It has been quite a while since my last post here … much has happened, and little time has been spent online. I will try to give a brief summary, though I have to note that I cannot use an apostrophe, and my z and y keys are messed up on the keyboard. Bear with me.
Last night in Rome has come and soon will be gone … after four days here, we are pretty worn out. Lots of walking on some very old, and very hard roads … our feet and legs are tired, and we’re ready for a break.
A note from sweaty Rome for you … we’ve been here for a little while now, about 24 hours I guess. Done our share of sweating, but, we’ve been doing that since London, so we’re kind of getting used to it.
Have managed to see the Colosseum, some of the other ruins, and St. Peter’s Square/Basilica. All very impressive. The city is large, crowded and quite dirty. Having said that, I think that it is a place that pretty much everybody would enjoy visiting, and should make a point of getting here sometime. I imagine that there are better times of year to visit than July or August … something in the spring or fall would likely be great.
This morning, I got up around 5am, and was on the road by 5:30. I wanted to get some early morning photos at St. Peter’s Square. When I arrived, I pretty much had the place to myself … beautiful morning light, and nothing but a few nuns and priests walking about. It was unbelievable.
The Basilica opens at 7am, and I went in shortly after. The place is amazing in many ways, the least of which is its size … it can apparently hold more than 60,000 people, and I’d certainly believe it. When I was in there, there couldn’t have been more than 100 people. It was great.
Michele met up with me at 9 out in the square. We were going to go to the Vatican museums with the main goal of seeing the Sistine Chapel. We got in line (there are lines for everything if you’re not up really early) … Michele went ahead to see just how long the line was. She returned about 5 minutes later, saying that she wasn’t even able to see the end of the line. We pulled the plug on that for today, and will give it a try tomorrow. Back to the Basilica again … this time we had to wait in line
for about 20 minutes to get through the metal detectors (yes). We were back inside, and it was like a totally different place … more like an amusement park than the center of the Catholic world. People lining up to take photos of entombed popes, lots and lots of noise … really not a churchie atmosphere. But, what can you do? Get up early I guess. We’ll try the museums again tomorrow.
Haven’t been writing much about Scotland since arriving last Sunday. It’s been a good visit so far, at a much slower pace than Ireland was, mostly of our own doing.
Staying with my brother has been a good thing — it’s given us a steady place to call home, a place to do laundry, some free email, and the like. He’s also got a pile of books and maps that have helped us out when we have ventured outdoors.
Today can’t really be described as anything but a transportation day … we started in Ennis, finished in Edinburgh, and spent a lot of time en route.
After a very tasty Irish breakfast prepared by Nora, including some very tasty black pudding, we were on our way to the airport. One of the benefits of getting lost yesterday was that it made finding the airport quite easy. After dropping our car off at the Avis desk (no hidden charges and no damage … woo hoo!), we checked into our Ryan Air flight, and had time to spare. Ryan Air is one of Europe’s most popular discount airlines … they do things a little differently than most of the airlines at home — it’s more like riding a flying bus than anything else. No reserved seating, no particular etiquette when it comes to boarding, etc … it’s just a free-for-all. After a very evident landing on the runway at Glasgow-Prestwick, we headed for the buses. Turns out that Glasgow-Prestwick really has nothing to do with Glasgow — it took us over an hour of highway driving to even see the city. Another bus trip later, we were in Edinburgh. From euros to pounds, we were spending money quickly.
By the end of the day, I think that I heard “Dennis is in Ennis” a few too many times … but after all, I was in Ennis.
We got a reasonably early start to the morning. Rather than go back and do more hiking at Annascual Lake (we found out that there was a waterfall there that we had missed), we’d instead aim for the Cliffs of Mohr, west of Ennis and south of Galway.
Our good luck with weather was holding … a bit of overnight rain and early morning fog quickly faded, and the roads were great for driving. Our third day on the road was certainly the longest, but also the easiest of the driving. The combination of better roads and more confidence made all of the difference. Every time I’d pull onto the road though, I’d still repeat my “drive on the left … stay close to the center line” mantra just to keep myself sharp.
Day two of driving was much better than the first. Starting off in a quiet city (Kenmare), knowing the way out is much better than starting in a busy city (Cork), with no clue how to get out. Within minutes of leaving town, we were on our way up, quickly hitting some very steep, rugged hills. The roads were still narrow, but the traffic was fairly light. As we climbed, we began to see more and more sheep. At the top, we encountered a building our two along with a sign, Moll’s Pass. Beautiful views of several peaks, countless pastures and sheep galore. A single house at the bottom of the valley completed the scene. From the high vantage point, it was easy to see and hear the Harley’s making their way up the pass … little dots turning into roaring beasts.
It’s been a few days since I’ve seen a computer that was hooked up to the web. Multiday summaries tend to get a little messy, but, here goes.
Monday, June 19 — last full day in Dublin, and last day with my old university roommate as well. Bouyed by the success of the previous day’s jaunt out of Dublin, we thought we’d try again. Back to the commuter train, this time heading south to a little place called Bray. There really wasn’t much happening there, but, it was on the open sea, there were Irish mountains all around, and we were full of energy. We spent the next two hours or so walking along a stunning seaside trail that took us to Greystones, the next stop on the commuter rail line. The walk was great — beautiful vistas, rugged shoreline, seals, dolphins (or small whales), birds, flowers … all from a smooth, easy to walk trail that has surely been walked for hundreds of years. Finished up at a warm pub at the end of my first glass of Guinness in Ireland, as well as my first stew. Both were worth the wait. Back to Dublin for a few more pubs (looked for the obvious ones … Murphy’s, O’Brien’s, etc.) and then eventually found our way to the Irish Whiskey. Good times, and a long day, followed by a short sleep.
It’s only taken a few days to see it all in Ireland — every day so far has featured some combination of sun, cloud wind and rain. Yesterday the rain part was a little more dominant than the previous days. Changed plans a little for us, but Ireland still showed us a good time. We left the guide book behind and went out on our own, following instincts. Grabbed a cheapo commuter train out to the coast to a small fishing town (Howth)… seemed like a local tourist spot more so than a foreigner locale. Got to see the ocean, some very rugged terrain, fishing boats, etc … typical maritime stuff. All in all it was good to get out of the city. Dublin is fine, but, I’m more in my element when I’m not surrounded by too many people or buildings.
I hadn’t heard anything about it before I left home, but, it seems that there is some sort of soccer tournament going on over here in Europe. Lots of people getting excited about it … hogs the TV screens day and night. Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals play tonight, and there isn’t a hope in hell that I’ll catch a glimpse of it … just more kick ball. Culture shock comes rears its ugly head again.
We’ve been here a little over 24 hours now, and the first impressions are mostly good. Dublin is definitely old … we’ve seen things that are close to 1000 years old … not too many of those back home. The crowds here are unbelievable. The busiest place I’ve ever been in NA is Times Square in NYC … there are dozens of streets here that seem just as busy. Back when the Vikings were laying out the streets and sidewalks way back when, they weren’t really planning for these crowds. A little foresight would have gone a long way.
If you’re up for a good story someday, ask us about the amazing snore machine from night #1. Big, fat, stinky and drunk plus snoring made for one very eligible bachelor. Charming.
We are here.
