Ireland again part 3

Once we had left the Aran islands, after two wonderful days, we were off to the Connemara. The Connemara is one of Ireland's most rugged parts. It consists of high, rocky peaks, bogs and a rugged coast line. It is really very beautiful but not very rich. Instead of taking the main road to get to where we were going we cut across the mountains using a secondary road that cuts through a pass in the mountains. Connemara was one of the hardest hit regions in Ireland during the Great Famine, and the population dropped drastically and it is now only starting to recover its prosperity.

The Connemara is also the place where you can find Connemara marble. Usually we picture marble as being white, maybe pinkish or more rarely black. Connemara marble is however green and that is very rare indeed. In fact you can buy jewelry made from this marble and it is magnificent. Mrs. BB bought a necklace and earrings and people ask her where she got the stones.

Panoramic view of the Twelve Bens

One of the numerous lakes in the pass that cuts through the Twelve Bens and the Maamturk Mountains. The mountains in the background are one of the Twelve Bens.

A view of the pass and the road through the mountains.

These small boats are coracles. They are made from a wooden framework covered in tarred canvas. Originally they would have been covered with oiled skins, much like the Inuit umiaks or kayaks.

The coast of Connemara, mountains and bays.

A Connemara pony. These half-wild horses are said to descend from the horses that escaped from the wrecks of t he Spanish Armada.


A view from the Sky road. A very narrow twisting road with breathtaking scenery.

A small bay with the Twelve Bens in the background.

During the famine many farms were abandoned, either because the people had died of hunger or had fled to North America, so there are ruins of cottages in many places. Not all the ruins are because of the famine some of them, near other houses, were abandoned for more modern housing.

The donkey kept following me around, I was finally able to take his picture because every time I tried he would push his nose towards my camera lens looking for handouts.

This is the Dan O'Hara's homestead. It was renovated to show what the small farms would have looked like in the 1800's. The tenant was kicked off his land when the landlord hiked his rent because O'Hara put windows in the house. His wife and most of his children died on the boat and he and the two remaining children settled in New York, where he also died brokenhearted so it's said. There is a song about him that is still sung.

One of the windows that caused so much trouble.

Another cottage with a thatched roof. This one is lived in.

Ireland again

Well since I have a few minutes I'll upload some of the pictures from the trip onto my blog. They are pictures from the Aran Islands off the western coast of Ireland, about nine miles from the Irish coast. The really nice thing about the islands is that they have a sort of micro climate, so even when it is raining and nasty on the mainland, there it is sunny and mild. We spent two days there on Inismore, the biggest of the three islands, and both days it was more sunny than not. We also saw a show of local music put on by the islanders that was fun to watch, even though we could see that they were not professionals. But they seemed to be really enjoying themselves and we could do nothing else but tap along to the music.
Here are a couple of interesting factoids. There are motor vehicules on the island but they are all diesel, the reason being that diesel fuel is less explosive than gasoline and since everything must be brought by boat to the island the insurance would be just too expensive for the boats because of the danger of a gasoline fire. On the islands all the farmland is "made". The foundation of the islands is bare limestone, like the Burrens and pretty much nothing grows, so using sand and seaweed as well as plant debris found inthe cracks and fissures of the limestone the islanders have been "land-making" for millenia. All the fields you see on the island, such as the ones in the picture below are man-made. If you look at the picture of the cliffs you can see what the ground looked like before it was remade.
Also the Aran islands are renowned for their beef cattle, but when the cattle are brought to the mainland they must be provided with a salt lick since they are used to salt in their fodder and will not eat if it is not there.

The roads of the islands


The cliffs on the western side of the island beside Dùn Aonghasa




Dùn Aonghasa is s semi-circular ring fort right on the edge of the cliffs.


The eastern part of the island is lower and less rocky than the western part which faces the Atlantic


The shore line on the other side of the island


Dùn Duchathair (Black Fort) is another ring fort on the edge of the cliffs. This one is off the beaten path so when I hiked up to it from the hotel I was completely alone, only the sea, the cliffs, the wind and the ghosts of the Dùn kept me company. I found it more awe inspiring than the more well preserved Dùn Aonghasa where there were too many tourists.


The cliffs as seen from Dùn Duchathair



A window


The hotel where we stayed. Our room was the second window from the right just below the chimney.


Goodbye to the islands

Home again

Well we've been back for a week now and my body is finally back to Eastern daylight Saving Time... the spirit is willing but the body is weak. Everything is pretty well back to normal now, baggage put away, things cleaned up, mail sorted and bills paid (a trip like that makes for plenty of bills, but worth every penny. LOL) I've also been working on my photos but with 600+ it makes for a lot of time to sort them out and correct them.

So here are some of the pictures, there are many more and I'll put some up as I go along.

High cross of Clomacnoise


Clomacnoise, one of the oldest monastic sites in Ireland


The town of Rosscrea


A butcher of Rosscrea


A bridge on Birr Castle Estates


Galway


Gargoyle on Townhall


Galway


Quay Street Galway

In the next post I'll continue with the trip. ;o)

In limbo again, home from Ireland

Well we're on the way home and I am writing this sitting in limbo (again) at Halifax Airport...(free WiFi... we brought out 12" Mac G4 with us, small but adequate.) We have been travelling for more than 12 hours and it isn't over yet. Dublin to Heathrow, Heathrow to Halifax and finally Halifax to Montreal. The layovers are long so it makes for long delays between flights but at least we didn't have to run between terminals at Heathrow. That is one huge airport, when we got our boarding passes at Dublin, there was a warning that it would take us 1/2 hour to get to our connecting flight. The gates are always advertised with the amount of time it takes you to get there, 10min, 20 min, etc.
The last couple of days we have been packing our baggage, bringing back the rental car (They upgraded us to a Ford Mondeo, a car that is way too big for Irish backroads. It had the turning radius of a tank and it was often a very tight fit ;o( ) We also took two days to visit Dublin town, we would take the bus in the morning and take the bus back late afternoon. (We sure weren't going to risk the tank on Dublin's streets. )
Dublin is not a huge city, but it is a very pretty one, with it's Georgian Squares, its Georgian doors, its pubs, songs, museums, the River Liffey, with its multiple bridges and parks; Stephen's Green, Phoenix park (biggest city park in the world 2,5 times Central park). We saw the statue of Molly Mallone, famed fishmonger and supposedly part time harlot, immortalized in song. The Dubliners, having a good sense of humour, have baptised the statue "the Tart with the Cart". We visited the Irish National Museum of History, a really well done museum that houses the treasures of Ireland. The museum covers Irish history from pre-history to modern times. Since much of Ireland is bogland and bogs preserve all kinds of things both organic and non-organic, they have a huge collection. There is an exhibition of "the hoards" discovered, the gold work is stunning, especially when you realise that it dates from between, 3500 and 2000 years ago. The torcs, braclets, pectorals and chains are truly magnificent and the delicacy of the work is mind boggling. Almost as awe inspiring are the organic things that have been preserved in the bogs. There is a 23 foot dugout canoe, made from a single log of oak that dates from the late neolithique over 4500 years ago. There is clothing, food, shoes, weapons and finally human remains that are perfectly preserved. The "bog men" are so well preserved that you can easily make out their faces, and how they died. One has so well preserved hands and arms that you can see his nails and the lines on his palms. He is also wearing a leather armband that would not be out of place today. On another, you can make out his hairstyle, short on the sides and back with longer hair on the top of his head tied in a topnot. They were probably sacrifices, and they were probably nobility (no callouses on their hands and well manicured nails, good clothing and not suffering from malnutrition.)
What is even better, is that like the British Museum this museum is completely free. Yes, in Dublin, the state museums are all free of charge. The Irish are proud of their heritage, and are not afraid of showing it.
So that's about it, I'll try to download my photos as soon as possible. So from Halifax Airport, "slán a fhágáil ag duine"

Hello from Ireland

Well I've finally found time to write a bit from Ireland. We've been travelling around the country for the last 2 weeks and we've seen some beautiful sites. We started the trip at Roscrea, where we visited a castle, an 8th century abbey, Clonmacnoise, a the largest 19th centurey telescope in Birr castle (6 ft mirror). The next step was the Connemara, a beautifully wild section of western Irreland. Beautiful mountains, great cliffs and mountain ringed bays. Spectuacular.
Then we went on to Galway, then the Aran islands with the cliffs and Dùn Aonhasa and the Black Dun (a prehistoric ring fort on the edge of the cliffs) as well as many other sights.
Going around Galway bay we were in the Burrens. The Burrens is a really special limestone landscape. During the last iceage, the glaciers scaped off the soil leaving only the limestone bedrock. This bedrock has eroded giving a landscape with grykes, hole and pavements. It makes walking rather interesting since you must always watch where you are putting your feet. In the Burrens we also visited Poulnabrone Dolmen, one of the most famous prehistoric burial site in the world. We also walked across the top of the Cliffs of Moher, the highest cliffs in Europe. Definately not for the faint of heart. (This isn't my picture, but it'll give you and idea of the size of the Cliffs of Moher)
Finally we have been visiting the south-east of Ireland. Waterford, a medieval viking town, Wexford and Rosslare. In Waterford we visited a great museum and in Wexford a Hertitage site that explained human habitation in Ireland from the prehistoric to the Anglo-Normand invasion.
Today we moved up the coast and visited Jerpoint abbey with beautiful sculptures and Dunmore cave, one of the biggest caves in Ireland and the site of the massacre of 1000 Irish by a Viking army in the 10th century.
As for the weather, well let's say that we now know why Ireland is so green. The first week it rained, and rained, and rained with no let up. In the 2,5 weeks, we have only had 2 full days of nice weather. The rest of the time it was cloudy, cold, humid and rainy. We were planning on camping for the three weeks bu we finally gave up because we were tired of being always rained on... Everyone here says that it has been an really extraordinarily bad summer and when we where here 4 years ago the weather was way better.
Anyhow I'll try to find the time to write, if not I'll write next week and then I'll post the best of my pictures (500 and counting, Vive the digital camera)...

From Dublin town

Did you ever notice that when you are flying somewhere, you seem to be in a kind of limbo. You eat, sleep, read but your life is on hold. Even when you are in the airport waiting you are in a world apart. Anyhow, after 15 hours of airports and planes, (Montréal-Ottawa, Ottawa-Heathrow, Heathrow-Dublin) we finally arrived, completely zonked, but we have landed, have our rented car and are at the hotel (that's why I'm writing, they have free WIFI, check out the site free-hotspot.com if ever you travel and have a laptop). Tonight, a very simple plan... sleep, sleep, sleep. Tomorrow we are off with all of our gear, a detailed road map and no worries. Goodnight all

A travelling we will go...

School is finally out and to tell the truth it was about time. The year has been one of change, a reform of all the programs with people not exactly sure of where they were going, and a change of administration who needed to get up to speed. All of this contributed to more work and stress. But now it is over and Mrs. BB and I are off to the Emerald Isle. Yep, we are off to Ireland for three weeks which should be just the remedy for what ails us.

We'll be travelling around the the south and west of Ireland, the Burrens, Connemara, the Cliffs of Mohar, Kerry, and visiting the islands we didn't have time to see the last time, such as the Arans. We'll also visit the the South east, visiting Waterford with its crystal industry, and go hiking in the Wicklow mountains. It should be a well filled three weeks. I'll try to write a couple of blogs but I won't promise anything.
Here are some pictures from the last time we went. Enjoy, click here if you want to other photos.

End of year blues and word games

The end of the school year is upon us and it is that poor excuse has kept me from my keyboard these last weeks. It is amazing how much work there is to do before the end, exams to correct (a big box full to be exact), paper work to fill out, meetings to attend, special events to supervise. This all means that there is not much free time and when there is the ol' brain is burnt out. For example, in the next week, I have to finish correcting 130 exams, consign my marks to the computer register, go with the kids to their end of year excursion (leaving a 8:30am and coming back around 7pm) going to the graduation ceremonies on Friday night for my kids who have gotten through five years of high school, and the week after all the mind numbing meetings and committees. (Did you know that a camel is a horse designed by a committee?)

So in place of having to actually think long enough to write an insightful blog, here are a bunch of puns to keep you groaning.

• A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says: "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."
• Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says "Dam!"
• Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Not surprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
• Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says:" I've lost my electron." The other says: "Are you sure?" The first replies: "Yes, I'm positive."
• Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
• A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?", they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."
• A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named Ahmal. The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him Juan.Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds: "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."
• A group of friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair . He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh Mac Taggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to 'persuade' them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.
• Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.
• An electrician was working on the wiring of an old house when he touched the wrong wire. He really found it a shocking experience but after it he was sure that the wiring was not up to the current building codes.
  

400 years

Québec city is having its 400th anniversary this year. In the year 1608, Samuel de Champlain set foot in the new world and founded a small colony on the shores of the St. Lawrence river under the towering cliffs of "le Cap Diamant". All of French Canada comes from that small step. At its height New France stretched from the shores of Hudson's Bay to the delta of the Mississippi. Voyageurs and explorers pushed ever farther into the unknown seeking new lands and people to trade furs with. (Greed is a powerful motivator isn't it) My family has been here since 1650 and we are all descended from one adventuresome man, who left everything in France and crossed the Atlantic to come and start afresh in the New World.
Have you ever wondered what it must have been like for our ancestors to leave everything and everyone they knew and loved to come to a new land where there was nothing, no roads, no cities, no European style civilization. It must have taken a lot of intestinal fortitude, because chances where that you would never see your homeland again.
Last weekend we went to Québec to visit my mom and my sister. It's funny because every time I go there I have a feeling that I'm home, even though I have lived else where for the last 24 years. Having been an airforce brat when I was young I never really had any roots, but when I arrived in Québec city, it struck me that this place was were my roots were, this was home. It may sound strange but it was a visceral feeling, way down deep and it was he first time that I felt that I really belonged somewhere. During the weekend we went wandering around the old part of town and I took some photos. So here is the city of my ancestors.

The Chateau Frontenac was built atop of the original governors residence, the Chateau St-Louis. The ruins are still under the boardwalk of the Terrace Dufferin.

The Old Post Office: There is an interesting story connected to this building. According to legend there was a feud between two families that lead to love and death. (a bit like Romeo and Juliet) The Chien d'Or was put up by the aggrieved family to remind the other clan that one day revenge would come. When this post office was put up, they incorporated the "Chien d'Or" from the original building.

Old Québec as seen from the Citadelle.

There were at least four gates to Old Québec, two of them have been destroyed but two remain, this one, Porte St-Louis and the other is Porte St-Jean a little lower down. Québec is one of the only cities in North America that still has its city walls intact.

65 years ago, the Dambusters

Sixty five years ago, on this night, a group of gallant young men flew a mission from which only half would return. They were the 617 Squadron later to be remembered as the Dambusters. That night they flew Lancaster bombers from England to the Ruhr valley and bombed out the Moehe and Eder dams. They flew across Europe at an altitude of 150 feet to avoid detection and once there they had to fly straight and level at an altitude of 60 feet between craggy hills along the reservoir with German anti-aircraft fire zeroing in on them. It was said that they flew so low that some German guns could not depress far enough to fire at them. Of the 19 aircraft that left England that night, only 11 returned, leaving 53 dead aircrew behind.

This was the generation of my parents and it is hard to realize that the frail, old, white haired men were the young men who flew the mission. They were in their late teens or early twenties and had lived through the Great Depression and now they were risking everything to stop Nazi Germany. Their C/O, Wing Commander Guy Gibson, winner of a Victoria Cross, was only 25 years old and most of his crews were younger than him. Many of them after having survived the raid would never see the end of the war. In fact of the 133 who left 53 died on the mission and most of the others would be dead before 1945. Of Gibson's crew none survived the war.
What must it have been like during those dark days, going out in those aircraft and knowing that you might never come home. Yet all of the crews of those 19 bombers were volunteers and were willing to put everything on the line. We should never forget these men and women who suffered much and were willing to pay the ultimate price so we could have our freedom today.
Here is a short video excerpt from about the commemoration flyby at Derwent Reservoir in Derbyshire, which was used by the original pilots to train ahead of their famous raid.

Anniversary

Today I have been married to Mrs. BB for 32 years. I've been with her for 33.5 but officially it is 32 years. Seems like only yesterday. I remember my jaw dropping as I watched her come up the aisle in her beautiful white dress. I couldn't believe that this vision of loveliness actually wanted to live with me forever. Well we haven't gotten to forever yet but we are working hard at it. Both of us have a few more wrinkles and a few more grey hairs (quite a few more if truth be told) but you know it doesn't make a bit of difference, for me she's still the vision of loveliness I saw in that church and that will never change. After so many years we have become the subtle blending of two souls into one, and my life has been the better for it. It hasn't always been easy, but then again when is life ever easy, but it has been fulfilling, and wonderful and I wouldn't change those 32 years for anything. So here's to wishing for forever, or as close as we can get to it, together.