Down on Galway Bay

When last we left our intrepid explorers, we were leaving the stony wastes of the Burren and heading to Galway City - famous for the bay of the same name. Galway is a university town, home to a major branch of the National University of Ireland and a large part of its population are students making it a young and lively town - even though it was founded in the Middle Ages.

Navigating the crowded streets of Galway in a car was something of a horror show since apparently the streets haven't been widened since the aforementioned Middle Ages (on one, so-called two-way street, I predictably sprung the left side mirror) but once we found a rare parking space, we set out on foot and found the charming city (the fourth largest in Ireland) well worth the trouble of threading our way through its traffic.

Galway Cathedral - built 1965. We parked near here.

After parking, we crossed the Salmon Weir Bridge back across the River Corrib and followed the lovely river walk for a time.

The River Corrib seen from the bridge near the cathedral. The structure upstream is the Salmon Weir which helps control the swift-flowing river. Note the brave soul fly fishing in the rapid current

Another, perhaps more prudent fisherman just across the river from the fellow in the last photo.

Michelle and Roz on the Corrib River Walk. We were afraid they were going to break into a River Dance.

One of these houses was the home of Nora Barnacle better known as Mrs. James Joyce.


A spillway on the River Corrib

After we walked along the river, we turned left into Galway proper. What should we come upon but a pizza parlor, "Pacino's" by name. Since it was about that time (i.e. lunch) we gave it a try. The individual pizzas they served were not bad at all. Of course the best pizza in the world can only be had in New Jersey, but this pie was quite acceptable. After lunch, we wandered throught the town a bit, but time was ticking on and we had to get going as we had to drive back across County Clare to our B&B reservation in Bunratty and the Bunratty Castle banquet. So back to the car park and off we went again.

Pacino's on the Bridge - Galway

A bistro we passed while walking through Galway City. "Potata" is an approximation of "potato" pronounced in an Irish brogue. The Irish do have a sense of humor

Our drive took us south, back toward Limerick City on the N18 to the town of Bunratty located between Shannon Airport and Limerick. This was our first B&B of the trip. It was owned by a nice young couple who were very welcoming and friendly and who were the parents of two of the cutest toddlers this side of Little Mark. The B&B was a fairly new house which had been modified with a whole separate wing added to accomodate the guest rooms.

After putting our bags in the room and relaxing for a while, it was time to head to Ye Olde Medieval Banquet at Bunratty Castle about ten minutes down the road.

Bunratty Castle - The castle was built in 1425 on the site of a number of previous fortifications. It was restored in 1958 to the appearance it had in 1619

We arrived at the castle along with numerous other tourists and were ushered into the castle's great hall where we were greeted with music and cups of mead. The great hall was decorated with tapestries and other authentic accoutrements of the 1500's.

A fiddler and harpist greet us in the great hall.



Our intrepid travelers quaff ye stronge drinke in front of a stained-glass window

There was a master of ceremonies who was supposed to be some sort of major-domo of the castle who greeted us in the "name of the lord of the castle" and generally carried on with a lot of amusing Irish malarky. The overall effect was that of a Renaissance fair but with better actors. It was actually a lot of fun for what it was.

Some of the "singing wenches" who entertained us. The head varlet or whatever is the guy on the far left.

After a while we were led down one level to the banquet hall where we were all seated at a series of long trestle tables. More malarky followed with one tourist couple being designated the "lord and lady" for the evening. There was also a schtick where four Australian guys were sent to the "dungeon" for five minutes. And so on.

The food consisted of ribs and chicken eaten "medieval style" i.e. with a knife and the fingers. It was, in contrast to most of our Irish dinners, only mediocre. But one does not attend a thing like this for the gourmet dining. Actually, our fellow diners at our trestle table were four very interesting young people from Texas. They were three young women and a young man who worked for NASA. Three of them were engineers and the fourth was a financial programs analyst. They gave us a valuable tip concerning Waterford, where we were planning to visit the famous Waterford glass works later in the week. They told us that they had been to Wateford and the factory was closed. This saved us a trip to Waterford and freed up time for other sightseeing.

The entertainment continued during the banquet. The two people in the front center of the picture are two of the group who worked at NASA.

Michelle and I at the banquet. The people behind us were a group of Irish women who were having a bachelorette dinner for one of their girlfriends.

Eventually, the banquet wound down and it was back to our B&B.

Next: B&B breakfasts and onward to the Ring of Kerry.

Who is Cliff Moher?

The morning of our second day in Eire, we woke up bright and early, our zombie-like state from the previous days lack of sleep pretty much erased by a good eight to ten hours in a comfortable bed. The Strand Hotel put on a nice buffet breakfast the price of which was included with our room, so we set out well fortified for the day's wanderings.

Our first stop was to be the fabled Cliffs of Moher in County Clare. They are located to the east of Limerick City. With a firm grip on the wheel, the help of the Bitch in the Box, and a lot of luck, we made it across the country roads of Western Ireland to the famous cliffs. They were spectacular. I won't even try to describe them; I'll let the pictures we took do it better.

A view looking southwest. The next stop from here is America.

O'Brien's Tower - a nineteenth century observation tower. The cliffs reach their maximum height of 702 feet above the ocean just north of here.


The cliffs just below O'Brien's Tower with the Atlantic breaking at their base.


Abe had me pose for this; Michelle swore she didn't pay him to get rid of me.

In case one did not get the point, these grim cartoons were all over the place.

Finally, we saw this sign near the edge - the Irish suicide hotline. This sign tended to turn up in places where people might jump - by rivers, cliffs etc.

There was a visitors center at the site with the usual interpretive center, lunchroom, t-shirt shops etc. The non-usual part of the center was the fact that it was mostly underground, set into the grass-covered rolling hills which lead up to the cliffs. This design minimizes the visual and ecological impact of the center and impressed me as very smart planning.

A portion of the visitor's center - it was all set into the hillside like this.

Anyway, the cliffs are one of Ireland's top tourist destinations and are listed in Roz's book of 1,000 places to see before you die. Of course, if you ignore the signs and get too close to the crumbly edge, you just might see the cliffs and die. Oh well.

Our next adventure of the day took us through a region in Western Clare called The Burren. In green and grassy Ireland, this is a region literally covered in grey stone. Once again, I'll let the pictures tell the story.

The stark, stony landscape of the Burren

A sign explains the geology of the region

The "limestone pavement" described in the sign above

The Burren was a stark, interesting landscape and a marked contrast from the usual lush green countryside of Ireland. Since the area consisted of stone, more stone, and not much beside stone, guess what was the favorite building material of the locals from prehistoric times onward? Yup, stone.

We saw evidence of this when we stopped at the Caherconnell stone ring fort in the middle of the Burren region. This was a dry stone circular wall with auxiliary walls and cattle pens which protected a local noble family and their livestock from around 400 AD until the end of the middle ages. In ancient Ireland, one's wealth and power were measured by the number of cattle and sheep one owned. Thus protection of the animal herds was nearly as important as protecting the people.

A portion of the main wall of the ring fort.

Some of the local "wealth" on the hoof.

To this day, cattle and sheep appear to be important to the local economy (even in modern high-tech Ireland). Nearly every available field seemed to support a herd of sheep or dairy/beef cattle.

Dry stone wall near the ring fort - note how the flat stones are laid vertically

It started raining pretty heavily while we were at the fort, so we beat a hasty retreat to our car and continued our trip through the Burren. Along the way we passed a prehistoric passage grave known as the Poulnabrone Dolmen. We did not want to stop in the rain so we just took a passing photo.

The Poulnabrone Dolmen circa 2000 BC

A ruined church in a small town in the Burren region. I thought it was interesting how they built a glass roof over the ruin to protect it from further deterioration.

After the Burren, our next stop was the university town of Galway and the famous Galway Bay. I was going to talk about Galway and our medieval banquet at Bunratty Castle in this post, but I think this one has been long-winded enough. So until next time. Slainte!

We did it on Adare

Well, after Abe and Roz got back from King John's castle, it was still early, so we got the car out of the hotel car park (car park=parking garage/lot) and drove to the lovely little village of Adare. Adare is located a short drive southwest of Limerick City in the county of Limerick. It is a very beautiful town with a number of traditional thatched roof cottages and a nice town park.

Thatched roofs on the main street of Adare

Adare's Town Park



Trinitarian Abbey Church in Adare - Founded 1230 AD, restored in 1852

After a pleasant walk around the town, we found a place to eat lunch. Naturally, it was a pub - called "Aunty Lena's Bar and Lounge". This was our first real Irish meal and it was very good. I am sorry to say that we disgraced ourselves by only drinking diet coke in the first Irish pub that we hit, but we were in bad enough shape from lack of sleep that I think we can be forgiven.

I should mention that the notion of Irish food being not being very good persists even today in the U.S. And in truth, in years gone by Irish cooking was not one of their high points. This was especially true of the Irish who immigrated to the USA. Michelle and I being from families who came at least partly from this tradition; we always sort of joked about Irish "cuisine" being essentially "boil it til it's limp" and add potatoes. In America, the Italians, Chinese etc. opened restaurants, the Irish opened bars.

Let me assure one and all, that in the Republic of Ireland, this has all changed drastically in the last 30 years or so. The food we had was, by and large, wonderful. I believe that Ireland's membership in the European Union has facilitated a cross-pollinization where in return for Ireland's wonderful fresh seafood, dairy and produce, European culinary skills have proliferated in the Emerald Isle. At any rate, it's the best of both worlds now. And I should mention that we didn't even eat in any fancy restaurants - just pubs and lunchrooms.

"Aunty Lena's" in Adare

Any rate, after a pleasant lunch at "Aunty Lena's" we wandered back to the car and returned to Limerick.

We semi-crashed in our hotel room for a while and eventually got our act together to go out for some dinner in Limerick City. The place we chose was (of course) a pub called "Dolans".

"Dolan's" - Limerick City

As it turned out, that night a big semi-final game for the Heineken Rugby Cup was being played between Munster (Southwest Ireland where Limerick is located) and Leinster (Eastern Ireland including Dublin). Since Dolan's is apparently a sports bar, the game was on about twenty TV screens throughout the pub and the place was filled with red-shirted Munster fans. It was kind of fun to be there with the excitement. Since Michelle and I are American football fans, watching the rugby match was kind of tantalizing since it was both like and unlike American football. I think our "football" is derived from rugby, but I'm not certain. The main difference to our eyes was the fact that the players wear no protective gear but they still get tackled and have these huge pile-ups on the ground-don't know how more of them aren't hurt. Well, Abe finally got on the internet with this super-whoopie Blackberry he has from work and looked up the rules of rugby while we were watching and then the game became at least semi-comprehensible to us. Unfortunately, Munster lost but they gave the other side a run for their money. Afterward we all agreed that it was kind of neat to be able to be there and experience a bit of Irish life and their version of sports fandom.

A U.S. college rugby game-note the lack of any protective gear!

I should also mention that the food in Dolan's was very good. We all had seafood which Abe and I each washed down with a pint of Harp Lager. Afterward, we drove back to the hotel in the rain and promptly passed out after being up for like thirty-six hours straight.

Next: County Clare, the Cliffs of Moher, Galway City and a medieval banquet (sort of).

Sleepless in Limerick

After we arrived in Shannon Airport, we collected our luggage and passed through Irish Customs/Immigration. Then it was time to pick up our rental car. First stop was the "Dan Dooley" rental car counter in the terminal where we filled out our paperwork and were presented with the GPS which was included in our rental. We were also informed that if we lost or otherwise failed to return the GPS we would be charged 500 euros! That's almost 700 dollars US. This for a Garmin portable GPS that you can buy new for around 100 bucks.

We resolved that whenever we left the car, the GPS would reside safely in the pocket of my cargo pants. But I digress.

Our next challenge was fitting our luggage in the trunk or "boot" of the Nissan Almera they gave us. At first, we were somewhat dismayed that the "larger" four adult capable car was rather on the small side. As the trip progressed and we had to negotiate the very narrow Irish country roads, especially in the west of the country, while driving on the left no less, we were very grateful indeed for the smallness (and narrowness) of the vehicle. As it turned out, all of us were quite comfortable in the car. The luggage fit in the "boot" with literally not a cubic inch to spare and for some reason, it seemed that every time we packed the car, Abe and I packed the bags in a slightly different configuration - but they always fit!

A Nissan Almera - Ours was blue.

Since we were allowed only two drivers on the vehicle under the standard rental agreement, Abe and I were elected to be the drivers for the trip. Michelle and Roz were only too happy to elect us. Both our wives are good drivers (Michelle loves empty desert roads with no speed limit) but considering the drive on the left situation and the narrowness of the country roads, they were happy to leave the driving to the old men.

So for the rest of the week, Abe and I took turns scaring the crap out of our wives and each other. The basic paradigm consisted of one guy driving (in the right front seat where the controls are on Irish and British cars) with his hands clutching the steering wheel in sheer white-knuckled terror, while the other fellow sat next to him in the passenger's seat (normally the driver's seat in a US car) frantically pumping a non-existent brake pedal and offering soothing encouragements and helpful hints like: "LOOK OUT FOR THAT F-ING TRUCK!!" and so on. In the meantime, our wives would kindly point out F-ing trucks from the back seat. The co-pilot's job also involved operating and interpreting the GPS or the "bitch in the box" as we lovingly referred to the charming, British-accented female voice which issued forth to tell us where to turn at the next roundabout.

A typical Irish country road - The "shoulder" is a hedgerow. There is a reason that left sideview mirrors there are loosely sprung - we sprung ours a lot.

Ahh, roundabouts. This is the Irish/British term for what we call traffic circles - you know, those things that the State of New Jersey has been systematically eliminating for years. In Ireland (and the UK) they are practically national monuments. In fact, in travelling between any two small towns you are sure to pass through at least a hundred roundabouts (well, not really, but it seems that way). They range from the normal size such as we Yanks are used to, down to - I kid you not- large white dots painted in the center of a small obscure intersection. Did I mention that you drive them clockwise?

A mini-roundabout

Well, enough about the thrills of Irish driving. From the airport, we headed into Limerick City and our hotel - The Strand. This was our stay for the first night and was quite nice with a view of the River Shannon (of song and story) and easy walking access to the center of Limerick.

The "Strand" with the Shannon in the foreground. Limerick was just across the bridge.


Limerick at night as seen from our hotel

Of course, there was one strange thing. Right after we checked in, the place swarmed with scary looking dudes and dudesses wearing leather and various metal accoutrements. Was this the Vikings, returned to Limerick after an 1100-year hiatus? Nope, it was an Irish motorcycle club on a cross-country run to raise money for Downs Syndrome research.

After we checked in and stowed our bags in the room, we pressed on with a walking tour of the portion of Limerick near our hotel. Since Michelle and I had, at that point, been about 24 hours without sleep, the bed in our room looked mighty tempting. However, Roz had decided that we should not miss seeing everything we possibly could, even on our first groggy day. We teased Roz about this outlook a bit during the trip, but the truth be told, her persistence spurred our little group on to see a lot of Ireland during our fairly short stay. Thanks Roz!

So anyway, we stumbled around the streets of Limerick and came upon an outdoor market which seemed, of all things, to consist of a cadre of French people with pavilions selling their wares and fresh cooked foodstuffs. Thus it was that my first official Irish breakfast consisted of a tasty bowl of French cassoulet (a kind of white bean stew with sausage and other goodies). Apparently this "French Market is part of the Limerick Riverfest which was going on that weekend.

After munching at the market we wandered further on and came to King John's Castle. Yes that King John - the one Robin Hood was always foiling and who was forced to sign the Magna Carta. Apparently Limerick was some sort of Norman outpost in those days. Michelle and I due to our advanced state of beatedness declined to join Abe and Roz on the tour of the castle and instead wandered back across the Shannon on a nearby bridge and thence back to our hotel. Below are some pictures of the castle courtesy of Abe and Roz:

Roz in the courtyard of King John's castle. Leaning on what may be a medieval keg of Guinness

A trebuchet-type catapult and some excavations at KJ's castle. River Shannon in background.

Limerick row houses as seen from the castle

After a short break at the hotel, we set out for the nearby village of Adare which Roz assured us was cited by her guidebook as "the prettiest village in Ireland". Well, if it wasn't the prettiest, it was up there in the top ten. More about this next time.

Next: Adare and Limerick nightlife.

Old Sods in the Auld Sod-Part I

Earlier this month Michelle and I set off on an expedition to explore the land of (at least some of) our ancestors. We were accompanied on this journey by one-third of our intrepid team of explorers from our famous China trip: Abe and Roz. The basic game plan was to fly to Ireland, pick up a rental car, drive madly around the country, see as much as humanly possible in a one-week period, and stay (mostly) in bed and breakfasts (B&B's). Hilarity ensued.

Michelle found an excellent package deal on line which included air fare, a rental car, and accommodations for six nights in the Emerald Isle. Four of these were in B&Bs, and the other two were in a four-star, and a five-star hotel respectively. I'll talk more about the five star joint in a later post. Roz took the lead in finding and booking the B&B's via e-mail, using the list of available places from the travel booking company. Fortunately, these places were all what in Ireland are known as "ensuite", i.e. the bathrooms were private-in-your-room like a hotel as opposed to the "down the hall" baths traditional in B&B's. Anyway, thanks Roz and Michelle.

Well, Friday, the day of the trip, came, and Abe and Roz drove up to New Jersey from their home in Maryland to rendezvous at our house. They left their car in our garage and we all piled into my 4Runner and headed to the airport.

Incidentally, for parking we use an outfit called "Vista" which stores your car in a fenced lot near the airport with 24/7 security guards. They drive you the short ride to the terminal in a van and even handle your luggage. When you return, your vehicle is waiting there for you at the lot entrance warmed up and cleaned of snow if need be - no schlepping through the lot to your car. I highly recommend them - www.vistaparking.com for their info.

Our flight was a 7:30 PM departure on Continental and was rather pleasant for a five-hour flight (once you've done 13 hours over the pole to China anything short of Australia is duck soup). The seats were fairly roomy (3X3 across) and Michelle and I had the aisle and window with the center fortunately empty.

The neatest thing about the plane was the small screen set into the seat back in front of you. You had a choice of movies, TV shows and video games to keep you amused all the way across to Shannon airport. And, it was all free. I ended up watching "Casablanca" and some sitcoms and then proceeded to play video poker and blackjack all the way to Ireland. Unfortunately, one did not play with real money, else I would have won enough to pay for the trip. Why can't this happen in Vegas?? The flight was fairly smooth and uneventful and deposited us in Shannon at around 6:00 AM Irish time. Needless to say, Michelle and I didn't get any sleep on the flight over, but we were nevertheless ready to start a whole new day of exploring "The Auld Sod".

The Shannon River and Limerick City-Our first day in Ireland

Next: Driving on the Left side and other quaint customs.

A New York Sunday

Last Sunday we took a ride into New York - specifically Greenwich Village. We had tickets to an Off-Broadway play called "The Third Story" which starred Kathleen Turner. We also had a little brunch and later, after the show, dinner. Plus we did a little WA'ing (Wandering Aimlessly) in the always interesting area.

The play's start time was 3:00 P.M. but we got into the city about an hour and a half early. While wandering the vicinity of the theater, which is located on Christopher St. near the corner of Bedford, we decided we wanted something to eat before the show. We planned to have dinner later, but neither of us had eaten much of a breakfast, so we thought some brunch would be good. Fortunately, this being New York City, one can find brunch served pretty much all day Saturday and Sunday.

We wandered up nearby Bleecker Street and Michelle spotted a small, almost hole-in-the-wall little place called "August". It looked interesting, and they were serving brunch, so we went in.

We had about a 15-minute wait for a table but were eventually seated in their rear area - a narrow, greenhouse roofed space that took up what would have been the building's narrow back yard. I ordered a dish of house-cured gravlax - a kind of salt cured salmon- served over scrambled eggs and pumpernickel bread with raw onion and creme fraiche. It was delicious and not particularly pricey. Michelle had "Bavarian eggs en croque" which were baked in a small dish with ham and cabbage. This dish was also excellent and reasonable.

The place does much of their cooking in a wood-fired brick oven. Also, Monday to Friday evenings, they do Tapas.

August is located at 359 Bleecker St. Their web page is at: http://www.augustny.com/

August on Bleecker

After brunch, we took a leisurely stroll to the Lucille Lortel Theater where "The Third Story" was playing.

The Lucille Lortel

The play was written by a gentleman named Charles Busch who has been a fixture of the Village theater scene for many years and is famous for performing in drag. He also starred in the show with Kathleen Turner. True to Mr. Busch's typical creation the story was funny and deranged with the tale of a mother-son screenwriting team and their conflicts spinning off into a parody of 40's gangster movies with Busch as the queen of the mob. This premise then evolved into a sci-fi cloning/zombie tale which also was occasionally interrupted by the story of a Russian witch and a lovesick princess (Mr.Busch also played the witch).

The show was funny, if somewhat confusing, and everyone in the cast did a good job, although Ms. Turner could not, given the lighter vein of the material, reach the heights she did in "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolfe".

"The Third Story": On the left Charles Busch (with the lipstick) and Jonathan Walker, to the right Kathleen Turner and Mr. Walker who plays both the screenwriter's son and the "lady" gangster's son.

When the show ended (it was the last performance of a limited run) the cast were all given flowers and thundering applause.

At this point, we went in search of a place for dinner.

We found it in a restaurant which was recommended in the latest issue of "New York" magazine. The place is called "Commerce" appropriately located on Commerce Street not far from the theater.

The interior of "Commerce" located at 50 Commerce St. NYC

We looked over the menu and nothing jumped out at us, so we decided to follow the NY magazine recommendation all the way and order their roast chicken for two. It was a bit pricey and entailed a 40 minute wait (the chicken is roasted to order) which they did forewarn us about. While we waited we shared a salad made with herbs that I liked but which Michelle thought was too salty.

Finally, the chicken arrived, presented to us on its roasting pan, and then returned to the kitchen to be split and boned. It was without a doubt the best roasted chicken we have ever eaten. In fact, I would recommend this place just for the chicken. I would also advise calling ahead to ask them to start a chicken so as to avoid the wait (they'll probably want a credit card # - but that's to be expected). Did I mention that the chicken was stuffed with homemade bread stuffing with foie gras?

Speaking of bread, the bread basket served at dinner in this place was amazing - it's been rated the best bread serving in NYC.

At any rate, if you want amazing - but not cheap- roasted chicken, visit "Commerce". I can't vouch for any of their other food though.

Web site: http://www.commercerestaurant.com

All in all, another "Ernest Hemingway" day.

HO Sopranos

For Xmas my nephew Mark (dad of The World's Cutest Grandnephew(TM)) thoughtfully gave me a hobby kit with which to build a model building for my HO layout. But not just any building - a pizzeria. And not just any pizzeria, but "Pizzaland" as seen in the opening title sequence of the Official New Jersey TV Show - The Sopranos. It seems that a hobby kit company called Blairline went to the trouble of creating an exact scale model of the business (which is located in North Arlington NJ).

I finally finished the kit and it now occupies a place of honor not far from Lil' Mark's favorite merry-go-round.

Pizzaland - as seen from the window of Tony's SUV

I suppose now that I may have to deal with a rash of my HO scale people "whacking" one another. Or possibly discover an HO scale Jimmy Hoffa buried in the plywood of the train layout.

Oh well.