Hong Kong and Taiwan, December 4 – 13, 2014.

12/4/2014 Thursday.  Parked car at EZ Way.  UA quite full (2 vacant seats in E+).  Wifi didn’t work most of the time, wondering if $16.99 is worth it.

12/5/2014 Friday.  Landed on time, but had to wait for checked luggage.  Had a quick meal at Maxim’s airport.  Taxi to TP an easy ride.

12/6/2014 Saturday.  Had an early morning meeting with Alfred at Festival Walk, breakfast at Café de Coral.  Met up with Anne in Shatin and had lunch.  Back to TP to get some rest but couldn’t.  At about 3:45 pm I left to meet up with David at Mongkok East Pacific Coffee.  At 6 pm Anne joined us and we had dinner at Japanese Curry Restaurant in MK East.  Concert at 8 pm at Cultural Center where HK Phil played Dvorak’s New World Symphony and two pieces of modern music.  One was written to commemorate Radio HK 4’s 40^th anniversary, the other was a percussion concerto performed by Li Biao.  It was quite late when we got home.

12/7/2014 Sunday.  Left house at around 9:30 am, with Wally driving, to get to ABC.  After short boat ride to Lamma Island, we walked the familiar 3-mile path from Sok Kwu Bay to Yung Shue Bay, which took about 1:15 hr.  Inexpensive Dim Sum lunch at Sampan Restaurant.  Then it was to Repulse Bay to take a look at the new high-end retail mall, built on a former flea-market site.  Build it, they will come?

Visited A’s mother, then to Wanchai by bus and saw a protest march by Fanlun Gong people which slowed traffic considerably.  We were initially concerned by the Occupy Central people, we ended up not affected by them at all.

We had a snack, I bought some clothes.  Anne’s sister called.  Long taxi wait but eventually made it to their house, and we headed out to Country Club together.  We caught up on things and then Anne’s other relatives (Jane and her husband, and Eric) showed up.  Spent a lot of time reminiscing as we weren’t done until way past 10 pm.  Another late night getting back to TP.

 On Tim's Sunseeker.

 Anne's sister and cousins, at Hong Kong Country Club after dinner.

 12/8/2014 Monday.  Lunch at Jockey Club with Larry.  Then rushed back to Taipo.  Tried but failed to take a short nap before evening event.  Pair of shoes I brought along had not been worn for a while and was starting to literally disintegrate.  Luckily it held up most of the evening, but couldn’t help but leave some black marks behind.

At the Peninsula Hotel.

12/9/2014 Tuesday.  Lunch at Fuk Yuen in Kowloon City with M/M Leung, arranged by Ruth.  Ling and Wally left for Taiwan for a conference and visit with Wally’s uncle.  Mr. Leung recovering from his spinal surgery from a year ago.  We thought we ate a lot but ended up being fewer than 20 dim sum dishes.  Afterwards, Anne and I whiled away our time in Shatin.  Met up with Yeungs at “One-Lock Roast Meat Restaurant” famous for its roast ducks in Tai Po Market.  Meal was good but not quite deserving it’s being named a Michelin 1-star restaurant.

 Lunch with Leungs at Fuk Yuen Restaurant in Kowloon City.

A tall Christmas tree in Festival Walk.  I can imagine Emmie saying "wooooowwww" when she sees this during her trip to Hong Kong later this year.

12/10/2014 Wednesday.  Mr. Tsang drove us to airport.  To our relief he stopped being the coordinator for drivers which meant more attention to the road.  He loves to chat though and told us all about his truck-driving escapades, including the many accidents he had.  Flight to Taipei on BR852 was uneventful.  Even they have only regular economy seats, they felt as roomy as the E+ ones on UA.

Taxi to hotel took 45 or so minutes.  Had to wait 30 minutes for our rooms to be ready – free coffee and pastry certainly helped ease the wait.  We walked around, went into a book store (Elite) to buy some books for Emmie, and had dinner at a local restaurant (Spring of Shanghai), which was quite good.

12/11/2014 Thursday.  During the taxi ride into town yesterday, we reserved a taxi for a day (at NT$500 per hour); the colleague of the driver picked us up at 9:30 am.  Today’s itinerary was: CJK Memorial, Ximen Ding, Presidential Building, CJS Official Residence in Shilin, Palace Museum, and drop off at Taipei 101.  Lunch at Ding Tai Fung; my first exposure to this chain of dumpling restaurants was in Hong Kong, followed by Sydney.  This is the “original” shop.  Workers’ attitude was great, food good but again not quite Michelin 1-star level.  Ate at Food Court of TP101, we didn’t want to go up to the higher floors because it was raining lightly.  While eating I browsed the web and found out that there was concert at the National Concert Hall.  It was about 6:30 pm.  A short subway ride took me there by 7:10 pm, plenty of time to buy a ticket before the start at 7:30 pm.

 Chiang Kai Shek Memorial.  His role in Taiwan has been downplayed recently, some of the references to him around the memorial have been removed.

 Inside Lungshan Temple.  This is the first Taiwan temple I ever visited, quite surprised that - as far as I could tell - all the offerings were vegetarian.

 Ding Tai Fung is a well-known chain of restaurants now found in many cities around the world.  We got to this original shop early enough to get a seat rather quickly.  By the time we were done, there was a long line of mostly tourists.

 Well-known or not, this is still a sorry-looking serving of their renowned steamed dumplings.

 The Martyrs' Shrine.  We caught the changing of the guards that happens every hour on the hour.

 Selfie in front of flowers in the CKS Official Residence.

 Upon closer inspection, these are single chrysanthemum plants that have been trained over the years into huge bouquets.  At the bottom of each arrangement is a single stalk.

 Stephen and Ruth in front of the Palace Museum.

 Taipei 101, as its name implies, is 101 stories high.  This is all we could see from the street level in this rainy and misty evening.

 This simple meal for NT$120 (about US$4) at the Food Court in Taipei 101.

The National Concert Hall is a huge auditorium.  An organ dominates the stage which accommodates over 100 musicians comfortably.

12/12/2014 Friday.  Leisurely breakfast at hotel.  Taxi driver waiting for us at 10 am for the 45 or so minute ride to Yeh Liu Park.  Raining along the way, down to a drizzle by the time we showed up.  Rugged coastline with wind-eroded rocks.  I remember visiting it many years ago, now it is much built up, with many tour buses in parking lot.  Still a nice place to visit.  Taxi driver recommended a place (Golden Emerald Restaurant in Wan Li District outside of Yeh Liu) for a seafood lunch, the price turned out to be quite steep and food was only moderately well prepared.  We were dropped off at the hotel at 2 pm.  Tried to doze off a few times without success.  Did some writing instead.  Wally and Ling showed up at around 6:30 pm.  We went back to the restaurant we went to a couple of evenings ago.  Afterwards we had soya milk.

Selfies taken at Yeh Liu Park.  When I visited this 30 or so years ago, there were few tourists.  The last picture is the iconic "Statue of a Queen."  The line waiting to get close was so long that we decided a far away picture was enough.

Even though the ingredients were fresh (we picked them out of a tank,) the food wasn't well-prepared.  Quite a pity, considering the possibilities a good kitchen could make of them.

12/13/2014 Saturday.  Didn’t sleep well last night, actually most nights on this trip.  No problem getting up before 6 to get ready for taxi ride to airport.  Terminal was very congested, but security was quite efficient and an advertised 35 minute wait turned out to be less than 20 minutes.  Grabbed something to eat at lounge.  Surprisingly short flight to NRT (2:30 hrs approx.).  On the other hand, there was a six-hour layover at the UA lunge (still 2 hours to go.)  UA lounge was empty when I showed up, now bustling with people looking for a seat.

UA78 was quite full, but there was an empty middle seat.  Anne, who had returned a few days area, picket me up.

China. November 17-14, 2014.

This trip was taken mostly on behalf of a non-profit (HC) we support.  As members of their Country Advisory Board, Anne and I make periodic visits to China; for this trip our objectives were to attend an in-country CAB meeting, to join HC’s staff retreat to get to know them better, and to visit a co-op in Yunnan to get some first-hand exposure to their work.

11/17/2014 Monday.  Given the short duration of the trip, we drove in and parked at EZ Way.  Met up with CAB Chairman Ron W at the gate.  UA89 is a 13:30 hour flight to BJ.  My row was full, Anne had an empty seat next to her – lucky lady.  As usual, didn’t get much sleep on the plane.

11/18/2014 Tuesday.  Josh met up with us, told us Bryan H’s plane would be late getting in.  We decided to wait for him and then drive to TJ.  Spent time at PEK T3’s Starbucks talking.

Drive to TJ took 2 ½ hours with Josh at the wheel.  Hotel was at outskirt of town.  Although it was empty when we checked in, we were told after 2 nights we would need to vacate our rooms and go to a villa across the street.

Attached to each room is a hot tub.  Some worked, some didn’t.  We never used ours.

Hotel (3 nights): Tuanbo Lake Hot Springs Resort, Tianjin.  2 nights in regular room, 1 in villa.

11/19/2014 Wednesday.  CAB Meeting at SQ Ecological Farm with Ron, Josh, Bryan and Nancy.  Nancy scalded her hand quite badly while trying to make coffee.  Eventually there would be blisters on her fingers.

11/20/2014 Thursday.  We joined the HC Staff retreat, also at the Farm.  Events included: self-introductions, scavenger hunt, cooking competition.  We had sessions with individual members in the evening.  I talked to Mr. Dai who shared with me some of his family issues, and to Mr. Li with whom I had some discussion on how to reach those who are well-off.

 We attended the CAB meeting and the HC staff retreat at this Ecological Farm outside of TJ.

A scavenger hunt was one of the group activities during the retreat.  Our team lost.

The owner of the Farm Mrs. Xu also took us on a tour of the farm.

Tonight we moved to a house with four bedrooms.  The house looked grand but had many shortcomings that were results of poor design and/or maintenance such as: no electrical outlets in the bedroom, clogged shower drains, no space for amenities in the bathroom, exposed pipes and wires.

11/21/2014 Friday.  Morning retreat where each CAB member did some talking.  Drove to TJ so Josh and Nancy could take care of some HC problems.  Had lunch at Tex-Mex.  Left at around 4:30 pm and got to BJ Airport Hotel.  We had a late dinner.

Hotel: Days Hotel by Beijing Airport.

11/22/2014 Saturday.  Woke up at 3:30 am for 6:40 am flight to Dali (MU9747).  After dropping off our luggage at Mr. Li’s house, we took a 90-minute mini-van ride to Ms. L’s house.  She leads a co-op of about 30 people.  We got to see the “experimental farm” with pear trees, Chinese medicine, chickens, pigs, and other animals.  Ms. L’s is a compelling story of how one person can change the lives of many others.  Located at her home is a small house church.  We had lunch at her home, it is humbling to see what constitutes a sumptuous meal in these remote and poor areas.

Afterwards we returned to Mr. Li’s house and had a great meal prepared by his in-laws.  Before we went back to the hotel, Mr. Li took us to see a training center that was established recently.

Our hotel was functional, and cost RMB 140 per night (about $25.)

Hotel: Tianfu Hotel, Dali.

11/23/2014 Sunday.  We decided a visit to Mr. Li’s meeting may bring too much scrutiny to the organization, so our day started a little after 10 am when he picked us up.  We stopped by the Er Lake, then went to the old city and walked from one end to the other.  This was followed by a lunch at a Bai restaurant.  Most of the dishes (and there were many) were vegetarian with the exception of a beef/beef stomach soup and beef kidney with vegetables.  The most interesting dish was stirred fried azalea flowers with lima beans – you wouldn’t think you were eating flowers (not that I had much expectation to begin with.)  Mr. Li then took us into the mountains and showed us a river he nicknamed “River Jordan.”

I did learn some interesting things about the Bai people, a minority in China.  Many still live in the mountains (we are talking about 2500-meter elevations) in small villages.  The religion for some villages has an interesting origin.  Some time ago a foreign army tried to conquer the Bais, but was repelled, with many killed in battle.  Each of the village claimed one body of the vanquished army and made them into a local deity (called ben zhu).  The logic of this escapes me, but since the whole village has adopted the same god, it is very difficult for any single person to worship anyone else.

We were dropped off at the Dali airport at around 3:30 pm.  Our flight MU9748 was on time and uneventful.  However, our “regular” economy seats really made me miss the Economy Plus accommodations we get on United Airlines.  The other snag was that we didn’t board early enough for me to find overhead space for our carryon, so it had to be checked.  I was relieved when it showed up on the luggage belt in Beijing – it was one of the last ones to do so.

With waiting for luggage and the hotel shuttle bus, we still managed to check in at around 10:30 pm.  The check-in clerk was helpful enough to suggest a Days Hotel Membership which allowed me to shave 10% off the room rate, and to get late check out.  Since we booked three rooms, we got much more than our money’s worth.  We spent a great deal of the savings on prepaid breakfasts.

Bryan, Anne and I had a late snack in the Days Hotel Café.  Eventually we ended up eating here 4 times during our two day stay.

 Nicknamed "River Jordan" by Mr. Li, new believers get baptized in this river outside of Dali.  The water from the high mountains is cold this time of the year.

 Multiple-purpose courtyard at Ms. L's house.

 This is where Co-op members hold their meetings.  Doubles as a dining room.

 Activity room on the roof doubles as a gathering place on Sundays.

Lunch is served at Ms. L's.  Note the excitement shown by Bryan and me.

 These are grafted pear trees.  Each of them can produce around 50 lbs of pears a year, generating about US$25 in income.

 Ms. L was the most recent T Award winner from HI.  One client is chosen each year (from over 500,000) for this award.

 A sumptuous dinner at Mr. Li's house.

 A Sports Arena next to Lake Er Hu.

 Many minority people live in and around Dali.

 Your favorite insects are served.

 Dali church.

We went to lunch at a Dali Bai Restaurant.  This is the view from the rooftop of the restaurant.

Hotel: Days Hotel by Beijing Airport.

11/24/2014 Monday.  David L, the brother of Chon from our church, works in YQ, mostly with high school students.  He took a three hour journey by train, subway, and bus to meet up with us and we had a good chat about his work.  Five of us (David, Bryan, Ron, Anne and I) had lunch at the café.  It was soon after 1 pm and it was time to get ready for our trip to the airport.

By swapping my seat with an agreeable traveler, Anne and I are now in the same row with an empty seat between us.  We are about three hours into the flight, we shall see if I will get some sleep this time.  Anne, meanwhile, seems to have nodded off.

Ireland, October 29 – November 6, 2014.

Over the years Anne and I each have accumulated quite a few miles on British Airways.  The fare structure of BA flights is such that the fees (which one still has to pay with an award ticket) are exorbitantly high.  However, BA’s partner Aer Lingus has a much more reasonable fare structure, and their rewards require many fewer miles.  We managed to redeem a roundtrip business class ticket BOS-DUB for 50,000 miles each; an equivalent award on United would set each of us back 140,000 miles.  Close to a no-brainer, if ever there was one.  Joe Jr helped with a lot of the booking logistics which involved a phone call to British Airways.

Overall, our flight itinerary is a bit complex, but I am quite proud of the arrangement we made.  First, we bought one-way tickets on United to go to Boston.  We plan to make a mid-November trip to China for meetings with a couple of non-profit organizations, so we bought an open-jaw tickets BOS-EWR-PEK-EWR that are actually a little cheaper (I forget how much less) than an EWR-PEK roundtrip ticket.  We were to look after Emmie in Boston while Joe and Jess went on a short break to France.  The basic idea is (i) EWR-BOS and BOS-DUB on the same day; (ii) DUB-BOS and stay in Somerville for a few days; (iii) BOS-EWR and stay in EWR for a few days; and (iv) EWR-PEK roundtrip.  (iv) will be a separate writeup.

Wednesday 10/29/2014.

Henry H drove us to the airport for our flight to Boston.  We had a few hours before the Dublin flight, so we took a taxi and let ourselves in Joe’s house.  We had dinner at Legal Seafood in Assembly Square.  After settling Emmie in for the night, Joe took us to the airport.  Even though we didn’t get TSA Pre-Check for this flight, the process was straightforward, helped by the small number of flights leaving this late in the evening.

Flight to Dublin was relatively short at 5 ½ hours, and I got at most one hour’s sleep.  Business class was less than half full.  While wifi was free for business class passengers, it didn’t work very well on this flight.

Thursday 10/30/2014.

Our arrival was at around 8 am, and the taxi to hotel took perhaps 30 minutes.  We were pleasantly surprised when we found out that the hotel had room for us.  After a short rest, we walked to National Concert Hall to buy tickets for Friday. Our first meal in Ireland was to be at an “all you can put on plate” place KC Peaches.

National museums are free in Ireland with suggested donations.  The first one we visited was Archaeology – Ireland dates back a long time, and there are multiple examples of bodies recovered from the many peat fields in the country.  The National Gallery was quite pitiful.  It had basically two displays: one on how art influenced some (modern) Irish writers, and the other a small collection of European art.

 Museum of Archaelogy

National Gallery.  On display were pairings of paintings and the writers they influence.

Walked around Trinity College but decided not to go see Book of Kells since we had only about an hour before the exhibit closed for the day.  Dinner at a Malaysian-Chinese (Charlie’s) Restaurant.

 Radisson Blu Royal in Dublin

View of Courtyard from Room

Hotel: Radisson Blu Royal, Dublin (2 nights).

Friday 10/31/2014.  Started by visiting Christchurch which through history has been “predominantly” protestant.

Christchurch, Dublin

Sign outside Church describing its history dating back to 1030

Walked the grounds of Dublin Castle, didn’t go in.  We probably would have been more interested had we done some study of Irish history before we made the visit.  As it was, the significance of the events that occurred here was not that significant.

Dublin Castle

Next stop was Liffey River Cruise that lasted for about 45 minutes.  Lots of history along the river, much of that had to do with the “potato famine,” unfortunately I didn’t have enough context to fully appreciate the guide’s narrations.  The sights we saw along the river banks include: Customs House, Harp Bridge (it swings open horizontally, and was shipped to Ireland in one piece from Germany), “Tube in a Cube” convention center, and sculptures commemorating emigrants during potato famine years.

 The Liffey River

The Harp Bridge and The Tube in a Cube Convention Center

Book of Kells exhibit.  The collection holds several books from medieval times, with one from Kells most famous.  Both the Book of Kells and another medieval book were on display.  Rick Steves goes into great length about the exhibit which greatly raised my expectations; I didn’t find it so compelling.  While we spent quite a bit of time looking at the displays and the old library, we could have done it in an hour (and saved a few Euros in admissions if we had done it last night, as they gave late admission discounts.)

 Graduation ceremony at Trinity College

 College Library, Trinity College.

One of many courtyards in Trinity College

St. Stephen's Green

Dinner at Darwin’s.  Concert afterwards.  Tonight was Halloween, so we were a bit worried how rowdy the crowds would get when the concert lets out, turns out to be quite well-behaved.  Lots of people costumed up though.

Saturday 11/1/2014.

Took taxi to airport to have breakfast and to pick up rental car.  What was quoted as $86 became $474 with auto and full CDW!  Drive to Galway was uneventful.  (Note: $474 included charges for a tank of gas, since I returned the car with a full tank, the charge was reduced to $358.)

Drove a bit around Galway, raining quite hard so didn’t see much.

 A little bit of rain (or a lot in this case) isn't going to stop this kite-surfing from having fun this afternoon.

These boats are left high and dry at high tide.  At this latitude they get a wide tidal range.

Hotel: Pillo Hotel, Galway (2 nights).

Sunday 11/2/2014.

The sights we saw today were:

·         The Burren – limestone formations. 

·         House of Sorrows (Poulnabrone dolmen) – dating back to the Neolithic period, probably around                3500 BC.

·         A glimpse of Leamaneh Castle ruins.

·         Cliffs of Moher that rise between 100 to 200 meters above the Atlantic Ocean.

·         Doolin Pier – seas were too rough for any Ferry ride to an outlying island or a cruise of the Cliffs.

The weather was quite variable throughout the day: cloudy, sunny, sleet, rain, many rainbows, and at least one instance of a double rainbow.

The Burren is an area filled with limestone formations.  This is the area we toured on Sunday.

 The roads may be few, they still can get mighty confusing.  We got lost a few times.

 Fences made from stones are very common.

 Poulnabrone dolmen (hole of sorrows) is a tomb believed to date back to 3000BC to 4000 BC.

Leamaneh Castle dates from the 15th to the 17th century.

 Doolin.  Most of the inns and restaurants are closed for the season.

 On a calm summer day ferries run to neighboring islands and provide tours to view the Cliffs of Moher.  Not today.  It was going to be the last weekend for ferries, but the seas were too rough.

 The seas were rough.  The big splash in the upper middle part of the photo is from waves crashing against the cliff.

 A double rainbow viewed from the parking lot of the Doolin Pier.

 We were greeted by sleet as we pulled into the parking lot for the Cliffs of Moher.

The famous Cliffs of Moher gets about 1 million visitors a year.  It rises more than 700 feet above the sea at its highest point.

O'Brien Tower marks the highest point of the cliffs.  In the foreground is Goat Island, where a seasonal puffin colony resides.  The structure on the left is called the Branaunmore Sea Stack.

 From spring to fall many different birds call the cliffs home.  For winter only the hardier ones remain.  All we could see were sea gulls.

 Walking towards Moher Tower, believed to be fortified during eh Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815).

 View of Cliffs from Moher's Tower.

Many places were closed for the season, including the Caherconnell Stone Fort.

Monday 11/3/2014.

Got off to a relatively late start even though I slept well last night: we left at about 10 am.  Today’s itinerary was Dingle Peninsula.

By the time we got to Dingle, it was already lunch time.  Many of the eateries were closed for the season.  Our lunch at Harringtons Fish Restaurant was quite good.

Dingle Harbor is quite picturesque.  We tried to follow Rick Steves’ book, but found his distance chart and description quite unclear.  Rained on and off.  During our drive we saw:

·         Ventry Bay with its long beach.

·         Beehive Huts – given how good they looked, and that there were people actively “restoring”                     them, one wonders if they weren’t built from scratch and artists’ conception

·         Reasc Monastery – it was started by Celts at around 500BC.  When the Christians took over in                   500 AD they kept many of the stone pillars but carved crosses on them.

·         Gallarus Oratory – a church dating from around 700 AD.

Plots of land are separated by stone fences.

Nice landscape colors.

 Town of Dingle.

Harrington Restaurant in Dingle.

 Fish and chips, and Seafood chowder at Harrington's.

 Picturesque Dingle Harbor.

 Views of Skellig Michael and Little Skelling Islands in a distance.  We would have a closer view when we toured the Ring of Kerry.  A monastery was built on Skellig Michael starting sometime between the 6th and the 8th century; it was in use until the 12th century.

 Beehive huts.  These are either well-preserved or rebuilt from scratch.  They seem to date from the 12th century.

 The Riasc Monastery most likely dates from the 5th Century.  Before that it probably had been a celtic religious site dating back an additional 1000 years.

 This stone has a cross on it.  It was earlier used by the Celtics perhaps as far back as 500BC.

 The Gaallarus Oratory was an early Christian church.

 View from inside Oratory.

 A typical Dingle town we drove through.

 The Inch Strand, a long stretch of beach on the Dingle Peninsula.

The roads were quite a challenge.  I was glad I upgraded to automatic transmission; on the other hand, a smaller car may be a lot easier on my nerves.  The roads here are not built for fast driving, yet they post speed limits that are in some cases more than 20 km/hr faster than what I consider safe.  I imagine the cops hand out very few speeding tickets.

Killarney Riverside Hotel probably had seen better days before.  With the low season it simply looked sad.  The staff was friendly and helpful, though.  We had dinner at their dining room, lots of fancy words in the menu, unfortunately the food was just so-so.

These foods at the hotel restaurant unfortunately looked better than they tasted.

Hotel: Killarney Riverside Hotel, Killarney (2 nights).

Tuesday 11/4/2014.

The Ring of Kerry is another peninsula jutting out from the Western Irish sea coast.  Today we drove around this ring.  Supposedly it gets very congested during the tourist season, and in Rick Steves’ book there is a detailed strategy on how to not waste too much time in traffic.  No such problems today.

We stopped by:

·         Ladies View and Molls Gap, both scenic stops along the way,

·         Staigne Fort (where we paid the 1 euro admission by dropping coins into a bin) from “olden days”              – they don’t know when.

·         Skellig Experience with film on Skellig Michael.

·         View of Skellig Michael and Little Skellig.

 Ladies View.

 Molly's Gap.

 Typical secondary road in Ireland, this one leads to Staigne Fort.  Speed limit mostly likely 80 km/hr.

 Staigue stone fort, probably built between 300 and 400AD by a local lord or king.

 The thick walls of the fort.

 The fort is about 90 ft in diameter.

Panoramic image of the fort taken by the iPhone 6.

 View of Skellig Michael and Little Skellig from near the Skellig Experience.

Portmagee, across from the Skellig Experience.

Got back to Killarney at 3:20 pm and grabbed Burger King for lunch.  Anne had to attend a conference call and I walked around town and had coffee and cake.

Dinner at Caragh Restaurant.  We had “traditional Irish food” of meat stew and Ham and cabbage.  This place is also frequented by what appeared to be locals, and isn’t big on presentations.  The food was quite good.

 Dinner at Caragh Restaurant in Killarney.  The local dishes are quite delicious.

Wednesday 11/5/2014.

Today was spent mostly on driving from Killarney to Dublin, with a rather long stop at The Rock of Cashel.

Legend has it that St. Patrick caused the demon to spit out a piece of rock it chewed out of a mountain.  The oldest structure on the rock is a round tower from about 1000 years ago.  Other buildings include a sizeable cathedral, a vicar choral which housed singers, and a chapel with sandstone roof that is being restored and thus closed to tourists.  Interestingly, people are still being buried there due to legislation that granted burial rights to two generations (I didn’t catch all the specifics): most recent was in 2013.  Admission was free on the day visited, and we were on a guide-led tour for about 45 minutes.

There is also a music and history exhibition.  We didn’t linger long enough to understand it fully.  It was interesting to see some replicas of horns in use as far back as 500BC.

 The Rock of Cashel.

 The plague has a description of the various building on the rock.

 Vicar Choral.

 The windows were made smaller to accommodate the smaller stained glass windows.

 Bru Boru is a dance and music exhibit center.

Along the way we heard over the radio station RTE-Lyrics that there was going to be a performance of Elijah in town, so we drove back to the National Concert Hall area, and got there a bit after 5 pm.  We found parking across the street (paid 5 euros for the space) and bought tickets for that evening’s concert.  We walked around and had dinner at Metro Café, the beef stew I had was just so-so, and Anne didn’t think her pasta dish was that good either.

Singers getting ready for Mendelssoh's Elijah.

We didn’t get done until around 10:45 pm.  And I drove to the wrong Travelodge.  When we got to the with our booking, there was great confusion about availability of rooms.  It was very late when we got into this room that had only one light, little furniture, dirty chair, but clean linen.  We did get free breakfast as compensation.

We returned the car after gassing it up.  Like in Canada, US customs clearance was at Dublin.  Today the business class section was full.  Somehow I managed the 6:40 hour flight without watching TV.

We took a taxi to Joe’s place.  We would be staying there for a few days while he and Jess made a short trip to Lyons, France.