Category: Life and Living

May 18th. Glasgow Scotland and Travel Fatigue

Posted on by Pete Schloss

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After a 6 hour journey from Belfast by bus, ferry, and back on bus, we have arrived in Scotland. We will be in Glasgow for two nights and then proceed by train north into the West Highlands where we will spend at least 4 nights in Fort William. We have already been told that the great weather that is predicted for the next week is an anomaly. Seems we are taking sunshine with us wherever we go.

This has been a rare day where we have turned on the news. Another school shooting in the States. It is eye opening to watch the Europe news and commentary. The word “again” was repeated throughout the presentation, highlighting the disfunction of a system that is frozen to inaction by money and the power of the NRA lobby. It is not hyperbole to say that the United States is seen as a morally broken nation. “Click”, news turned off, but not the reality it reports on this side of the ocean.

Tonight is the 56th night that we have been away from home… we are entering week 9 of this journey. It would be disingenuous of me to solicit sympathy for the small fissures of homesickness that we have begun to experience. We continue to enjoy each day, but there are moments that cause us pause.

Each day brings questions about the quality of tonight’s mattress, shower, and room. When will the next laundry opportunity occur? Will our clothing make it through the next 34 days without falling apart? We have eaten restaurant food for 8 solid weeks. What will be our first home cooked meal? Most of all, we miss family. Our smart phones and tablets can ring up our children with no more difficulty than a local call within the States. However no matter how “smart” the device, it can’t bridge the temporal reality of a 6 or 7 hour time difference. I’m really not complaining, just presenting another side of this experience.

Peace Everyone. Pete

May 16-18. Belfast Northern Ireland.

Posted on by Pete Schloss

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We arrived in Belfast Wednesday afternoon the 16th and after settling in did a bit of walking which took us to the Crown Bar, the oldest pub in NI, and across the campus of Queen’s University to the stunning Botanic Gardens Park.

We then made arrangements for a “Black Cab” tour of Belfast for Thursday morning, and an afternoon tour of the former shipyards site of H&W where the Titanic and her sister ships were constructed.

Belfast has been a city torn by conflict since 1968. On the surface the division is Catholic vs Protestant, Loyalist vs Nationalist, but in reality it is much more complicated than that with roots that go deep into history. The Battle of the Boyne which was fought over 400 years ago, remains a current event. In 1968 ethno-nationalist riots broke out that were quelled by British troops and the erection of 40 foot high walls to separate the factions. Paramilitary organizations on both sides then prosecuted a 30 year long guerrilla war that resolved in a cease fire in 1998. The 30 years of the active conflict saw over 3,500 killed and nearly 50,000 injured. The troops are gone, but the wall remains operational. A “battle” of competing murals and annual bonfires lit on the 11th of July are a more benign continuation of the tensions that are known throughout Ireland as “The Troubles”.

The depth and complexity of the conflict and aftermath invite further examination. I have included links to three articles that may give additional insight..

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murals_in_Northern_Ireland

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleventh_Night

Our “Black Cab” tour driver gave an excellent and balanced narrative, stopping at important locations and murals. This tour was the highlight of our stay in Belfast.

The Titanic Museum tour is at the site of the construction and launch of the vessel in 1911. Included was a tour of the “Nomadic”, one of the Titanic’s passenger tender vessels and the last remaining White Star Line ship. The Nomadic has been painstakingly restored, and even has its original 19th Century “Crapper” toilets.

The Museum was “touristy” but worth the visit. I will just leave it at that.

We leave in a few hours for the ferry to Scotland.

Peace Everyone. Pete

May 15th. 40 Shades of Green.

Posted on by Pete Schloss

The story goes that many years ago Johnny Cash was in a plane flying over Ireland. Gazing down he exclaimed, “There must be forty shades of green down there!” From those words he penned the following lyrics:

“I close my eyes and picture the emerald of the sea.

From the fishing boats at Dingle to the shores of Dunardee

I miss the river Shannon and the folks at Skibbereen

The moorlands and the midlands with their forty shades of green.”

Ireland is green because it rains here, a lot. If there were once forests they are mostly gone. In their place are endless seas of grass, broken only by ancient stone walls erected by the long dead but not forgotten. Grass in forty shades of green.

It stays green for but a season and then bends to its permanent sleep upon the fields, hillsides, and valleys of this enchanted land. Generations of verdant blades climb one upon the other, blackening in the acidified and oxygen deprived bogs. Carbon is captured, compressed, and becomes the precursor of bituminous coal at the rate of one millimeter each year, one inch every quarter century, a yard in a millennium.

Four thousand years ago the Hibernians learned of necessity that the common turf upon which they tread and under which they buried their dead could be dried to burn and warm hearth and home. They knew the pleasant glow, the spicey fragrance, and the cinder free and nearly ashless firebox of the morning. The “wizards” of a distant future would render the poetry of this warming stuff into cold calculations:

• It covers nearly 2% of Earth’s land.

• It has twice the energy potential of unseasoned firewood.

• It has captured and holds over 500 billion tons of greenhouse carbon from the atmosphere… an unimaginable mass of over 4 trillion cubic meters of the dark stuff.

This is peat. It has preserved the victims of ritual sacrifice, until their discovery and “resurrection” allowed these mute dead to speak their story in the language of archeologists, pathologists, and geneticists.

This is peat. It’s vapors roast malts that color and flavor select whiskeys of Ireland and the whisky of Islay Scotland.

This is the dark brown peat that was once forty shades of green.

Peace Everyone. “Peat”

We leave the Republic of Ireland tomorrow and head into Belfast, Northern Ireland. Some images from today follow.

May 14th. The Cliffs of Moher, and Hostels are not Hostile

Posted on by Pete Schloss

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Today we bussed to a starting point for a 10 mile hike along the Cliffs of Moher. Our hike descended to sea level and rose along the Atlantic shoreline to an elevation of over 600 feet above the crashing waves below. The trail winds along a cliff face, at times a few feet from the sheer vertical drop.

I will include more pictures at the end of this post. First of all I want to take the opportunity to give insight into the lodgings that we tend to select.

In the days of Frommer’s iconic travel bible, “Europe on $5 a Day”, hostels were key to budget travel overseas. They were called “youth hostels” because it was presumed that only young people would frequent them. Many imposed an upper age limit, often age 27, on guests. Fast forward to the present and many aging “baby boomers” still favor this simple type of accommodation. Christine and I count ourselves among that number.

When traveling abroad we shun such nameplates as Sheraton, Hilton, and even Holiday Inn. We favor the modest one star hotels, casa rurals, and hostels that seem to be frequented by the more adventurous and frugal travelers. Folks seem to be more outgoing and easier to connect with in these establishments.

Typically, these lodgings are centrally located, clean, but austere. No phone, no TV in the room, no chocolates on the pillow, no room service… What they are long on is a friendly staff and a sense of community. Hostel residents often cook their own meals, are expected to do their own dishes, share common rooms, and sometimes common bathrooms. The age range of residents varies widely, from late teens to seniors, as in citizens like us.

Our lodgings in Spain, Portugal, and these last two nights in Ennis Ireland have been hostels. The Rowan Tree Hostel here in Ennis presents an excellent example of our experience with these budget accommodations. The furnishings and decor are a bit dated and worn. Reception is at the heart of the facility.

There is a common dining room,

kitchen,

laundry,

and our “private” ensuite double can be quickly converted into a dorm during the high season. Our room has 5 beds, but we are the rooms only occupants.

The cost of our room is 64 euros a night, which includes breakfast. Rates for more traditional lodgings in this popular venue are more than double this rate, not including breakfast.

Our style of travel is not for everyone, but we enjoy the bit of adventure that the variability inserts into our experience.

Peace Everyone. Pete

Pictures of the Cliffs of Moher follow:

May 13th. A Parting, and Mother’s Day.

Posted on by Pete Schloss

We bid farewell to Huw and Nina this morning. A lingering emptiness hovered over the rest of the day, tempered by the prospect of rejoining them for a November visit in Kansas City. Our friendship grew from their chance meeting with our youngest daughter 18 years ago in France. We were then “pen pals” for 5 year before meeting in person. We shared the excitement of London’s selection to host the 2012 Olympics and the following day we shared the horrors of being in the epicenter of 52 deaths at the hands of terrorists in London. They were present in Kansas City for the marriage of our son, Peter, and the college graduation of our daughter, Alexis. They have become an important part of the story of our family. Until we meet again…

It is Mother’s Day in the United States. Europe honors their Mothers at a different time of the year. I owe the gift of a happy childhood to 2 women, my mother and her mother. The 450 miles that separated my home from grandmother’s home in pre-interstate America meant that I only saw her once or twice a year. However, the quality of her presence was more important than the quantity of our time together. Her eyes and her smile radiated boundless love and pride in me. She died nearly 40 years ago but has been with me every day of my life.

My mother was the architect of my childhood. She held my hand in the best of times and she held me in the painful ones. She taught me how to grow into adulthood yet not outgrow childlike wonder that sparks the imagination and gives appreciation for the little things of life. Wishing her a happy day once each year seems so inadequate compared to the gift that she is to me every day of the year.

Christine has always been the star parent within our home. She raised our children to be the good parents that they are, and in the process taught me to be a better parent than I would otherwise have been. She continues as a source of great joy in the lives of our grandchildren.

Not all of us have had happy childhoods. Not all of us had good parents. Life is a lottery. Some of us pulled winning numbers and some of us did not. For the unlucky among us I hope that Mother’s Day can be a time to accept that there are things that can not be changed. That it is a day to find the courage to change the kind of person/parent that you are, and a day to find the wisdom to know the difference.

Peace Everyone. Pete