Little Tern Benefit Concert, Spirit Store Dundalk III

French Fiddles playing at the Spirit Store, Dundalk on Sunday 06 July, 2008. Sorry, this trad piece is cut off after 3 mins, 5 secs. I need more memory cards!



Bye for now...

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head

North Stradbroke Island, QLD, Australia

flickr photo link: <Brisbane, Jun 08>
13 Jun 08 EI34 BFS/LHR 1255/1415
13 Jun 08 BA15 LHR/SYD 2135/0515+2 (777 via SIN)
15 Jun 08 QF508 SYD/BNE 0805/0935
28 Jun 08 QF529 BNE/SYD 1315/1445
28 Jun 08 BA10 SYD/LHR 1635/0620+1 (747 via BKK)
29 Jun 08 EI33 LHR/BFS 1050/1210
So we're back in Ireland after a very nice 2 weeks in Brisbane. I've started putting some photos from our trip on flickr, although perhaps that goes against the spirit of "Adventures in Dundalk", so our Australian content should be kept to a bare minimum! Heathrow behaved itself this time with no light dustings of snow or lost baggage. Just the normal level of construction & sticky carpets (come to think of it, which airport in the world isn't under construction?) Anyway, it's been raining A LOT in Ireland while we were away. In fact, we didn't get too far from Belfast Airport before it started coming down again as we walked across the carpark into the giant Sainsburys at Sprucefield. Got some shopping, and immediately compared the cost against OZ (Coles/Woolies). Our consensus was... there isn't a whole lot of difference. We got quite a few bags of stuff for £44 (OZ $88), so there you are.
Our Annagassan Viking Festival is getting closer (09/10 August), my office moves out to Leixlip around the end of August, and I'm staying quite a few nights in Dublin over the coming month and a half too. So, back into the mist/pouring rain/fog tonight for the next installment. Take your choice.

A Summer Day in Listoke Gardens

flickr photo link: <A Summer Day In Listoke Gardens>
We had a nice late Sunday afternoon at Listoke Gardens, a little estate just down the road near Drogheda. Rustic gardens, grass tennis courts, strawberries & cream, John Constable views. All in aid of the Guide Dogs for the Blind. This was a real slice of Anglo-Ireland that is quite apparent in the area where we live, but not always seen. Ended the day with some music - keyboard, guitar & sax. Nice.
Just 4 more days, then we're off to Australia for our flying 2 week visit. Looking at the industrial action going on by Qantas engineers in Australia at the moment almost makes me glad we're actually flying BA for the long haul sectors, but then again, their baggage handling record ain't exactly the best. Happy Travels!

Massif Central, France

The truly incredible Millau Viaduct on the A75 Motorway, Massif Central. We braved pouring rain, fog & hazardous driving conditions to get this shot!

Gimel-les-Cascades, in the Limousin region of Central France.

Massif Central

flickr photo link: <Massif Central, May-Jun 08>
31 May 08 FR202 DUB/STN 0630/0745
31 May 08 FR8776 STN/LIG 1035/1305
02 Jun 08 EI553 LYS/DUB 1615/1725 (Joe)
06 Jun 08 EI553 LYS/DUB 1615/1725 (Clare)
So we're sitting in the Qantas Club at London Heathrow on 13 June (well, the British Airways Lounge to be exact). It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to sit in a Qantas Club – possibly Madrid. Having membership helped us drop off our luggage at T4 around 6 hrs before the flight. Extremely useful, but what we hadn’t realised was that the Club now has real meals available in addition to the alcohol, magazines, newspapers & Wi-Fi, etc. So we really shouldn’t have spent the money buying lunch downstairs! At Belfast Airport (where we left this morning) Clare picked up (yet another) travel magazine called ‘Travel’. Reading it inspired her to get cracking about our short trip to the French countryside on the recent long weekend. The notes were left behind in Ireland, so here goes…

While Ireland generally gets the rain in winter (joke!), the Massif Central, France, gets the rain in summer... so the forecast for our little weekend trip didn't look too good. Admittedly it was only as we made a dash down the A75 Motorway to the Millau Viaduct on the Sunday afternoon that we were immersed into total liquidity - with cloud & fog. But it was worth it. If you want to drive along one of the most amazing motorways in the world, and see the French obsession with bridges and viaducts, this is definitely the place!

We started the weekend at Dublin airport, as is usually the case for us now. Only this weekend another 349,998 people were passing through the airport with us, as it was the first long weekend of ‘summer’. Given that Ireland only has around 4 million people, that’s almost 10% of the total population or around 25% of Dublin’s population. So we got up around 3am to get to the airport by 4.30am to join the herd. We only made it to the same flight the week before with minutes to spare, by sneaking into the front of the security queue, so NO sleeping in this morning. Clare ended up with 2 hrs sleep after a fairly arduous audit in Dublin that meant she got home around 10.30pm then had to pack and prepare, not just for the weekend trip but also for a work project meeting after the long weekend in Clermont-Ferrand.

This was a 2 airline trip. We took a connection out with Ryanair, firstly to London Stansted, and then checked in again for the flight to Limoges. We flew home directly from Lyon (on different dates) with Aer Lingus. That allowed us to cross the Massif Central by car, from west to east. Occupying a hilltop in the heart of the Limousin countryside, Limoges Airport was small, attractive and well organised (unusual for some Ryanair destinations!) And the weather was wonderful – warm and sunny! The lady at the Europcar counter was being harassed by Brits who refused to sign forms or turned up without credit cards, but we were eventually issued with a nice Hyundai i30 (and we did over 1000 km's in 48 hours).

We had some lunch and headed off down the A20 to Brive and into the Limousin countryside proper. Yes there were Limousin cattle everywhere and only Limousin cattle. Overall the countryside seemed empty of cultivation and livestock – no sheep, just Limousin cattle! Clare had done research for the trip while Joe had done the bookings so off we drove to find our destination for the night – we called it Aubergine. It was a B&B up in the mountains above the town, surrounded by forest. On the way, with the Garmin lady telling us where to go, we stopped to check the map at a dead end and found a flooded river with Kayakers racing up and down trying to master the white water. The B&B was wonderful, exactly as described and even with a black cat on the front sofa as a welcoming committee. Clare’s type of place! By this time we were quite wrecked as it was around 5pm. We were booked into the restaurant for dinner at 7.30pm, so instead of doing the sensible thing and resting for a bit, we sped away in the car to a couple of very interesting places Clare had researched from the Lonely Planet – Gimel-Les-Cascades. After seeing the local rivers in flood, we knew the cascades would be impressive. Following the Garmin lady again, we certainly took the long and scenic way to the cascades (why do we keep trusting her!?) We went deeper into the mountains, up hills, down dales and through some very lush countryside, past shimmering lakes and onto ever smaller lanes. The village was almost deserted with a few shops open and no other tourists at all. It was June - wasn’t this summer? Even the B&B’s appeared closed. Just out of the carpark we found a local cat who wanted a chat and came running. Then off to the ruined castle and could see and hear the cascades but couldn’t work out how to get to them. The views over the village were postcard perfect. We just followed some other people down the lanes and lo & behold, the cascades. Yes you were meant to pay to walk down to the bottom of them but the gate was closed and we could see the best from the top. We looked around and found some interesting signs in English. The sun was setting, so we wondered back to the car and found that people had come out and the B&B was indeed open and full. Looked like a party of Germans who’d been fishing, had filled the place. What with the lakes and streams around here, the fishing would be good!

To be completed...

Instructions from the Garmin lady...

flickr photo link: <Rickmansworth, 24 May 08>
Hi all, I've also been doing some other photo updates today, catching up on recent trips...
BARCELONA photos on flickr: <Barcelona, Mar 08>
24 May 08 FR202 DUB/STN 0630/0745
24 May 08 FR293 STN/DUB 1935/2050
We purchased a reasonable Sat Nav thingy last week. Let's call it "Garmin". It came pre-loaded with maps for Ireland, Britain & Europe, and Australia/USA, etc. can be purchased later. Being a basic model, it only has one voice, whom I now call the "Garmin lady"... It is she who says "stay left, keep left, take the 2nd exit on the roundabout", etc. Of course we've discovered that many roads around here, although probably centuries old, are not recognised by the Garmin lady, who immediately thinks you're tearing across the open countryside, and tries to correct you. It's at this point that I lower her volume. The Garmin lady also tried to send me down a one-way street in Dublin the other morning, after I'd dropped off Clare for a fish factory audit, located somewhere between Mountjoy Prison and an eye hospital in an old gothic pile that looked like a workhouse from the 1840's. Just the usual Dublin. Later that day, she did the same "one-way" trick again. So after that I ignored the Garmin lady - both her Dublin direction antics and her incredibly slow speed in acquiring an Irish satellite signal.
That was, until I switched on the Garmin lady again in the UK yesterday, after a short Ryanair hop from Dublin. This time, she acquired the satellite signal incredibly fast - is this a conspiracy against Ireland? Yes, the Garmin is truly portable & versatile, but the Budget car we'd hired at Stansted Airport had an incessant BEEP from the radio every 30 seconds - enough to drive you mad. We had to get the Budget kid to fix it. And as if the Korean factory worker that designed the beeping hadn't had enough of a laugh, every time you started the car, the radio was programmed to come on at Volume 10. Clare was not impressed. It was on the M25 that the Garmin followed suit, by beeping everytime we went past a traffic camera, then beeping incessently to tell us our average speed was 64 kph. That was, until we hit the crawling traffic after the M1, where every second car seemed to be overheating and the football fans had their windows wound down. Grinding to a halt with petrol bubbling away at $50 a litre...
But we had a very nice day in the UK - for my Aunt & Uncle's 50th Wedding Anniversary in Rickmansworth. We left Annagassan at 4.30am and got home at 10.30pm, which by our calculations is approx. half the journey time of our upcoming trip to Australia. We got to see everyone - all the aunts, uncles, cousins & their kids. Very good. The Ryanair pilot on the way back to Dublin seemed quite determined to make it home for a football match or something. We reversed away as soon as the doors were closed, tore down the Stansted taxiway at breakneck speed (I thought he was gonna try and lift the nose at one point), lined up and took off pronto, bumped our way back to Dublin, a couple of aerobatic turns, slammed it down, brakes on, olympic speed-record taxi back to the D Gates... I think we did 'door close' to 'door open' in about 45 mins.
We're off to France next weekend (long weekend in Ireland) - who knows what the Garmin lady will make of the French countryside? Then Australia in 3 weeks time. I guess we'll keep flying till the oil runs out...

Annagassan Viking Festival 2008

I've finally finished the website for the Annagassan Viking Festival 2008... http://www.annagassanvikingfestival.com/
So, if you're in Ireland, and you're looking for something to do on the 9th & 10th of August this year, then head to Annagassan and join us... We'll have a great party! Not sure how many guests we can fit in our apartment... :) Off to the UK this weekend. Bye for now.

The amazing Jerry Holland

Jerry Holland plays the fiddle at Fiddle Fair 2008, West Cork Hotel, Skibbereen, Ireland on Sat 10 May 2008. He is truly in a class of his own. Yes, the video is terrible, but the sound is magic... Of course it was far better to be there. If you like trad music, enjoy!

Fiddle Fair 2008

There are 2 blog entries on West Cork, Ireland
1. Fiddle Fair 2008 May 08
2. St. Patrick's Day Weekend March 07

flickr photo link <Fiddle Fair 2008> (still adding more photos)
NEW! YouTube clip link <The Amazing Jerry Holland>
What a wonderful weekend. We're driving home from Baltimore, West Cork, using the laptop in the car. We really love West Cork. Maybe lots of Irish people think that Connemarra or Donegal is the real Ireland, but we think that County Cork is the ultimate Ireland - the countryside, the scenery, the people, the food and the music. BUT THE FIDDLE FAIR... MY GOD, THE MUSIC WAS VERY, VERY GOOD! I think we may have heard some of the best fiddle music in the world over the last 48 hours. We heard fiddlers from Canada, Spain and all over Ireland, and people had come from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Spain & the USA to hear the music. As well as the "fiddle" enthusiasts, there were yachties at the pubs still in their buoyancy vests and divers still in their dive gear! Even a TV crew filming a show about Jeremy Irons who actually played a gig at the fiddle fair on Sunday afternoon. But we gave him a miss and went to see Leonard Barry playing his uilleann pipes at the O'Driscoll Castle instead. So let's start at the beginning...
Clare raced down from work in the far north of the Republic of Ireland to pick up Joe from work on the southern side of Dublin. All good going until Clare got lost around the Dublin Docklands! Eventually by 7.30pm or so we hit the M50 and really got going on the road south. Got to the "Rathmore House" B&B (€75/nt) at Baltimore, Co Cork around 11.30pm. This was one of the best B&B's we've stayed in - awesome harbour views out of our bedroom window; good breakfasts with options of the full Irish with Clonakilty black pudding, or a platter of Cork cheeses. Guess which Clare had? Not the black pudding... That's another thing we always notice about Co Cork - the support of the local food industry, and what great local food it is. We managed to pick up some smoked mackarel dip & smoked salmon pate from the Union Hall Fish Co-op at the local store in Baltimore, where they also sold 3 different local black puddings - not just the famous Clonakilty black puddings.
We had bookings for 3 concerts over the weekend and anticipated an early start on Saturday morning. But the "weekend" had started for some on Thursday morning, and by Saturday morning more than a few people including the muso's had had a very late/early session on Friday night - so the 12.30pm concert started around 1pm'ish! By then there was a queue going up the stairs of the Dún na Séad Castle (O'Driscoll Castle), built in 1215. A couple of impatient Americans were making comments on the Irish time keeping skills. Clare said we we should all go back to the pub and wait for a bit. A local Irishman said "yes, you're copping on quick!" But we'd already been to the local pubs. First we'd checked out the little harbour, then Clare bought some postcards at the craft shop, then we got some rum & cokes while Clare checked out the tourist literature and watched the 10.30am local island ferry steam away at 12noon... Irish time. There are 3 islands off the coast here that you can easily get to (in Summer) with people living on them year round. But there weren't many people around this morning. We later found out that the Friday night session had finished just a few hours before...
3 main pubs face Baltimore Harbour, with a few more in the back streets. We spent most time at Jacob's Bar & Bushe's. Jacob's Bar must have been refurbed quite recently we think... could easily fit in at Byron Bay. They had staff from France & NZ as well as locals. Bushe's (linked to W. Goggin) was far more traditional. The barman at Bushe's seemed like an Irish version of "Daffyd - The only gay in the village!" He was very efficient at serving Guinness and crab sandwiches. We also saw him cleaning the pub windowsills on Sunday morning. Now George W Bush claims to be a decendant from this village, not a notion much supported by the locals...
A brief history of Baltimore by Clare
So the village (yes, the US city is named after this place) clearly relies on tourism now, but was (and still is really) the ancestral home of the O'Driscoll clan. They specialised in piracy in the 1500/1600's. They pissed off other people including other pirates and one day in the 1600's some pirates from Morocco sailed in and took 107 prisoners in retaliation for some activity of the O'Driscoll's and took them back to North Africa into slavery. Only one person made it back to Ireland about 20 years later to tell what happened. But at the Heritage Centre in nearby Skibbereen, they mentioned that actually only 2 out of the 107 were actually Irish - the rest were English settlers. Later on, some Irish from Waterford came down and did the castle over, after being pissed off. Things went downhill from there, then in 1845 the famine really hit this area. It was very badly hit due to the massive reliance on the potato for the 60% or so of the population who were landless peasants living in rented mud huts with one pig and a few chickens. The Great Famine Commemoration Exhibition at the Heritage Centre commemorates the tragic period in the 1840s that is known in Irish History as the Great Hunger. Skibbereen was one of the worst affected areas, and the events of the era are depicted using local characters and events. Well worth a visit.
But enough of history and back to the music... The first concert on the Saturday featured 2 sisters from Dingle, Aoife & Deirdre Granville playing mainly the fiddle and harp but also the flute & tin whistle. The fiddling was good but the harp playing was really amazing. We'd never heard anything like it, rather like Enya without synthesis. A particularly good number was "Beauty" from the Blasket Islands that the girls learnt from their grandmother. Aoife is certainly a talented fiddle player, but it made us realise just how good the level of playing at our local, The Glyde Inn, is on Friday nights. Lisa, the resident fiddle player, could hold her own in this festival, but she's off travelling now, and is likely to be on a beach somewhere between Koh Samet and Bryon. Lisa, if you read this, we miss your fiddling already! We bought some CD's after this concert and managed to support the various musicians with a few CD purchases, a couple of t-shirts and a poster during the festival.
We went back for a trad session at Jacob's Bar. Every second person in Baltimore seemed to have an instrument and some of the world's best were joining in, so for young muso's it was a great place. People were dragging around harps, banjos, fiddles, flutes and tin whistles in specially designed backpacks for such opportunities. We eventually headed back to our room at the B&B and took some great pics of the evening light fading over the harbour. At 8pm we joined the festival shuttle bus to the West Cork Hotel at Skibbereen. Stopped off at The Sibín pub in the back lanes of Baltimore. Worth a visit. Whilst we drove along, the girls from "The Polskadots" group played a fiddle session on the bus...
The Amazing Jerry Holland
The evening concert was in 2 parts. The first act was Jerry Holland & John Doyle. Wow. Fiddle playing like we'd never heard before - mesmerising & literally spine tingling. Jerry (the fiddler) was an old bloke from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia (Canada) with John (from Ireland) absolutely amazing on guitar. Whilst the Irish roots are deeply felt here, the influence of Jerry's Nova Scotia trad fiddle sound is really strong, and sounded to me almost as if from the American South, perhaps Appalachian... I took one clip of this show, and have watched it a few times. Just a really incredible set, with a very enthusiastic and supportive crowd. A hard act to follow.
Berrogüetto... Trad fusion brilliance
Once in a while, we can be witness to rare musical gems. Perhaps obscure, possibly never to be seen again. But I hold out hope that these guys might turn up at the Bluesfest one year, as they truly fall into the category of "Roots" - but much more than that... Berrogüetto hail from Galicia (Spain) but language is no barrier to their infectious blend of trad fusion, roots, classical and world music. Even Greek & Middle Eastern influences. Something reminded me of Bela Fleck, and on listening to their brilliant album "10.0", I even hear electronica there too, although they had no electronic instruments on stage. The 7 member group play: 2 fiddles (dueling fiddles!); accordian; bouzouki; flutes; 2 gaitas/pipes; guitar & bass; harp; percussions incl. bodrum, drums & tamborine; saxo; zanfona/hurdy-gurdy... The zanfona/hurdy-gurdy is an amazing instrument like a big boxy violin where you turn a handle on the end whilst playing the strings. The gaitas/pipes have a distinct sound and are closer to the Scottish bagpipes than the Irish (Uilleann) pipes (more on those later). The sound of Berrogüetto had strong Irish trad themes in some songs, Greek/Turkish influences in others, with dueling fiddles & pipes... Still somewhat hard to describe - you have to hear it for yourself! The name Galicia comes from the Latin name Gallaecia, associated with the name of the ancient Celtic tribe that once resided there, so you can really understand the Irish roots heard in these tunes...
The concert finished up around 12.30am, and by then trad sessions had already started in other bars at the hotel. The boys from Berrogüetto obviously didn't play enough fiddles for everyone! One trad session was running in the hallway with about 10 fiddles going. Another was going in the front bar led by Jerry Holland. Very good music. We kept on until 2am and caught the shuttle bus back to Rathmore House. Most people didn't make the bus and probably kept going till dawn...
The next morning we managed, just, to make it to breakfast by 10am, then checked out and made our way back to the village. Nobody was stirring, so we went for a drive up to the spectacular whitewashed Beacon on the clifftops. A few festival campers had put themselves in the fields around the Beacon carpark, and the sounds of a plucking banjo could be heard in the air - the trad sessions never end here! So we wandered up to the Beacon, trying to avoid slipping over the edge of the of the unprotected 100 metre+ clifftops - no fences here! Spectacular rugged views, and wildflowers on the hillsides. There's a Wooden Boat Festival here later in May, and some guys were out on the harbour training for the races. Yes we thought about the Virtue boys and took some pics just for Rob, Keith & John.
Back to Jacob's Bar for an iced coffee, then to "Daffyd - The only gay in the village" for a crab sandwich before the next concert at O'Driscoll Castle. This was Leonard Barry, playing uilleann pipes & Michelle O’Brien on the fiddle. Apparently the uilleann pipes are made individually for each person and are pitched at different notes - Clare is sooo not musicial and is probably not explaining this correctly! We'd heard these pipes in Clifden last year and once at our local too. Perhaps the fiddle playing was a touch high pitched today, but the pipes were brilliant with many reels, jigs and "sets" played for over 1 1/2 hours. Yes, Leonard was great, but we still think the bloke who did a session at the Glyde Inn one night was better. He'd spent a year touring the world with "Riverdance" and was damn good. God, now we're comparing uilleann pipe playing - have we been in Ireland too long? Anyway, there will be some clips linked here shortly. This is the sort of music that's played at "caleigh's" (spelling?) which is clearly the music that Australian bushdances are based on. We noticed that Leonard played pieces from County Clare, Donegal, Kerry, Leitrim, Limerick and Sligo, but never from County Louth where we live. Why is this we wonder ???
Back to Jacob's Bar again for a last listen to the neverending trad session... dogs, kids and crab sandwiches, the Baltimore experience... before heading back on our long drive home. We drove through Kinsale on the way and ruled it out as some sort of Irish Noosa, without the rainforest. People walking along the esplanade with their icecreams, and fighting over carparks, etc. Oh, it's hitting 20c now, so summer is here at last (but don't expect it to last for too long!) Happy Days.

The Italian Wedding & Lake Maggiore

flickr photo link: <Lago Maggiore & Wedding photos>

25 Apr 08 FR9428 DUB/BGY 1735/2115

27 Apr 08 EI437 MXP/DUB 2120/2255

This is Blog Post #100!
Oh wow... Of all the weekends away in the last year or whatever, I think Northern Italy was possibly one of the most theraputic and spectacular (but too much food again!) We started early Friday evening with a smooth 2 1/2 hr Ryanair flight from Dublin across France & The Alps (a truly amazing sunset over The Alps at dusk, but unfortunately no photos). A few turns and bumps, and we landed at Bergamo, about 40km northeast of Milan. Picked up a little Hertz Fiat with Sat Nav, and drove along the AutoStrada to Legnano where Tarynne, my old DHL team member from Brisbane now lives with her (fiance... now husband) Alessandro. It was late when we found our way into town - there was some major contruction going on, seemed like half the town was ripped up. After a little investigation, we located the "Hotel Elitis", our slightly dubious pre-booked 4 Star, but it was comfortable enough. Clare soon discovered a little coffee shop/nightclub that whipped us up some risotto and a couple of glasses of 7 yr old Havana Club. We fell asleep with the Italian racer boys revving their cars up and down the streets outside...

Next morning, after a very noisy Chinese tour group had left the building, we had a quick breakfast in the deserted restaurant. We met up with June, one of Tarynne's family friends, and she pointed Clare in the direction of the shoe shop across the street. So Clare did the Italian thing and bought shoes. We checked out the local supermarket for some essential supplies (and a bottle of limoncello). Downtown Legnano seemed pretty small. Not as attractive as many of the towns in Tuscany, but functional all the same, and well located with the AutoStrada running down the eastern side (North to Lake Maggiore, South to Milan).

The Wedding of Tarynne & Alessandro... We headed out for the 11am wedding at the Legnano Town Hall. Very nice it was, all done out in old wood panelling and the town flags of Italy. The wedding was a civil ceremony, conducted in Italian by an official looking bloke wearing a sash (possibly the Mayor?) and his assistant. Some obviously essential parts were translated into English (I think mainly for Tarynne!) There were lots of things we only partially understood but a very nice wedding all the same. Afterwards, Tarynne & Alessando were literally pelted with rice as they left the hall. Had a few photos outside, then we drove up to the reception venue.

To be completed...

Irish Pub of the Week #10

Irish Pub of the Week #10, "Blue Stack Lounge Bar" in the heart of Donegal Town. Didn't get the chance to go in this small place, but it looked kind of different!

Irish Pub of the Week #9

Irish Pub of the Week #9, the big amazing yellow place on the road from Dundalk to Castlebellingham we've driven past hundreds of times, but what's it called? TEA WINE & SPIRITS STORES? If there is a name, then please tell me!

A few aviation photos...

Hi all,
Yes I'm still a plane geek, and have put a couple of new (but quite small) photo sets online:
flickr photo link: <Aviation @ BCN Airport, 17 Mar 08>
flickr photo link: <Aviation @ DUB Airport 08>
The pics from Barcelona Airport were taken while we were waiting for our flight back to Belfast recently. The pics from Dublin Airport are my first for the year, dropping by the airport on a Sunday afternoon.
Bye for now.

Dark & Stormy

It's another dark & stormy night in Annagassan, and that's not the rum & ginger variety. The onshore breeze has been blowing up for days, but tonight it's gale force and grey clouds have settled in. White caps ahoy, not a good time to cross the Irish Sea. Funny, trying to remember last April... The yellow fields are in bloom, the days are longer but there's no sign of anything resembling warmth at all. In fact, most days are still in the single digits... Clare has been in bed with tonsilitus and I had flu a few days ago. We need to soak up some foreign sunshine, but we're pretty unlikely to find that in northern Italy next weekend...
Yes, it's all been go go go since our trip to Paris. The morning after we got back (at 2am), Clare was back at the airport at 8am. What the? Went via Heathrow to Shanghai on Virgin Atlantic. But unfortunately the Visas for China were not quite in order, so they had to go on to Hong Kong (damn shame), and because of Rugby 7's week, the only hotel they could find was a luxury place at the airport, so no complaints from Clare! They finally flew back into China, did a factory inspection (did not pass muster), stayed in more luxury hotels, etc. The work side of things ended up being fairly easy as inspection plans changed and there was a local public holiday. So finally back to Shanghai where Clare went off to find eggs benedict on the Bund, and she found them (at M On the Bund) and took a river trip. Then flew back to Heathrow on Sunday morning (1 week after Paris), where all the local & European flights were in complete turmoil due to 2 hours of snow that morning (down to 1 runway). So another night at Heathrow, then back into Belfast at midday Monday. We had dinner at a Dundalk pub on Monday night, then Clare went off to Cork where more work awaited... Had enough yet?
In the meantime, we're working on a new 'ticket' lodging system at my work in Dublin (HP), so everyone has been working very hard. A few more people have been heading to the local pub for a quick tipple after work, but I avoid going there if I'm driving (which is generally far better in the evening rush than the morning).
So this weekend will be quiet. Might have a sleep in, read the Guardian, maybe feed some ducks, etc. Bye all.

The last plane out of Beauvais' almost gone...

flickr photos coming soon...
28 Mar 08 EI528 DUB/CDG 1815/2050
30 Mar 08 FR29 BVA/DUB 2250/2315
Paris... Going straight into our 3rd weekend of travel was quite hard, believe it or not (ooh, poor us)... It seems like the working week extends into the weekend, often with no sleep-in, punctuated only by another dash to the check-in and another European airport somewhere, where the baggage takes so long to get to the belt, and you find yourself comparing the level of customs scrutiny from country to country, and how well organised the transport services are, etc. Paris scored quite highly in that regard. But this was so short – Paris in a weekend is like peering through the candy shop window, but you can't go in. You go up the Eiffel Tower, explore the back streets and ride the open top bus with the Americans, but you barely scratch the surface of this amazing city.
We started on the Friday evening with Aer Lingus from Dublin to Charles De Gaulle T1, which was like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey, with it's 70's chic & perspex tube travellators. We like Aer Lingus for the sheer reason that they do seat allocation, as opposed to Ryanair which is like boarding with the rhinoceros herd (for the sheer fear of being left behind?) We took the people mover under CDG to the train station, then the RER train into Paris (just over 8 Euros). This ended up about 200 metres from our hotel (Hotel Des Mines, €108/nt) on Blvd Saint-Michel in the 5th arrondissement. Nice little attic room with bath, like when Harrison Ford escaped across the rooftops in Frantic.
On Saturday morning (after we were able to get that all important sleep-in) Clare discovered a nearby carpet shop in world record time, and acquired a nice Iranian piece (what a bargain) for which we then acquired another piece of cabin luggage later that afternoon (to carry it back to Ireland). Our area was full of little boulangeries, street markets, loads of Vietnamese & Japanese Restaurants. You could explore here for days, then move onto another part of Paris... So we took the open top bus tour (still slightly cool) which took us up the Champs-Élysées, past the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower, into the traffic of Saturday afternoon in Paris – loads & loads & loads of police vans and demonstrators who seemed to be pensioners, fighting for better pensions or sick benefits, or something? In the meantime, Sue & Paul were racing to Paris on the TGV from Italy and arrived mid-afternoon. That night, we had a couple of happy hour drinks, then dinner in a restaurant cellar (we think they shoved the tourists in the cellar) which wasn't too bad (about €23 each). We took the metro to the Trocadéro to view the lights of the Eiffel Tower and barter with West Africans selling little light-up tower replicas (flashing away on our bookcase right now...)
On Sunday morning Clare discovered that she'd left her Irish credit card in the Iranian carpet shop the day before, so that had to be cancelled. Then we headed back to the Eiffel Tower, where we queued up (in increasing rain), and took the lift to the 2nd level. What an amazing structure, Clare stood well back from the edge! By this point it was really raining, so Clare, Sue & Paul headed for the Musée d'Orsay while I went to the nearby Musée de l'Armée and the Tomb of Napoleon at Les Invalides (originally built as a hospital and home for disabled soldiers by Louis XIV). Good way to spend a wet Sunday afternoon. As the afternoon faded away, we said goodbye to Sue & Paul and did our final sector on the open top bus tour, then back to our hotel for the shuttle to Beauvais.
Paris Beauvais Airport is part of the Ryanair model of “cheap” flying in Europe (as much as I still love 'em)... The model where you question just how far the airport could possibly be from your destination city. In this case, Beauvais is a town in the countryside of Northern France, a long long way from Paris (seemed like ½ way to Belgium). Beauvais is a large tin shed regional airport with some improvements like a little supermarket and café with crummy food. Much like Proserpine. Ryanair dominates this airport and the queues move like rhinoceros herds (from check-in queue to customs queue to boarding queue, etc.) Our plane was late (bad weather in Dublin)... Very Late... and as we became the last flight on the departure board, and Clare was due to head to China early the next day, we started adapting the lyrics of “Khe Sanh” by Cold Chisel...

“Well the last plane out of Beauvais' almost gone
Yeah the last plane out of Beauvais' almost gone
And it's really got me worried
I'm goin' nowhere and I'm in a hurry
And the last plane out of Beauvais' almost gone”

At some time well after 11pm, with our rhinoceros herd ready to stampede, the inbound Ryanair 737 touched down and achieved the fastest turnaround I've ever seen. With the threat of air traffic control delays if we didn't depart pronto, the pilot implored people to take their seats and we left Beauvais. They switched off the lights behind us. We landed in absolutely pouring rain in Dublin. Back to Annagassan at 2am. Now where are we going next weekend?

Easter Monday...

flickr photo link: <Causeway Coast photos>
After Derry we headed on for some serious tourist spots like The Giant's Causeway and the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. It was a popular day and cars were blocking the road at The GC to pay £5 for the National Trust car park. Lazy buggers. So we parked on a nearby lane instead and walked for free. We did however support the National Trust by eating some of their sandwiches in the tearoom, then followed the crowds down to the rocks, which I have always felt slightly unspectacular. An amazing rock formation yes, but does it deserve all the accolades? I'm not so sure (God I'm hard to please...) On to the Rope Bridge where we took pics of Sue & Paul walking across and admired the view from the cliffs. Again, people lined up with kids & dogs to cross the bridge and complete their touristic pilgrimage of Northern Ireland (but we didn't see them on the Bogside, mmm...) We made it back to the car just in time before hail & sleet reduced the temperature to 1ºc as we headed for Belfast.
Everyone seemed to be out shopping and going to the pub even with the Irish flags up in commemoration of the Easter Rising, well in some neighbourhoods anyway. Union Jacks flying in other neighbourhoods of course. The pub Paul had wanted to see in Belfast (The Crown Liquor Saloon) was closed, so we kept driving to the Balloo House in County Down which does superb food. We grabbed quite possibly the last table in the bar, but they still served us quickly and graciously, and the final bill for drinks & 2 courses put the Republic prices to shame (as we've found consistently in N.I.) We drove back to Annagassan via Newry with a quick tour of Dundalk in the dark... oh look, they've finished expanding the Aldi. Home for a few loads of washing and well earned sleep!
Next weekend... Paris!

Free Derry

flickr photo link: <Derry photos>
It was cold when we arrived in Derry (aka Londonderry) on Easter Sunday. The late afternoon streets had been abandoned to the lager louts and the shutters were well and truly down. So we wandered along the 9 metre thick old city walls, looking down on the divided areas and murals from a distance. I should have worn 2 coats. It was grey and foreboding, and we returned along the grim Strand Road to our B&B (The Saddler’s House, £50/nt) which was quite nice. After a quick change we had dinner at an American style restaurant just down the street that did some great main courses but the desserts were a let down. We do give extra points to the young barman for mixing 2 Pina Colada's, and send this appeal to his management to buy him a new blender. Come on, they don't cost much!
The following morning Clare & Joe did a walking tour of The Bogside with a local guide (just the 3 of us!) Foreign tourists were out snapping pictures of the murals as we listened to the stories of the Battle of the Bogside and Bloody Sunday, from our guide's point of view. Perhaps we saw it in the wrong light, but Derry just seemed so far removed from the tourist brochures advertising art, culture & shopping (which are generally true of Belfast now). The entire history of this city is troubled and it felt like the 'troubles' just finished yesterday. It turned out we weren't far off the mark. We'd seen some posters around for a march at the local cemetery starting at 2.30pm in celebration (?) of the Easter 1916 uprising. We didn't go along, which was a good thing, as according to news reports, a riot kicked off at 3pm with police frisking kids, collecting 41 molotov cocktails, etc. Who they were rioting against and why? Who knows.
We left Derry towards the Giants Causeway with mixed feelings, hoping that one day this place may find some true peace.

Easter, Part I...

flickr photo link: <Donegal photos> (Coming Soon)
Sue & Paul arrived in Dublin on Good Friday, which is one of those weird days in Ireland as although many things are closed, it's not an official public holiday, so lots of people have to work although they'd prefer to have a public holiday like all sensible countries have (like Australia!) Went straight to Trinity College for The Book Of Kells (Joe asks why you'd pay to see a crusty old book... heathen!) The Trinity Library is more impressive than the book itself. So Harry Potter, quite spectacular. Lots of original Gould books of birds & animals from everywhere - loads of them. Apparently the library books are mostly in Latin but catalogued by height, not author or subject matter. The students are allowed to take them out but it's difficult for anyone to find anything they want to read. Almost inspires you to apply to go to Trinity for 2 weeks or so to borrow the books.
It hailed as we drove up to Malahide, just north of Dublin. We had some lunch in a popular little cafe, but missed the last tour at Malahide Castle (this was because Clare & Sue had a dessert with lunch!) We missed every castle over the weekend for one reason or another. So we went home... We tried to go to our local pub that night, but it was closed :(
On Easter Saturday we went to Newgrange. Sue & Paul did the tour, Joe read the papers and Clare took the laptop to the Café (decorated with plastic lampshades from a Stanley Kubrick movie). We then meandered up to Donegal with a few stops in haunted cemeteries (Pagan & Christian) and the like. We checked into the Atlantic Guest House in Donegal Town (€60/nt) right in the middle of the town. It rained in Donegal, as usual, and we eventually found somewhere to eat and a good, but rather solemn trad music session at 'The Reel Inn' pub that night. Lots of laments about leaving Donegal during the famine to live in the slums of Chicago. Definitely no rollicking versions of 'Bound for South Australia' or 'Belle of Belfast' like we have at our pub on Friday nights.
On Sunday we headed around the coast of Donegal and visited numerous teashops - not for tea but for coffee, cakes & souvenirs. We drove up to Slieve League cliffs, the highest in Europe at 600m - quite spectacular (Clare says it was a bit scary). Went for a walk up for a higher view - Clare slipped in the mud but luckily they had a solid fence and she didn't fall into the sea, just got a wet bum and muddy jeans. Had lunch at a greasy spoon place in Dungloe. Onwards towards Derry via more mountain passes, past Mt Errigal (looked like Mount Doom from LOTR) and through Glenveagh National Park. There was a castle here that involved a 40 min walk from the car park in the wind and rain so we gave it a miss. Then on towards Derry.
We thought the Lonely Planet writers got a bit excited over Donegal and raved a bit too much about alleged 'alpine' passes. They were interesting with a windswept beauty, but not alpine. Lots of sheep and jolly jumping lambs everywhere, and loads and loads of holiday bungalows in the coastal areas. Another part of Ireland ticked off the book!

Barcelona!

flickr photo link: <Barcelona, Mar 08>
14 Mar 08 EI46 BFS/BCN 1040/1420
17 Mar 08 EI47 BCN/BFS 1500/1640
We heard the old man on the Friday evening. At first it was just an odd sound, floating down through the breezeway behind our apartment in this part of the Barri Gòtic of Barcelona. Something deep and resonant. We opened the bathroom window. After more careful listening, it was certainly a voice... quite guttural, almost as if from the devil himself. We had no idea what he was saying, but it was certainly a one sided conversation, interspersed with a laughter, perhaps slightly hysterical. This occured regularly, morning and evening, and became strangely familar during our 3 days and nights here. We're sure, now we've left, that his voice will continue to intrigue and puzzle many visitors to come.
So, Barcelona, another fantastic (too short) travel experience in Europe. We flew from Belfast International on Friday 14 March. We shared the Aer Lingus A320 with the “Shankill Junior Football Club” which made for an amusing trip, especially the 1 ½ hours sitting on the tarmac in Belfast waiting for the fog to lift in Barcelona as the (numerous) kids around us got more and more bored... But eventually we took off and the flight was quite smooth. Barcelona Airport is nice looking but the baggage handling was poor (1 hour from landing to carousel), which we've come to expect now in Europe – all the more reason to forget the check-in baggage and travel with roll-ons that exactly fit carry-on specifications, mmm, next time...
After some deliberation outside the terminal building (a typical Friday afternoon I would suspect), we ended up sharing a cab to Plaza Catalunya with an Irish couple. They were also on the same flight back on Monday.

- Story & photos to be completed -

Storm Of The Century, Part II

This may, quite possibly, be one of our shorter blog entries. The wind howled, some rain came down and waves lashed along our sea wall, but there was no disaster last night. Everything was fine. It's probably better to have a prediction of bad weather than not be told at all. So, that was our storm of the century and all is well. Bye for now.

Storm Of The Century, Part I

Tonight, the "Storm Of The Century" is hitting Ireland & Great Britain with 100kph+ winds and buckets of rain, all combined with a super high tide. But it hasn't reached us yet! The population has been asked to stay away from coastal areas, which is a little difficult for us as we live right on the coast. So wish us luck. More updates later!