Lisbon the Beautiful

After Dublin, we set sail for Lisbon, Portugal and spent the next three days on the ship for classes and activities.  As usual one of the delights of the time at sea was the sunrise.  I never get enough. Time on ship is really a delight after some hectic long days in port, and it gives a semblance of normality to our lives.

Arrival in Lisbon was a little different because it was a port designated for visits by parents who wanted to wanted to visit their students. They met the ship as we arrived, and there were more students on deck than usual. There was a lot of yelling and waving going on.

After breakfast and the announcement that the ship was cleared, we took off to explore.  Nancy and I had very few plans for this port, but we wanted to get off the beaten path just a little. Good public transportation was available, but we chose to walk as usual, and the direction from the ship was right or up.  We chose up and started by sticking our head into a nearby neighborhood cathedral. It was beautiful, of course.

Then we continued our strategy of heading "up".  We figured once we got to the top of the city, it would all be downhill from there.

One feature of this city was the use of tilework  in many of its buildings. These beautiful tiles would draw our attention everywhere we looked.

Once we got to the top street, we were in a little neighborhood and stopped at a little cafe with outside seating.  We figured out how to order from a Portuguese menu and got the best coffee and fresh pastries in the entire city for local prices.  I'm sure we would have gone back another day if it hadn't been 15 blocks straight up hill.  We walked a few blocks and pulled out the map to try to get our bearings, and a little lady came out of the dry cleaners to ask if we needed help.  Nancy was able to communicate with her in halting French, and she sent us off to visit the Basilica da Estrela. We saw it come into view when we were several blocks away, so we made our way there  to see this church, completed in 1790.

At this point, I was "cathedraled out", so we headed across a busy street to a nice park to sit for a while and watch people.  This park had some pretty impressive plants.

West of Ireland Pt. 2

On our third day of the trip, we were all supposed to be ready for the motor-coach at 7am.  That meant we had breakfast and were checked out of our rooms by then.  I was surprised and pleased that everyone was ready.  We had a new guide for the day, and he was there and ready as well, so off we were ahead of most of the traffic with just a little daylight.

After driving through some countryside with our new driver, the brother of our previous driver, we went off the main road for a quick look at a good example of an existing castle.  This one was not open so we couldn't go inside, but is actually used for weddings. As we stopped the bus and walked by a house, the owner was standing outside, smoking a cigarette in her housecoat and remarked "bloody hell, you're up already?"

Then we were off again for some incredible views, and if we thought we had seen a lock of rock walls the previous day, we saw many more on this day.

Then our guide took us by one of those "I think we've got time.  You've gotta see this (with an Irish accent).  It was a beautiful example of an ancient monastery. The cemetery is still being used by local families. The students were all thankful that we had made this stop.  I think our guide like this especially, because he is a stone mason and got to explain some of the building.

The we were back on the bus (or motorcoach as they call it) for more of this countryside. We were actually now in "the burren".  The burren is a countryside consisting primarily of limestone with thousands of sheep thrown in to eat the grasses that grow in the rich soil between the rocks and with an occasional castle thrown in to break up the landscape.  In some places wind turbines dotted the hillsides. For a better explanation of the burren, see the Wikipedia Entry.

Part of our understand of the burren was through a visit to the Burren College of Art where we got a short lecture by the founders of the burrenbeotrust, and organization dedicated to preservation of the burren and education about it. A part of the grounds was a castle that we actually got to go into. It had a great view from the tower, but I smacked my head on a low-hanging door and got a little bloody but was otherwise okay.

Even though it was still morning, most of us ate our box lunch since breakfast had been so long ago.  Then we loaded back up on the bus to actually get up in the burren.  Part of the arrangement with landowners who let us visit the burren was that we would help mend some of the rock walls as a service component of the trip. We parked and hiked up to some rock walls, getting some explanation of the flora and fauna and how the land had been developed. Everyone was actually looking forward to wall mending, and after some instructions, we started our hands on work.

One of the real highlights was when some of the ponies came down to visit and get petted.

Then we loaded up to head to the Cliffs of Moher.  Everyone was excited about seeing the cliffs, and this was one of the major components of the trip. I made sure our guide knew that everyone wanted to have some time to hike along the top, so we had adjusted our schedule a little to get at least an hour there.  We were not disappointed, although you could really spend a day if you hiked in from the other side.  We had gotten to see and do some cool stuff, so everyone made sure they were back on the bus on time.

Then we began our long drive back across the country to Dublin--stopping a couple of times for a pit stop and car sickness by a student. Our ship sailed that night, so the timing was carefully planned to get us back during the national hurling championships that day.  Even though the game was going on, we ran into a lot of traffic, so we got to see more of Dublin from the motorcoach and finally arrive at the ship with a little better understanding of hurling from our guide.  We sailed that night from a country that we had grown to love in just a short time.

The West of Ireland Trip

In our planning for this voyage, we selected some Semester at Sea trips way back in the summer. One of the trips that especially appealed to me was the "West of Ireland" trip, a three day--two night trip to Galway and the Connemara region of Ireland.  It was reasonably priced at $735 each, but was one of the two big trips in our budget.  I was asked to be a "trip leader" for this one which consisted of 20 people (3 of us grownups and the rest students). As a trip leader, I got half of the cost of my tip refunded.  Trip leader can be easy or hard depending on the students involved, the schedule, the potential for shenanigans or just happenstance. Nancy and I feel an obligation to be trip leader for several trips since they require a trip leader to even happen, and we enjoy getting to know the students closer on venues like this.  We mostly had to help ensure the safety of the students and make sure no one got left behind. We lost one before we even started when she didn't show up at the early meeting.  I called her room, and got a sleepy person who had decided to not make the trip (and forfeit the money).  It was already getting easier.
So, we were off through a traffic jam in the center of Dublin and then on to small roads in small towns where everyone drove on the wrong side of the road.

The first stop on our tour was at the Kilbeggan Distillery, established in 1757.  This distillery discontinued operation in the late 20th century but was revived in recent years as a museum and an artisanal  distillery.  We got to see the equipment of the original distilling along with an explanation of how it all happened.  The tour ended in the tasting room where we all had the opportunity to sample different whiskeys and got a souvenir glass.  It was actually pretty good stuff, and I could see someone foxhunting through the countryside of Ireland with a flask full of Kilbeggan Whiskey.  The adjacent restaurant provided food and coffee and restrooms.

Once we got to Galway, we disembarked from the bus for a walking tour of the city. I really had no idea of what to expect in Galway, and the drive into the city didn't promise much exciting.  It really looked like you were coming into a medium-sized American city.  But once we got walking, it was teeming with history and the ambiance of my imagination of Ireland.  Much of the old city is geared toward tourism with many restaurants and bars and street musicians. Some free time before we checked into our hotel allowed me to buy a nice Irish sweater, and Nancy got a shawl.  We both got coffee and pastries as had become our European tradition

On the next morning, after a good night's sleep in a comfortable hotel with lots of hot water with good water pressure and an Irish breakfast buffet we climbed aboard our bus to see some of the countryside. One thing I should mention about the hotel was that after finally learning to step up the small step in our ship bathroom, I continued to do this at the hotel.  No stubbed toes for me until I got back to the ship and had to re-learn all over again.  Our main stop today was at the Connemara Heritage and History Centre.

Our host, Martin was quite the story teller--one of the skills of most Irish.  He claimed that some of what he said was actually true.  Martin told about the peat that was mined by hand from many years and provided the heat for most of the people in that area.  The peat is stilled cut by locals,but most off the peat is now preserved, and Martin demonstrated how peat is cut and explained the drying process.   In Martin's peat bog, he showed us a big piece of wood that they had found in the bog and had been tested for age.  The one in the picture below is 5800 years old. We also visited an old homestead (with a peat fire in the fireplace) and heard great stories about the old times and how fiercely independent the Irish people are. Martin demonstrated the independence by pulling a board out from the mantle where he reached in and brought out a bottle of Uisce Beatha or "Water of Life" (and actually moonshine).  I was the only one who dared to sample this potent drink.

After a quick visit to the gift shop, a well-satisfied group of people loaded onto the bus for more driving through the countryside where sheep grazed alongside the the road, and some grazed in the road since they actually have the right of way. The path took us along a real fjord--my first, I think.

Needing refreshment in the afternoon, our next stop was at Gaynor's bar for an authentic Irish coffee.  Many of the students would have preferred hot chocolate, but we did enjoy the ambiance and pictures of John Ford who was from the area and had made some movies nearby.  We also stopped for a photo shoot at Kylemore Abbey-- a relatively new castle, finished in 1871.  See Kylemore Castle for more information

A tired group got back to the hotel to rest up before most of us took off to walk about a mile to the same historic district we had visited the previous day.  This time, we wanted to sample some of the night life including the music.  Shepard's pie provided a good dinner along with the requisite beer.  We listened to some music in the restaurant and heard at least as much from street musicians with lots of skill.  This was a busy nightlife, but we soon headed back to the hotel to rest up for the long day that awaited us the next morning.