Filed under: London
Lily and I got to take her Irish Grandma to London to see Lily’s Uncle John. I have to tell the funny story on Irish Grandma, although it’s not really an apt reflection of her. Irish Grandma is very smart and usually on the ball – but I think she gets a little tangled up when traveling. We flew to London in the morning. Took the Underground to Earl’s Court, since I knew that’s where John lived. We get up on the street and Irish Grandma tells me she forgot the address and phone number in Dublin. Hmmm. It’s noon in London, which means 6 am in Minnesota. Irish Grandma suggests we ask a police officer. I think if the police know where Uncle John lives we are definitely turning back. I can’t make a call from my phone out of London (hadn’t planned on being in London and therefore hadn’t marked it as a possible call-from city) but my data plan works. Unfortunately there’s only one person I know who’s up at 6 am and he’s not on Facebook.
So Lily learns how to make a collect call. We find a phone box, reverse the charges and make Grandpa think he’s gone into a time warp. But Grandpa is able to reach Patrick who is able to get us John’s address and within 10 minutes we’re back on the road to Uncle John’s!
We have a nice lunch and then Lily and I are turned loose on the city for 4 hours. We have a fun afternoon with a couple of art galleries (snuck a peek at the David Bowie exhibit) and a walk around some of the fanciest secondhand stores we have ever seen. (Think Sloane Square!) It was a fun day.
Filed under: Berlin
While we enjoyed the historical tour of Berlin – both Lily and I were even more impressed with the alternative walking tour, which featured lots of street art and underground areas. I’ll start with the highlight – we saw Banksy graffiti! We also saw some JR work, which thrilled me. He does large scale portraits of people from the community – by large scale I mean 10+ stories! We saw Blu – which was maybe my favorite. One important distinction between street art and graffiti – graffiti is not sanctioned and is usually done clandestinely. Street art is much more in the open and may even be commissioned.
One of our favorite memes was Little Lutzi – she is painted all over town trying to kill
We also the East Side Gallery, which is a long stretch of the Berlin Wall, now covered in murals. Some of them are fantastic, some are political, some are very OK. Also near that area is a park/you club sort of area. We were in the minority here being native English speakers and being white. There was a soccer pitch, space for skateboarding, cafes, more art. I think Lily could have hung out there all day. We did get a flavor of how young and vibrant Berlin is. There is a real excitement in the city.
On our own we checked out some second hand shops and walked about an extra 10 miles. Just what Lily wanted – but she was a good sport. We didn’t eat a ton of the native cuisine – although we got a healthy and unusual (by US standards) breakfast each day. Actually the breakfast was good – no cereal, pancakes or baked beans but plenty of fish, meat and pastries. It was enough to keep us going most of the day.
While we left I could see that Lily was making her plans to get back to Berlin – probably without her mom.
Filed under: Berlin
Lily and I spent a few days in Berlin. She decided it would be a good idea and somehow talked me into it. I had never been to Germany so I must admit it wasn’t the toughest sell. Mostly what we did on our brief German vacation was walk. We started with the free walking tour of Berlin. We started near the Brandenburg Gate – the former city gate. It was rebuilt in the late 18th century but of course a huge part of the significance is the no man’s land aspect of it. It stood along side the Berlin Wall. We also visited the wall – which is sort of amazing to visit. It’s incredible to think that the wall was built over night and you were stuck wherever you happened to be that night. It was an effort to keep too many people from leaving the area. What a strange solution.
We heard stories of escape – like the people who built a zip line to get to the other side. There are parts of the Wall that stand I suspect mostly as they were back in the day. They are so gloomy and heart breaking. Then there are parts that have been revived with murals – although more on that later.
We saw other highlights such as Check Point Charlie and the parking lot above where Hitler killed himself. They didn’t want to do anything to commemorate the spot because they didn’t want anyone to use it as a reason/opportunity to celebrate Hitler. Mostly you see the cars and the tours gong through. Throughout the tour are telling stories about book burnings, grand art and a huge sense of competition.
Added: My mom asked a good question about the blocks that Lily is sitting on below. It is from the Jewish Memorial, which is spectacular! The blocks are the same square dimension but different heights – and if this makes sense, the height doesn’t change, the depth does. I’m not very easily moved but I have to say the memorial is very touching and thoughtful.
Filed under: Dublin
Mary and I spent the final days of her holiday in Dublin. We met up with some of my old friends. And over the next week or so I visited lots of places by myself. I’m just going to include all of the pictures here. The weather was great. It was so much fun to spend time with old friends. I got a ton of walking in, which always makes me happy.
Filed under: Belfast
OK I’m on a bus to Belfast – months after this summer visit but I’m going to make a real effort to catch up the blog a little bit while I’m on the bus today. Last summer Mary and I got the best hook up from my friend Bobby. He got us in with Councillor Mary Ellen Campbell to give us a personal tour of Belfast City Hall. I’d been in the building a few times in the past – but never for a personal tour! Mary Ellen is Sinn Fein – and the Lord Mayor is Sinn Fein, subsequently we got a very Sinn Fein tour of the building, government and history.
It was interesting to see what Sinn Fein was doing to try to balance the Irish and English threads of Belfast’s history. Efforts were being made to blend the gold, green white with the red white and blue. Some efforts seemed more successful that others – I was impressed that there was definitely an effort for blending though – not replacing. Also we heard about how open Sinn Fein is. We missed the big Gay Pride Parade by just a few days. Apparently, outside of St Patrick’s Day, it is one of the largest events of the year – bringing in lots of tourism and the event is embraced by the local government.
Our super score was a quick visit to meet the Lord Mayor, who gave us super fun gifts and snapped up a quick picture for Twitter. So it’s not every day I get Twitpicked with anyone famous. It very much made our day!!
Filed under: Belfast
We landed in Belfast after a very full and partially Amazing Race kinda travel day from Tobermory. We covered a ton of ground – but when we landed in Belfast my friend Mary was waiting for us! Which was totally unnecessary and totally appreciated! We headed out for a pint or two at McHugh’s, which was fun. The next day we took a whirlwind tour of Belfast.
Mary is from Belfast and did a great job touring us around. We started with St Pat’s – where Mary had been married and where much of the consternation regarding the recent flag flying had taken place. We saw the Belfast Cathedral, the Victoria shopping center, the big fish, lots of shopping, especially some nice secondhand places, Linen Library and a ton of other things as we toured around. It was interesting to hear about the recent history of Belfast from Mary who lived through much of it.
Then – and I super appreciate it – Mary brought us down the Falls Road to see the murals. I think the murals are fascinating. I have seen them before but I thought Mary would enjoy them – and of course I never mind seeing them again. I think they are such a testament to the recent history. We also visited the Milltown Cemetery – which includes many IRA members. It was interesting to see the graves and to travel out a bit.
Finally we had a really nice dinner and a few drinks at the Duke of York, which has a cool alley/patio for drink, which I feel is pretty optimistic of them given the weather.
Filed under: Scotland
From Oban we took the ferry to Tobermory. From remote to remoter! Again a beautiful place.
We took a boat tour to try to find basking sharks. Sadly no luck!! But the boat was fun anyway. We did get up close and personal with a school of dolphins, which was fun. And we saw an eagle, which I suspect is a bigger thrill if you won’t live by the Mississippi. And we saw some seal. Apparently the boat we took has seen 5 whales this year and has seem some basking sharks BUT the season has been too cold for them in general. They are present when the plankton float to the surface.
Ironically my friends in Girvan had recently seen basking sharks near their place, which was sort of comforting to me. Because while I may not get to Tobermory again, I feel like Girvan isn’t an impossibility.
We took a fun walk to the Tobermory lighthouse – and got caught in our first rain of the trip. It was more of a heavy mist so we didn’t’ really mind. Well we didn’t mind until we ended up in a freshly mown golf course and no signs of the trail! Luckily we found our way and there was by some miracle a pub near the end of the road.
We also had a really nice meal at the Galleon Grill – just off the main drag. Mary tried and liked the local whiskey. All in all a great visit!
Filed under: Scotland
We visited Oban, which is South Highlands or maybe the gateway to the Inner Hebrides. I kind of picked the location out of a semi-educated hat and we got lucky. It started with the train ride through Loch Lomond and an absolutely perfect day. It was gorgeous!
Oban is known for seafood and whiskey. There’s an almost Coliseum-looking structure above the town called, McCaig’s Tower. The views are spectacular! Its’ about 100 years old – so not super old but Scottish standards, but very cool. There’s also some castle ruins and lighthouse. The castle seems to be in a forest – it feels a little like Sleeping Beauty land. You could certainly see where the story idea could come from anyways hanging around a place like that.
We did a ton of walking, had a nice meal and a last pint on the way back to the hotel. It’s a small town, very touristy but nice.
Filed under: Glasgow
En route from Girvan to Oban we stopped in Glasgow for a tiny tour. Actually we had to switch train stations and had minutes to burn so we got some quick pictures of Glasgow…
Filed under: Scotland
On Sunday we traveled from Edinburgh to Girvan. It was a beautiful day! And I was delighted to see Cath and Preston, TED friends from last year.
Cath gave us a great tour of the town. We learned that Yeats has slept in the building next to their house. Their house is kind of amazing. They live above a bank in what was clearly a very fine home in its day. Not saying that it’s not fine now – it is – but it has the gorgeous high ceilings and detail of a grand home of yesteryear.
We had a lovely barbecue cooked by Preston. A lot of great conversation and a night-cap at the Queens Pub. My favorite thing about the pub? The dog with the dyed pink hair.
It really was fun to see Cath and Preston and to hear about Google+, which Cath is always trying to get me to really try and to hear about their fundraising on Indiegogo. They are raising funds for an album and US tour for Preston.
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