Our trip begins! Mom and I were driven to O'Hare by Peter, who took the photo above. Our plane was delayed for three hours due to "catering problems." When we finally got on the Airbus A330-300, I learned without a doubt that I do not fit in airplane seats. I changed seats, and only realised later that I had snuck into an extra legroom seat: there was a little sign that read "ask your flight attendant about upgrading to this extra legroom seat." Well, I figure they owe me for the three hour delay. I did get to watch the movie Spotlight, which I thought was really good.
Well, I guess that's it for our first travel day. I fell asleep somewhere over the north Atlantic.
Now the fun really begins. Our delay in leaving Chicago meant that we missed our connecting flight from London to Dublin City (that's what the locals call it). Unfortunatley, it seemed like everyone else at Heathrow also missed a flight, since we waited at least two hours in the line for the British Airways counter to get another flight. While waiting, I met a travel group from Germany, and discussed rational behaviour theory (note my supercool spelling of behaviour). International incident averted!
Anyway, we were booked on another flight . . . set to depart in 30 minutes! We had to clear the "UK Border," something to do with customs, I gather, and make it through security, then make it to our gate. I ran to the gate, arriving late, only to realise that our flight to Dublin was delayed . . . due to catering problems. We're actually lucky it was delayed, as we might have missed it otherwise.
The flight to Dublin was short. We arrived around 3pm or so. Here, the words "tree" and "three" are pronounced the same. We had an amazing taxi driver who took us from the airport to our hotel, he was really funny. While he was driving us, he asked us about what we were planning to do during our stay. Mom mentioned that we hoped to make it to Belfast, and he asked why. Mom replied to see the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the revolution, and I was so shocked I couldn't say or do anything. There was a short pause, and the cabbie asked "what revolution?" Mom responded, "you know, the Irish Revolution." Now I'm no expert on sectarian relations in Ireland, but even I knew this was a gaffe. He politely and dryly responded that there wouldn't be a lot of celebrating the Irish Revolution in Belfast, and I was able to laugh about it with Mom afterwards in the hotel.
We had dinner at an Irish pub, where Mom had two irish whiskies! Afterwards, I walked around the town centre (yes, I'm gonna spell things the pretentious European way) and saw a few of the sights. There is a ton of graffiti. The River Liffey (it's not the Liffey River) is like an industrial canal in concrete revetments--it's not picturesque. There are not very many ATMs here, I had a hard time finding one. There are some cool light rail lines that run right down the middle of the streets. I did walk past Dublin Castle, but didn't visit. A picture of part of it is below.
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| Dublin Castle |
After our long day of traveling and delays, it was lights out by 10pm.
Our first full day of sightseeing!
We woke up early and had a huge Irish breakfast. I steered clear of the "pudding" and found their bacon to be different but delicious.
After breakfast, we spent quite a bit of time at Christ Church Cathedral, which is very near our hotel. It is a beautiful, medieval cathedral. I find it interesting that it is the seat of both the Roman Catolic and Church of Ireland (Anglican) archbishops of Dublin. Given the history of Ireland, I'm glad to see they're getting along pretty well right now. Mom and I parted ways at this point, and I headed over to Dublinia.
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| Outside Christ Church Cathedral | Christ Church Cathedral | Christ Church Cathedral | Dublinia |
A little later in the day, Mom and I met up again and did some walking. We started by visiting Dublin Castle and walking around that complex for awhile. We also stopped by Dublin City Hall, which is right nearby. There was a large and moving rally/vigil to memorialise the mass shooting in Orlando. Easily several hundred people were there, several of them with rainbow flags or otherwise showing support of the LGBTIQA community. I should note that the American mass killing is the biggest news story here right now, bigger even than the Euro 2016 soccer tournament.
We then headed north and east, and spent the remainder of the evening in the trendy Temple Bar district of Dublin. It was packed with rowdy bars full of patrons watching the Euro 2016 tournament, lots of tourists, lots of shopping both trendy and kitschy, and narrow cobblestone streets. Think the French Quarter in New Orleans. We did some shopping, and then we had dinner at a very fancy restaurant near Trinity College. I had the lamb, Mom had what she called "a whole baby chicken." I think it was described differently on the menu.
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| Dublin Castle | Temple Bar |
I'm now sitting in a quiet pub in the Liberties Quarter. They're replaying the soccer match between Ireland and Sweden, which I gather ended in a 1-1 tie. Since I've got time, and plenty of drinking to do, I thought I'd list some of the interesting things I've noted so far in Ireland. Not in an angry American kind of way, but more of a "hmm, that's interesting" kind of way. Here goes:
Another huge Irish breakfast to begin the day!
It has been overcast, rainy, and humid every day of our trip so far. We set out walking to St. Patrick's Cathedral after breakfast. The stormclouds were gathering overhead, and it was clear it was about to rain. Alongside the Cathedral is St. Patrick's Park, with plaques dedicated to Dublin's literary elite, like Yeats, Butler, Joyce, Wilde, Swift, and others. It is a beautiful park, with lots of flowers and a fountain. After enjoying the flowers are reading the plaques, we headed into the Cathedral.
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| St. Patrick's Cathedral | St. Peter's Chapel in the Cathedral |
I was surprised once again to learn that the Cathedral is not Roman Catholic, it is Church of Ireland. As one might suspect, it is very touristy, with a gift shop and tours, etc. But it is very beautiful. It is very dark inside, and I was struck by the fact that before electricity it must have been very hard to light such a large building. It has many, many graves and crypts right in the main structure. There is currently an exhibit on display commemorating the Irish soldiers who fought and died in World War I, which I found to be very interesting. There are regimental colours from many of the Irish units on display. There is a huge pipe organ (the largest in Ireland, I think?) and St. Peter's Chapel is beautiful.
While we were in the Cathedral, it started to rain steadily and at times heavily. We scrapped our prior plans, and decided to get on a bus tour instead. This did give a chance to see some parts of the city that we likely wouldn't have had a chance to see by walking alone. The highlights included Guinness' James's Gate facility (Mom and I decided not to stop, it was raining heavily) and beautiful Phoenix Park. The park in particular had a lot of monuments and sights, but the rain kept us on the bus. At times, some of the roadways were completely covered from kerb to kerb with water. Mom got off the bus and headed back to the hotel for a nap, while I pushed onward in my sightseeing.
I went to the General Post Office just north of the river on O'Connell St. It's still a working post office, but I might remind you that is was where the Easter 1916 Rebellion occurred. There is a museum in the building (I didn't go in, I thought I'd wait for Mom), the Spire of Dublin is right out in front, as well as monuments to O'Connell and Parnell. I also bought some shoes, I mean trainers, from a store called "Schuh," I kid you not. I thought maybe this was the Irish word for shoe, but that is not the case. The clerk and I could have used a translator, as I had no idea what she was saying, and I'm guessing things were no easier for her.
I meandered my way south and west, stopping in at the hotel for a spell. Then, I headed out, made my way through Temple Bar, and hung out in the neighborhood/shopping district just south and west of Trinity College. I stopped into a few shops, including a cool toy/comics/video game store. Fortunately, I couldn't feed my video game addiction since North America is NTSC and Europe is PAL, so our video games are not compatible! I ate dinner at a cool little sushi/ramen bar Kokoro. Then I checked out Trinity College, and walked all around its campus. Not to be rude, but I just got back from Champaign, and the University of Illinois is a much more beautiful campus. Now I'm sitting in the hotel bar. Tomorrow, it's up early and off to Belfast. Oh, I almost forgot: earlier in the day I had some bizarre burrito that had peas in it! Now I'm not Mexican or anything, but I'm going out on a limb and saying this wasn't the most authentic of burritos. That is all.
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| Library Square, Trinity College |
Happy birthday, Holly!
Today we were up very early to take a bus tour to Belfast and the north Ulster coast on the Irish Sea/Atlantic Ocean. It's about a two hour drive between Dublin and Belfast, and I can honestly say we drove to the UK. We started off passing through Belfast on our way to the Dark Hedges, in County Antrim. They are rows of gnarled trees that line the side of this rural country road, apparently made famous by their prominent inclusion in the show The Game of Thrones. I've never seen the show, so I'll have to take our guide's word on the matter.
Next, we headed to Carrick-a-Rede, on the coast also in County Antrim. It's a beautiful park on the coast kind of where the Irish Sea and Atlantic Ocean meet. You can see Scotland in the distance, it's only 14 miles (22.4 kilometres) away. We took several pictures, some of which are below.
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| Carrick-a-Rede | Irish Sheep | That's Scotland in the background. And that's me in the foreground. |
Mom |
We ate lunch at a little restaurant out in the middle of the country in County Londonderry. I had the Irish Stew, it was good. Mom asked for a cup with ice for her drink, and was told they didn't have any ice! This part of Northern Ireland really reminds me of northern Wisconsin, right down to the red dirt. It's really very beautiful up here, with narrow curvy roads and farms separated by hedgerows. We saw lots of cows, sheep, and horses.
Next up was The Giant's Causeway, also on the coast. It's a striking natural formation of hexagonal basalt columns right along the coast, all along a small windswept, hilly coastline. We hiked along the coast a little ways and took in the sights. As we were leaving, we passed through the town of Bushmills, Country Antrim. Bushmills is home to the Old Bushmills Distillery, where the whiskey is produced (whiskey is spelled with an e in Ireland, though not in Scotland). I was shocked when our tour guide mentioned that lots of people in the Republic, and plenty in Northern Ireland, don't like Bushmills, because they were once proud and actively promoted the fact that Bushmills used to only hire Protestants to make their product. Amazing. After passing through Bushmills, we stopped and saw Dunluce Castle, a ruined medieval castle right on the coast.
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| Irish Cows | The Giant's Causeway | Mom and Me |
The next part of our trip has been by far my favourite so far. We returned to Belfast and took a black taxi tour of West Belfast focusing on the times of The Troubles and the impact on the communities to this day. The tour was absolutely fascinating. Read that Wikipedia link I provided. I have, and that link and the tour I took today really opened my eyes to an otherwise rather abstract political situation that didn't really matter too much to me.
I think most Americans are aware of the sectarian/political/ethnic violence that wracked Northern Ireland (and parts of the Republic) for decades, but I was really surprised to learn that violence and tension continue to this day. There are numerous walls separating the Protestant and Catholic communities. Each community displays their cultural/political affiliation through flags, graffiti, and monuments. Houses closest to the walls are completely covered with fencing to protect them from rocks, molotov cocktails, and worse. Several of the houses have what looks like barbed wire completely encircling the roof. The wire is not primarily intended to keep people off the roof. Rather, the wire is a "grenade gate" (I'm using our tour guide's terminology, here). The purpose of the grenade gate is so that if a grenade/bomb is thrown on the roof, it will stay there, rather than falling to the ground below where it is more likely to hurt someone. This seems crazy to me, but that is their reality. The walls are forty feet (12.2 metres) high, to make it really hard to throw bombs over. The monuments look really cool and colourful, with bright flags and emblems of the IRA, UDA, the Red Hand of Ulster, and the like. But then you realise that these symbols are being used as propoganda to promite violence and terrorism. I think it's crazy that today, a western liberal democracy like the United Kingdom still has this kind of thing going on.
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| Unionist display The flag flying in the center is the Ulster Banner |
Republican monument to individuals killed during The Troubles |
Republican monument |
Anyway, my trip to Ulster has really made me very glad that I didn't order any Irish Car Bombs during my visit, as delicious as they might be. I'm sure you understand.
By the time we returned to Dublin City, we had time for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, before I came here to the bar to work on my circa 1998 HTML formatting. We have time for a little more sightseeing tomorrow, before we leave for London in the late afternoon.
Unfortunately, pretty much the whole day was taken up by travel and all the preparations related to that. We left Dublin, and our plane was on time for a change! We're staying on the east side of London, very near to the Tower of London and the River Thames. Our cab ride to the hotel took forever, but we went right through the center of the city and saw the hustle and bustle of rush hour. After eating some real good Chinese food, Mom went back to the hotel, and I've spent the entire evening walking around and getting a sense of the city. I've mostly been walking near the river. Once it started to rain, I sought refuge in a pub. I am now sitting in a Fuller's Pub drinking Fuller's Ale. But I was just now, this very second as I was typing this sentence, informed that the bar is closing. They literally took my glass from me and poured it into a plastic cup. I guess it's time to go.
No time to type! Started off at the Tower of London (not really a tower at all) and Tower Bridge. All the official government flags are flying at half-mast, since a member of parliament was killed yesterday. The earliest reports seem to imply that the killer was a right wing nationalist, possibly a skinhead, who wanted the UK to leave the EU, and killed this MP who was opposed to leaving the EU. See, they have their own whackos here in Europe, they're not just in America. Then I took the London Underground to really touristy areas near the river. I've been to Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Pall Mall, Waterloo Place, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, and God knows where else. I've been walking around all afternoon, never really knowing for certain where I am until I stop to look at Google Maps. It's been raining on and off pretty much all afternoon. It finally started raining hard enough that I ducked into this pub on sime tiny little windy street where the buildings are built right up alongside the road. There's this little square full of restaurants and pubs hidden away down what can only be described as a tiny narrow alley. So I'm drinking and staying dry, while what I gather is a rather important soccer game is playing on TV. I think I'll have another beer before I return to the streets of London.
All right, it's a little while later, and once again I've been forced to find refuge in a cafe. It started raining again, really pouring for awhile. It's rained every day we've been here, in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and England. I was in Hyde Park, just walking around taking in the sights when I had to run to find shelter. By the way, what we call "coffee" they call over here "coffee americano" or "cafe americano". I think I'll know to order that going forward. I could eat every meal in these little cafes. Everything's delicious.
Quite by accident, I stumbled across the US Embassy here. It's immediately east of Hyde park. They have large rainbow banners hanging from the columns at the front of the building, presumably in response to the Orlando shooting. I was surprised to see that. There's statues of Reagan and Eisenhower out front. I must say, I like the Hyde Park here in England much better than the Hyde Park in Chicago.
You know what I just realized? I left the little adapter to plug my laptop into the wall outlets back in the hotel. The plugs over here are different, like just about everything else over here. My battery is nearly dead. I guess no more updates until I return to the hotel this evening.
After breakfast, I took the London Underground way down here to Chiswick, in west Greater London, not too far from Heathrow. The Underground runs above grade here. I visited Fuller's Brewery here in Chiswick, right near the Thames. I stopped in the brewery, museum, and brewery store, but I didn't feel like taking the tour. I did buy a neat little Fuller's pint glass. Now I'm sitting in a pub, The Black Lion, in Hammersmith. This pub looks like someone's house, and I suspect at one time it was. It's right on the Thames in a little residential neighborhood. After this I'm off to the British Museum.
All right, after I left the pub, I took the Underground to the British Museum, one of the greatest collections of antiquities and human culture in the world. I thought this museum was wonderful. It is huge, and free, and I spent four hours there. Unfortunately, it was also jam packed, but I really enjoyed it. I spent the bulk of my time looking at the Assyrian, ancient Greek, and ancient Egyptian exhibits. Afterwards, I also checked out the exhibits on the Americas, Europe, and Africa. Oh, and I also saw the interesting exhibit on clocks and watches. My favorite thing to see were the very large Assyrian sculptures of creatures with the head of a human, the body of a bull or lion, and wings of a bird. They originally flanked doors leading to rooms of ceremonial importance in palaces in Nimrud, circa 700 BC. They are beautiful.
One thing I found very interesting is that the Museum acknowledges the controversy over the fact that they currently posess works of invaluable cultural importance from cultures and countries that actively want them back. Many of these works were taken as the result of imperial conquest, when the states had no power to oppose their removal. There are signs discussing why the British Museum continues to hold some of these pieces, and states the benefits of them being curated in a museum setting. It's a tough issue, and I appreciated reading about it.
Anyway, after leaving the Museum at closing time, I ate a huge ice cream on the steps of the Museum. Delicious!
Mom and I ate dinner at an awesome Indian restaurant. Much better than Devon Avenue, or so I've been led to believe. I am now sitting in Hung Drawn & Quartered, another Fuller's Pub near the Tower of London. I think I could get used to this room temperature beer thing.
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| The British Museum |
Today was a jam=packed day. After an early Traditional English breakfast, Mom and I headed over to the Tower of London. We did the touristy stuff for awhile before heading down into the heart of the touristy stuff, Westminster. We saw Big Ben and the houses of Parliament, as well as the Horse Guards Parade, St. James's Park (I swear to God that's how they spell it), 10 Downing Street, and all the various Ministry buildings, there are a bunch of them. But the real reson why we went down there was to see the Churchill War Rooms. I think this was a really interesting exhibit. It's the extensive underground complex of rooms where the English, and Churchill, led the fighting in World War II. It was sobering to see their antiquated technology and maps with pins in them on walls. It was a very cramped space with a little museum to Churchill as well. Well worth the time.
After that, Mom and I parted ways. I took the tube south of the river to go see the Imperial War Museum. I'm glad I went, but it was still a bit of a disappointment. I figured the word Imperial in the title would mean that I'd learn something about Britain's wars of empire--you know, like their their numerous wars in India, Afghanistan (250 years ago, not in 2009), North America, China (the Opium Wars), and especially, ESPECIALLY, Africa. I wanted to see stuff about the Boer War more than anything. That was not to be. The IWM currently has exhibits on the First and Second World Wars, the most recent Afghan conflict, and the Cold War, along with some wishy-washy Hall of Heroes, or somesuch. That's it. How disappointing. One could argue that the First and Second World Wars helped to bring Britain's Empire to an end (except for what little remains). I did spend a lot of time in the World War I exhibit. It was interesting, but these types of museums nowadays are definitely oriented towards children. I liked seeing the regimental colours and propaganda from all the various countries. But I could do without all the "touch this to reveal what the Tommies wore in France" kinda stuff meant for kids. Sorry to rant. They should remove the word imperial from the name of the Museum.
After that, I went to both the National Gellery and the National Portrait Gallery in Trafalger Square. They are actuall two different museums and buildings, even though they adjoin each other. I don't know much about art, but I had a blast walking through room after room of impressive art. Quite by accident, I stumbled across Hans Holbein the Younger's The Ambassadors. I didn't realize it was one of the most important pieces of the Gallery. After both the Galleries closed, I sat and listened to a free outdoor music festival that was going on in Trafalgar Square.
Nous avons arrivée à la Paris!
Most of the day was filled with travel, etc. We took the Eurostar from St. Pancras Station through the Channel Tunnel to Paris. That trip was a lot less exciting than I expected.
We're staying on the north side of the city, in the 9th Arrondissement, near a Metro station. The streets are crazy crazy narrow, and never seem to run in the cardinal directions, or even straight for more than a few dozen metres. The buildings are right up on the streets, there's gotta be less than a metre of a sidewalk, and the cars park on the sidewalk. All the signs are in French! I guess that shouldn't be surprising. What is surprising is how well I've been able to speak to the natives, if I may say so. Our taxi driver from the Gare du Nord to our hotel didn't speak English. I asked him how my French was, and he said very good. He must be telling the truth, you don't tip in France!
After we got settled and had dinner, it was about 8pm. Mom was down for the count, so I jumped on the Metro and went to the Île de la Cité to see Notre Dame Cathedral and the Seine. I walked all around, up and down and speeding all over. I drank a beer in a bunch of bars, was was quickly disappointed to learn that Paris doesn't stay up all night! Every bar I went to near the Seine kicked me out since they were closing, and I had to catch the Metro back north, since it stops running at about 1am. I caught the 14 line at the Louvre station, located perhaps coincidentally right next to La Musée du Louvre.
After I got off at Place St. George, I stopped in a little bar on the way back to the hotel. I met a group of people in the bar, two from Northern Ireland, one from Dakar, and the bartender from France. Well we got to drinking, half of us speaking pidgin French, half of us speaking pidgin English, having a blast. I must say, the European tradition of kissing on the cheek was quite jarring to me. I think I might have gotten the wrong idea there for a moment.
I've got pictures to post when I'm awake and sober. A bientôt!
After breakfast near l'Église de la Sainte-Trinité, I spent several hours walking around le Quartier Pigalle, the district just north of la Place Saint-Georges, where our hotel is. I just walked from narrow street to narrow street, looking in at all the little shops and restaurants, and doing some light shopping. The architecture is typical of this central, dense part of the city: the residential buildings are all right up on the street, between three and five stories tall. They all have balconies, or at least doors that open up right to the outside. There is no grass and no trees at all on the side streets, there is no room for them. The main, busy streets have some grass and trees. You'll be walking along down these narrow, crazy, zig-zagging streets, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, like six of them will suddenly come together in a little square with bistros and cafes and people sitting around and outdoor shops with music. All on tiny side streets, all one way, so narrow that they need these tiny little European garbage trucks to drive down them. Then you walk about fifty metres and you're back in the maze of apartments.
After that, I took a bus tour with mom throughout much of the central city, seeing all the big highlights. I can't remember them all, but we definitely saw the Louvre, la Tour Eiffel, les Champs-Élysées, l'Arc de Triomphe, la Musée d'Orsay, la Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, la Place de la Concorde . . . hell, I've forgotten them all. I think I've got some pictures around here somewhere.
After dinner, I decided to walk around la rive gauche, in the 5th and 6th arrondissments. You know, to drink absinthe and hang out with the intellectual elite while discussing Voltaire and Rousseau. Unfortunately, every single other person in Paris had the same idea. La Boulevard Saint-Germain and the whole surrounding area was just packed with people. I had some ice cream and listened to house music, before retiring to the non-touristy Place Saint-Georges. Le Fin.
After hours and hours at the "Franco-Prussian War to World War II" exhibit, I walked over to that massive iron tower that dominated the skyline near les Invalides: I went to la Tour Eiffel. One of the soccer stadiums for the Euro Cup is right nearby, so security is even more insane than usual. They have a giant soccer ball hanging from the Tower. Then I walked over to la Trocadéro and surrounding gardens. I hope the French forgive me, but these are the ugliest buildings I have ever seen.
Last updated Friday 24 June 2016.
ray@raymondfuller.com