“Angela’s Ashes”, Cliffs of Moher, Portal Tomb (Ireland, April 11-12: Limerick to Dublin)

We had driven to Limerick the night before, so after a good night’s sleep, we walked into town. Some of the things we did:

• Visited the Frank McCourt Museum. Maybe you’ve heard of the novel “Angela’s Ashes” that was made into a film about 10 years ago. This is Frank McCourt’s childhood memoir of growing up in Limerick in the ‘30s, and it details the difficult times that his family (and Ireland in general) was going through. Before leaving for Ireland, E, P, Tiny, and I watched Angela’s Ashes together, so it was so cool to be able to see some of the actual locations depicted in the film. The museum was only opened in the last couple of years, and is located in the old school Frank attended. We had a terrific guide who basically gave us a personalized tour because we arrived in a quiet moment.

Click to enlarge! (Photo: E)

The real coats that were used in the film.

The classroom.

School register.

Original floorboards.

E at the teacher's desk!

• Stopped by an old-fashioned candy shop…with some very SOUR candies! Tiny’s brother M, a lover of all things sour, thought they weren’t too bad, but I think the rest of us lost all feeling in our taste buds after that!

•  Walked by the river and took lots of group shots. Wonderful sunny day!

 

 

See the rainbow?!

 

Take away the bridge, and you can imagine she's carrying them both! ;-)

• Visited a church with lovely flowering trees. The graveyard had some beautifully carved headstones, many with Celtic interlacing knotwork.

 

 

On returning to our hotel, I was going to ask where we could pick up adapters (we needed an extra one to charge all our electronics ;-). However, as we passed the vending machine, our problem was miraculously solved! Tucked into the left-hand corner were two rows of them, at a very reasonable price!!! Amazing!

Incredible! (Also note the presence
of both Pepsi AND Coke in the same machine...!)

Our elaborate international setup...;-)

April 12^th

The next day, we did more driving:

• The Cliffs of Moher – Ever wonder where the end scene of “Leap Year” was filmed? Or Harry Potter #6, where Dumbledore and Harry take a boat to the caves and meet the zombie creatures? Well, this is it! Needless to say, we couldn’t keep our hands off our cameras…:-D

E & A.

 

Harry Potter cave? ;-)

• Kilfenora Cathedral – Though the smallest diocese in medieval Ireland (a diocese is a district with its own bishop) Kilfenora is the site of a number of 12^th century “High Crosses.” They still show great detail and can be found inside the cathedral.

Victorian crosses outside.

One of the High Crosses (12th cent).

 

With A in the cathedral.

 

• Poulnabrone Portal Tomb – This tomb is over 5,000 years old and is found in the Burren, an unusual region between Galway and Limerick. The landscape is a limestone plateau, where water has eroded away the rock to create interesting hollows and ridges. The remains of over 30 people have been found at the site.

 

 We thought we’d stop in Galway for dinner, but as we came in, we noticed a LOT of cars all backed up. Not wanting to get caught in the traffic jam, we decided we’d start driving to Dublin then and have dinner in a smaller town. It turns out that we stopped at a Chinese restaurant – the town we picked had a very small main street and not a whole lot of places were open! But our drive to Dublin was pretty smooth, and we managed to find our hostel with little hassle! Bravo to P, for driving in the city on the “wrong” side of the road! ;-)

Climate Change, Moussaka, and "Little Dorrit"

While I'm taking a break from my time-devouring Ireland blog posts (seriously, it takes hours to go through all the photos!), I thought I'd let you know how my regular, non-travel life is going. :-)

This week and last were work weeks. Back to school, back to studying. I'm working on a paper proposal for a philosophy class on the morality of climate politics. Should we pursue large-scale climate mitigation policies, but transfer the cost to future generations? The whole subject can get a little thorny when you try to reconcile rights that living generations have with the rights of future people. Thoughts?

I got into the geo-lab last week and did some work on digitizing a topo map. A Russian map of Turkish terrain. Don't ask me why. But it's really exciting to be back working with ArcGIS again!

On Saturday, E, P, and I checked out a Greek restaurant. I got Moussaka, an eggplant casserole that was SO delicious. But the portion was too generous for my stomach...;-)

Over the weekend, I compulsively watched the "Little Dorrit" miniseries armed with pomegranate and chocolate. (But not together. Though I'm sure Zotter could whip up a delectable combination. :-) The BBC sure knows how to take complete control of your life for a few days..."Pride and Prejudice", anyone? :D

Orchestra Monday (Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky!), Pub Quiz Tuesday. Full day of classes tomorrow, but on Thursday, I'm taking a back-stage tour of the opera house!

“Between salt water and the sea strand…” (Ireland, April 10: Dingle Peninsula)

We decided to visit more of the coast by exploring the Dingle Peninsula. The westernmost end is a “Gaeltacht” – an area where Irish is the predominant language. According to our host, many children come to be tutored in Gaelic here. (Click pictures to enlarge.)

On our way out of the Killarney area, we stopped to see a group of standing stones engraved with Ogham – a form of writing consisting of lines and strokes which was present in Ireland when Christianity came in the 5^th century. Each stone has a name inscribed on it, and may have been used as a grave marker.

 

Our next stop was Inch Strand. A “strand” is a beach, which soon became pretty clear to all our native German speakers, because it’s the same word in German! It’s a pretty long beach, and some people even drove their cars out to park on the sand! When we arrived it was raining sporadically, but by the time we got out, the clouds had rolled back and we actually got a bit of sun. 

 

 

 

P was the first to take off his socks and shoes, and Tiny was quick to follow. After getting lots of shots of the two of them running into the water, I figured it was time to get my feet wet too. J The water was so much warmer than I expected! (We found out later that it was an inlet.) A and I then started hunting for shells, and found quite a few with a lovely dark blue colour. Oyster shells?

 "Hold this!"

Tiny preparing to enter the icy April water...

"Hey, not so bad!"

"Race ya!"

M joins. (Photo: E)

Shoes abandoned! (Photo: A)

Never a case of cold feet. :-)

Tiny in the sun!

We drove to Dingle and stopped for lunch. We wandered around the town, exploring the shops (many selling wool sweaters) and walking out to the harbour. There are all sorts of sea creatures in right in the harbour itself, including dolphins, seals, and herons – though we weren’t lucky enough to see any that day.

Close to Dingle.

The harbour.

Brrr.....;-)

Little windy? ;-)

Dingle.

Dingle's own Mad Hatters!
 Remember those tiny hats the British Royals
wore to Willian & Kate's wedding? ;-)

Tea!

Coffee!

 

 
 

Driving further west, we stopped to see the beehive huts. They date back to the early Middle Ages at least, but many archaeologists believe these kinds of round stone houses were built as early as the Bronze Age. Further along the road, we got a glimpse of the Blasket Islands, which until the ‘50s were occupied by an entirely Irish-speaking population. (Emigration from the island diminished the community, and in 1953 the last 22 inhabitants abandoned the island.)

 

Beehive hut.

 

Photo: P

Photo: P

Photo: A

Coming to investigate...;-)

Blasket Islands.

Siblings. :-)

 We took a break to stretch our legs and climb some rocks…fantastic view of the sea!