Thursday, May 30 – Ireland (w/ pictures)

We were up and on the bus by 8:15 this morning and headed over to the west coast to the Cliffs of Moher.

(This is an example of a tower house castle from the Tudor period.  It was used as a fortress, vantage point, and residence for the nobleman who owned the land.)





It is an area of very steep cliffs, dropping down to meet the Atlantic Ocean.  They are actually known as a popular surfing area with waves up to 60 feet high at various times of the year.  They were very nice, but still not the impressive scenery I’ve heard about for Ireland.

O'Brian Tower build 1835

Next we spent the lunch time in Galway– a university/fishing city along the coast.  I had a great seafood chowder (shrimp, mussels, and something with tentacles) and my first chocolate éclair for the trip (hopefully many more to come).  There were lots of little shops along the road and it made it easy to spend the hour or so of free time we had.  The streets here were very similar to those in both Switzerland and France in that the shops were all right next to each other along narrow streets with little to no designated sidewalk areas.

Candy Store

The last tour stop for the day was at Rathbaun Farm where we made scones and then had a talk and demonstration on sheep sheering while our scones cooked. 

Bags of wool

Finnegan and his dog Ted

Over the last 50 years the wool industry has pretty much disappeared from Ireland and there are very few woolen items made here any longer.  In fact we learned that it often costs as much or more to pay someone to sheer a sheep than what they will get for selling the wool.  Most of the wool is sold to China where with their cheap labor they are able to produce sweaters, blankets, etc. for very little cost.  The farmers have no choice but to still sheer the sheep since the sheep would suffer from the summer weather if they were not shorn.  But most of the sheep are sold before they are a year old (when they are still classified as lamb) for meat and so may not need to be sheered before then.

He had a variety of sheep in the pens for us to see and as cute as they were, I still like lamb.

He had a boarder collie which was about a year old, but fully trained in how to herd the sheep.  He let the dog out in the field, gave him a single command, and he (the dog) ran off as fast as he could.  About 10 seconds later he came out from behind a row of shrubs with 10 sheep stampeding ahead of him.  Within another 30 seconds he had them herded into the pen the farmer had open, including one who tried to break away from the group.  I did not even have time to get a picture it happened so fast!

The one against the wall was just shorn

It took the farmer all of about 4 minutes to sheer the sheep (the first time for this particular sheep).  Afterwards it was funny to see the sheep rubbing against the wall in the pen.  I don’t know if it felt itchy after the shaving – or just liked the feel of rubbing against the wall now that all that fur was gone.

We enjoyed our scones and then looked around the original farm house with its thatched roof.  They generally just keep adding to the roof over the years and even though the house is over 250 years old, the bottom layer of thatch is from the time the house was built.

closer view of roof

Inside the house

There was a Medieval dinner tonight which was optional and Jenny and I opted out (we have been to those before) and instead had a simple meal and then stopped in a pub for some local refreshment.

Wed, May 29 – heading to Ireland (w/pictures)

This was mostly a travel day.  Up early with the rest of my sister’s family to catch the bus to the train to take to the airport (public transportation is amazing here)!

As luck would have it, we encountered several friendly 'coffee cups' handing out cold espresso drinks in the station.  It was just the pick-me-up we needed for our early morning trip!

Off to Zurich

We flew from Zurich to London where we had a 4 hour layover.  It was hard to believe that we were going to be back here in about 2 weeks at the end of the trip.  But for now it was nice to be back to an area where we knew we could more easily communicate.  Even after just a week in Switzerland it was hard to get away from starting each conversation with ‘do you speak English?’.  London airport was drizzly and foggy – in other words – the way London is characterized.  So it was a pleasant surprise to find clear sunny skies in Shannon, Ireland.  Our plane had been delayed leaving London so we arrived at our hotel (in Limerick) about 15 minutes before our get-acquainted dinner was to start. 

There are 44 of us on the tour.  At least half are 65 or older (and not as spry as the older folks who were on the Israel trip last year), about 10 my age, and maybe 1 person Jenny’s age.  But we have lots of time to explore on our own so we should be able to go at our own pace.  As a matter of fact, after dinner Jenny and I explored a little bit of Limerick.  We are at about the same latitude as Moscow – so it stays light until about 10:30 and is light again by at least 5 AM.

King Island castle

castle description

Tower of St Mary's

Tues, May 28 - Back to Basel (w/pictures)

We woke to another sunny day with almost no wind.  We were glad to see that since we had to take the chairlift back down and storms had been predicted to move into the area.  We had a nice breakfast, gathered up our things, and headed back down the mountain.

This was not our way down. :-)

I'm not sure if it is still used, but this is a delivery cart which runs down to the bottom of the mountain.  Instead of this, we saw them bringing up supplies by putting boxes on the chair lift.

Heading down

Engleberg

We had some time to walk around the city of Engelberg before catching our train and walked around a monastery along the way.  The church there has the largest pipe organ in Switzerland and, not surprisingly the church itself was impressive also. 

On the way to the station we passed a hotel whose name caught my eye.  It was so odd to see it I had to think twice about if it really was spelled the same.

We were sorry to leave the snow capped Alps behind but were glad to have had the chance to experience them so up close!

We arrived back in Basel early enough that I knew no one would be home yet so we walked the couple of miles back from the train station.  The weather was still nice and in fact Jenny and I had to stop several times to peal off the layers we had put on up in the mountains.  My sister’s home has a small yard in back and we settled in to wait for someone to get home.  We found that the weather can change here as fast as it does back in Nebraska.  In about 15 minutes it went from warm and sunny to cold, windy, cloudy, with thunder in the distance.  A neighbor noticed us out there and invited us in to wait.  They spoke English very well (way better than my almost non-existent German) and we enjoyed the visit.

That catches me up on the text portion of the blog.  I’ll have to see later tonight how many pictures I can manage to insert.  That process always takes more effort than I think it should.

Tomorrow we head out bright and early for Ireland.  We don’t arrive there until dinner time so it will mainly be a day of travel – but we will be spending the night in Ireland. 

Monday, May 27: Engelberg

Swiss country with Alps

Swiss countryside

My sister and her family had to get back to work/school so Jenny and I set off on a 2 day trip on our own to the Swiss Alps.  We went through Lucerne which, judging from the multiple ornate and large hotels, is still a major meeting area for world leaders.  From there we caught a train up to the base of the Alps in Engelberg.  Then onto a cable car for a ride about 2/3 of the way up the mountain.  The last leg was by chair lift, by which time we were above the tree line and riding over snow.  Luckily it was not windy or it could have been quite the trip! 

Starting the ride up the cable car

Engelberg

An odd chess piece

 They take there chess seriously here!  This was at the point where we switched from the cable car to the chair lift.

And up we go!

And still higher...

We arrived at a place called Brunihutte.  It is a Swiss alpine hut – one of the few accessible by other than only a hiking route.  It often serves as a base camp for climbers who scale the surrounding peaks, but also offers a variety of day hikes from here.  It has a restaurant and sleeping arrangements for up to 40 people.

S.A.C. = Swiss Alpine Club

Jenny and I arrived kind of in the in-between season: snow skiing was done for the year and it was still too early for the summer visitors.  As a result we were the only two, besides the couple who own/run the hut and one other worker to spend the night there.  It was quite the experience knowing we were the only 5 on the mountain!

Wall of cabinets with extra blankets, etc.

bedroom

The bedroom was a group of foam mattresses on the floor with a feather blanket and pillow.

During the day we did a couple of hikes.  On the first trail it was covered with about 3-4 inches of slushy snow and in some places it was 12-18 inches deep.  But it was sunny and hiking along kept us plenty warm.

Looking up from trail

Looking down from trail

As we hiked along we thought we were hearing thunder on the other side of the peak but eventually realized they were small avalanches as the snow was beginning to melt on the slopes.  We were not too concerned because the area above the trail we were on did not have large patches of snow and seemed just fine.  We did stop and turn back once we reached the area where we saw small avalanches occurring and where the trail seemed to have been covered by sliding snow.

This was about where the trail faded away beneath the snow and rocks that were sliding down from above.  We figured it was best to head back since the snow was getting deep and there was a significant drop-off to the left.






We returned to the hut to change into dry shoes and socks and sat on the patio enjoying the sun, the German music they had playing (felt a little like being in a German beer garden), and the spectacular scenery.  The pictures here do very little justice to area, but help show the lucky weather we had (this was the first sunny day since I arrived).

Wow!

This is spring??

Once we were recharged we headed out on a hike in the opposite direction, taking a wide trail/narrow road.  Again we continued to hear and see numerous avalanches across the valley.  It would look like a spray of snow suddenly appearing at the edge of a cliff and arching down in slow motion to the rocks below.  It looked like a short distance but must have been hundreds of feet down judging by how long the leading edge of the snow took to reach the bottom.  Then maybe 30 seconds later the sound would reach us like distant thunder.  It always happened too suddenly to catch a picture of it but it was a unique addition to the already awesome scenery!

That evening we enjoyed a wonderful dinner and the complete relaxation that comes after a day of sun and hiking.  It seemed to take forever for it to get dark – probably the result of being up so high from the valley and the abundance of snow all around us.  We drifted off to sleep under feather blankets with the faint sound of the German folk songs still playing in the background.

Sunday, May 26: Roman Ruins

I’m already getting behind in keeping up the blog and we are only in the first week, but in my defense I have been out of internet range for the last 2 days.

Sunday’s big adventure was to travel to Augusta Raurica the sight of Roman ruins from the 1^st and 2^nd century A.D.   Jenny really enjoyed it and I did too but I soon realized how spoiled I was by what I had experienced last year in Israel.  Many of the Roman ruins in this area were located above ground rather than having been buried for centuries.  As a result many of the structures had been cannibalized, using large stone blocks as the foundation for newer buildings or they were just demolished to make way for more modern structures.  It was not until the late 1900s that archeologists were able to convince people of the historical significance of the ruins and work to preserve them.  Many of the structures we saw only had an original foundation or perhaps part of a wall.  They did have a nice museum with many artifacts, but still much of what was here originally was long gone.

 

Restored Amphitheater

Back wall of the amphitheater.

Reconstructed Grain mill

Reconstructed bakery oven

Mosaic Floor

Detail of mosaic

One of the more interesting items was the reconstruction of the bath houses.  The Romans evidently took their bath houses very seriously and they had many ‘modern’ aspects such as hot running water and heated floors.  The picture below shows a mural of how things may have originally looked.  On the ground in front of it are the excavated foundation of the bath house.  Red gravel is used to show which rooms would have been 'hot' rooms.

In pictures of ancient bath houses you often see the people depicted as wearing sandals.  This is because the floors were so hot.  There was a space about 3 feet high beneath the floor.  It was filled with and supported by ceramic columns.  There would be large furnaces which heated the air beneath the floor and the columns would in turn get heated and help retain the heat so that the floors were always hot.  The hot air which passed through the floors eventually exited into the steam rooms so they made double use of the heated air.

Jenny in the well house for the bath house