Last Call!

We have made it back to Boston! The trip home was pretty uneventful, but goodness I did not miss the summer heat and humidity!


Our last day in Edinburgh was very relaxed and very lovely.
Actually, we went to a concert on Wednesday night at this tiny little bar venue - the bands were surprisingly good! So that was a fun celebration to the end of Michael's (participation in) his conference. And we went to dinner at this little mussel and oyster bar, which was delicious, so Wednesday night was a win overall.

On Thursday, we basically wandered around the city - we hiked up Calton Hill, another vista point in the city with a bunch of war monuments built on top, including one to the soldiers lost in the Napoleonic Wars that was modeled after the Pantheon in Athens, because apparently Edinburgh fancied itself as the Athens of the North. It was a very lovely stroll. We could see the big park where we hiked around on Tuesday, and it was kind of impressive to see how high we climbed!
  We also walked through the Princes Gardens, which are built where the old walled city of Edinburgh had a moat, called Nor Loch. It was a man-made lake, intended to be the fourth side of the city defenses, and was drained in the 1700s after England and Scotland were unified and rich people could move out of the city boundaries without being worried about being attacked by marauders, or something. They turned it into a big pretty park, which I thought was a nice use of land.
   Overall, I think Edinburgh may be one of my favorite cities. All European cities are impressively old, but somehow Edinburgh has managed to merge the midieval city with the modern era without losing too much of the history or limiting the prospects of the future.

All the flowers in Princes Gardens making Michael's allergies sad. But they are pretty!

On top of Calton's Hill, in front of the Napoleonic War Monument (which has 12 columns.. apparently it was supposed to have 26 but they ran out of funds, but it's still very large and very impressive) and Nelson's Monument, who was the naval commander who led the United Kingdom to lots of military victories until he got shot himeself.

A lovely view of Edinburgh Castle and Castle Hill. I really love how the city is melded with the geography and geology, instead of just carpeting its whole environment.

We climbed those things!

We also tried to get a coffee from The Elephant House, where J.K. Rowling penned the first Harry Potter book. But lots of other fans/locals in need of coffee had the same idea, so we just took a picture and got coffee down the street. My guess is that the cafe used to be good for writers, but maybe not so much anymore.

So ends this installment of Michael and Valerie in Europe! We had a wonderful time, and look forward to the next!

Two for one

Today and yesterday have been busy science days, and therefore slightly quieter touristy days, but we've still fit in some exploring.
Yesterday we visited a gin distillery, which was neat because it was a properly operational site, so we got to actually see the stills at work, unlike either of the other distillery/brewery tours we took. It was also interesting because they talked about the history of gin in the UK, and it's role in the temperance movements, in naval history, and trade and economics. The gin and tonic they made was pretty tasty, too, so that was a bonus.

The distillery is supposed to be reminecent of the "Gin Dens" (such good connotations) that people would get gin from in the 1700s, when beer was very heavily taxed and the water was unsafe to drink - so people drank copious amounts of gin. No idea how society functioned.

This tour was another recommendation by a friend, and it was well worth it! It was much more interesting than the big famous breweries in Dublin, mostly because it hasn't been as commercialized, and the distillery is pretty small and operational.

This morning, before Michael headed to the conference to give his talk (which he is probably starting as I type) we did another hike up to Arthur's Seat, another volcanic peak in Edinburgh. It was a perfect morning for it - somewhat overcast and cool, but still affording very lovely views of the bay, the city, and the surrounding countryside. The park was fairly large, with several hills to climb around on. Seeing as we wont really have time to make it up to the highlands on this trip, the scenery here mostly just made me want to come back to Scotland sometime soon to explore the more wild parts.

Up we go again!

So many stairs... this time Michael knew what we were getting into, though.

There were foxgloves scattered all up the hillsides. It was very green, and lovely.

Almost to the top! Once we climbed up the main hill, there was a big expanse of grassy/heathery/brushy hills to wander around.

The views were stunning. This is such a beautiful city.

We made it to the top!

The ruins of St Anthony's Chapel, which was probably built sometime in the 1400s, and abandoned in the late 1500s.

Standing in a very old doorway.

The geology of Scotland is fascinating, and very complicated!

Fortunately, we also found an Earth Science museum...

 

 

After the hike, we visited "Dynamic Earth", which was probably the most well presented science center we have ever visited. Scotland actually played a big role in founding geology as a science, and it had a very good run down on basic geologic principles, the formation of the earth and the planets, and evolution. It was particularly cool because it was sort of a self guided tour through time, with all sorts of special effects. We listened to a lecture "by" James Hutton, considered the father of modern geology, took a "time machine" back to the big bang and watched the universe evolve, visited the surface of early earth and learned how the continents have formed and changed, and then took a flying expedition from the arctic to the poles, exploring all the different biomes on the way. It's something that could have been incredibly cheesy and just for kids, but it was fantastically executed, so it was totally worth it, and very interesting. I'm particularly interested in this sort of thing because I helped develop that science center exhibit - I think that this place is what they were aspiring to be. So overall, a very good morning!
  As mentioned, Michael is giving his talk today, and I'm sure it will go fine. :)

Day 1 in Edinburgh

Edinburgh is a beautiful city.

The original old city, including the Castle, is built on the remains of an old volcano. The modern city sprawls out around it, but the heart of the city and the skyline is definitely the castle, which somehow balances looking both imposing and elegant against the clouds.

The view from our hotel room window of Edinburgh Castle. We are staying right near the old city center, which is fantastic. Michael's conference is literally a block down the street, and all of the sites, restaurants, and cool things to do seem to be within a 20 minute walk.

The choice to build a fortress there is obvious - it is perched on top of a huge, solid bedrock peak. Archeology indicates that the mount has been inhabited in some form or another since the 2nd century, although the oldest part of the castle standing today was built in the 1200s. Still very old.

We took two walking tours of the old city today - the first of which was underground. By virtue of being built on a hilltop, the medieval era city (a walled city about 1 mile square) sloped down and away from the castle, and buildings were almost all at least 7 or more stories high (since they built up, rather than out), in which all 30,000 odd citizens and all of their livestock lived piled on top of each other. Incidentally, Edinburgh is the home of the first sky scrapers. In the 1700s, the city decided to build a new, centralized market place, so they leveled (literally) off a good portion of the buildings to be even with the other side of the street and just built what is now government buildings right over the old foundations. So, there are 3 or 4 stories of 400 year old houses and streets that are still intact, and now "underground". So this tour took us through some of the largest medieval streets, in what is now the basement of Edinburgh city hall. It was really, really cool. Unfortunately, since it's technically in a government building, no photography was allowed. But it was an amazing window into Edinburgh in the 1600s, and how cramped, dirty, dark and smelly it must have been. Thank goodness for indoor plumbing and building codes. The second widest street of old Edinburgh (the widest being the Royal Mile), which was a major market place filled with merchant stalls, cows, people and everything else, was 4 feet wide. Seriously. I could almost stretch my arms out and touch both walls, which would have gone up 7 stories above me. The ground floors would not have ever gotten direct sunlight. Of course, the poorest people lived on the ground floors, and the rich lived above them, all stacked up on top of one another. The tour was given by costumed guides, who played the roles of individuals that lived during different time periods, which was also kind of fun, and there was a lot of detail in the tour. We got to see the insides of several homes (some of which still contained the original plaster and wall paper from 400 years ago - that was crazy) and a lot of the little streets and alley ways that have been covered up. It was an absolutely fascinating tour.

A "close" is a little side street off the main Royal Mile, and was usually named after the most important business or resident. The underground tour was primarily of Mary King's Close, which was unusual in that it was named after a woman. Mary King's Close was the second widest market street in old Edinburgh.

We also did an above ground tour with the same company, which was also very interesting, about some of the still existing buildings.

St Giles Cathedral, which has been standing in some form or another since the 13th century.

The home of Lady Stairs, who had to marry an a**hole after she was widowed, because he didn't take no for an answer, bribed her maids to let her into her bedroom (while she wasn't there, hopefully) and stripped naked in front of the windows for the whole neighborhood to see. And of course that was so scandalous at the time she was forced to marry him. Uhg.

Beautiful Gregorian spires in the New Town, where all the rich people moved in the 1700s.

Another angle of St Giles, including "the Crown", which is a newer addition to the building that is a replica of the Scottish Crown and jewels (which we got to see in Edinburgh Castle!)

Looking out across the city.

The end of the tour was in in a little courtyard with the handprints of famous Scots - including J.K. Rowling! Apparently my hands are the same size as hers.

We also walked around Edinburgh Castle, which was a really interesting place. It was very well fortified, built directly on the volcanic bedrock, and I thought it was neat to see how they had integrated the very hard rock into the structure and design of the walls and interior buildings. It houses the Scottish Crown Jewels, and the royal apartments of Mary Stuart and her sons have been beautifully restored.

Castle on the hill. We're inside the outer defenses, here.

Looking very castle like. You can see how the existing bedrock is part of the foundations.

At the Portcullis gate!

There are really lovely views from the walls. My haircut was not designed for windy climes, though.

Inside the royal apartments. Yes, Michael's camera takes everything in mirror image, and I was too lazy to flip these ones, so all the words are backwards.

Outside the old castle church, which is now a grand memorial to all Scottish soldiers who died in Wars since WWI.

So overall, it was a really lovely day exploring the history of a beautiful city. We had dinner on the Royal Mile (fancy!) at a place that a friend of mine who is from Edinburgh recommended - it was very tasty!

Proud to be Irish

Well, we bid goodbye to the Shamrock shores in fittingly rainy weather, and were greeted by Scotland by more of the same. But that's the UK, and we brought our umbrellas.

We spent our last day in Dublin learning a bit more about the history of the city, and seeing a little bit of its future. We first went to a history exhibit attached to Christ Church Cathedral, which covered Dublin's history from its founding in the 700s by Viking invaders (the native Celts apparently weren't really city dwellers) through the middle ages, and also had a bit about the current archaeological efforts going on in the city. We also toured a replica Tall Ship, the Jeannie Johnston, which was a cargo/passenger ship that took emigrants/refugees across the Atlantic from Ireland during the Great Famine. That was also an interesting tour - it mostly focused on the particularly of that ship (which was a good ship to immigrate on - no one in it's history died on board. There were plenty of "coffin ships" that had a much worse track record that Irish immigrants risked to get to the US or Canada), but it also covered some more general information about Irish emigration. Apparently, although there are only 6 million people living in Ireland, there are more than 70 million people world wide who claim Irish ancestry due to emigration. We're part of a big club.

  We also got to watch the Dublin Pride Parade, which was quite fun. Dublin is very proud to have been the first country to legalize equal marriage rights last year, so this year's Pride was particularly proud.

Christ Church Cathedral - quite beautiful!

Ok, lots of blurry pictures because it was quite dark inside Dublinia, the history exhibit about the city of Dublin. It was designed as if you were walking through the streets of the city, seeing inside homes, stores, and watching people go about their lives in the 700s through the middle ages.

By 1014, Ireland had a longer recorded history than the states!

"Inside" a viking age home in early Dublin. Smokey!

With some dude named Strongbow, a Norman leader who invaded Ireland and helped settle it.

The middle ages was a busy (and dirty) time.

We also got to walk through a bit of Christ Church Cathedral as part of the Dublinia tour - there were lots of pretty stained glass windows.

We also walked around the grounds of Dublin Castle - there was an original Norman tower, that was added to in later eras.

It was an interesting mix of pretty and imposing.

Pride! It was really nice to see and be part of the continued push for civil rights for all.

After the Parade, we took a tour of the Jeanie Johnston, an almost exact replica of the ship that carried many Irish emigrants across the Atlantic during the height of the Great Potato Famine.

The original Jeanie Johnston sank in Hudson Bay (but all crew escaped alive), so this ship was built in the 1990s. It's fully sailable, and has made a few replica voyages to and from Canada... that would be an adventure.

Conditions on the replica voyages were a bit better than the original, although this ship was a coveted passage, because it was actually a humane experience. Still, approximately 200 people were crammed into the (not very large) hold. These bunk beds, basically true to size, would have held 7 (seven!) adults.

We are glad this is not our bed. Michael's feet would be sticking out way more than that one there.

Rough times... tickets were expensive for the poor and starving Irish, so families rarely traveled together. Children frequently made the trips by themselves, and there was no guarantee that they would be able to find their families once they reached America.

As I mentioned, this ship never lost a single passenger or crew member during her entire lifetime, primarily due to the humanity of her owner and ship captain. On many ships, passengers would be confined to the holds for the entire journey, which created breeding grounds for disease and cabin fever, and ships would  not always bring enough food for all passengers. On this ship, however, passengers were actually required to go up on deck to clean bedding and sweep out the hold, and were given generous rations throughout the journey, so many wrote letters of thanks, which is how we know all this.

Still, after maybe only 30 minutes down in the hold, we were happy to be back out in the open. So glad that my ancestors made that journey successfully, and I never have to journey by sailing ship.

We are now settled into our hotel in Edinburgh, and Michael is getting ready for his conference this week. We'll split our time between work and site seeing, so it should be nice and relaxed.

Also, it is 9:45 pm and the sun is still a good three finger widths above the horizon. Thank goodness for black out curtains!

A Bonnie Clare Day

On Friday, Michael and I went to the Irish West Coast, visiting the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, and the fair city of Galway. It was a fantastic day - absolutely stunning views, really cool geology (+1 for me), and some linkage to family history - the Cliffs of Moher are in County Clare, which is my sister's namesake (Lib, I took lots of pictures of things that said Clare) and the O'Brien family features prominantly in local history (probably some 8 times removed relation or something... there are so many O'Briens. There are also SO MANY companies and stores and places named O'Brien here, in general). We did this as part of another Bus tour, which worked for us in terms of getting us to the places, but it was definitely a very long haul. It's about 2.5 hours to the west coast from Dublin, and then it took about 2 hours of driving from place to place, so the amount of time spent on the bus vs at the places was a little much, and it was a very long day. BUT. We are both really glad that we got to see the sights.


The West Coast of Ireland is definitely the inspiration for most of the mental imagery I had had of Ireland - green, quilted pastures with Sheep and goats, low stone walls everywhere, rocks everywhere, little country houses... it was quite idyllic, but I'm glad I didn't have to eke out a life here in the 1800s.

So the bus stopped at this random little gas station as a rest stop on the way in, and it had this whole exhibit dedicated to American Presidents with Irish heritage, including Obama! Obama apparently came to the tiny town of Moneygall because he has a 8 times removed cousin or something here, and the town of 300 people is now very proud of that fact.

The 8th oldest golf course in Ireland looked hard.

Where the Inagh River meets the Atlantic Ocean, very near to the Cliffs of Moher

The Cliffs of Moher were stunning, and I thought they were totally worth the drive. They are gorgeous stratified limestone and shales, and at the shortest point of the cliffs, are 130 m tall, and at the highest point are 250 m. It's a very impressive edge, and we could walk all along it. Not surprisingly, they are a major nesting place for all sorts of sea birds. It was fun to watch all the birds flying (or trying to fly) in the wind.

I have a ton of pictures of the cliffs, and I couldn't really decide which to post, so have them all.

We could see surprisingly far.

Check out those strata! And also O'Brien Tower.

There are a ton of sea birds that aren't really visible in this picture... but a lot of them are Puffins!!!! (You just have to take me at my word)

We had great luck with the weather - it didn't rain on us while we were walking around at all! Just a few times while driving in the bus (and then the Bus' windsheild wipers stopped working, so we had to pull over and wait for it to stop a few times. Fortunately, the weather here has rapidly varying moods)

This was an excellent lunch spot.

It is a rather far way down...

But the views were worth it. It also got a little windy...

At O'Brien Tower. Cornellius O'Brien was the first person to this realize that tourism to the West Coast could help out the impoverished areas in 1835, so he had this tower built on the highest point of the cliffs. The Great Famine caused buisness to tank, but once things recovered, the Cliffs became one of the biggest tourist - and therefore economic - draws of the area.

Did I say it got a little windy? I meant a lot windy. Like blow me over windy on top of the cliffs. We decided to head to slightly less exposed heights so I didn't go flying.

County Clare!

This Republic is very glad to still be part of the EU. Low blow, I know.

 The visitor center at the Cliffs was also pretty interesting, and built into the side of the hill. For some reason I don't have a picture of that, though.

Hey, those are some family names!

My camera is not good enough to spot the actual puffins, but they were there!

As we drove along the coast, there were a bunch of old ruins of Norman Tower houses, which were basically rectangular castle houses built by the Normans a very long time ago.

 Our next stop was at the edge of The Burrens, a major national park that just looked incredible. Unfortunately, we only stopped there for 15 minutes, because I think I was probably one of the only people who thought it was totally awesome, because most people don't think that rocks are as cool as I do. But, The Burren is a huge region of limestone mountains and crazy erosional landscapes, a little bit like the Badlands in the Dakotas but also pretty different in terms of the shapes and features. The land is incredibly rock, and it's hard to image anyone making a living out here... but of course, this is the area where the Protestant English sent the troublesome Catholic Irish when they came to settle in Ireland, so people did the best they could.

The limestone outcrop is 250 square kilometers - just mountains and mountains of the stuff. And it looks like the moon. Sort of, I guess.

Watch your ankles!

Where it met the ocean was beautiful.

Limestone is a very easily eroded rock, so you get all sorts of weird shapes.

Also Fossils!!! This is why I thought this place was awesome, but I don't think that any of the other tourists bothered to actually look at the rocks. Their loss.

You can see Crinoids (weird sort of plant sort of animal things), gastropods (basically clams), a bunch of corals and I think some sea urchins, all in this rock!

After stopping at the Burrens, we drove along the Coast to Galway. The views were just gorgeous.

So rocky! You can see some of the many rock walls that were all over the place. Most of them were built not to separate anything, but just to put the rocks somewhere other than the fields.

More Norman Tower houses, although this one is a little more castle like with the court yard wall.

The last stop of the day was in Galway, another of the large cities in Ireland, and I guess it's sort of the Irish Cultural Capitol - most of the native Gaelic Irish speakers live around Galway, and it was a major center of the Irish cultural reclamation in the 1850s and 1900s. Under English rule, Irish speakers could not get an education, a job, own property... basically they were trying to force assimilation. A big part of the Irish Revolution, (which started 100 years ago, incidentally) was reclaiming Irish heritage. The tour guide took us on a short little walking tour, and then Michael and I took a break in a lovely little cafe for a bit to escape some of the crowd, and then walked around the harbor. It was quite nice!

Galway was kind of crowded.

But the streets were cute (although a little touristy).

Apparently Galway was founded by a coalition of 14 major Irish Clans, so all of their standards were represented in the town square.

Galway is also a major port and fishing town, so the harbor was kind of neat.

Overall, it was a long day, but very worth it! I'm very glad that we got to see this part of the country, and it was a lovely day.
West Coast Best Coast!