2014.02.19 Ireland-Dublin-CIty-and-Dalkey

Day 3: Dublin/Dublin Castle and Dalkey.

It's hard to justify a museum or tour inside of something (e.g. a castle) when the weather is beautiful.

Dublin is, as we were told, a very walkable city (assuming you stay rather central).  So, on this very sunny morning/early afternoon we did a lot of walking around Dublin proper,

Here's a nice breakdown of the different neighborhoods/villages of Dublin. We did a lot of walking in the Liberties :

``The Liberties is an area in central Dublin,Ireland. The name derives from manorial jurisdictions dating from the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in the 12th century. They were town lands united to the city, but still preserving their own jurisdiction (hence "liberties")...The modern Liberties area lies...between the river Liffey to the north, St. Patrick's Cathedral to the east, Warrenmount to the south and St. James's Hospital to the west....In return for the support of the ruler of the liberty...privileges were granted to the rulers of the liberties at various times and by various kings of England. For example, these allowed the liberty of St. Sepulchre to have its own courts of justice...(where it was allowed to try all crimes except "forestalling, rape, treasure-trove and arson"), free customs, freedom from certain taxes and services, impose their own fines, have their own coroners, rights of salvage, maintain their own fairs and markets, regulate weights and measures, etc...These rights and privileges ended in 1840."(source: wikipedia page on the Liberties)

and also in  the area of the Dublin Castle.



The castle itself has seen a lot of phases of use -- there are remnants of Norman-era fortifications and such on the other side (I read a little plaque).


The tower to the right is the only Norman-era (~1230) chunk left.  All the way to the left would've been something, but it burned down, I think.

Dublin Castle, from the back! 

What you can't tell from that angle is that the lines in the grass are actually a brick-laid celtic knot.  A few tours came through while we were walking around, and I overheard bits and pieces.

Apparently the "driving the snakes out of Ireland" part of the St. Patrick myth is supposed to symbolize getting rid of paganism/pagans.  Also, St. Patrick was probably Welsh originally.

 Here's a map of Norma-era Dublin Castle (thanks wikimedia commons). The black dashed lines are where the garden is now -- it was underwater then:

There were a list of pubs I was interest in trying out, particularly "Ireland's Oldest Pub", the Brazen Head, former haunt of Vikings.  They are very proud that James Joyce mentioned them (in Ulysses):

"Corley, at the first go-off, was inclined to suspect it was something to do with Stephen being fired out of his digs for bringing a bloody tart off the street. There was a dosshouse in Marlborough street, Mrs Maloney's, but it was only a tanner touch and full of undesirables but M'Conachie told him you got a decent enough do in the Brazen Head over in Winetavern street..."

My own thoughts on the place: very very small inside, stocky wooden tables, solid food and beer.

Sadly full of a large group of Americans. One had this accent where everything she says sounds snide. Another could've been from the suburbs of Chicago (that terrible nasal "a"). Based on the pink water bottle with a uni logo on it, I think that all went to U Arizona.

Oldest pub in Ireland! Consequently, old Viking haunt

With a few more hours of afternoon left, we decided to hop a DART train (commuter rail, round trip ticket for about 6 euros) for Dalkey, as Damien (driver on Co. Wicklow tour) had said that he thought all of us could find something we'd like in Dalkey.

I had an overly-artistic map of Dalkey from the Tourist office (the one on Suffolk street, in the Church), which was enough to get us moving towards a hike. We headed from the DART station towards Killiney (Dalkey?) hill (ish).

Dalkey: view along coast:



While walking, we were a little concerned about rain, but more concerned about dark (being late afternoon). So, we opted for the closer hill (``Telegraph Hill") rather than go all the way to the Obelisk. It was a rocky, cliff-like area.


The island/peninsula in the distance in this next picture is Howth. The view is from Telegraph Hill:



View back towards the Obelisk:



There was one main reasonable way down, by stairs along the "cliff-face"




We got back to the DART station before it was dark, and headed back in to Dublin proper.

When we got back, we went to O'Neill's for dinner and beer.  Damien (tour guide from Co. Wicklow tour) had pointed out all of the awards outside --- good food, best carvery, etc -- outside and said they got those awards every year, must be doing things right.  Between that and my friend Andrew's endorsement, it was definitely on the list of pubs to visit. 

the booth next to where we sat

I was resolved to try out some local beers (hard to do a lot of places, where your choices are Guinness, cider, or maybe Smithwicks).

Good way to make your barkeep smile -- ask for advice, and if he gives you two beers to try, try  them and then ask for a pint of each (O'Hara's red and Crean's Lager, both local(ish)).  

The food was delicious -- ``carvery", which is what it sounds like. That is, they have various slabs of meat, gravies, sides, and you order by weight (for the meat) and by portion for the sides. We got turkey and a bit of everything and split it. 

Stairwell at O'Neill's

There was live ``traditional irish music", but upstairs, amongst the smokers. It was, however, piped through the rest of the place, which was nice. I decided I was getting tired of the song "Galway Girl" -- it was at least the third or fourth time I'd heard it (on our tour, in Farringtons, blasting from the doorways of kitschy tourist shops...).  In case you'd like an earworm, this is the song I mean.
(Note: the "Salthill Prom" == the Salthill (town near Galway) Promenade, which is ~ a boardwalk by the ocean).

Next: Howth & the Archaeological Museum! 

2014.02.17 -- 2014.02.18 Ireland-Dublin-Co.Wicklow (part 1 of Dublin)

I was invited to Belfast, Northern Ireland, for research and decided to slap on some vacation beforehand. Made sense to see Ireland, and the easiest thing sans-car seemed to be to see Dublin(area) and Galway. Especially given that lately there's been a lot of storms along the southern coast (and some serious flooding).


Part 1: Dublin.

Day 1
We flew Aer Lingus, which has direct flights (2 hrs) to Hamburg and is a discount airline, just a smidge above Ryanair.

We got into Dublin in the early evening, and decided to find somewhere to eat, take a walk around and stop into a pub. We stayed at the Townhouse, near the corner of Lower Gardiner and Talbot.  We stopped at O'Shea's for dinner, which was catty corner from the hotel. I had Irish stew, and realized that what people seem to call Irish stew in the states is somewhere between Irish stew and beef-and-Guinness stew.

Afterwards, we walked around Temple Bar area and stopped into Farrington's to grab a beer (I think I had something of O'Hara's, wouldn't swear to it) and a piece of dessert, which was Banoffee  pie("Ban" from "banana" and "offee" from "toffee"). Layer of "biscuit" (not-so-sweet plain cookie-esque) crust, layer of toffee, layer of banana slices, mound of cream on the side. Delish. Topped off by a very drunk barister striking up a conversation based on the fact that I have glasses, and he has (new) glasses, obtained recently on vacation to Florida, and he claimed he owned the place (the internet believes it's owned by some random company, so, probably not?).

Farrington's during the day

Day 2 - Co. Wicklow and Glendalough (Glen-da-lock) Tour
We resolved to get out of town when it's beautiful out and the next day (after a "full irish breakfast" (beans, black & white "pudding", eggs and some very dense bread) we rushed out of the hotel to n to take a Dublin Unplugged half-day tour to Co. Wicklow and Glendalough. Our driver (Damien) gave us sort of a mini Dublin tour/intro as we headed out of town, and various points of advice.

Example:

Damien: You're all entrepreneurs, right? Well, in 12 months time, all the taxis in Dublin have to be wheelchair accessible and not Diesel ([t's not clear if they have to then be electric, or just not diesel).  There are some 40,000 cabs in the Dublin area.  There's a real opportunity there. 

Important point which we were told there are exactly two official tourist info places. The rest of the things that say tourist info are actually private companies. One of the official ones is inside a former church on Suffolk street, which is where we were later dropped off on to go find some food and whatnot. 

While driving along by the river Liffey, he pointed out a stone pillar nearby, off the side of the road (on dry land) and said that that was where the vikings had tied up their ships , that the land we were on used to be under water.  When I get to the archaeological museum part of this trip, I can say some more (about Dublin being founded by vikings etc). 

For the best seafood in the area, he recommended the restaurants in Howth (where all the fresh fish was brought in) [see Thursday post] and he said that everyone would find something they'd like in Dalkey (which has several "castles", one of which Enya lives in) [see Wednesday post]. 

He said the weather in Ireland has changed completely, even in the last five years. Now they get snow (and have still no snow plows). So, this is the first year in the last 3 where they've been able to take tours down to Glendalough -- the last few were all snowed out. 

We stopped at a lookout on the way to Glendalough, on the edge of the Guinness family estate.  The lake and attached land and house was a bridal gift to one of the women marrying into the Guinness family. 

Valley by Lough Tay

The TV-series Vikings (2?) was partially filmed down there, complete replica of a viking village had been set up. It'd been taken apart the week before we got there.

He was apparently around Glendalough on the day when the Obamas came to visit. It'd been dry and sunny for too long, and this bred a batch of mosquitos/bugs, making their visit uncomfortable. No one asked for bug spray, and none was offered.

Glendalough was settled in the 5th century by "Saint Kevin" as a monastic settlement. Here's a map of his route around the area.



Our tour-guide Damien, under one of the two arches at the entrance to the former monastic settlement:



Apparently this cross is famous as the "Glendalough cross":

We learned that churches open from the west and spread eastwards. Not sure why. Inside of the former chapel:

View back out to the cemetary from inside the church

One of the tombstones was for someone aged 102 in 1759:

Walking out of the cathedral was this nice view -- hills, gravestones, bit of sun:



There's a tower there, with a door starting some 2m off the ground -- to keep the rain out, as the tower was for storing documents/scriptures.

Glendalough = Valley of two lakes. We had time to walk along to the further one and back.

Republic of Ireland never got food and mouth disease. They "cancelled tourism" for 29 weeks (not sure what that means) and shot any animals that tried to wander south. and tested all of their own animals twice over. 

There are signs about people shooting dogs. They are serious -- the dogs tend to worry at the sheep, which can cause them to miscarry :/. 

Back in Dublin, lunch at Avoca.


I really enjoyed the name of this little mexican food place (only makes sense if you know a small amount of Spanish):



Walked around, through Trinity college grounds. 
Overheard people speaking. Sounds strange hearing "like" thrown into the other somewhat musical-sounding English (that is, I was sort of sad that at least the college kids seem to have picked up this American-ism).

Saw these cute posters everywhere advertising an exhibit at "the Ark":


Stopped in at the Science Gallery and their "Fail better" exhibit. 
It was an interesting idea.:

FREE EXHIBITION OF BEAUTIFUL, HEROIC AND INSTRUCTIVE FAILURES AT SCIENCE GALLERY, TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

Everything from a centrifugal-force birth-aid (never built & used, just patented) to the story of how Dyson disassembled and rebuilt vacuums until he came up with his "cyclone", bag-less thing.


Tune in next time for Dublin Castle/Dublin City and Dalkey. Later, Howth. Then, the story of our time in Galway!

26.07-27.07.2013 Salzburg!

Salzburg!  [eine deutsche Version hier]

Day 1. 26.07.2013. 

We had lunch at a random German-ish restaurant. I had "Fleischlaibchen" (literally: small meat loaves, which is actually exactly how i'd describe it (as meatloaf made smaller )) with some nice vinegar-based potato salad and some dark ketchup on the side. 

Nearby ware these construction workers, who climbed up the scaffolding so:

After climbing up, they were throwing several giant tools up to each other. 

Our first "sight" (bags, again, chilling out in the hotel while we killed time) was the fortress  Hohensalzburg.  ("High Salzburg").

Fortress, with some art in the foreground

11 euros to take the Funicular up and back down, also includes an audio guide through the fortress. 

There was an organ inside, which looks like a music-box :






There was also a model which represented how the people in the caastle (before they built the Funicular) brought stuff up to the castle. Up high was a room with horses who would walk around in circles, simultaneously winding up the cords and also causing grain to be ground (i.e. it was both a mill and a thing that would drag stuff up the mountain). Pretty clever.

Wagon at the bottom of the hill, to be pulled up

The castle contained a military museum, the  Rainer-Regiment Museum.

"The regiment was founded by Emperor Leopold I. .. on the occasion of the threat of Austria by the Turks in 1682 ... In 1852 Archduke Rainer Ferdinand, a nephew of Emperor Franz I, was the last person appointed to the regiment, and after his death in 1913, Emperor Franz Joseph I, that this regiment should forever bear the name "Archduke Rainer" ... November 1918 the regiment after the war was retired by the last commander ... and returned to the home garrison, Salzburg." [Translation of part of this page] 

One of them could paint, and his pictures of the trench warfare of WWI were there: 

The Lord Archbishop Leonhard von Keutschach (1495-1519 as Archbishop of Salzburg) took as his crest a turnip. He made a lot of renovations to the fortress, which you can recognize by the strange turnips:

Eventually,we went outside and up to the highest part. A good view of the area!

Salzburg

Festung/Schloß

From the highest point of the fortress, I saw a very nice, big swimming pool. This was Leopoldskron,  about 26 minutes away (foot or Tram) from where we were staying, at the youth hostel (JUFA-Salzburg).

We, in Salzburg, then were at the crest of the heat wave going on in Austria, 35-36C (95-97 F).  I suggested that after visiting the fortress, we go for a swim. 

It was really nice and surprisingly cheap, as we entered right after the prices dropped (they drop 2 hrs before closing from 4,50 to 2,50) , although had only 4 showers, so we decided not to fight the line afterwards. 

Gotta eat at some point. We wandered through the city and at 22:30 found ourselves by something that my Salzburg guidebook recommended, Afro Cafe. Spare ribs with Peanut-Chili rub/sauce. Yum yum.




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Salzburg! Day 2. 27.07.2013. 

Hellbrunn, which you might recognize as the "home" of the Von Trapp family in the Sound of music (the interiors don't match up, though. I think the interiors were from Schloß Leopoldskron).

On the list of things I wanted to see was the ,,Lustschloß (pleasure palace (?)) Hellbrunn". Our lodgings were already on the south side of the city, and Hellbrunn is even more south. We took a bus, it was about 10 minutes away. The entrance ticket included a guided tour through the "Water games"(,,Wasserspiele'') and Audioguide through the palace. What are these water games/tricks? I hadn't really known before. They're a kind of quasi-fountain. The first was a giant table, at which, supposedly, the bishop sat with guests. Until he wanted them to go home, then he flipped a switch...









Here, a statue looks on (the wall mosaics here are very much like the floor/ground mosaics near the Alhambra):

Everything which moved, did so only by the power and pressure of water. Very impressive. 

The gimmick of this tour was that our tour guide would quietly and unobtrusively turn some levers, some people would get wet, the rest would develop a false complacency,and then get wet as well :). Fountains from the floors, and ceilings, and sidewalks and so on. 

a statue and a fountain

Audio tour through the castle, afterwards. It was built by Markus Sittikus, who in 1616-1619 was the "Fürsterzbischoff" of Salzburg.

Markus Sittikus, pointing to the palace under construction, with a map of the grounds as well

another map of the palace and grounds

Inside the palace were many beautiful things:

It was fashionable then to have a "Chinese room". This on in particular had to be renovated twice, because the first renovation damaged more than it helped. 

There were also paintings which documented plants and animals, as we would now do with photos. For instance, a giant fish that was caught nearby (in the palace pond?), about 2 meters long:

Or giant sunflowers. They were a rarity -- only 13 years prior had they been brought from Peru to Europe:

In the giftshop I saw these (Owls, the new sparrow):

We ate lunch in the restaurant there, because we were hungry but also wanted to see the rest of the gardens. The lunch was nothing to write home about.

It was so hot and we were quite exhausted. Man, it would be so nice if we could find a pond or fountain, which we could dip our feet into.

What? What did we find, after a long stroll? Just that. :)

 


To one side was this thing, which would spray water if you pushed a button:

And the fountain/pool was so -- large and ice cold. Very refreshing. The sign suggested that you should move around a lot, i.e. walk through it (at a brisk pace), not just stand around, so that you don't get too cold. 

The first part was built in 1717, this "Arm-pool" where you could put your arms in ice-cold water:

The sign also said that this (next) fountain had drinking water. Good, and also ice0cold (there was a button behind it to push to get it to produce water):

Later on in the day, it seemed like a nice idea to have some icecream. Also, to visit the gardens of Mirabell palace.

We ate at  "Ice Zeit"(Ice Time), a very tasty "wild fruit" parfait.

Afterwards, to  Mirabell Schloß's gardens.  The palace itself was closed, as it was after 18:00. This is where the do-re-mi song (or, a lot of it) from the Sound of Music was filmed:

A similar picture from the "Sound of Music"(Meine Lieder, Meine Träume is the German title).

We sat in the garden until we were hungry again, then crossed the river and walked along the banks in the direction of the old city.








We went to Getreidegasse.  In Salzburg, it seemed like a decent amount of people were wearing Trachtt, and there were a lot of Trachläden (where you could buy dirndl and lederhosen). Here's one:

Getreidegasse:

Almost every store had a sweet/nice sign. Even McDonald's:

and Zara: 

In a side street was  zum wilden Mann. 
I originally ordered the "Lammbeuscherl", but our waitress warned us that these are Lamb Lungs (Lammlunge, in "Hochdeutsch"). Ok, something else then. I had some cold cuts, cheese and bread.

We walked around the city for our last night in Salzburg.

we saw a cow, covered in buttons

Also, a lovely sunset:

The left picture (below) contains the backside of the place where Mozart was born (the yellow and grey house in the middle):





To go with the name "Salzburg" (Salt castle), we found some salt shops. This one had an entire wall made out of pink Himalayan salt:

Here was the room at  JUFA-SalzburgCity. I thought the wood with holes was nice, and looked like they were meant for someone's workshop/garage, not for a bedroom:





 If I had it to do again, I would have seen the same things. 

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In addition:

* Only Americans think "Sound of Music!" when they are in Salzburg. Nevertheless, there's a tour that has existed for a long time, which was taken by both Julie Andrews and Maria Von Trapp.

* I found the accent of the Austrians cute/sweet, when they spoke High German/Austrian. :)

* I had said at one time that I want to see the Alps in all the countries the touch. Austria makes two (Switzerland was first).

* Twice we had a musical interlude.

• First, when we came back from the swimming pool. What? What was the song that I heard? I think ... nah. Yes. "Eye of the Tiger". With tuba and people in Lederhosen. Then followed by "Son of a Preacher Man." After the first song, the singer said that they played for a wedding (ok, so we couldn't wait there and listen, too bad).
• Second time, it was after dinner in "zum wilden Mann". We strolled through the old town. I heard something. What's this? Why is someone playing  Libertango?  It was a band, under a colonnade. Got their cd. 

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This is the last part of my Austria trip. I hope that you liked it. :)

Graffiti by the Hotel