The End of Euro 2012

This will be my last posting between now and our triumphant return to the states. I’m writing this from the room at the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel. Tomorrow we get a 6:00 AM wake up call and head to the airport to check in and grab some breakfast before our 11 hour flight.

I soooo much look forward to giving everyone a big hug when we get home. I love you all, and can’t wait to see you!

The Smiths

Our visit with the Smiths was excellent. Their kids are very charming, and we had a great time sitting and chatting with them. We also had the privilege of riding along on their way to school, which was nice to see. Below are Spencer and Owen, although Owen is being camera shy. The picture of me and the kids is the best picture I have of Owen, who looks very much like a young Sam. Then of course is AJ, the most personality-packed 3-year old I have ever met.

The last picture is of Pauline and Laney, who got along very well with each other. Laney’s parting words to Pauline as she waved goodbye at school were “Buy a motorcycle!” I have no idea what those two had been talking about, but it sounds like they’re getting ready for an adventure.

We were so fortunate to have been able to see the Smiths during this trip. They will be moving back to the states soon, and it was just fantastic to be able to see their home and neighborhood during the short time they have left in England. Their hospitality is impeccable, and we are very lucky to be able to count them amongst our dearest friends.

Norwich

Pauline had promised to herself that she would one day return to Norwich. It had been a destination on her previous vacation, and held a place in her heart for its strikingly well preserved medieval structures and villages. During her last trip she wrote a note to herself and hid it in an arrow portal in the hopes she would one day return to retrieve it. It was still there.

After retrieving the note we went to the market square where a huge number of vendors are scattered about. Here we stopped at George’s Jacket Spuds to eat jacket potatoes (baked potatoes) with egg, cheese and sausage on them for breakfast.

Norwich was a very charming town and is known for being one of the best-preserved medieval cities in the country. There are medieval churches absolutely everywhere, and most are still standing. One gentleman told us there were 365 pubs and 52 churches in the city, which meant there was a pub for every day of the week and a church for every Sunday.

Connemara

On our last day in Ireland we drove through Connemara. This region in the West of the island has a unique landscape and is covered almost entirely by peat bogs. There is very little vegetation in the area, and the stormy weather gave the journey an eerie yet peaceful feel. We stopped by a lake to do some scavenging for rocks and artifacts. Pictured below are some pictures of Pauline wading around the shore and our chariot, the VW Golf. 

Along the way we stumbled upon a mother sheep and lamb. Upon seeing us they both ran away into the middle of the road. Not the best idea considering the oncoming car visible on the horizon. On top of this, the lamb chose to stop directly in the middle of the road to suckle. Evidently it was a nervous eater.

Food, Beer and Lack Thereof

Toward the end of the week in Ireland Pauline and I started to get desperate. Desperate for food that tasted like anything other than a potato. We found ourselves staring longingly at vegetable stands wishing we could just get a nice green salad. Everything in Ireland comes with butter, including most sandwiches that have no business being served with butter. There is literally no sandwich they will not put butter on. When you order a sandwich that is lucky enough to come with a few side salads, you get a sandwich with butter, cole slaw that tastes like butter and some lettuce that is doubly outweighed by the dressing in which it has been drenched.

It seems a great mystery that there are simply no herbs in the food. You’d think in a country where it is constantly raining and everything is green that they would be able to intentionally grow a few greens, but they don’t seem to manage it.

The one thing they can make fantastically well is soda bread. I just love the stuff and am going to try to make it at home. They also do scones well, but again, we’re talking about grains. If you like eating grains incessantly, Ireland is your place.

Oh, I almost forgot about the beer. Every bar serves the following: Guinness, Carlsberg, Budweiser and Heineken (listed in order of quantity ordered). When you go to a British pub there are scores and scores of beers to choose from. It makes absolutely no sense that Ireland, as much as they love grains, hasn’t figured out how to make good beer out of it.

Angel's Share

I neglected to mention an interesting factoid that Pauline thought I should make note of. I had written earlier that about half of the barrel of Jameson whiskey is evaporated over the course of its 12 year aging. The whiskey that is lost is referred to as the “Angel’s Share”. Evidently Angels love the hard liquor.

Damage Waiver

When renting a car one always has to consider whether to buy the supplementary insurance. The damage waiver in this case was a no-brainer. We stood a very good chance of returning the car damaged given we had no knowledge of the rules of the road before they handed us the keys. We also had no idea what the condition of the roads would be, and as I noted before, the roads turned out to be extremely dangerous. As predicted, the car was returned with a few scratches.

The first scratch came as a result of hitting an orange traffic cone that someone had put out about a foot into the roadway along the Ring of Kerry. Just as I went to pass the cone, which required that I drive partially in the other lane, a car came in the opposite direction, forcing me to slam on the brakes and swerve back into my lane. This resulted in me running over the traffic cone, completely shattering it, and leaving a nice scuff on the front bumper.

The second bit of damage came as a result of a poor suggestion from the Garmin. I had missed a turn, so Garmin recalculated a route that took me 2 KM down a private dirt road. Why Garmin had any knowledge of this road I have no idea, but it was 90% pot holes and the ruts were so deep that the car risked high-centering as we attempted to get through what was clearly someone’s private property. Not only did we know that we shouldn’t have been there, but so did the German Shepherd that was guarding a private driveway. Upon inching past the dog, it attacked the rear bumper, leaving a bite mark and claw scratch.

The Ring of Kerry

The Ring of Kerry is a long drive around a peninsula that takes you through a mountainous area interspersed with granite outcroppings, fields, and sheep.

It was a specific request of Deborah's that we try to get a picture of a roadside sheep. Here's are a few sheep that were sitting on the side of the road. We though they were dosile since they did not appear to be bothered at all by the passing cars, or by the fact that I drove right up to them to take this picture. They did, however, object to Pauline chasing them.

Castelownbere

We had originally planned to stay five nights in Castletownbere. This was decided based on the following assumptions: 1.) The town was easy to get into and out of so we could take day trips from there. 2.) The town was exceptionally charming, inspiring a writer to put a local bar on the cover of his book because he loved it so much. 3.) The bed and breakfast we had chosen was going to be nice and comfortable. Not a single one of these assumptions was accurate.

In reality the roads getting into town were terrible, treacherous, and would take us an hour and a half to get to a major motorway. Second, the town was not at all charming. Sure, we found the bar that was on the cover of the book, but it was crap. And third, the bed and breakfast was awful, but we got into town at around 9:30 PM, and it was too late to find another option. We never unpacked as we knew immediately that we would not be staying another night in the room, let alone in town.

I asked Pauline what the author had to say about this town that made her want to book five nights here. At this point she admitted she had not yet made it to that chapter. I read the chapter that night, and it revealed the town to be a working fishing village (this much we knew). He also revealed these local fishermen to be a bunch of thugs who walked around the town in packs, and did not produce an atmosphere that any tourist should seek out. And the bar on the cover of the book? Turns out the only reason the author himself went to Castletownbere was because he was on a mission to go to bars that had his last name, McCarthy. He was lucky enough to be at the bar on the birthday of the owner and was invited to her party which was a real rager. In short, he loved the bar for reasons we could never replicate.

The bright side of this story? Staying in town would never have given us the chance to see as much of the wonderful towns and countryside over the following four days. Also, Pauline was finally able to realize her dream of travelling around the countryside without any idea where you were going to stay next. This turned out to work just fine.

Below is a view of the bay from the window of our bed and breakfast. It was extremely wet and windy that day, which did not do any favors for the ambiance of the place.

Avoca

Several years ago a TV series named Ballykissangel was filmed in the town of Avoca. It featured a then unknown Colin Farrell, and used a great many of the town’s existing buildings as pubs, shops and churches. A friend of ours from St. Catherine’s was married in the church in this town as her husband was from the area.

As we drove into town Pauline found herself giving me directions, pointing out all of the stores having become familiar with it from the show. Our first stop was in Fitzgerald’s, the local bar where we had lunch and of course a Guinness. Here we met Denny the Tock.

While touring the Jameson factory I learned that it was common to name one’s firstborn son after the father. It was also common for each family member to follow in the footsteps of their father, which meant that there could easily be three generations of men with the same name working in the factories. In order to tell each other apart each worker was given a nickname on the first day of their employment. Whether they liked it or not, the name would be theirs for the rest of their employment.

Such was the condition of Denny the Tock, whose nickname’s origin remains a mystery, but it could easily come from either the fact that he is extremely chatty and likes to “talk” or because he’s a little bit crazy and could go cuckoo at any second. Nevertheless we had a great time chatting with him, and discovered that he knew our friends in Martinez very well, which I suppose should not be a surprise in such a very small town.

Wicklow Pass

Driving from Dublin to Castletownbere in the southwest corner of Ireland took us through Wicklow pass. This region is our favorite thus far. On our approach to Glendalough, we took a wrong turn which pleasantly took us to a collection of ruins.

You can see from the countryside that there is granite scattered about absolutely everywhere. This makes the ground impossible to farm on, and only suitable for grazing. The sheep seem to be doing quite well as you can just make them out high on the hillside.

Driving

Thank God for Garmin.

We rented a Garmin with the car, and if it weren't for that we would have had one hell of a time navigating our way through the city and countryside. Having that as a security blanket has made the driving far less stressful than it otherwise would be.

As for driving, it is surprisingly easy. The rules of the road differ only slightly from our own, and after you manage to get through three or four round-abouts, you realise there's really no great mystery to them. Basically, you have to yield to any traffic already in the round about, which means you don't need to rush to get into it, and once you're in, you have the right of way to any other cars that would like to get in, so you don't need to worry about oncoming traffic either. The only trick is reading the road signs in advance of entering the round about because it can be pretty disorienting if you don't know when you're supposed to leave.

The trickiest part of driving at first is learning to not flinch at oncoming traffic. You just aren't used to having cars pass so closely to your right, so you tend to shy away from them, which means you run the risk of driving onto the shoulder of the road, which is easy enough to mistakenly do when you don't know the points on your car. However, you must learn exactly where your left wheels are as well as how wide your car is if you are to have any hope of surviving on the country roads.

The country roads that you must navigate in order to get to the more scenic areas such as the Ring of Kerry (a 170 km scenic drive) are absurdly narrow. The paved part of the road is no wider than two parking spaces, and the shoulder is at best six inches of grass, and then a rock wall or hedge. In some parts the road narrows so severely that your left and right wheels are driving over the reflectors on the shoulder and along the center line of the road at the same time. Imagine driving 50 mph around roads that are twisting and turning constantly such that you have very little reaction time when you are confronted with an oncoming car, and then you both have to squeeze through what little space you've been provided, avoiding each other by mere inches. Now imagine that car is a bus.

When we chose to drive the Ring of Kerry, I struggled with whether we should proceed clockwise or counter clockwise because I did not want to have to confront any tour buses, and I was certain they would run the buses in the same direction because they couldn't possibly pass each other on the narrow roads. We guessed clockwise. We guessed wrong. There's really no way to describe what goes through your mind when you confront a bus on these roads. You have to put your left wheels on the shoulder, knowing you have six inches of insurance room, and at the last second, you take seven of them.

Needless to say we have survived all of the near misses, and the VW Golf we've been driving has been brilliant. I've rather enjoyed driving since there are plenty of opportunities for adrenaline rushes, and driving a manual with your left hand requires your brain to think differently. Driving is a very active experience. Well, it's time for dinner now, so I'm going to take a break. More on Castletownbere tomorrow!

Tour Time

There are two tours that we simply had to go on while we were here. Having enjoyed both of these products over countless occasions, it seemed only fitting to see how they're made. I refer, of course to Jameson Whiskey and Guinness.

The photo below shows one of the copper distillation towers and a rather peculiar class cylinder atop one of the old smokestacks. I never found out what the tower was, but I assume it was a private bar.

The Jameson and Guiness tours began the same way, with a description of roasting barley, malting the barley and making beer. Whiskey begins as beer, although without any hops, before it is distilled alcohol of an appropriate proof. American whisky is distilled once, Scotch twice and some others, namely Jameson, are distilled three times. This makes the alcohol smoother, or so they say.

The other particularly interesting fact I learned was that a great deal of the alcohol evaporates while the whiskey (spelled with an "e" in Ireland) is matured in oak barrels. After it ages for five years, about 20% of the content of the barrel has evaporated, and after 12 years nearly half has been evaporated.

One last Jameson factoid. It is aged in oak barrels that had previously been used to age Sherry, Port and American Whisky.

Now on to Guinness. This tour was self-guided and takes you through six different floors of the old brewery. Arthur Guinness was so confident that he would be able to convert an old, run-down brewery into a successful business that he signed a 9,000 year lease for the property. The original lease can be seen at the start of the tour.

Another interesting fact is that the Guinness brewed in Dublin is shipped to Europe, North America and South America. There are two other breweries in Africa and Australia. Sorry to debunk the rumour, but the Guinness you get in the US, although perhaps not as fresh as that in Dublin, is the same stuff, and is not a different recipe brewed in Canada or elsewhere.

The tour finishes with a panoramic view atop the brewery where you can enjoy a complimentary pint. 

Bloomsday

Bloomsday is the 16th of June, during which throngs of people follow in the footsteps of Leopold Bloom, the main character from James Joyce's Ulysses. We won't be here on the 16th, so I followed much of the route on my own yesterday, which served to take me through a good amount of Dublin as well as give me the right to check that obligatory task off the list.

The only thing that isn't terribly impressive about the walk is most of the streets are non-descript and don't hold any significance in and of themselves. There are however a few landmarks along the walk. One is Sweny's, a Chemist from whom Leopold buys lemon soap. Another is a railway overpass under which Leopold reads a letter from his love interest, after which he enters a church, which can be accessed through the small gate to the left of the overpass.

The picture below is the inside of the church, in which Leopold spent a short time followed by a stop in Davy Byrnes, a pub in which he had lunch and a drink, as did I.

The Pub

One is never far from a pub in Dublin. They are absolutely everywhere, and as far as I can tell they don't appear to differ very much from each other. They all serve a modest variety of beer, the dominant of course being Guinness, which plasters its name absolutely everywhere. We are fortunate to have a few nice pubs about three minutes down the road from where we're staying. We are also fortunate that there is a major European soccer tournament, Euro 2012, taking place over the next few weeks. Ireland managed to secure a spot in the tournament this year, so the town has been alive with excitement. Ireland managed to lose badly in their first game against Croatia 1-3, but are due to play again later in the week. The game definitely brought out the locals, who crowded the pubs both inside and out. Below is a picture outside our local pub. Actually it's a combination of three pubs directly adjacent to each other. Note also how bright it is outside. This picture was taken at about 10:00 PM.

Day two: Catholic Super Bowl

Day two started with a complimentary breakfast at our bed and breakfast followed by a short walk to the convention center's ticket counter. Pauline checked into the Catholic Super Bowl and had about four hours to kill prior to kickoff/opening ceremonies. We killed the time by walking about a mile and a half into the center of Dublin: Temple Bar. This is where I would spend most of my day after Pauline went to the convention. Below is a shot of Pauline along The River Liffey, which runs through the center of Dublin.

I almost forgot to mention. The weather has been freakishly nice. Not a single drop of rain has fallen since we arrived, and the forecast looks quite pleasant for the next several days. This will all change when we head west in a few days, but we'll certainly enjoy it while it lasts.

Travel Day

Our first day went reasonably well, but was not without a few hiccups. Dad dropped us off at the airport about two hours before the flight was due to depart and we spent the next 45 minutes waiting in line to get our boarding passes. Our flight was delayed about 45 minutes, which required us to book a new connecting flight from Heathrow to Dublin. Lucky for us these flights are not infrequent, so our connecting flight was only a short time after the original. During this time we also managed to purchase a $50 upgrade to seats that had about four inches more legroom, which was money well spent. This upgrade also meant that Pauline and I would not be sitting together, but since sitting beside each other would mean that someone would get an uncomfortable middle seat anyway, we opted to both get windows, which ended up being one row away from each other on opposite sides of the plane.

The flight was very full, although I was very lucky to not have anyone sitting beside me, so I had a particularly comfortable flight. Pauline sat beside a mother-son duo who seemed to behave themselves, and did not make the flight unpleasant for Pauline either.

We both managed to get nearly five hours of sleep on the plane, which was more than enough to get us through the next leg of the journey from Heathrow to Dublin. After getting our boarding passes we only had a few minutes to spare before boarding the flight, so the timing couldn't have been better. By the time we got to the hotel it was 4:45 PM, which meant we had no time for naps, but rather would power through into the evening with dinner and would stay up as late as we could in the hope of sleeping through the night. We crashed at about 8:30 PM and remarkably slept all through the night until 6:30 AM.