is a portion of the main steeple and a large section of what once was the main section of the original church. The uppermost portion of the towering steeple is missing, blown off when the church was destroyed during a bombing raid in 1944. The church is now preserved as a monument to the destructive forces of war, complete with bullet holes and bomb damage. It is a chilling sight the first time you see this monument.

As I stood there looking at that overwhelming ruin, I tried to imagine how I might have felt in 1944 had I been an eight-year-old citizen of Berlin and not an eight-year-old kid living in southern California.

It is also a chilling sight to visit Checkpoint Charlie and the Museum there. I stood on the very spot where President John F. Kennedy dramatically said, on June 26, 1963, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” (I am a Berliner)

I will always remember my turn as an organ grinder at the Niederwald Monument, the two Swedish ladies in Drosselgasse at the Lindenwirt Restaurant and

About the Author

Patrick Nolan devoted thirty-five years of his life to the broadcasting and advertising industries in Los Angeles, Boston, Honolulu and Reno. Patrick previously published, “Against the Odds, the true story of Michele a cancer survivor,” which he wrote with his wife and daughter. He published “My Journey to the Fields of Athenry with Patsy.” – Xlibris, 2001. Patrick lives and loves with Patsy, his partner for forty-two years, in Langley, Washington where he golfs, cooks, writes and takes award winning photographs. He has four adult children and five granddaughters. His granddaughters are, in chronological order: Alicia, Lillian, Crystal, Laura and Hannah.