Photos are published

As a follow up to this vacation I have posted lots of pictures.  I took over 5,000 pictures on the trip.  You can get to my Smugmug Travel section at:  http://www.jackdallasphoto.com/Travel  

Of the 5,000 images 80% were edited out leaving you with just a little more than 1,000 pictures to deal with.  There are 45 pictures of London and 1,057 from Ireland.

At the Travel link above you will need to select from the postings labeled for London and Ireland.  All of the pictures of London are in a single gallery.  There is also a short London video set to music in the gallery labeled appropriately, London Video.

Ireland has an overall gallery with all of the pictures taken there.  There are also individual galleries which group together shots from specific locations like Dublin, Kilkenny, etc.

If you review these pictures you will see that I had one criteria which was:  If it moves or stands still take a picture of it.

The End of a Great Vacation

 I am writing this at 37,000 feet about an hour out of Miami.  I will probably have to complete it when I am home.  We made it to Shannon for our last two nights.  We went to the famous Durty Nellie's pub for dinner and managed to catch an impromptu jam session of six locals playing traditional Irish music.  We went to Bunratty Castle and folk park the next day.  We watched bread being made in an iron pot near a fire.  We ate some of the bread topped with butter we watched being made.  They spun the raw milk (unpasteurized) to separate the cream and then churned the cream.  Since you are reading this you know we didn't die from the raw milk product from whatever disease you get from that.  We then explored the castle and found it to be cool but just another castle.  The one unusual feature to this one was the rather large main rooms as most similar structures were much smaller.

I will now summarize my thoughts on our trip to the two island nations.  These are not specific incidents but just overall impressions.

England (London)

The people were surprisingly friendly.  I say surprisingly as my only exposure to the English was “stiff upper lip” movies and television presentations and an English exchange student who called himself “Lord Barrington Eamer III”.  This latter reference is of doubtful titled nobility status and, after one year loosely associated with the rest of us in the dorm, “Barry” would most assuredly have been stripped of his title.

Parliament on the Thames

They talk funny.  Not like South Carolina, Boston, Maine or Texas funny but like calling both elevators and escalators “lifts”.  They don’t seem to know that lifts are what go into a pair of shoes to make you a little taller.  An inch or so taller will never get you to another floor.  As I analyze this I guess both the American and English words are a bit loose in the descriptive department.  If they both lift or elevate you to another floor, what do you call them when you want to go down?  Just an observation.

They measure funny.  They talk in terms of kilometers and liters to make you think you have gotten some large amount or are moving very fast.  One hundred kilometers an hour sounds really scary until you figure out it is only about 62 mph.  You put petrol and not gas into your car.  When you have 20 liters delivered it is only around 5 gallons.

They can’t seem to tell time.  When a Londoner tells you “it is just a 5 minute walk” you can rest assured that he really means it is a just a little less than 3 miles away.  A ten-minute walk means you need to look for public transportation.

Tower Bridge With Para-Olympics Logo

They are famous for their tea but just try to order an iced tea.  You will get a strange questioning look like you just asked them for bangers and Jell-O.  It would normally be bangers and mash as in sausage and potatoes.  The term banger comes from the observation that sausages tend to pop open or bang when cooked.  Other strange terms abound in their vernacular. To have a “wobbly” is to throw a tantrum.  Cars have a boot, bonnet and a windscreen for trunk, hood and windshield.  While in London Sue and I took “shanks pony” as to indicate we walked a lot.

Heathrow Airport is one of the most confusing airports on the planet.  When we landed from Shannon we had to exit the plane down a rear stairwell onto the runway.  We walked into a terminal where we had to go through a border security check where they scanned your passport, took facial recognition pictures and compared your picture to your face with a very concerned look on their faces. They must practice this look in the mirror as each time this happened each official had the same expression.

We then hopped another bus to be taken to another terminal that must have been in Portugal based on the length of the trip.  I think I remember going through the Chunnel.  From this terminal we took another bus to another terminal.  We then had to go through the full-blown security check of all items where they regularly scanned and patted down a very high percentage of the passengers.  Sue made the cut and got a free massage.  They also x-rayed our bags and physically checked my camera bag and Sue’s purse/steamer trunk.  They wiped many components and ran the wipe rag to check for explosives.  You are then allowed to collect in an area and sit while you wait for your flight to be posted.  Here they are monitoring your movements with CCTV from high above.  If you look up you will see three lights, two are actually lights and the center one is always “out” since it is the camera.

Once your flight is posted (which can be with but 30 min. notice before departure) you have either an English “5 minute walk” (see description above) within the A terminal or as much as an English 20 minute trip to terminals B or C by rail.  Now you wait in another area while they are undoubtedly watching your every move.  A very pleasant woman of some Arabic decent asked me questions on how to find an address on Indian Creek on Miami Beach.  She had a Google map of the Miami Airport to Indian Creek trip complete with Arabic words on the sides.  I advised her to take a cab since regular public transportation in Miami consists of busses that go everywhere you don’t want to go.  Since she had already cleared all of the security that I had gone through I thought she was safe to talk to.   She spoke just enough English to get by but had trouble with the announcements to board.

"English" Estimates of Sprint Times to Your Terminal

We were ready to board our flight.  But wait there’s more.  We had to clear another security check as they again reviewed our passports, checked our pictures and showed us their best concerned look face.  In totally random fashion we were all permitted to board the plane except for the Arabic woman I talked to who was “randomly selected” to get patted down again and get scrutinized again.  We boarded the plane thoroughly exhausted and we still had an eight and a half hour plane ride ahead of us.  We were happy to see the Arabic woman walk down the aisle.  I was particularly happy as if there had been a problem they might have wanted to see what I knew.  The mere fact that I was permitted to board meant that they hadn't read the blog stories of my youth.

The Republic of Ireland

Ireland is made up of the Republic of Ireland (5/6^th of the country) and Northern Ireland.  We stayed in the southern republic.  The whole country (32,595 sq. mi.) could be tucked into the state of Maine (33,215 sq. mi.) with room to spare.  The Irish people we met were by far the friendliest collection of individuals from any country I have visited.  The English were friendly and the Irish were exceptionally friendly.  By comparison our first non-official human encounter upon our return was our cabbie who, when asked how the Miami weather had been replied, “You want Kendall Drive?”  Thirty minutes of silence later we arrived home.  Needless to say our cabbie got a huge tip.

Happy Irish Butterfly

The Irish drink lots of beer.  When in Rome….., I too drank a lot of beer.  I had beer at lunch and beer at dinner.  Most of the time I drank the Irish Budweiser officially known as Guinness.  I also drank another local beer called Murphy’s which was as good as Guinness, perhaps better.  To a lesser extent I drank some local micro-brews and a few Smithwick’s (pronounced Smidicks).  I also think I drank one glass of water but this is not clear in my memory.  Sue has documented my first beer at each location.  She has no pictures of me drinking any water.  I’m thinking of turning the beer drinking pictures into a poster with around 60 frames.  I will call it Jack with Beer until I can come up with a better title.

Jack With Beer, "Pie", Mashed Potatoes & Rare Vegetables

Gothic Church

The Irish didn’t start to have a good road system until around 1983.  They finished the Motorway, aka carriageway, in 2010 with around 1,000 kilometers of paved 4 lane highways.  This amounts to a little more than 600 miles of road or about the distance from Miami to Atlanta.  The motorways have an M designation.  The next step down the road food chain is the N roads which are also decent but involve more roundabouts and through-city driving.  The N must stand for narrow, as these are scary skinny roads with the occasional stretch with signs that say “Road Narrows”.  These signs mean if you see oncoming traffic pull your car into the bushes and say three Our Fathers and ten Hail Mary’s.

Then you come to the L roads or local roads.  These are the really scary ones you read about.  They may go somewhere and then sometimes they don’t.  You may end at a locked gate or just run out of road.  I believe there are also some C roads but these are restricted to cows.  I don't think the sheep get a road designation letter as they pretty much hop the walls and walk on anything they want.

Sheep Driving on the Left

The Irish use their roadway system to form towns and communities.  Whenever they want to establish a new town they put in a series of roundabouts.  They have learned that if they put in enough roundabouts people will get so frustrated spinning in circles that they will just pull over and set up housekeeping.  A new town is born. 

Surf's Up at Inch Beach

 

An Irish traffic circle can have just one exit or as many as four and can have one two or three lanes entering the roundabout.  If you want the 2^nd exit or 3^rd exit you better pay attention to the number of lanes and the one you will need to be in to take the desired exit.  When your GPS indicates that you should take the 2^nd, 3^rd, or 4^th exit start counting.  You will need to count all exits even those that are closed off.  Most of the time this is true.  This last rule varies depending on the mood of the highway engineer.  I still haven’t figured out the roundabouts with just one exit.  They are the easiest to negotiate but why do they exist in the first place?

Sidewalk Petrol Station

If you don’t bring a GPS when vacationing in Ireland you should immediately seek out a good lawyer as you will be getting divorced upon your return.  Sign reading in Ireland should be an Olympic event.  Just try to read seven or eight signs on one post while going 80 kph.  Each sign is also written in both Gaelic and English and which may include non-essential directions to attractions or businesses.  Now try to imagine doing all of this while traversing a traffic roundabout.

Which Way?

The Irish have one sign that I learned to love, Traffic Calming.  You are all stressed out whizzing through six roundabouts in the span of three blocks when you come to one of these signs.  It makes you feel relaxed.  It is just telling you to slow down but the wording has a sort of calming effect.

Rain.  Ireland gets between 40 and 50 inches of rain each year.  Since much of this falls in the form of mist everything turns green.  The grass is green, the trees are green, the rocks are green and the tourists are green.  This latter observation was made after looking in the rear view mirror after a “Full Irish Breakfast” in the morning and about an hour of driving on a narrow roadway facing fast-paced oncoming traffic in the rain.  My face was truly green.

Peat Bog with Cut Turf Stacked for Drying

For those who may have missed my previous description of the Full Irish Breakfast the typical ingredients are listed here.  One egg with two sausages, two rashers of bacon, one white pudding, one black pudding (blood, fat and meat stuffed into a sausage tube with spices), grilled mushrooms, one grilled tomato, brown bread, soda bread, porridge (oatmeal), fruit, yogurt and coffee or tea.

Full Irish Breakfast

One of the main features of Ireland is its ruins.  Some of these became ruins because stone lasts for centuries and wood and straw roofs don’t.  Some became ruins because a guy named Cromwell helped them along.  Oliver Cromwell is a dirty word in Ireland.  He was a former sinner turned Puritan zealot and those are the worst kind.  He thought the Catholics were terrible folks and since most of Ireland (80%) was Catholic he didn’t like many people when he got there. He massacred a whole bunch of people in the seventeenth century and confiscated the land of the rest.

Typical Ruin in Cow Pasture, Ross Errilly Friary Built 1351,
Typical "L" Road (walls, weeds & ruts) in Foreground

Pubs are an essential ingredient in Irish life.  We saw many towns that had fallen on hard times.  Many businesses were closed or closing.  The pubs always seemed to be the last to fold.  As an aside here at one point we thought we had died and gone to vacation traveler’s heaven, as there were signs everywhere about the available toilets.  We then realized that the initial glance had been wrong and the signs didn’t read TOILET but in fact read TO LET.  I guess it was wishful thinking on our part.  At least on the part of my bladder.

The pubs are a focal point where you can find a good beer, some good warm food and some good craic.  I have misspelled that last one as "crack" in previous writings when in reality it is craic.  Phonetically however it is still pronounced "crack".  The pub grub can be just simple fish and chips and a couple of sandwiches or it can be a more extensive menu that would rival a fine restaurant. 

One of the finest examples of a good pub was Durty Nellie’s which we found at the end of our trip.  This is not to say we did not find other pubs that were almost its equal but Durty Nellie’s embodied what all pubs should have.  First of all it was made up of many rooms.  There were several levels and several bars all interconnected.  It had a few snugs which are alcoves that offer a bit of privacy set off from the main bars.  Nellie’s has good food and was old.  How old?  Around 1620’s old.  Locals go there and impromptu music sessions are likely.  We listened to a group of six or seven musicians who played various instruments and sang.  Locals knew all of the words to songs that aren’t sung by The Clancy Brothers or the Dubliners for popular consumption and export.  Old people jumped up and danced in the tight quarters.

The history of Durty Nellie herself is interesting.  She owned the building and bridge across the Shannon.  She collected tolls from those who could pay.  Handsome men could sometimes pay in other ways.  She had a still where she made Poitin, an Irish potato based moonshine.  In Nellie’s time it was marketed as a cure-all.  You could drink it or rub it on afflicted areas.  It was outlawed for a time due to both its very high alcohol content of 90% or 180 proof and, when poorly produced, it contained methanol.

Ariel View Durty Nellie's and Shannon River

 
We visited many castles, tower homes, abbeys, friaries and churches.  While it may have been good to be king, by modern standards their lives could be described as miserable.  Cold stone castles, threats of attack and toilets that consisted of a hole in a stone seat that led to the outside.  While touring one such castle I happened to note that the bed faced a large blank wall just above a wood dresser.  I asked the guide if that is where they put the large screen TV.

Ross Errilly Friary

 
Speaking of television most television in Ireland was of poor quality.  Poor picture quality and limited programming.  RTE 1, 2 and 3 with snow and some American series.  The news consisted mostly of sports and weather.

In the things you can’t get in Ireland that I missed department were nuts, salads and vegetables.  There is no snack section in their grocery stores.  You might find all of the snacks grouped on one spinning wire rack.  They had nuts but the selection was generally just small bags of peanuts or cashews.  When opened the nuts were usually stale, un-roasted and without salt.  If they had a “best if sold by” date I’m sure it would indicate that they are as old as some of their castles.  Sell by dates weren’t in effect in the 90’s when these nuts were probably stocked.  They serve salads but they are all very small.  Vegetables usually consisted of fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, au gratin potatoes and the occasional carrot or an elusive stalk of broccoli. 

I was pleasantly surprised with the food.  Most “Irish” dishes sold as such in the states consist of Irish stew that doesn’t have much flavor.  My favorite recipe for Irish stew states that you should get some potatoes, carrots, meat and a six-pack of Guinness.  You then throw away everything but the Guinness.

Almost Enough Guinness

 
Traditional Irish music had to be sought out as most of the pubs played American rock and roll from the 60’s.  When found, the traditional Irish music is fun even if you don’t know the words.  If you do know the words you probably don't understand their meaning.  If you do understand their meaning you've had too much Guinness.

No Caption Needed

 
A few Irish observers remarked on my tan.  By comparison I was not pasty white but after almost a month with only a few days of actual full sun I doubted that my Miami acquired coloring had lasted.  I didn't realize its origin until my return home.  After two days at home I noticed that my tan was fine from my neck on down but that my face was now much lighter.  I finally realized the source of my tan.  You see it would appear that I am now about 4 pints of Guinness light.  I will now have to either sit in the sun or stop by the Kendall Ale House for a refill of Guinness.  I will now pray for rain.

Summary
Living out of a suitcase for a month is not much fun.  Flying today is a pain as airports have grown to the point that they are no longer manageable.  Mile long corridors, moving sidewalks, escalators, in-airport bus and rail systems, constant construction projects, poor signage, inaudible announcements, airline seats designed for the average American circa 1776, luggage restrictions and knee jerk 9/11 security regulations all dictate an unpleasant experience.  British Air seems to be a good airline.  The food was good and the personnel pleasant.  Our first Aer Lingus flight was not good but the second trip on the same airline from Shannon to Heathrow was fine.

A month long vacation is not for the weak of spirit.  Every day for 29 days you are on the go.  We loved every location.  Each B&B had its own personality.  Kilkenny, Cork and Killarney had wonderful proprietors.  In Galway only one of the family spent any time with the guests and that time was very limited.  In Shannon the people were very nice but as we didn’t have but the two nights we didn’t get to know them that well.

I will now begin editing my 5,000+ pictures to get them down to something manageable.  When they get posted I will send out the final trip email notice for this trip.  Thanks for joining us on our vacation.