IRELAND, DUBLIN: IRISH WRITERS WALKING TOUR, PART II (ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL AND MARSH'S LIBRARY)

 July 13, 2024

After lunch we headed to St. Patrick's Park, where a church has stood for over 1300 years. Today the church on that spot is known as St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin (there are a bazillion St. Patrick's churches in Ireland), and it is not only the national cathedral of the Church of Ireland, but also the largest church building in Ireland. A small part of the present church on the site dates all the way back to its 8th century origins.

The park and cathedral are notable for a couple of reasons.  First, tradition has it that about 1500 years ago, St. Patrick baptized the first Irish Christians in a well located next to the cathedral. 

The legend is supported by this artifact: a thousand-year-old engraving of a Celtic cross on a stone that was found in 1901 six feet underground covering the remains of an ancient well. 

IRELAND, DUBLIN: IRISH WRITERS WALKING TOUR, PART I (OSCAR WILDE SITES, ST. STEPHEN'S GREEN, GUINNESS, ST. PATRICK'S PARK LITERARY PARADE)

 July 13, 2024

On our last full day in Ireland including an Irish Writers Literary Walking Tour that Bob had booked in advance with Tours by Locals. We highly recommend our guide, Adam Ladd, who was fantastic.  

We started out by paying homage to the Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). We walked by the Giant's Garden Playground, named after a fairy tale written by Wilde called "The Selfish Giant." It tells of a giant who returns from a trip and finds children playing in his garden. Not wanting to share, he builds a very high wall to keep them out. His actions cause a continual winter to descend upon the garden, so not even the giant can enjoy it. When the children sneak back into the garden, the trees are so happy that they bloom and spring returns. The giant realizes the error of his ways and tears down the wall, making the garden forever available to all the children.

IRELAND, DUBLIN: THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF IRELAND, THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF IRELAND, AND IRISH DANCING

 July 12, 2024

The National Library of Ireland is somewhat like our Library of Congress in the United States, albeit much, much smaller--12 million items as compared to the US Library of Congress's 167 million items. Its purpose is "To collect, preserve, promote and make accessible the documentary and intellectual life of Ireland and to contribute to the provision of access to the larger universe of recorded knowledge." This is a reference library, which means that guests can't check out a book, but can view them on the premises.

Built in 1890 in the classical style, the building houses the archival papers of some of Ireland's most prominent writers, including Seamus Heaney, James Joyce, Edna O'Brien, Colm Toibin, and W. B. Yeats.

Bob was not as excited about taking a stroll through the library as I was, so he sat on a bench on the porch and I went in for a quick visit.

IRELAND: TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

 July 12, 2024

Bob and I like to visit famous universities. We've been to most of the biggies in the United States (Think Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, etc.), and we've been to a few overseas (Think University of Heidelberg in Germany, University of Coimbra in Portugal, Oxford and Cambridge in England, Trinity College in Toronto, etc.).  We were excited to add Trinity College Dublin (aka University of Dublin) to our list.  

We started with a guided walking tour of the campus. Modelled after Oxford and Cambridge, Trinity was founded in 1592 by England's Queen Elizabeth I and is now home to 19,000 students. One of Trinity's specialties is English literature, and its program is ranked #1 in the European Union and 21st in the world. Literary luminaries who are alumni include Oliver Goldsmith, Jonathan Swift, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, and Samuel Beckett. Four Presidents of Ireland and four Nobel Laureates are alumni.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) is engrossed in his book and hardly notices the many visitors who walk by him near the entrance.  George Salmon (1819-1904), a mathematician and a theologian who was also the college provost for a time, famously said, "Over my dead body will women enter this college." Maybe he felt that way because he had six daughters and Trinity College was the only place he could go to get away from them.

The iconic Campanile was being renovated when we were there.

IRELAND, DAYS 1-2: TRAVEL, ARRIVAL, AND EXPLORING KILKENNY

 July 3-4, 2024

We left home at about 3:00 PM and made it through downtown LA and to our parking garage in about two hours.  Not bad.

We had an uneventful check-in for a non-stop flight to Dublin on Aer Lingus, a new airline for us. We were seated on the 3rd or 4th to the last row in the center section of a 2-4-2 configuration, but the last five rows or so only had three middle seats, making the aisles wider in the back near the bathrooms. Genius. Anyway, we both had aisle seats with an empty seat between us. Miraculous! And another miracle--I slept for a good part of the 9 1/2 hour flight, a rarity for me. We did have two meals. Dinner was tortellini with tomato sauce, salad, a roll, and chocolate mousse that was pretty good. Breakfast was a hot bagel with melted cheese and a sausage patty--not so good.  I watched one movie, Disenchanted with Amy Adams, sequel to Enchanted. Worst move I've seen in a long time. You can't win them all.

For a relatively small airport, we had a long walk between getting off the plane and passport control, but by then our suitcases were waiting for us. We walked to the car rental area to get our car from Budget and discovered why our rental (and every other rental we looked at) had been so cheap. They REQUIRE customers to buy insurance, which added $400, plus we had to put down a $2,000 security deposit. They must have lots of problems with people who can't drive on the left side of the road and with a steering wheel on the right. We had a very small Renault Clio with a manual transmission, but Bob, fortunately, is an absolute pro at shifting with his left hand and driving on the left side of the road.  

Our plan was to immediately leave Dublin and drive to Kilkenny, a distance of about 80 miles, which we thought might take an hour and a half. However, traffic was very heavy leaving Dublin, and not long after leaving the car rental place, the car began beeping at irregular intervals. Then the tire light came on, so we figured the low tire pressure caused the beeping. We got off the freeway, found a gas station, filled the tires, then figured out how to turn off the tire warning light. Sixty seconds into our drive, the beeping came back. Ultimately, I figured out that it was a sensor for lane control. Every time Bob began to drift towards a line in the road without signally, it beeped--and that was often. I found the instructions for how to disable that feature, and we continued our drive in peace.

NORTH CAROLINA: RALEIGH

 October 2022

On my last day I had several hours to kill after my son went to work and before I had to head to the airport, so I decided to take a look at North Carolina's capital city, Raleigh, named after Sir Walter Raleigh of Roanoke Colony fame. With a population of about 475,000, it is the 41st largest city in the United States, the 2nd most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, and one of the fastest growing cities in the country. In 2011 was ranked by Time as the third most-educated city in the US. 

Andrew Johnson, the 17th President of the US, was born here in 1808. Other notables include Olympic figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, American Idol star Clay Aiken, and writer David Sedaris.

I was headed for the capitol building, but I detoured when I saw Christ Episcopal Church, built in 1848 to 1853. I love this sculpture entitled Peaceable Francis.

Down the street and around the corner is the First Baptist Church, completed in 1859.

SPAIN: THE CATHEDRAL OF SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA AND THE CATHEDRAL MUSEUM

 June 29-30, 2022

As noted in the previous post, the current Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela was built in Romanesque style in the 13th century, with Gothic and Baroque additions in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. It is a massive structure, and no doubt gets its notoriety from being the reputed burial spot of St. James (aka Santiago) the Greater, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. However, it is a magnificent edifice of its own accord.

By the way, the only other churches in the world built over the tomb of an apostle are St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, St. Thomas Cathedral Basilica in Chennai, India, and the Basilica of St. John in Izmir, Turkey.

A sign of the importance of this cathedral is that it was visited THREE TIMES in a span of 28 years by two different popes--Pope John Paul II in 1982 and 1989 and Pope Benedict in 2010.

The interior of this cathedral is about 310 feet long, has a transept that measures 206 feet, and stands 72 feet high, making it the tallest building in Europe when it was built. Today it is still the largest Romanesque cathedral in Spain. At first glance it looks rather austere.

But then you see the main altar, and the closer you get, the more opulent it is.

PORTUGAL: PORTO, PART III - CAPELA DAS ALMAS, IGREJA DE SANTO ILDEFONSO, MAJESTIC CAFE

 June 28, 2022

After lunch we made our way back to the more interesting part of town. When we passed the church on the left, I thought, Wow, how beautiful is that! But then we came up on the church on the right, Capela das Almas (Chapel of Souls). Oh. My. Goodness. 

Yeah, take a look at those tiles. How can you not be overwhelmed at the first site of THIS?

PORTUGAL: COIMBRA

 June 27, 2022

From Batalha we drove about an hour north-northeast to the university city of Coimbra, where we had a private tour scheduled. We had about an hour before we were supposed to meet our guide and were starving, so we found a parking place within walking distance of our meet-up point and conveniently located near the Café Santa Cruz. We lucked out because this café has been open since 1923 (although the building itself dates back to 1530) and is a Coimbra landmark. 

Photo from here

We arrived at lunchtime and the place was packed. They had a buffet-style set-up, and they couldn't keep the dishes stocked, so the line was moving pretty slowly. We paid 18€ for both of us, and that included drinks, and when we finally got through the line, we discovered that the food was quite good. The tables were full of what looked like university professors and students, and it was fun to be in that atmosphere.

Photo from here

Just outside and perpendicular to the restaurant was a wonderful "trash art" mural of a baby owl by the Portuguese artist Bordalo II. The left side is more or less traditional, its claws digging into an old wall, and the right sight is much more futuristic.

PORTUGAL: MAFRA

 June 26, 2022

We hadn't had a car in Lisbon, and we were very glad about that. Parking would have been impossible, not to mention navigating the tangle of streets. However, we DID want a car for the rest of our trip, which would include a lot of driving between cities, and we chose hotels partly for their parking accommodations.

We had arranged a car through Eurocar with pick-up at the airport at 8:00 AM.  The guy behind the counter ran the most aggressive upgrade pressure we have ever experienced.  He told us our economy-level car was too small for our luggage (which was all carry-on, nothing checked at the airport). Then he said it had a small tank for such large distances we would be driving. (Portugal is the size of the state of Indiana.) Then he said we really need a car that took diesel fuel because it was much cheaper than regular fuel in Portugal. He offered us a Jeep for "just a little more money." Bob just kept saying no, and eventually we drove away in our [small] Renault.

Our first destination of several we had planned for the day was Mafra, which is home to one of Portugal's 17 World Heritage Sites. It is located about 22 miles north-northwest of Lisbon.

So what makes Mafra, a city of less than 80,000 people, so special? And what is the tourist-drawing UNESCO site?

The answer to both questions is hard to miss.

TEXAS, MIDLAND AND ODESSA: THE PERMIAN BASIN PETROLEUM MUSEUM, GEORGE W. BUSH CHILDHOOD HOME, THE MIDLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY, AND THE ODESSA JACKRABBITS

 March 21, 2021

After enjoying our drive through Texas Tech, our delicious lunch, and our visit to the Buddy Holly Center, we headed to Midland, about 120 miles due south of Lubbock. Midland is not located in mid-Texas as its name implies, but rather in West Texas. It was named "Midland" because it was founded as the midway point between Fort Worth and El Paso on the railroad that connected those two cities. Its biggest claim to fame has to do with THE Bush family, but more on that later.

Midland is located in the Permian Basin, a large sedimentary basin  that includes a lot of oil fields, so it makes sense that Midland is the home of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum, which didn't sound all that exciting, but we needed a break on a long drive, so we decided to stop there. 

Appropriately, the museum has an oil rig in its front yard.

Posts outside of the museum are topped with engraved granite markers that give a timeline of oil production from 400 BC to the present day.