London (abridged)

We spent a busy few days in London.  The first day, we flew in from Shannon airport to Heathrow.  It was a pretty short flight, but I managed to get a few good shots of Ireland from the air.

                                                               A green quilt

The first thing we did in London was settle into our rented flat.  We were on the top floor, with the precariously balanced window boxes.

                                                                    Our flat

Then we went to explore Kensington Gardens.  No view of the royal baby, unfortunately, just a ton of cable vans parked outside the palace.  After sitting by the Round Pond for awhile, feeling like Londoners, we headed off to find Peter Pan.  He stands next to the Long Water (another unimaginative name).   

               The boy who wouldn't grow up.

That was about it for Wednesday.  Thursday morning brought a whirlwind tour of the British museum.  If you're unfamiliar with the British museum, it's full of stuff borrowed, or, in some cases, stolen from other cultures.  All we really saw was the Mexican exhibit (those Mayans were weird), the Egyptian exhibit, and the Greek exhibit.  Oh, and the gift shop.  They have everything Rosetta Stone there.  Then it was a rush to the theatre.  The Globe Theatre, where we saw A Midsummer Night's Dream.  It was hilarious.  I can't even begin to describe it.  The theatre itself is pretty amazing.  The sun was in a bad place when we were allowed to take pictures, so the photos aren't that great.

One of the coolest parts of the show, I think, was that the people who play Theseus and Hippolyta also play Oberon and Titainia.

       Our evening tourist attraction was Trafalgar Square.  I climbed the lions, like so many before me.  We watched a few street performers, too.

    On Friday, we went to St. Paul's Cathedral.  You're not allowed to take any pictures inside, as it is still a working church.  But when you climb the 571 stairs to the very top of the dome, you're technically not inside anymore.

                                                          What, me scared?

It's very high up, I want to point out.  And there's only a thin metal rail.  But it was worth it.  Then Dad and I went to the Churchill War Rooms.  That is a museum in the basement bunker from which Churchill led England through WW2.  Meanwhile, Mom watched the horse guards.

       Saturday was our last day in London.  Mom and I went to the Tower of London.  There were a lot of people there.  I'm running out of time, so I'll talk about Saturday on another time.

Middle Earth

Today we went hiking.  So of course the drought finally ended.  It was a nice change, though.  Reminds me of home.

    We embarked this morning on a loop trail around the town.  I learned a lot about hiking and trails in Ireland.  There are nice little signposts that mark the way for you.

But unfortunately, these little markers aren't always in the most useful places.  So a few times we had to guess and hope for the best.  Everything turned out all right, though.  One of the first picturesque places we encountered was a bit of greenery.

A bit hobbitish, wouldn't you say?  Then we tramped through a cow pasture (carefully), crossed another field, and followed a backroad into the Burren.

J.R.R.Tolkien spent a summer here.  The influence is apparent wherever you look.  

After lunch, we continued the loop.  We were just headed up into the Burren again when a thunderstorm came upon us.  So we took shelter until we could hightail it back down the hill.

We did get a nice view, though, despite the rain.

When we got to the bottom of the hill, the rain got harder again.  But, oh, look, a convenient castle!  Yes, there was a restored 16th century castle open for touring on the grounds of the nearby arts college.  You can see the top in the picture above.

We looked around and took photos until the rain abated.

    We've been here for a week now.  Tomorrow we'll hop over to London.  The time is really flying by.  But we have had the time to make some new friends.  One was a bit more interested in us than doing his job.  

He eventually went off, presumably to tend his flock.  

Don't Look Down!

Ireland has some very interesting radio stations.  This morning I heard a classical waltz, followed by the theme from Superman.  On the same station!  There was also a song from the Disney movie Aladin.  I wish the radio stations at home had music that fun.

    We didn't really do much today.  At least compared to yesterday, which was packed with historical stuff.  After breakfast (I'm starting to develop a love of porridge), we walked into town to the Chapel of the Sacred Heart.  It used to be a convent, but now just displays art.  There is some truly spectacular stained glass in the chapel.

                          Jesus and the children

     After that, we started the drive up to Ballyvaughan.  It was a very long drive.  We stopped at the Cliffs of Moher on the way.

                                                    The Cliffs of Insanity!!

Yes, this is where part of The Princess Bride was filmed.  The thing you can see on the farther cliff is O'Brian's tower, which was built in the 19th century for rich tourists to view the cliffs from.  Mom forbade me Togo anywhere near the edge, and nearly had a heart attack when Dad and I went to take pictures.  The pictures can't really capture how high they really are.  There are some small littlle bumps on the nearer cliff.  Those are people!

    Ballyvaughn is the summer retreat for many people in Ireland.  It's sort of like Cape Cod.  But it's not  over touristy, like some places we've been.  It's a nice change.  We're looking forward to doing some hikes.  What I've seen of the landscape is amazing.  I'm sure I'll get some good photos.

A Day In Dingle

In the past few posts I'be been so busy talking about the history of places that I haven't gotten to say all that I've wanted to say about Ireland in general.  But now I have the time.

    First, the cows.  I have seen more cows on this trip than I have in my whole life.  There are cows everywhere.  Next to Newgrange, at the foot of the Rock of Cashel, and along the waterfront in Dingle.

    Next, the roads.  Driving in Ireland is an adventure.  In places, it's better than a ride at the fair.  The roads are extremely curvy, especially out here.  And bumpy.  On such roads, 45 miles an hour is terrifying.

    Today we drove around the Dingle Peninsula.  There is a lot of old stuff here.  We saw a few prehistoric stone forts, and beehive huts.  But one of our main stops was the Great Blasket Centre.  It documents the lives of the Blasket Islanders from the early 1900s to 1953, when the island was abandoned as a dwelling.  It gives a look into the culture which produced many writers, a culture that remained somewhat separate from the mainland.

                  Great Blasket Island.  You can see what remains of the houses and fields.

     The next significant place we visited was the Gallarus Oratory.  An ancient church, it was built around the 7th or 8th century.  It was built with carefully fitted stones, without any mortar.  It is completly waterproof.  That was tested yesterday.

In the evening, we walked around town.  There's a fun fair going on, with a few rides.  It's a bit disconcerting when the ride you're on starts smoking.  We also discovered a very good ice cream place, which might be a chain.

    The next drive entails going back through the mountains.  More winding roads at high speeds.  Much better than any fair ride.

Cork and Kerry

First of all, I must apologize for not posting in a few days.  I've been a little sick, and have been too tired to post at night.  That being said, I now have three days to make up for.

    On Thursday, we took a road trip.  We drove on winding, bumpy roads from Trim (near Dublin) to Kinsale, on the southern coast.  On the way, we stopped at the Rock of Cashel.  The Rock of Cashel is a very large lump of rock with some very old buildings on it.  

Once the seat of the kings of Munster, it was given to the church in 1101.  The round tower in front was built the same year.  Then came Cormac's Chapel (currently covered in scaffolding), the main cathedral, housing for the choir, and the archbishop's personal tower.  Cormac's Chapel, the oldest building we're allowed into, was named after Cormac McCarthy, one of the kings.  It contains the remanents of paintings on the walls and ceiling.  The blue paint was very expensive and rare at the time.  The colors are surprisingly vibrant.

The cathedral, built in the 13th century, is done in the Gothic style, as illustrated by the domed roof over the center of the building.  You can see a bit of the chapel's scaffolding too.

Outside, there is an amazing view, as the Rock of Cashel is the highest point in that area.

                               You can certainly see a lot of cows from up there.

    After that, we continued onto Kinsale.  Kinsale is a lovely little town with terrible roads.  It's very colourful (the buildings, I mean), touristy, and reminds me of Provincetown.  On Friday morning, we took a walk out to Charles Fort.  The star-shaped fort was built in the 16th century, and was used all the way up to 1922.  It is situated so that any vessel entering Kinsale Harbor would have to pass within 150 meters of the fort.  The cannons could fire about 400 meters.  However, it is very vulnerable to the land side.  In the only battle ever fought there, the enemy attacked from land, and eventually captured the fort.

                                          A 19th century cannon on display

We spent the rest of the day exploring town.  On Saturday morning, we left Kinsale and headed to the Dingle Peninsula.  On the way we stopped at Timoleague Abbey.  It is now a graveyard, but the walls of the abbey are still there.

Our next stop was Drombeg Stone Circle.  This stone circle is aligned with the winter solstice.  Situated near a natural spring, there are also the remains of a stone house and what is thought to be a cooking pit.

Buried in the middle of the circle was found a vessel containing cremated remains.

    The drive to presented some us with some spectacular views.  We went through the mountains of the Dingle Peninsula (the tallest being 3,130 feet high).  The area did remind me of the Cascades a bit.

       Now we are in Dingle Town.  Last night we experienced some live music in a pub.  Today we'll do the Dingle Peninsula loop drive.  There's a heat wave right now, so we'll probably go swimming after.  It's still vacation, after all!

And So It Begins

It's been a busy day- er, two days.  The time change is very confusing.  Due to changing time zones, we only experienced about 16 of Tuesday's 24 hours.  That is, 24 hours passed on Tuesday, but we only felt 16 of them.  I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that.

     We arrived in Dublin at 4:45 in the morning.  After getting adjusted to the rental car and the roads (luckily there's not much traffic at 5:30 in the morning), we headed out to the countryside.  Actually, there aren't really many suburbs, so it just goes from city to fields.  After meandering around for awhile, we stopped at a graveyard with a tower that was built long ago by monks. 

 

Then we just puttered around until the Brú na Bóinne visitor centre opened.  Brú na Bóinne is the collective centre for the three largest Neolithic chamber mounds in the world, Knowth, Newgrange, and Dowth, in that order.  

                                        Knowth, with smaller mounds in front

                                                              Newgrange

Chamber mounds are burial mounds with one main chamber, where the rituals were performed.  They are 5,200 years old- 500 years older than the pyramids, and 1,000 years older than Stonehenge.  Newgrange especially is and architectural marvel, because after 5,000 plus years, no water has ever leaked into the chamber.  That's mainly due to the construction of the chamber's ceiling.

This isn't the ceiling of the actual chamber.  You're not allowed to take pictures inside the mound.  The is inside a scale replica of the inside of the mound.  We did get to go inside the real thing, though.  It was really cool, especially when all the lights were switched off and it was pitch black.

     When we were done at Brú na Bóinne, we headed into Trim, where we are spending the night.  After getting lost a few times, then having lunch, we walked over to Trim Castle.  The ruins of and entire keep and fortress are scattered through the town.  A significant amount of the main keep is still there, and you can go inside on tours.  We'll probably do that tomorrow morning.

There are also the remains of the wall, the defenses, and old churches, one said to be founded by St. Patrick himself.  These are spread from the centre of town out to the fields.

     I guess that's enough for one night.  We're all pretty tired.  Dad calculated that we've been awake for 33 hours straight.  Tomorrow we head down to Kinsale, with plenty of stops along the way.

All Ready...I Think

Well, tomorrow's the day.  Shuttle Express comes at 5:30 in the morning.  I'm all packed, with a shockingly small amount of stuff.

This is all I'm bringing.  Really!  The clothes to the side are what I'm going to wear tomorrow.  My backpack only weighs eleven pounds.  That's less than my school backpack usually weighs.

      Thanks to everyone who has helped us out preparing for this trip.  If you'd like a souvenir, let me know in the comments, and I'll try to get it for you.  Unless it's a Dartmoor pony, of course.

Four Days To Go!

It's quite a lot of work to go on vacation.  Packing, planning, getting the house ready, and such things.  And research!  My parents have been doing lots of research.  The extent of my research is reading Agatha Christie mysteries.  Hey, most of them are set in England.

     Our itinerary is all planned out.  We'll arrive in Dublin at 5:15 in the morning (their time) rent a car, and drive out to Newgrange, a prehistoric burial mound.  We'll spend the night in a town called Trim, right across from Trim Castle.  Then we drive down to Kinsale, in County Cork.  We'll spend two nights there, then take a long scenic drive up to Dingle.  We'll stay another two nights there, then drive to the town of Ballybaughan in the Burren.  The Burren is an area that was covered in glaciers during an ice age.  Now, it's a fantastic landscape dotted with ancient monuments.  Then we fly out of the airport in Shannon over to London.  We'll spend a few days in London, seeing the sights.  Following that, we'll take the train up to Oxford.  I'll be scouting out the colleges there.  Then it's out to the Cotswolds, the part of England with the classic thatched roofs and more sheep than people.  After that, we go down to beautiful Dartmoor.  I'll keep my eye out for any dangerous looking hounds.  Next we'll be staying on a little farm somewhat near Bath.  Finally, we fly out of Bristol, and spend a last two days in Dublin.

     Now, I do have one little travel tradition to share.  I have a small stuffed hedgehog, Alfred, who travels with me.  I take pictures of him in famous or interesting places.

                                                                      Alfred

Be sure look out for Alfred on my blog!