Ireland

We spent an entire day travelling from London to Dublin. We left London from Euston Station right after breakfast. We rode it all the way to Holyhead port, in Wales, where we boarded the Stenaline ferry to take us across the Irish Sea to Dublin port. A bus took us from the station onto the ferry, and once we had reached our destination, we all boarded the bus again and rode into Dublin's city center. From there we took a taxi to our B & B, the Botanic View on Iona Rd., where our room, of course, was on the top floor!



Our first night there we walked down to the Brian Boru pub for dinner, and then to the Sunnybank Hotel to listen to some Irish music. An impromptu group of men gets together there every Monday night to sing Irish ballads. They played a variety of instruments, including a guitar, an accordian, a piccolo and a banjo, and entertained the crowd, who sang along with them, for several hours. Garold got into a conversation with one of them after they sang "On the Banks of the Ohio," and he gave us a CD for a souvenir of our first trip to Ireland.
The next day we set out to see the city, and our first stop was at Dublin Castle. It was built in 1169 by the Normans. Now all that remains is the Powder Tower, which once served as a prison. Its walls are twice as thick as the rest of the castle, and that's probably why it is still standing.



The ruins underground were discovered when they began to rebuild their city hall after the roof began to cave in. We toured what is left of the castle below ground level and saw a portion of the wall with steps leading up to a doorway from the moat. Visitors entering the castle from the moat were required to know the password. If they got it wrong, the door, which opened outward, would knock them back down into the moat. "Dublin" comes from a Viking word meaning black pool, and the moat drained into the black pool.



On our way back to our B & B after our first night in Dublin, we got a wee bit lost after we got off the bus. Finally a very nice old gentleman helped us find the way, and even walked a part of the way with us while he told us a story. The Irish people are pretty friendly, and they have a wry sense of humor--sometimes a bit sarcastic, but very funny!
The next day we visited Trinity College, which was established in 1592 by Elizabeth I, and was one of the UK's first Anglican (protestant) colleges. Catholics were not admitted until 1793. While we were there, they were busy getting everything ready for a visit from the Queen. This would be the first British monarch to visit Ireland in more than 100 years!
The University Library is noted for its very large collection of very old tomes which are arranged not in Dewey order but by size. The main reason for our visit, the Book of Kells, is also on display there. It was created on the island of Iona off the coast of Scotland around 800 AD by monks. They probably worked in pairs, one monk carefully transcribing the four gospels in vulgate Latin onto vellum (lambskin) and another monk adding flourishes and illustrations, using lazurite from Iran for dark blue, gypsum for white and azurite for blue from Cornwall and plants (like the woad plant) to mix with white. Local lore says they moved the Book from Scotland to Ireland to protect it from the Vikings, and then the Vikings attacked Dublin! They ripped the cover off for its gold and discarded the book itself. Fortunately it was later recovered and is now carefully preserved by Trinity College. They only display two pages at a time, rotating the displays to protect the pages from the elements. On the day we were there, we saw a passage from Luke 23: 50-56, describing the entombment of Jesus in a "sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid," and a passage from John 6: 42-57, where Jesus explains that he is the bread of life and that "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life."



As an unexpected bonus, we also saw the original "Proclamation of Independence," written in 1916 and signed by the seven leaders of the Easter uprising. In addition to proclaiming Ireland's independence from Britain, this document supported "cherishing all the children of the nation equally." Prior to Catholic emancipation, Catholics were not allowed to vote, own property, or attend school. All seven of these men, who were school teachers and clerks, were executed for treason. This is the exact spot (small cross to the left of the door) at Kilmainham Gaol (jail) where James Connolly was shot. He was already dying from a leg wound and was brought to Kilmainham Gaol for execution. He was unable to walk all the way to the designated execution spot, though, so they shot him here.



Kilmainham Gaol is no longer occupied, but at one time it held men, women and even children, some as young as 8 years old, for anything from murder to stealing an apple. Women and children were put to work doing the laundry and cooking for the prison population. Prisoners were given one candle every two weeks and a blanket. They were allowed to walk outside for 1-2 hours each day. During the potato famine the population of Kilmainham increased dramatically, and sometimes there were 4 or 5 people in a cell intended for 1. As dismal as this sounds, it was probably better than life outside in the cold, with no food.
After leaving the jail, we visited one of the oldest pubs in Dublin, the Brazen Head.
It was surprisingly quiet -- pubs in Ireland resemble sports bars in America. There may be a TV broadcasting a local sporting event, or some live music, and it is a place where local people and tourists alike stop to have dinner. Pub food is good but not fancy. The menu almost always offers meat pies, bangers and mash (sausages and mashed potatoes) and fish and chips. We sampled a Guinness, since it is the national drink and it's brewed in Dublin -- it tastes a little bitter, and it is dark, with a thick head of fine foam on top.



After four days in Dublin, we were ready once again for a trip to the country. So we boarded a tour bus bound for Glendalough and Kilkenny, south of Dublin. Our first stop was at Glendalough, which I think would translate to something like two lakes and some woods. We took a quick mile long walk along the trail.



Alongside the foot path I saw this interesting pile of rocks. Some of the museum exhibits we have seen described a rock tomb which I imagine would look a lot like this:



The scenery was so beautiful and relaxing we would have liked to spend more time there. In spite of all the walking we've been doing we had a little trouble keeping up with the tour group.



At the end of the trail we were rewarded with this 6th century monastic ruin. The round tower in the background was probably a bell tower. It's entry door was about 10 feet above the ground, so they had to use a rope ladder to enter. If they had put the door at ground level the structure would not have been able to support the height. To the right of the house there are some very old tombstones, many of them leaning.



After Glendalough we travelled to the city of Kilkenny, where we had lunch at Kilkenny Castle, and then walked through the city to see the Black Abbey. This is the stained glass window from inside the Abbey, which is still used for prayer and services.



On the way back to Dublin, we had time to contemplate the beautiful countryside in Ireland, and decided we will need to come back for a more leisurely paced look one of these days.

Cambridge

After ten hectic days in London we were ready for a holiday in the country. So we took a train to Cambridge, where we stayed in the Autumn House B & B. We had a very nice room with a recently remodeled bathroom, so needless to say we enjoyed the roomy shower! We set off right after breakfast to explore Cambridge. It's very pleasant to just walk around and enjoy the beautiful scenery.



The weather was nice, so there were lots of people punting on the Cam river. Punting in Cambridge has nothing to do with football! One person stands on the back of a narrow canoe type boat and propels it with a long stick while other people sit down in the hull of the boat and contemplate the universe. It reminded me of the gondolas in Venice. This bridge is called the Mathematical Bridge, because when it was originally constructed it had no nails. The pressure of each piece of wood upon its neighboring pieces was enough to support the structure.



We visited King's College, which was founded by King Henry VI way back in 1441, and finally completed in 1544 by King Henry VIII. There is an awesome "fan-vaulted" ceiling in the chapel, and an original Rubens painting, "Adoration of the Magi." Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn donated a massive oak organ screen that has their initials on it. This was before Anne's demise, of course. Here's a small but interesting fact: In 1534 King Henry VIII granted Cambridge the privilege of printing a book (a privilege they chose not to use for 50 years). Until then, only the royal printer could legally print Bibles! William Tyndale, the first to translate the Bible directly from Hebrew and Greek into English, was tried for heresy, strangled and burned at the stake in 1536. Later scholars would use his work (without credit) to produce the King James translation.
There are more than 30 colleges associated with Cambridge. Students who want a degree from Cambridge must first apply to one of these colleges. They do not require students to attend lectures, but they must meet once a week with a "supervisor" (we would call them academic advisors), to discuss their progress. Cambridge has produced more than 80 Nobel Prize winners......so they must be doing something right!
Interesting local legend: Cambridge students may be responsible for the term "pub crawl." Students would challenge one another to drink a pint at each pub on King Street, which once had 15 or 20 pubs! By the time they reached the end of the street, they would most likely be crawling.



This is the Round Church, one of the oldest buildings in Cambridge. It is remarkable because it does not follow the traditional cross shape with the altar facing East. It was built by Knights returning from the Crusades around 1130.



Because it is the 400th anniversary of the King James translation of the Bible, the Cambridge University Library had a special exhibit with many of the early attempts at translating, including Martin Luther's, William Tyndale's and Miles Coverdale's, as well as a Gutenberg bible and two copies of the King James first editions! The Protestant Reformation was happening, the printing press had just been invented, and people were starting to wonder why they couldn't just read the word of God for themselves. Some were more successful than others! One early version accidentally left the word "not" out of the 7th commandment, effectively instructing people to commit adultery! The person responsible for this mistake was fined 300 pounds and spent the rest of his life in debtor's prison. King James I of England (Mary Queen of Scots' son) was an author and a scholar himself. He ordered scholars from Westminster, Oxford and Cambridge to work together to produce an authoritative translation of the bible. Each group of scholars was assigned a portion of the text to translate, which they then sent to the other groups for review, and then all three groups met to discuss the final text. This may have been one of the first group projects executed by a committee!
Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536): "I would to God the ploughman would sing a text of the scripture at his ploughbeam, and that the weaver at his loom and with this would drive away the tediousness of time."



Our last day in Cambridge was Mother's Day, and we spent it at Cambridge University's Botanic Garden. There were so many different types of flowering plants and trees there it was awesome! We only had a couple of hours to spend there but if you get a chance plan to spend an entire day. We had left our luggage at the B & B (they laughed when they told us they would have a "boot sale" if we didn't come back and get it by 2 PM) and were scheduled to take the train back to Euston Station in London that afternoon, before travelling to Dublin. During our train ride we saw an actual boot sale: A parking lot with dozens of parked cars, each with their trunk (boot) open. We would call it a garage sale.

London Day 10

We went to the Tower of London on our last full day in the city. It's been more than a decade since we were last here, with Greg, in March of 2000. Remnants of an ancient Roman wall were found near the Tower, both inside and outside of the walls.



The Tower was built by William the Conqueror back around 1080, in an effort to control the population of London by instilling fear. There is an inner defensive wall, an outer defensive wall, and a moat. In addition, there was once a menagerie of wild exotic animals roaming around somewhere, probably between the two walls, to attack anyone who made it that far (eventually they became the first residents of the London Zoo). Members of the Royal family actually lived on the top floors, up until 1695. When Henry VIII married Ann Boleyn, he had a royal residence built there just for her.

It appears an intruder has managed to get past the menagerie, has made his way into the Tower and is entering the gates! Long live the King! Off with his head!



Some very famous people were held prisoner at the Tower. If they were members of the Royal Family, or otherwise favored by the reigning monarch, they would be allowed to have their families and even servants with them. Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned, along with her servants, for the last 19 years of her life, and then she was beheaded. Below is a photo of the room where Sir Walter Raleigh lived, imprisoned with his family--his son was born in the Tower. He had offended the Queen by marrying one of her handmaidens in secret, and being implicated in a plot to overthrow the crown.



Those who were not so lucky as to be of nobel birth or have friends in high places were imprisoned at lower levels, perhaps even below ground, where they might have been held for many years waiting for the King to have a good day and pardon them, or trying to prove their innocence.



They might have been tortured to make them confess their crimes. Sir Thomas More was imprisoned and beheaded because he refused to sign the Act of Succession, which gave Ann Boleyn's children legitimacy and a claim to the throne, or the Act of Supremacy, which declared Henry VIII Head of the Church. This graffiti scratched on the wall by one of the unfortunate prisoners is dated 1570.



Our tour guide was a "beefeater." They are the Queen's bodyguards, who were once paid a part of their wages in beef. The Queen wanted to keep them fit and strong, so they ate red meat regularly. Today they provide guided tours of the Tower. Our guide told us that under the floor of the small St. Peter in Chains chapel where Ann Boleyn was buried they found more than 1500 headless bodies buried. They were only able to identify about 30 of them. One was the hapless Dudley, Duke of Monmouth, who refused to pay the token coin of gold to the executioner to ensure a quick death. Unfortunately, it took at least 5 whacks from the ax, which even then did not completely sever the Duke's head. The executioner took out his butcher knife to finish the job! According to legend, they realized too late that they had not painted an official portrait of the Duke, as he was entitled to, since he was of noble birth, so they sewed the head back on and painted his portrait!

Here's an executioner's ax and block that was on display at the Tower. The block is hollowed out on both sides to accommodate the head and the body, leaving the neck exposed.

London Day 9

We went to Westminster Abbey on Wednesday, thinking it would be a good day since they stay open later on Wednesdays. But this was actually the last day the royal wedding flowers would be on display there, so we had quite a wait....1 1/2 hours to get in, and then they had a special wedding tour set up that took everyone along the path the royal couple followed. All her flowers were white, with Lily of the Valley being the primary flower. They were beautiful, even though they were 5 days old. She laid her bridal bouquet on the grave of the unknown soldier, as tradition required. There were cascades of flowers at the altar and at the second story balcony. We saw the room where William and Harry waited...it is actually a crypt where some ancestors are buried! We saw the coffins of Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Henry VII, and Geoffrey Chaucer.



We went out into the courtyard and had a cup of tea. It was very very strong, typical English tea. We toured the museum. Here's Garold at the double doors to the Pyx Chamber, where robes were stored in giant chests.



We walked around the college gardens where it is possible to relax and meditate. On the other side of this garden door lies the chaos of London. At 5 PM we attended the evening service at St. Margaret's Chapel. It was very brief, and the lessons were simply readings from the Bible.



While we were there we noticed that there are people who actually live at Westminster Abbey. This is the back patio of one of the apartments. Not sure who they are, but there were some organists buried along the courtyard walk way.



After we left the Abbey we took a walk along the Thames, where we passed Cleopatra's Needle, an obelisk that was given to the British by the Egyptians. Two sphinxes, who were supposed to be placed looking outward as if guarding the obelisk, were placed looked inward as if gazing at the obelisk. The mistake was never corrected.
The evening sky as viewed from the Thames:



On a whim we decided to take a ride on the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel that takes you 450 feet above the city and provides an excellent view of the city. Another rider offered to take our photo:

London Days 6-8

On Sunday we went to the National Gallery of Art. They don't allow photos inside but we saw a lot of awesome paintings, including one by Leonardo da Vinci. I saw a Madonna and Child by Bronzino that I really liked. The Christ child is gazing at a cross while Mary has a tender sadness in her eyes that suggests she forsees the future. We saw Raphael's 1511 Portrait of Pope Julius II, Degas' 1890-1900's Ballet Dancers, and After the Bath: Woman Drying Herself, Cezanne's 1860's Stove in the Studio Van Gogh's 1888 Chair and Long Grass with Butterflies, Renoir's 1876 At the Theatre and 1881 Umbrellas, Pisarro's 1897 Boulevard Montmartre at Night, and two Monet's that I had never seen before:
The Gare Street Lazare (The Train) and my personal favorite, his 1864 La Pointe de la Heve Sainte Andresse. Plus many many more too numerous to name but all so incredibly awesome.
We spent about 5 hours in the National Gallery, and easily could have spent another 5 hours.



On our way to the Underground, we passed by St. Bride's Cathedral. The steeple on this church was the inspiration for the design of the traditional wedding cake!



The next day we went to find the CWR, Churchill's War Rooms. They were located in the basement of the Treasury Building. Churchill and his cabinet spent six years here from 1939 til 1945, conducting the campaign against Hitler, whom Churchill called "an evil man." They had the enigma machine that the Germans used to send coded messages. They would type in a message then the machine would scramble it before sending it. Breaking this code played a significant part in winning the war. They had the first secret hot line, to the White House, located in a broom closet and kept locked at all times with a lavoratory lock that indicated the room was occupied. No one except Churchill was allowed to go in this room, and his staff were convinced that it housed the only flushing toilet on that floor. This is the conference room where Churchill met with his cabinet to plan strategy. The map along the left side of the wall has a caricature of Hitler that was drawn by one of the members of the group.



After we came back up into the daylight, out of the steel and concrete reinforced bunker where the CWR and museums were we went to the National Museum to get a head start on the huge collection they have. We started on the first level and spent 2 hours there the first day. Then we went back the next day and spent another 6 hours, and still did not see it all.



We saw lots of Egyptian pottery. They were very skilled at pottery making! They etched a picture into the partially hardened clay, then applied a special paint to the rest of it that when fired turned black, leaving the picture in red.



They had pieces of a frieze from the Parthenon! Later, we stopped by the Tipperary Pub to have dinner, and the guy behind the bar said "Those Victorians, they stole from everyone!"



They had the Rosetta Stone! On this stone a message is carved in 3 languages, one of which is Greek. The Greek message says that all three of the messages are the same. Since scholars were able to read Greek, they were then able (after 25 years of puzzling over it) to read the hieroglyphics, too. Turns out the ancient Egyptians would include sounds in their writing. For example, the word "cat" would begin with letters representing a sound associated with the word, such as M I W, then at the end there would be a drawing of a cat. Without the Rosetta Stone, we may never have known how to read hieroglyphics.



We saw a bust of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, who founded the city they once called Londinium.

London Day 5

Today we took it easy and rode the bus. As we travelled around the city there was a recorded commentary that talked about the buildings and the history of the city. We passed by St. Mary's Hospital, where in 1945 Alexander Fleming won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of penicillin. We passed by Hyde Park, where Henry VIII once hunted, and which is now a public park. We saw the Marble Arch, which commemorates the spot where some 60,000 people were hanged at the gallows. We drove through the neighborhood where the Beatles once lived and where Paul McCartney wrote "Yesterday." The original score for this song is on display at the British Library, and it says that he woke up one morning with this song in his head. We passed the street where Samuel Johnson, who wrote a Dictionary of the English Language, once lived. We saw the pub where Dickens liked to hang out, the Cheshire Cheese. We saw the Mansion House, where the Lord Mayor of London resides. We saw Lambeth Palace, where the Archbishop of Canterbury lives, and we saw the Archbishop himself, who performed the wedding ceremony yesterday for William and Kate, strolling through the Archbishop's Park. And, we saw the Houses of Parliament:



As we were crossing London Bridge, we saw this new modern glass building that is going up, called the Shard. They claim that when it is completed it will be the tallest building in Western Europe.



We crossed over Tower Bridge. This is a draw bridge to allow large ships to sail up the Thames, but there is a footbridge above so that people can still cross even while the ships are passing.



After we got off the bus, we stopped in at a pub for some tea and a cappuccino, then decided to take in a show tonight. We took the underground over to Leicester Square, where they have the half priced show tickets and bought tickets to see "Dirty Dancing." It was a fantastic production of this now classic musical. The staging, set, choreography and acting were all superb. Interestingly, this theatre allowed people to consume food and drink during the show, so people all around us were munching on popcorn and sipping sodas during the performance.

London Day 4

Today we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, the first Anglican church that was established after the English Reformation. (That is when King Henry VIII decided to be the head of the church so that he could divorce and remarry!) There has been a church on this site since the year AD 604, so most likely it was first a Catholic Church. It has been burned or otherwise destroyed and rebuilt 4 or 5 times. The current building was designed by Christopher Wren back in 1675. Some of the famous people who are buried here include the architect, Christopher Wren, Admiral Nelson, and the Duke of Wellington. John Donne, the poet, was Dean of St. Paul's in 1621. Today the building is still amazing. We toured the main cathedral floor, where there was a service underway. The clergy here carry on as if nothing is unusual even though dozens of tourists are wandering around looking up and listening to their audio guides. We toured the crypt, below the main floor, where more people are buried, and today they have a cafe with tables and chairs sitting right on top of the graves! We stopped there for a rest ourselves.



It's a good thing we took a break because we decided to go ahead and climb up into the Dome, to see how far we could go before passing out. There are three levels: you can climb up 257 steps to the whispering gallery. We tried it out, and it is true. Garold stood on the opposite side and I could hear him! Then if you dare you can climb another 119 steps to the Stone Gallery and have a pretty awesome view of the city.



We climbed the final 152 steps, all the way to the top of the dome, to the Golden Gallery, where we were rewarded with the most totally awesome view, 365 feet above the Cathedral Floor.



After we climbed down the 528 steps we took a bus ride down to the Tower of London to catch a boat ride on the Thames. We sailed under the Tower Bridge down to Westminster Abbey and back again. Our tour guides were two young men with distinctive cockney accents and a wry sense of humor. As they pointed out the buildings along the bank of the Thames, they told us that the Tate Modern was one of the few free attractions in London, and if you decide to visit you will see why it is free! Ha!



After the boat tour we went in search of the oldest pub in London, the Cheshire Cheese. There was a very small bar and a restaurant at the street level, and down 2 or 3 levels below the street there was another bar and additional seating. We went down to the lowest level and ordered our dinner: Steak and ale pie (for me) and Chicken and mushroom pie (for Garold) plus the ever present chips (french fries) and English peas. It was pretty good and reasonably priced at about 5 pounds each.