Completing the Ring

If there is such a thing as karmic meteorology, I may have experienced it in Ireland. Many efforts to visit the Skelllig Islands are thwarted by bad weather, but we had no problem. The rest of our visit was plagued by the wet and blustery clime I was told to expect (although locals say it is not usually this wet). Thursday June 20 was such a day (daughter Sofia's birthday too!), but we were off the drive the Ring of Kerry counterclockwise (or anticlockwise if you prefer). Stop one was Waterville, near which Florry's da Richie grew up. He told a somewhat expansive tale of how one Charles Chaplin arrived in town searching for anonymity, love the placed, summered at the hotel there with family. So they built him a statue.

Further along the road at a pull-out is an Ogham (pronounced Ohm) Stone. These monuments of mysterious purpose were put up 1500-2000 years ago and are inscribed with an early Irish script written in series of lines.

An Ogham Stone

Right around the corner in Caherdaniel is the country estate of Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator (covered in the prior posting).  There was a very informative film on his life and times, beautiful home and gardens, as well as the Golden Chariot he circled Dublin in after a release from prison.

Sneem is a cute village on the banks of a river with an artistic bent. Charles De Gaulle vacationed here to quietly avoid student protests in France. So they built him a monument. (Locals call it the Gaulle Stone).

Heading inland, we took a pass across the hills down into Killarney National Park and the Lakes of Killarney.

Despite drab weather it was easy to appreciate the allure of the place, and for our first time in Ireland we encountered forests.

Torc Creek...

and Falls.

There is the grand Georgian Muckross Estate on the lake where Queen Victoria and her ladies would vacation and nearby the 15th century Ross Castle on Lough Leane (the Lake of Learning, so-called because of an influential 7th century monastery founded by St. Finian the Leper on an Inisfallen Island). One thing we learned is that you can't stop at every castle in Ireland (there are too gosh-darned many of them). This one was worth it, however, as it is nicely restored and a classic example of a medieval tower house where local chieftains lived. Ross was one of the last to fall to and be ruined by Cromwell's armies.

Ross Castle

Lough Leane

Boats waiting to take you to Inisfallen

 The Ring was completed as we drove back to Tralee for one more night of O'Connell hospitalty. We dined that night in Ballybunion, a nearby seaside resort. President Bill Clinton once came here to escape the crowds and play golf. So they built him a statue.

Noted cheater at golf William Jefferson Clinton

As Bill would want it, with Sarah looking on enraptured

(Infinite thanks again to the O'Connells for their generosity, and to Florry and Sarah as excellent native guides.)

The O'Connell Tour of County Kerry (Part 1)

Our Gracious Hosts: Florry, Agnes, & Richard O'Connell

As chronicled in (excessive) detail, we arrived in the Dublin Airport on the afternoon of Monday June 17, 2013 and were met by two genuine Irish people, Florry O'Connell and his friend Sarah Prunty. We have known Florry since meeting November of 2010 in Timaru, NZ, and he introduced us to Sarah in Perth in 2011. We piled into the rental car and he drove off to his home town, Tralee in County Kerry, 3 1/2 hours or so away.
At last check, Florry had 1,522 Facebook Friends. As far as I can tell, these are real friends, not typical "Facebook Friends". He remains the single most likable person I have ever met, is described by Camille Hemlock (real name) as my long-lost son, and our paths have crossed now in four countries on three continents. We met Sarah briefly in Perth, Australia when Florry came to visit her while we were passing through. On leaving Timaru, I was gifted with an Ireland travel guide inscribed "So now you've no excuse not to come to Ireland". He also insisted his parents would be gravely disappointed if we did not impose on them by staying at their home. So for the next four days we were treated to room and board at two locations as well as a chauffeured tour..

County Kerry

First night: Tralee, the county town (or county seat we would say) of Kerry, and the home of Florry. Their home is on a hillock with a lovely view of Tralee Bay, and the town seemed a pleasant average town.

A monument commemorating the 1798 rebellion – a statue of a Pikeman

Tralee street scene

Blennerville Windmill just south of Tralee

On the first full day we are off over Connor Pass

Pedler Lake, a glacial lake en route to Dingle

From the saddle of Connor Pass

to the Dingle Peninsula. Dingle is a quaint seaside town where we had hearty fish chowder. They also make a big deal over a wayward dolphin they have dubbed Fungie after a fisherman with a face like a mushroom. Fungi (alt. spelling) is speculated to be a runaway from a dolphin show that has lived a solitary life entertaining tour boats in the bay for 25 years, and reputed to prefer female homo sapiens. They have erected a statue in his honor. (The Irish like their statues: more on that later.)

Downtown Dingle

Fungi & Friends (plus arm)

Fungi sans Friends

The Dingle Peninsula is famous for dramatic rocky coastal views, a few beaches, and a sparse landscape with rustic stone fences and buildings and abandoned potato fields.

We then drove on further south in Kerry to the Iveraugh Peninsula for a two night stay in a holiday home near Waterville managed by our hosts. En route we stopped in Caherciveen at a monument to the birthplace of Daniel O'Connell, called the Great Liberator for leading a peaceful movement to get the Irish Catholic emancipation in the first half of the 19th century.

Daniel & Me

A bit further down the road we explored a 9th century ring fort with a ruined 16th century castle in the background.

Leacanabuile Ring Fort

Ballycarbery Castle in the distance

The vacation house is serene and overlooks the beach with Waterville in the distance and about 20 minutes from Port Magee our gateway to the Skellig Islands. My complete ignorance of the existence of the Skelligs ended with the Conde Nast Traveler "Where Are You?" quiz from 2007. When I saw it was in Kerry, I knew I had to try to go. Not infrequently the seas are too rough to allow the 7 mile crossing to the isles, but it was our lucky day. The famously temperamental Irish weather was clear, and we had a safe but a bit bumpy crossing over the Atlantic.

Skellig Michael is the larger of the two isles, and home to a remarkable 4th to 12th century monastery of stone "beehive" dwellings perched high on the cliffs reached by a vertiginous flight of 600 uneven rocky steps.

Skellig Michael Monastery

The islands are also a noted bird santuary, and the puffis, razorbills, gannets,etc. (and their droppings) are everywhere.

Puffin

Razorbill

Small Skellig is closed to visitors and is home to the second-largest Northern Gannet colony in the world (the first being on St. Kilda Island in Scotland, as my research showed.). From afar the island is streaked with white from thousands of birds (and their Guano).

Small Skellig

Lots and lots for Northern Gannets

 They 5 1/2 hour excursion will be a major highlight of my visit to Ireland, but our tourist day was not done yet.After dinner, Florry was energized enough to take us on a whirlwind jaunt to Valentia Island, most famous as the eastern terminus of the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable in 1858, as well as for the slate quarry, which produced stone used to build the Parliament Buildings in London and Westminster Abbey, among other landmarks of the British Empire.Part of the quarry was turned into a grotto in honor of the Virgin Mary.

Valentia Island slate quarry grotto

Detail from the top of the Grotto: Statues of Mary and St. Bernadette

The quarry also offers a panoramic view of Dingle Bay.

Such a grand day moved Florry to commence a dance party on the wall around a lighthouse, nearly allowing him to become a fatality in the western-most inhabited spot in Europe!

There are a couple of more loose ends.
Florry and Sarah have been trying to introduce us to a few uniquely Irish items.
1) Florry claims to have had "jelly and ice cream" nightly for dessert as a youth.

Jelly and Ice Cream

From Whence the "Jelly" Comes

2) A "99", which is a soft-serve ice cream with a chocolate stick in it.

(Note the small brown stick, transforming the regular cone into an Irish 99!)

3) And Taytos, which doesn't warrant a photo, as it is just the Irish brand name of a maker of potato chips (or "crisps" to many), used generically, like Scotch tape.

Also, in concentrating on this trip, I completely missed the Obamas coming to Ireland as part of the G-8 conference in Belfast. Dublin was shut down the day we arrived as Michelle and the girls visited. All the media was atwitter, but at least one socialist member of the Irish Parliament was less than thrill. You can check out what Clare Daly had to say about Obama's visit, but be warned, it is more Berkeley Sproul Plaza than C-SPAN.
Finally, there is much in the air commemorating the 50th anniversary of JFK's visit here. They are sending a torch from the eternal flame in Arlington here. It remains a very big deal.

Detour En Route to Dublin

Sofia, Kimarra, Isaiah, & Us by David N before the drive to SFO

Among the many things you DON'T want to see at the airport is jet fuel dripping out of a valve on the wing creating a toxic puddle on the tarmac as if awaiting mutant ducks to arrive. After three hours of hoping this would go away, SAS cancelled our flight out of SF and after another three hours they supplied a room at the SF Hilton. They say life is a journey, which means either a journey is a life or also a journey, or something, but no matter how much you plan you are never quite sure where or when you are going until you get there.
There are a few things I have noted about travel SNAFUs.

1. They are not rare. It seems like 20+% of the time something happens.
2. In addition to screwing things up, they require hours of tiring standing around and confusion.
3. Misery is truly fond of company. After hours of mingling around with strangers, you begin to notice those around you as you share the same hardship. In general, people are quite interesting, convivial, and patient, and there are always people in worse straights than you. Imagine re-booking 16 Girl Scouts on a Scandinavian excursion, a Danish family of five with dog in tow, or others with prepaid tours with little room for error.You get to know them a bit, waiting at the airport desk, queuing up for taxis, at brekfast in the hotel the next day.
4. We also got a glimpse of the Northern California Emmy crew (yes you, Roberta Gonzales) going on at the Hilton and participants in the San Francisco marathon.

I have never taken SAS before, and I am not sure they could have handled this more poorly. I won't bore you with the details, but it included being on the phone for 1 1/2 hours this morning trying to arrange getting to Dublin by tomorrow (Monday the 17th). They offered me a ticket SFO to Paris on Air France, then Paris to Dublin. Hopefully we (and luggage) will make that connection.

The situation devolved into the worst episode of "The Amazing Race" ever. Sunday morning everyone on the cancelled flight was jockeying for the few seats on planes to Europe available. Was that couple in front of or behind you? Will you get a seat and bump them or vice versa. Getting back to SFO by cab, Air France said we were on standby, despite having a boarding pass with a seat assignment in hand. After another tense hour, we were given confirmed seats (quite a relief).
Air France is highly recommended, food, wine, even cognac after dinner. Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris was another story. Mon dieu! Quelle disaster! It took a full two hours and two more trips through security to transfer from on international flight to another (despite no luggage and no customs). The Dublin flight was also delayed due to rain in Paris, but we did manage to make that. The end result of 40 hours in transit was we lost 18 hours in Copenhagen, arrived in Ireland five hours later than expected, but caught up with our friend Florry O'Connell to truly start the holiday.(P.S. The luggage made it too.)

(And a special shout out to David Nishikawa for the ride to the airport. That was the only thing that went smoothly.)

Packing the Suitcase Once More

When I told friends and family of our upcoming adventure, some asked for me to fire-up the travel blog, as I did in my two prior extended trips. Being very prone to anything resembling flattery, I believed them and will document a much more brief sojourn over the next four weeks.
To catch up where I left off from our last travels, Fayne and I had just returned from New Zealand via Easter Island and Ecuador in September, 2012.  We needed a nice long stretch to unpack, relax, get reacquainted with our house, Saturday (our cat), and our community. I have been working every other week in the hospital in Fort Bragg, CA. Our new grandson Isaiah Carter Heard arrived January 7th, 2013.

Isaiah Cater Heard with King Babar

We were able to be there in Phoenix for his birth, and have been able to spend time with his enthusiastic big sister Kimarra and his mother Sofia (our daughter). His dad Marquise has been away lately getting Air Force specialty training in Midland, TX. We recently took the ferry to see the A's vs. Giants.

On the ferry to the ballgame

Kimarra & Papou with 2 championship trophies

We also had time for sister Cheryl's Birthday picnic.

Cheryl's Birthday, Mill Valley

Cousins enjoying cake

May 17th is a birthday shared by Cheryl and brother-in-law Cory. We celebrated at a later date with dinner

and performance of the Icelandic chanteuse Björk, as she was performing in the neighborhood of our condo at Marina Bay, Richmond. I am not familiar with her music, mostly from the swan gown at the 2001 Oscars and fast-forwarding the movie through "Dancer in the Dark" because I couldn't wait for it to end. But the concert was a lot of fun. Her fans share her unique fashion sense and the music was impressive: cosmic, ethereal, featuring a choir of 20 young Icelandic women, a harp, keyboardist, percussionist, and computer person. Glad I went.

Bjork in Richmond, CA

Just before leaving, my sisters and I were invited to The Redwoods in Mill Valley, where my mother spent her last decade. To honor her and especially her love of their scholarship program, they were giving a scholarship in her name. The worthy recipient was Jessica Arango of San Marin High School. Billie Hope would have been so proud!

Me, Jessica, Athena, Cheryl, & Margaret

This up-coming trip evolved thusly:

1. Last fall we were thinking about another cruise this year. We were both interested in the Baltic to Saint Petersburg.

   

   The Eurodam Cruise Itinerary

2. While visiting our old friend Tom Blum in Connecticut (we three met at Berkeley in 1973), we mentioned this, and he and his wife expressed interest.
3. Our Irish friend from New Zealand, Dr. Florence O'Connell happened to be planning a trip home for a wedding.

So it all fell into place: Ireland to Scandinavia to cruise the Baltic. As an added bonus, our neighbors Christine Samas and Doug Nunn arrive in Copenhagen a day before we come home. Quelle coincidence!

I enjoy travel threefold; the preparation, the doing, and the recollecting. There is already a great deal I have learned getting ready to go. Although you may have a vague concept of the hardship Ireland has suffered (much from England, some self-inflicted) it is overwhelming when you read more about it. Despite my wife's disdain for my efforts, I am trying to pick up a few Irish words and phrases, although I find the spelling quite confusing (how is Méabh pronounced Mave?)
I have also discovered some Irish music of which I was previously ignorant, such as:

Rory Gallagher , a truly great rock/blues guitarist I am embarrassed I knew nothing about;

Hear Rory with his Stratocaster

The Pogues, (which is short for Pogue Mahone—pogue mahone being the Anglicisation of the Irish póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse") recorded the best Christmas song I never heard,  "Fairytale of New York";
and Stiff Little Fingers, a pioneer Punk Band from Belfast.

That is the outline. I look forward to many more discoveries. Next stop: Ireland via Copenhagen.