May 16-18. Belfast Northern Ireland.

Posted on May 18, 2018November 20, 2018 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 May 16, 2018November 20, 2018 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 May 15, 2018November 20, 2018 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 May 13, 2018November 20, 2018 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

May 11th. Muckross House, Abbey, and the Ring of Kerry.

Posted on May 12, 2018November 20, 2018 by Pete Schloss

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March 3rd seems a lifetime ago. Within my “Thoughts” you will find it is the day I wondered if our undertaking was a trip, a vacation, a journey or a pilgrimage. I offered the following thoughts at that time:

• A Trip is any travel that takes one from point “A” to point “B” without regard to distance or purpose. It is the barest transport of a body from here to there. Purpose is irrelevant as is the quality of the experience.

• A Vacation is a departure from the routine of one’s life. It may or may not involve travel, such as a “staycation”. It evinces an intention to temporarily detour from one’s duties without shirking one’s responsibilities.

• A Journey conjures up the image of travel that is of an extended duration. “Journey” has the character of uniqueness relative to one’s prior experiences. It is self-directed, assumed as a personal responsibility, and not left into the hands of another. “Journey” can result in a redirection of one’s life and perhaps the lives of others.

Our travels these last 7 weeks certainly have qualified as a journey. We have over 5 weeks left before we again step foot in our own home. This has been a remarkable, but at times wearing experience. We correctly rejected the notion of these travels being a vacation as they have become our reality. However, for the last 4 days we have found the course of each day to be more in the hands of our Welsh friends, Huw and Nina Thomas. They have given us a brief and most welcome “departure from the routine of (our) life.” Good fortune has followed the four of us on this vacation within a journey.

Heavy rains were predicted for the entire day. However the overnight showers gave way to sunshine and pleasant temperatures as we toured Muckross House, Abbey, and the Dingle Peninsula.

There were brief showers, but they were a gift in their own right as emerald green fields were gilded before our eyes with the spectrum hues of a rainbow sky.

Vacations end and today is our last full day with our friends. In keeping with my “mantra” of always having a “next thing”, the four of us have begun to formulate a plan for their visit to us in the States. But first about the day…

Muckross House and Abbey are situated within Ireland’s first and oldest National Park. The House is a 65 room mansion that was built in 1843. In the 1860’s the family undertook a 6 year long project to prepare for a 2 day visit by Queen Victoria. The family had hopes of being conferred a title by the Queen, which unfortunately for them did not occur. The extensive decorating and furnishings that they purchased for the visit ended up bankrupting the family. The House and its 11,000 acres had to be sold to resolve the debts. Subsequent owners gifted Muckross to the Republic of Ireland which made it into its first National Park. Unfortunately, pictures within the home were not allowed. 70% of the furnishings are original to the House, including paintings, hunting trophies, and furniture. The owners beds and the bed in which the Queen slept for 2 nights are only 6 feet long. Aristocrats of the time preferred to sleep sitting up in the belief that it was healthier for them.

Within the extensive grounds of Muckross are the ruins of a Franciscan Abbey that dates to the 1440’s. It was built upon older, perhaps ancient structures, and is reputed to be the burial grounds for several chieftains of those earlier times. The Abbey was the victim in the 1500’s of Henry the VIII and his separation from the Catholic Church.