What good are plans if not to be changed?

Eight days since my last blog, and oh my, what changes have occurred.  What good are plans if not to be changed.  God laughing and all of that.  My original plan was to return to the states on August 6th, three whole months in Europe.  However, now I'm coming home July 4th.  There will be fireworks for me, parades, parties in all the neighborhoods...but wait, you say those events aren't for my return.  Silly you.  Of course they are.  It is a 17 hour trip, through several significant time zones, from Frankfurt to Washington Dulles, then from there to Colorado Springs.  I get in at 6:30 PM, but that will be 2AM in the time I'm used to living in.  They have not perfected time-travel, it is still quite hard on the mind and body.  It will take me a couple of days of sleeping weird hours, stumbling around the house, going back to bed.  Fuzzy brain and all.  

Tonight Steffi and I are going to Aqua Fitness, aerobics in a pool, I love it.  And today I will go on another walk of about 4 miles I think.  I know the secret ways through the middle of Old Frankfurt, and love to walk there. I cross the Bridge with Locks, go into the Romer Platz, a few more blocks to Hauptwache, then along a street to the Tor, or Tower, where there's a Subway.  They have wraps there, tortillas in Germany.  I usually rest halfway through where the Purvian Pan Pipe players are, sometimes get a frapachino from Starbucks (yes, they are everywhere and that's a good thing, ordering a coffee, even a latte, sometimes turns out to be an expresso, so dark and bitter one can not even drink it).  Steffi is much braver than I am when it comes to drinking coffee.  Last weekend we went to a gigantic flea market along the river, where I bought a new suitcase from a man from the Middle East who got is masters from the University of Nebraska. He spoke great English. The wheels on my old one broke, so we've been hunting for a new one.  I also bought a colorful necklace which I'm thinking of wearing home.  To go with the fireworks.

There's a lot of building going on here, high rises everywhere.  There are tall featherless birds disguised as building cranes all across the horizon.  They all have a light on top so planes don't fly into them at night, I think of it as an eye that never closes.  bye for now. 

Newgrange Ireland photos

Newgrange in background with white quarty stone facade.

Threshhold stone with spirals and chevrons, at the entrance to the Passage.  Note transom window above doorway.

Spirals and chevrons on threshhold stone.

Entrance to the passage with tramson window often called the 'roof box' where the Winter Solstice light enters and shines down the passage into the chamber.

Exterior of Newgrange, white quarty  and river rock.  

Interior of passage with spiral carvings on the walls.  Photos are not allowed inside, Steffi used the brochure.  Very clever.

Me and Steffi outside Newgrange entrance. About 12 folks are allowed in a one time, only with a guide. 

Winter Solstice light entering the passage toward the interior chamber.  Actually a photo from the brochure.  No pictures allowed inside(except for making the brochures).  It is considered a sacred site.

Train to Dublin and to see Newgrange

We left Galway at 6:30AM on the train to Dublin.  Very nice train ride, arrived in Dublin 9:00 and left on the Newgrange tour with Mary Gibbons (her tour is in the Lonely Planet guide although we found it online) for Newgrange.  Through more very rocky terrain with low stone fences but fewer than we had been seeing.  We drove through the Boyne River Valley, site of famous battles and lush landscape.  Newgrange is a passage tomb built around 3200 BC, older than Stonehenge or the Pyramids.  It is aligned so that the rising sun on the Winter Solstice shines through a tramsom window over the entrance and shines deep into the passage way and onto the far back wall.  Over the passage and chamber is a dirt and stone mound 250 feet across and 40 feet high, with grass growing on the top area. The entrance can be sealed by a stone door and after it's initial use, it was closed up and the entrance overgrown hiding it from intruders for thousands of years.  There is a huge threshold stone carved with spirals and triangles, quite an acomplishment for the supposed stone-age people who made it. When it was built, there were no metal tools, so all of the carvings and shaping of stones had to be done with stones, wood, antlers, etc. The entrance passage is about 60 feet long, narrow and low.  We had to carryy our backpacks at floor level so as not to damage the wall carvings, shoulder our way along, turning sideways sometimes. Once inside the chamber, there are three side alcoves with carvings, usually spirals.  The chamber is probably six feet by 8 feet.  They shut off the lights and illiminated the passage to show how the Winter Solstice sunlight would appear.  Pretty dramatic.  Of course, Dec 21 has to be a sunny day, but I think the light enters from Dec 19 to Dec 23, so more days possible of dawn light.  I am sure that eventually they won't let people enter to passage and chamber, but at this time, it is possible, and it is incredible.  I thought I had to pick between Galway and Dublin, so I picked Galway. It's quieter and cleaner than Dublin, and I wanted to see the Cliffs.  But I got to go to Dublin anyway and see Newgrange.  I think it is a more important site than the cliffs.  Stfffi said it was so close (only 1.5 hours away by train) and not too expensive, so we went.  Fabulous!!! In this area there are over 40 passage tombs, two close by, and as large.  Others scattered and smaller.

The Burren and Cliffs of Moher. Second tour in Ireland.

The Burren, slabs of limestone with cracks.  goes on for miles.

I actually these are the cliffs on Inis Mor, not the Cliffs of Moher. 

Castle ruins.  

The Portal Tomb called The Doman.  Built over 5000 years ago.

The Burren from another view.

The Cliffs of Moher. Takes your breath away.  Stunning.  

Tour to the Cliffs of Moher, Ireland

The day after going to the Inis Mor island, we took a 10 hour tour on a bus (this was the beginning of my 'bus butt', to the Cliffs of Moher.  These cliffs are over 700 feet high, sheer rock walls going into the sea.  The paths along the tops of the cliffs are fenced with either chain link of slabs of rock over 3 feet high, to keep people from the edges which are crumbling and falling into the Atlantic.  Sixteen people fell off (or jumped off) the cliffs last year, and so far, 6 this year. Suicide is a big problem in Ireland.  There are signs saying if you need someone to talk to, there's a number to call.  That was scary. The cliffs stretch over 5 miles along the Atlantic.  The sound track to the Cliffs are sea gulls, crying.  they sound like hurt puppies.  On the way to the Cliffs, we went through the Burren, a large area of flat limestone slabs, criss-crossed by cracks.  It's like pavement, and stretches for miles and miles.  In that area are 90 tombs, dolman monuments, and ring forts .  In all the cracks, grasses and flower grow, so while you'd think it would be bare, it's actaually quite colorful.  We also stopped at the ruins of Dunguaire Castle, a portal tomb called The Dolman, the High Crosses at Kilfenora and we ate a good lunch at a tour stop. These cliffs have been featured in several movies, Ryan's Daughter, Princess Bride and Harry Poter and the Half-Blood Prince.  Even at low tide, there's no beach to walk along like they did in Ryan's Daughter.  They are the most popular tourist attraction in Ireland, and the reason I wanted to go to West Ireland, basing ourselves in Galway.  I had to choose between seeing the cliffs or Newgrange, near Dublin, but as you'll see in the next blog, we got to Newgrange anyway.  Even though it was a long day, lots of hours on the bus, and such, it was very much worth it.  I would go again in a heartbeat.  Photos in next blog.

Aran Islands, Inis Mor

Ferry to Inis Mor, top level

Stone wall, they are everywhere.  

ruins on Inis Mor, of course everything is made of stone.

Outside of the stone fort, Dun Aonghasa, built in 2000 BC by the Celts

cliffs on Inis Mor, 300 feet hight, only fence at the cliffs 

Steffi sitting near the edge of the cliffs, very carefully

looking the other way along the cliffs

Aran Islands off Ireland first tour

Off the west coast of Galway are the Aran Islands, a chain of three small islands.  Our first tour was to Inis Mor, the largest of the three.  First a 40 min bus ride to the ferry docks. then a ferry took us from Galway Bay to Inis Mor.  The island is 9 miles long and 2 miles wide made of barren limestone rock, population about 800.  It is one of the rockiest places I've ever seen.  The fields are cleared by stacking the rocks into low fences, and there are millions of them.  Everywhere you look, dark green fields surrounded by rock fences.  The older fences are covered in vines and low shrubs. They raise sheep and cattle.  We stopped at Dun Aonghasa for a couple of hours, and walked up (very up) to the top of the cliffs where a spectaclar semi circular celtic stone fort sits overlooking the Atlantis.  It's made of black stacked stones.  The cliffs are even more spectacular, over 300 feet high, rugged, beautiful.  There are no fences or baricades to block a person at the edge of the cliffs, so we edged our way to a safe distance and watched the surf break against the cliffs. It was breathtaking.  This fort is thought to be one of the oldest in Ireland, and was probably built in a D shape closer to the cliffs, but that part has fallen into the sea.  It's now a huge half circle of dry stones, with stairs, walkways and an open arena in the center.  Around the back side are concentric circles of stacked stone.  Very impressive and worth the strenous climb up there.  We also saw from a distance the Lighthouse.  And the Seven Churches ruins although there are only two churches with partial walls still standing.  We think churches were built on the ruins of other churches, seven in all.  Gaelic or Irish is still spoken here, and all signs are in both Gaelic and English.  In fact, in all of Ireland, all signs are in both languages, and all public announcements on the trains are in both languages.  It's not a Latin based language, and it's not intuitive. Almost none of the words in English come from Gaelic.  People come to the islands to study the Irish language, and there are summer schools just for that purpose.  At the bus stop to return to the ferry are several nice shops, and the one with stone carvings was visited by Aidan Quinn an hour or so before we got there.  We looked for him on the 5PM ferry, but either he had an excellent disguise or he took the puddle jumper for 49 Euro back to the mainland.  Weather was beautiful, no rain, dramatic clouds over the ocean, bright sunlight.