2015: Mid-Week Jaunt to Niagara on the Lake and Buffalo

To celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary, Rich and I decided to take a quick overnight trip to Niagara on the Lake and then visit Buffalo, New York the next day.  Our anniversary landed on a Wednesday, which was great since both locations would be less busy mid-week and we would have an easier time crossing the border.

We have visited Niagara on the Lake numerous times in the past and try to bring our bicycles to ride on the beautiful Niagara Parkway recreational paths whenever we get the chance.  On previous trips, we usually parked our car at Queenston Heights and rode the 15 kilometers to Niagara on the Lake from there.  As its name suggests, Queenston Heights is situated at an elevation much higher than the Niagara Parkway, resulting in a wickedly steep and lengthy hill that needs to be traversed on the way out and climbed on the way back.  This time we decided to give ourselves a break.  We started in a parking lot on the Niagara Parkway close to Fort George and rode back towards Queenston Heights, stopping just before reaching it, in order to visit the historical site of Laura Secord's homestead.

While waiting for our guided tour of the house interior, we wandered through a little museum that detailed Secord's heroic journey to warn the British of the impending American invasion during the War of 1812.  There was also information and memorabilia regarding important feats by other women in this time.  Our tour started out at the front of Laura's house, where we were given more details of the events that led up to her perilous 32 km walk through forest, brush and enemy territories.  We were disappointed to learn that despite the legends, there was no cow involved and she also had nothing to do with Laura Secord chocolates. Once inside the house, we saw the parlour where the drunken soldiers discussed their plans of attack, the kitchen from which Laura overheard these plans, and the upstairs bedroom where her injured husband lay recuperating.

After riding our bicycles back along the Niagara Parkway trail to our car, we drove to John Gate Gourmet Bed and Breakfast where we would stay the night.  From there, it was about a 15-20 walk to downtown Niagara on the Lake where we had a delicious dinner of lamb sirloin on the lovely garden terrace of the Epicurean Restaurant, followed by a show at the Shaw Festival Theatre.  We watched a production of the 1948 Moss Hart comedy "Light Up the Sky" that mocks the theatre world.  The play was not a hit when it was first performed and we found it just mildly entertaining and not very funny.  In retrospect, we should have stuck with Shaw's musical offering and watched Peter and the Starcatcher instead.  At least we had an excellent breakfast the next morning before heading off to Buffalo.  In both presentation and taste, the breakfast lived up to the term "Gourmet" in the name of the B&B.  We started off with  yogurt and granola with mixed fruits served in a beautiful dessert dish, followed by the most delicious eggs served on top of smoked salmon and scalloped potato with tomato and portabello mushrooms on the side.  The breakfast concluded with a slice of homemade banana bread.

Following breakfast, we shuffled off to Buffalo with our first stop being the Pierce Arrow Museum, which houses the collection of antique vehicles (especially Pierce Arrow Town Cars), memorabilia and historic artifacts, accumulated by Jim Sandoro and his wife Mary Ann over the period of 50 years.  Sandoro's interest in the Pierce Arrow began as a child when he used to play around his neighbour's car and learned from him how special it was.  The Pierce Arrow Motor Car Company was established in 1908 and specialized in making these larger, ultra-luxurious symbols of wealth and status that were owned or used by influential people including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt, John D. Rockerfeller, Babe Ruth, Orville Wright, as well as foreign royalty and dignitaries.  The vehicle is noted for its design features including headlights molded right onto the fender, and the "Helmeted Archer" hood ornament.  These opulent cars were popular until just before the Great Depression.

Walking through the museum, we saw different models of Pierce Arrows dating from the 1910s through 1930s including 1918 soft-top convertible seven-passenger vehicle with the word "Pierce" engraved on its grill and even a 1931 Pierce Arrow Tow Truck that looks like a regular luxury town car up to the front seat, but has towing equipment in the back.

There was a model of a 1910 Pierce Arrow Special Touring Landaulet, with a buggy-styled body and a six-cylinder 60 horsepower engine.  It featured a wash basin with hot and cold running water, fold-out steps, a drawer under the driver's seat, a rear seat that folded into a bed, storage lockers mounted on the running boards and a hidden toilet.  The original car was built for George K. Birge, president of the Pierce Arrow Motor Car Company until 1916.

There were other vintage cars in the museum, including a burgundy 1913 Baby Peugeot (or Peugeot Bébé) and a gorgeous metallic blue 1963 Corvette Split Window Coupe.  One of the most fascinating items in the collection was the shell of an armoured vehicle that used to belong to the first FBI Director J.Edgar Hoover.  The car was later sold to a farmer who displayed it as a novelty item and encouraged people to shoot at the frame.  You can see the bullet holes covering the back of the car.

 The 1948 "Playboy" car also had a brief but interesting history.  A small 2-seater convertible (only 4.6 feet in length) with a "first of its kind" folding steel roof that hinged in the middle and folded away into the back of the car, it was designed to a family's second sporty vehicle and sold for just under $1,000.  Only 97 vehicles were built between 1947 to 1951 before the Playboy Automobile Company went bankrupt due to lack of sales and lack of capital.  A youtube video shows how the folding roof works.

There were also other automobile related collectibles and memorabilia including examples of hood ornaments, headlights, horns driving attire, vintage posters, paintings and sculptures of cars and drivers, a series of "Motor Maids" books depicting wholesome adventures of girls driving cars, and a "Hitchhiker" board game.

The highlight of the Pierce Arrow Museum was the recreation of a filling station that Frank Lloyd Wright designed on commission in 1927, but which never got built because the cost to construct it significantly exceeded the original budget.  Located in a 40,000 square feet glass and steel warehouse space attached to the museum, the filling station was built exactly to specification based on Frank Lloyd Wright's original drawings.  The result is the ultimate example of the saying "all flash, no function" since the structure is beautiful to behold, but has some fatal flaws that would render it unusable as an active gas station.

The two-story filling station is made with rose-coloured poured concrete that includes an observation deck and customer waiting room with a fireplace on the second floor where customers could wait for their cars in warmth and comfort, while there were restrooms and sleeping quarters in the basement for the station attendant.  It is topped with a copper roof with two 45 feet copper poles rising up on either side of the station, which Wright designed to invoke the impression of Native American totem poles.  Hanging down from the roof are glass enclosures containing the fuel, connected by red, white and blue hoses that hang down in order to dispense "gravity-fed gasoline".  Here lies the two fatal flaws.  First, there was no way to measure the amount of gas dispensed and no valve to stop the flow.  Secondly, positioning an open-flamed fireplace underneath gas tanks would never have passed safety inspections.  So it is just as well that the filling station was not actually constructed to be functional.  Instead, we can just enjoy the asthetic beauty of the design that Wright called "an ornament to the pavement".

A trip to Buffalo is not complete without a visit to the fabulous Albright-Knox Art Gallery, which we have free access due to the privileges on our Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) membership.  We had already made a thorough tour of the permanent exhibits on our previous visit in September 2012, but were anxious to view the new temporary exhibits which are usually excellently curated and very interesting.

Contemporary artist Jeff Koons, known for his stainless steel balloon sculptures, created a new piece out of white plaster which he called "Gazing Ball (2014)".  It is an interpretation of a famous Pablo Picasso painting called "Le Soupe (1902)", created during Picasso's blue period.  Both the painting and the sculpture depict a little girl in the act of either receiving or perhaps giving a bowl of soup to a woman, possibly her mother. While Picasso invokes charity and compassion in his rendering, Koons subverts this idea by hanging three Hermès Birkin bags on the woman's arm–the ultimate symbols of wealth, commercialism and conspicuous consumption.  The blue gazing ball is a recurring theme in Koons' works, as he also did a series where he reproduced famous paintings like the Mona Lisa and Manet's Luncheon on the Grass but then attached a hand-blown glass bobble to each painting using a small rod.  Gazing balls are usually used as lawn ornaments, but Koons says that the blue balls “represent the vastness of the universe and at the same time the intimacy of right here, right now”.  In this particular tribute, the blue ball also seems to reflect on the colours and tones of the Picasso painting, which was loaned to the Albright Knox so that it could be exhibited side by side with Koons' work.

When you first step into the gallery where Dan Colen's colourful paintings are being displayed, you think you are about to see another example of Abstract Expressionist art in the same vein as Jackson Pollack.  Then you start to sniff and wonder what is that sweet smell in the air.  As you walk closer to the "paintings", you realize that they are not created from paint at all.  Smeared on the canvases are wads of chewing gum in all varieties of colours.  Colen's interest is in "finding beauty in the discarded and accidental". Occasionally, he adds other materials to the bubblegum art, including dirt, flowers, feathers and confetti.  A 2008 work called "Scrambled or Fried" has a section that definitely looks like an egg fried over easy.  The frenetic splotches surrounding it might represent the scrambled egg?  The exhibit is named "Shake the Elbow", which is also the name of one of the pieces.  The term "Shake the Elbow" is a gambling term referring to rolling the dice, and perhaps that is what Colen does in his works.  He rolls the dice as he smears his globs of gum and lets chance dictate the results.

A photography exhibit called "Artist to Artist" features black and white photographs taken of well-known artists at work.  It was particularly interesting to see a photo of George Segal setting up his installation called "Cinema" taken by Fred McDarrah in 1964 since we had just passed by the actual work in the Albright Knox's Contemporary Art section earlier in the day.   A photo of pop artist Claes Oldenburg seems to depict him sitting in front of smaller versions of the "food art" that he is known for, including the "Floor Burger" that is owned by the AGO.  Sculptor David Smith was captured in the process of using a welding tool while creating a new piece.

An enormous exhibition of 50 animated short films called Screen Play: Life in an Animated World explores different techniques of animation including traditional hand-drawn cells, claymation, stop motion, 3D, digital modeling, and interactive live simulations.  The one that fascinated us the most was Marco Brambilla's 3D cinematic tour-de-force called "Evolution", which previous a 3 minute continuous loop of images and mini action GIFs from over 300 films depicting the historic struggle of human conflict.  Evolution is the second part of a trilogy that also includes "Civilization" and "Creation".  It was so much fun sitting in the dark room with our 3-D glasses on, trying to identify as many movies as we could. Sitting through a complete loop of the film multiple times, the references we spotted included the Star Wars AT-AT Walkers, Moses parting the Red Sea, the bowler-hat wearing droogs from Clockwork Orange, Gandhi, Elvis Presley in performing the Jailhouse Rock and John Wayne from one of his indeterminate Westerns, since he looks the same in all of them.  There were also plenty of generic explosions, war and battle scenes, and things falling from the sky.  Although you can see an except of this on Brambrilla's website, it does not have the full effect if you cannot see it on a larger screen with 3D glasses on. This was so much fun that I could have stayed there all day had there not been so much else to see.

Using "Single-channel color stop-motion animation", Tala Madani created over 2500 paintings to create the 85 seconds video called "The Dancer", depicting a man performing a mixture of dance and yoga poses.  Lee Lee Nam's "Early Spring Drawing - Battle of Civilization" begins with the serene, tranquil backdrop of a Song Dynasty Master Guo Xi's 1072 drawing called Early Spring, and then slowly introduces modern instruments of war including airplanes, helicopters, bombs and missiles. 

Camille Henrot's film "Living Dying Woman" takes a very unique approach to animation.  She used footage of the iconic 1968 zombie movie Night of the Living Dead and scratched out all occurrence of the heroine Barbara except for her eyes, turning her into a creature that looks like Addams Family's Cousin Itt.  Joshua Mosley incorporates clay puppets, watercolour and ink drawings to create the video "A Vue" about Henry, a park ranger who is torn between his devotion to his job caring for a statue and his girlfriend Susan.  This film has the same melancholy tone, look and feel as Charlie Kaufman's Oscar nominated animation "Anomalisa".  Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg's claymation video called "The Swing" is based on the 1767 painting by French artist Jean Fragonard of the same name.  It starts off by emulating the pastoral setting and lighthearted mood of the original painting, but soon takes a slightly sinister turn as the two lovers depart from the swing and romp in the woods.

We still have more that we want to see and do in Buffalo, so it is fortuitous that it is such a short drive from Toronto.

Ireland 2015: Day Trips to Newgrange, Wicklow Mountains/Glendalough and Trip Wrap-up

When we were planning our vacation in Ireland, we looked around for interesting day trips that we could take from our home base in Dublin.  Being able to drive out for a short distance, tour around all day, and then return back to Dublin to sleep, would allow us to save money on accommodations for the trip.  We quickly found two trips in opposite directions that would each take about 1 hour to get to–Newgrange to the north and Wicklow Mountains to the south.  Accordingly we allocated two separate days on our schedule to make each of these visits.

Our thinking changed quickly once we reached Dublin and found out about the cost and aggravation of the M50 Ring-Road Toll Highway.  It was not so much the price of the toll, which was 3.1 Euros each time you used the highway, but rather the onerous administrative process of trying to pay the toll on time (sometimes you have less than 24 hours) and the 30 Euro fee that is charged if you are late.  Who needs such pressure while on vacation? So when we realized that Newgrange was right on our path as we returned home from our Northern Ireland road trip, we decided to tack on an extra day to that trip and stop at Newgrange before heading home.  Although it meant staying another night away in a B&B, the cost was minimal at 50 Euros and it avoided the hassle of paying for two more trips on the M50.

Brú na Bóinne (which means "Palace of the Boyne") is a World Heritage Site located at the bend of the River Boyne in County Meath, 40 kilometres north of Dublin.  It encompasses one of the largest and most important sets of passage tombs dating back to the New Stone Age 5000 years ago, making them about 500 years older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian Pyramids. The largest and most well known of the over 40 tombs are Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth.  A passage tomb is a megalithic structure consisting of a stone-lined tunnel that leads to one or more inner chambers where the remains of the deceased are kept.  After exploring the Brú na Bóinne Visitors' Centre, we would be taking a guided tour of the Newgrange and Knowth sites, where the tombs are known for the intricate symbols and motifs carved in the giant megalithic stones.

While in the Visitors' Centre, we were given a preview of some of the symbols that we might see carved on the stones including circles, spirals, arcs, wavy lines, chevrons, diamonds, crescents, serpentine and other shapes.  Some were possibly symbols of fertility, phallic shapes, life and birth while other patterns look like they might be related to nature, including cycles of the sun, water or rivers and even wild life such as snakes, birds and larger animals.  We also saw some examples of how the Stone Age people lived and dressed, as well as a diagram of how they actually built the passage tombs using a pulley system.

The tours of the Knowth and Newgrange passage tombs are booked for scheduled time slots and during tourist season, the crowds get quite large and the wait time grows longer and longer as the day goes by.  This was another advantage for staying overnight at Donore, which was literally a 5 minute drive from the heritage centre as opposed to the hour drive from Dublin.  We arrived at the Brú na Bóinne site 20 minutes before it opened to try to beat the crowds, but there were already six people in line in front of us.  We did manage to secure the first time slot for Knowth and the second one for Newgrange.  From the Visitors' Centre, we had to walk across a long suspension bridge to reach a large parking lot where shuttle buses waited to take us on a ride of approximately 10 minutes to reach each site. 

Completed in the Neolithic Age between 2500 to 2000 B.C., the passage tomb at Knowth consists of a large mound that is 12 metres (40 feet) high and 67 metres in diameter (220 feet), surrounded by 18 smaller satellite mounds.  The large mound has two passageways leading east (40 metres/131 feet long) and west (34 metres/112 feet long) into burial chambers where bones and cremated ashes are laid out on stone basins.  The remains of two hundred bodies from the Neolithic Age were found here. Archaeological evidence shows that the cremations took place outside of the tomb and the remains were brought in after the fact.

We learned that the stone basin seemed to be built first and then the chambers and mound were built around it, since the basin is too big to move through any of the passage openings.  As part of the 30 years of excavation activities that took place from the 1960s-2002, a staircase was installed leading to the top of the mound, from which you can see the countryside, the Dowth and Newgrange mounds and the Hill of Tara, rumoured to be the seat of the High King of Ireland.

Positioned around the circumference of the large mound are 127 massive slabs of Greywacke rock measuring approximately 2.5 metres (8 feet) long.  They were probably towed by boats from the banks of the River Boyne. Most of  these kerbstones have symbols and motifs carved onto them, with the most prominent images found near the entrances.  One stone in particular is identified as a calendar stone that marks phases of the sun moon and stars, with an image resembling a sundial or lunar calendar.  About 250 more carved stones can be found inside the passages, including a couple in the Eastern chamber that have graffiti scribbling from early Christian times.

For safety purposes, access to the passage chambers is blocked off and closed to the public.  We were able to stick our cameras in behind the bars to get a photo looking down the Eastern passage, which apparently leads to a chamber in the form of a crucifix and has a layered corbelled roof, which we would see an example of during our Newgrange tour.

Next to the large mound is a recreation of a "Timber Circle" (like a wooden Stonehenge) which originally would have been built around 2500 B.C., probably for ritual or ceremonial purposes.  Traces of more modern settlements were found on this site including people from the Iron Age (1200 - 1000 B.C.), Early Christian Age (800-1200 A.D.) and the Norman Age (1200-1400 A.D.)

While touring the ancient mounds at Knowth was fascinating, we were in for an even bigger treat when we next visited the Newgrange site.  Like the one at Knowth, the large oval-shaped mound at Newgrange was built in the Neolithic period between 3000 to 2500 B.C., spanning 1.1 acres of ground with a length of 76 metres (249 ft) and a height of 12 metres (39 ft) high. The mound was originally built of alternating layers of earth and stones with grass growing on top.  Archaeological research showed that the outer circumference was once covered with a facade made of small, flat, white quartz stones, which was recreated when the mound was excavated between 1962-1975.  Inside the mound is passageway 19 metres (60 feet) in length, leading to a cross-shaped main chamber with 3 small wall openings that each contain a basin stone for holding bones and remains.

Again like in Knowth, the base of the Newgrange mound is surrounded by 97 kerbstones with Megalithic art carved on them, the most detailed and elaborate ones positioned near the entrance.  The guide indicated that the carvings were made using bones, stones and wood, and proposed various possible interpretations for the markings.  The theories included the possibility that they were maps of landscapes, territorial claims, or maps of the path of the sun.  The three-spiraled motifs (resembling a "triskele" -  typical Celtic symbol), found on the large rock in front of the entrance might represent the trilogy of birth/death/rebirth or the three mornings before the winter solstice.

While experts believe that the mound was built for religious purposes as a temple or place of worship, there were also astronomical considerations possibly related to rituals of sun worship.  This is because it was discovered that the entrance of the mound was meticulously positioned so that on the several mornings around the winter solstice (December 21), as the sun rises between 8:59 to 9:15am, the sunlight forms a beam that shines straight down the passageway, into the main burial chamber.

The shaft of sunlight is directed into the chamber through an opening called a "roof-box", specifically built on top of the entrance.  As the sun rises higher, the beam of light widens and travels deeper into the chamber, illuminating the tri-spirals carved on the walls until it eventually ends up shining on the stone basin in the alcove directly facing the entrance.  This feat of architectural, astronomical,  and engineering knowledge, to precisely calibrate the path of the sun, was achieved 5000 years ago, proving the intellectual sophistication of these people.
 

While hearing about the construction of the Newgrange tomb was fascinating enough, what made this experience even more exciting was that this time, we were actually allowed to enter through the passageway into the burial chamber.  We saw first-hand the corbelled roof made of multiple layers of larger rocks, filled in with smaller stones, more stone carvings, the three recesses with the stone basins and examples of Early Christian graffiti.  Then came the grand finale. To demonstrate the interaction of the sun with the tomb during the period of the winter solstice, the tour guide turned off all the lights and our group of around 20 people stood in total darkness. Then he triggered a lighting system which shone through the roof-box and slowly grew brighter to simulate how the sunlight entered the chamber.  The light source acted like a laser beam, running straight along the passageway, through the middle of the chamber, ending up in the alcove directly in line with the entrance.  Standing there in this ancient tomb watching this phenomenon, it felt like we were in the middle of an Indiana Jones movie and  I wished I had brought my fedora and whip.

There is a lottery each year, entered by over 35,000 people, that allows 50 lucky winners to actually stand in this chamber during the real winter solstice.  That would be some experience but I would imagine it would be quite cold.  I was quite happy with our amazing simulation held during the pleasant warmth of early summer.

Our visit to Glendalough, situated in the Wicklow Mountains National Park  was actually done as a day trip from Dublin, as originally planned.  Meaning "Glen of Two Lakes", Glendalough is a Medieval Christian settlement that was founded by Saint Kevin in the 6th Century.  It was expanded upon throughout the centuries and became a mecca for pilgrims who came to worship.  Miracles were attributed to St. Kevin from the time he was a baby.  Legends tell that an angel decreed that he be named Kevin, meaning "fair-begotten", and that a mysterious white cow appeared at his family's front door every morning to supply the child with milk.  As he grew older, more miracles occurred including sheep magically reappearing after he gave them away to the poor, turning water into ale and restoring an injured man's sight with his blessing. Saint Kevin's Feast Day is celebrated on the 3rd of June.

Most of the buildings are in ruins today with the best preserved structure being St Kevin's Church, a nave and chancel church built in the 12th century.  It is also known as St. Kevin's Kitchen since the little round bell tower rising from the west end of the stone roof resembled a kitchen's chimney.  The most famous landmark is the 33 metres (108 feet) tall Round Tower, built around the 10th Century as a bell tower, lookout post, beacon for pilgrims and a place of refuge for the monks if they came under attack.  This was a really interesting structure since it felt like you were looking upon Rapuzel's tower and wanted to call up for her to "let down your hair".  A small building mostly in ruins is known as the "Priest's House" which was possibly built as a shrine for buried priests, since several tomb stones lay inside.

The largest structure is the remnants of the Cathedral to Saint Peter and Saint Paul, built in phases between the 10th to 13th Centuries.  There was a nave, chancel, sacristy, large decorative arch, multiple windows, a wall cupboard and a stone font.  Early Christian tombstones can be found inside, including one that is still clearly legible–"Here lieth the Body of Luke Tool of Anamoe ... friend of the unprotected, father to the orphans, his door ever open to the poor."

 The Gateway into the monastic settlement with its dual granite arches still stands, although the timber roof connecting the two arches is gone.  Inside the gateway, a stone with a cross carved into it signified that this was a place of sanctuary and refuge.  A 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) tall cross with a circle representing the sun is known as St. Kevin's Cross and was carved from a single granite stone.  A local legend states that if you can wrap your arms around the entire width of the cross and connect the fingertips of your two hands, then your wishes will be granted.  Unlike other Celtic Crosses found in the cemetery, St. Kevin's Cross does not have holes punctured at the intersection points between the cross and the circle.

Following the hiking trail that leads from the monastery settlement towards the Lower and Upper Lakes, we gazed upon the stunning views of the Wicklow Mountains National Park in the distance.  When St. Kevin first arrived at Glendalough after being ordained as a priest, he was looking for solitude in order to pray and practise self-denial.  For seven years he lived as a hermit, sleeping on a rock "bed" in a cave that is now known as St. Kevin's Bed.  The cave is only accessible by water, so we did not get to see it and had to settle for looking up photos on the Internet.  St. Kevin was eventually convinced to return from isolation to spread the teachings of Christ to his followers and establish the monastery at Glendalough.

Leaving Glendalough, we followed a section of road known as the Wicklow Gap Road which crosses the Wicklow Mountains from east to west and is known for its beautiful scenery.  We stopped at a lookout point and walked a little bit of an ancient route known as "St. Kevin's Way", a 30km pilgrim's path from the village of Hollywood to the medieval monastery in Glendalough.  Along the way, we crossed a wooden bridge and passed several ruins.  The trail follows the route that Saint Kevin took to cross the Wicklow Mountains in order to arrive at Glendalough, a journey that became a popular pilgrimage for visitors.

As we were driving away to leave the Wicklow area, we spotted a charming sight up in the hills on the other side of the road.  It was the most stereotypical image of an old shepherd wearing a brimmed hat, tweed coat, plaid shirt and rubber boots.  He was calmly seated on a rock smoking a pipe, with a walking stick tucked under his arm, while his sheep dog ran around in circles, herding the sheep and making sure they did not wander too far afield.  We could barely make out blue markings on the sheep, which we got a closer look at later as we spotted a couple of them grazing on the road.  These must have been the ones that got away from the dog, but they were clearly labelled to identify their owner.

This ends the last blog for our 2015 vacation which spanned the months of May and June, starting with two weeks in Amsterdam followed by four weeks in Ireland.  To read about or look at the photos of the entire excursion in chronological order, you can start with the first entry in May 2015.  I have some closing thoughts to summarize the trip.

Amsterdam and Ireland were both wonderful but totally different experiences, which made for an eclectic, varied and entertaining trip.  In Amsterdam, we enjoyed the canals and extensive culture, while Ireland captivated us with its gorgeous landscapes and its extremely volatile history.  This was our first time flying between to European Union countries on the same trip to Europe.  We decided to buy a return flight from Toronto to/from our original destination (in this case Amsterdam), and then purchase a second internal return flight between the first and second destinations (Amsterdam to Dublin).  Although this took a bit more travel time, it was significantly cheaper than trying to arrange an international flight from Toronto to Amsterdam to Dublin to Toronto.

This was the second year in a row that we took advantage of our retirement freedom and traveled for 6-7 weeks consecutively (in 2014 we went to the South of France).  I've come to the conclusion that this might be a bit too long a time to be away from Toronto, as I have missed the entire spring for two years in a row.  As much as I enjoy vacationing abroad, I also really enjoy spending time in our own city and all it has to offer.  Perhaps 3-4 weeks per trip would be more appropriate?  We will consider that for future years.

It is probably apparent that when we visit a new location within the world, we like to explore it really thoroughly as it is likely we will not return soon if ever.  There are so many different places on our bucket list to get through that we most likely would pick a new destination over repeating one we had already done.  The exceptions of course are New York, London and Paris, which we could go to again and again and still have more to see.

We do so much on a single vacation that it takes me a long time to write about it all. Not having the greatest memory, I've come to understand that if I don't take a photo of it, then it didn't happen because I will have forgotten about it by the time I get around to writing about it.  This is my main purpose for this travel blog, so that I can look back in years to come and relive our wonderful times. Although it took over eight months to record all of our adventures, I was determined to finish before the start of our next exciting vacation, planned for 2016... Mission accomplished.

Ireland 2015: Northern Road Trip - Giant's Causeway, Atrium Coast

After juggling the schedule of our Northern Ireland road trip twice while waiting for a clear day, we finally ran out of time.  On our last day in Northern Ireland, we were going to the Giant's Causeway, rain or shine.  Heading out first thing in the morning, we would double-back westward from our overnight stop at Ballycastle, visit the UNESCO World Heritage site, then drive eastward again, making a few more stops before returning to Ireland and towards Dublin.  Despite there still being rain in the forecast, it was merely cloudy when we got started so we were hoping the showers would hold off until after our Giant's Causeway visit.  We still had to be careful though, because the rocks would be wet and slippery from all the rainfall from the previous few days.

The Giant's Causeway is a geological phenomenon, consisting of about 40,000 interlocking 6-sided basalt columns, formed 60 million years ago as a result of intense volcanic activity and the cooling and shrinking of successive lava flows.  Nicknamed the "Honeycomb", they vary in height with the tallest being about 12 metres (39 feet), forming lava cliffs that are 28 metres (92 feet tall) at their highest peak, with stepping stones leading towards and away from the sea.

Despite the scientific explanation for this natural wonder, the legend that led to the naming of the Giant's Causeway is much more fun to consider.  At the Visitor's Centre, an excellent 2 minute animation gave the perfect introduction to this folklore.  As the story goes, an Irish giant named Fionn MacCool was in a constant shouting match with the Scottish giant Benandonner who lived across the North Channel that separated them.  Fionn accepted the challenge to fight Benandonner and built a path made of huge logs so that he could cross the body of water.  When Fionn got there, he realized that Benandonner was significantly bigger than he was, and turned around and ran back home, dropping a shoe along the way while Benandonner chased him.

Fionn's quick-thinking wife Oonagh came up with a plan and disguised Fionn as a baby.  When Benandonner arrived, Oonagh invited him in for tea but told him to be quiet, so as not to wake the baby.  When Benandonner saw the size of the "baby", he figured that the baby's father must be too big to fight.  Instead, Benandonner fled back across the channel, stomping on the logs to destroy the path as he went, and thus creating the Giant's Causeway.

From the Visitor's Centre, there were two ways to get down to the main sights of the Causeway–you could either take a shuttle bus for £1 or you could walk.  Since it was not raining yet at this point, we decided to walk so that we could leisurely admire the views and listen to the audio guide that gave us more information about the geology, history and legends of the area.

Besides the amazing honeycomb cliffs, we saw a few more features of the area that related to the legend.  First there was a grassy rock formation that was shaped like a lying-down camel.  Fionn MacCool named this camel Humphrey and rode it in order to get home quickly in time for tea.  On a stretch of stone-covered flatland by the water, we found the smooth rock shaped like a giant boot–apparently the one that Fionn MacCool lost when he ran back across the causeway.  Up in the hills was another formation that was named the "Giant's Organ" because of its shape.  And finally, we came across the massive vertical stone columns that are known as the "Giant's Gate".  It drizzled a bit during our visit, but right at the end the rain really started to come down, which signaled to us that it was time to go.  To avoid getting too wet, we hopped onto the shuttle bus that took us back to the Visitor's Centre.  Had it been a nicer day, we would have hiked up into the hills to get a better look at the Organ and another configuration called the Chimneys.  But as it was, we were able to see the highlights before the weather turned nasty.

Although only a few stones from the former gate lodge remain, Dunseverick Castle was once a royal fort dating back to the Iron Age (500BC).  On a peninsula cliff overlooking the North Channel, many important events occurred on this site.  St. Patrick visited the castle in 5A.D. and baptized a future Bishop of Ireland. In 6A.D. Fergus, King of Dalriada (western Scotland and northeast Ulster) had his coronation and ruled from here.  The various strongholds built on this site were attacked many times, by the Vikings in 870A.D. and in the 16th Century, by factions of the warring main families–the MacDonells, O'Neills, O'Cahans and MacQuillans.  Although war destroyed most of the fort, time and weather played a part as well, since the remnants of a tower fell into the sea in 1978.

Continuing to drive back east along the Causeway Cliff Road, we encountered the viewpoint at White Park Bay, overlooking the bay, a 3-mile beach and the little fishing hamlet of Portbradden.  The cliffs on either side of the beach are composed of a limestone chalk and contain fossils of marine life from the Mesozoic period.  Flint from an old Neolithic axe factory, once located on the nearby Rathlin Island, can occasionally be found along the coastline.  Sheep, horses and cattle graze on the hillside and on the beach along the bay.  We did not see any animals on the beach, but there are photos on the Internet of a man casually walking by a large cow on the beach while swimmers emerge from the water.  This would have been an interesting sight but it was probably too early in the season for this.

Passing through the village of Ballintoy (where we visited the harbour with the Game of Thrones filming location the day before), we stopped quickly in front of the Sheep Island View Hostel, since I was curious about the large bright pink tractor sitting in front.  It turned out to be a tribute to Irishman Harry Ferguson, who invented the tractor with a 3-point linkage that works on a hydraulic system at the back, enabling the driver to raise and lower instruments like a plough, thus revolutionizing farming.  The Ferguson system is still used on small farms around the world today.  Harry built and flew his own aircraft in 1909 and developed the first four-wheel drive Formula One race car amongst other inventions.  Harry's tractors were grey, so painting this one pink must have just been an attention-grabbing strategy, which obviously worked since it caught my attention and allowed me to learn about this fascinating man.

Found on the Larrybane Headland, the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge links the mainland to the tiny island called Carrickarede (Irish for "rock of the casting"), spanning a chasm that is 20 metres (66 feet) in length and 30 metres (98 feet) above the water.  Comprised of hardened lava, Carrickarede Island is the volcanic neck of an old volcano with sea caves located at its base.  Salmon fishermen had been building bridges to this island for over 350 years.  In 1970, there was a rickety bridge made of wooden slats with major gaps in between and only one handrail.  In 2008, the current bridge made of wire rope and Douglas fir planks was constructed at a cost of £16,000, making it safe for tourists to cross over for a fee.  The island can also be accessed by boat.  From Carrickarede Island, you can enjoy a coastal walk, spot flora, fauna and wildlife, and on a clear day, you can see Rathlin Island and even Scotland off in the horizon.  Since Rich and I are not fond of unenclosed heights, we settled for watching the people cross the bridge from our safe distance on the mainland.  Another Game of Thrones filming location, Larrybane was picked to represent "The Stormlands", which was Renly Baratheon's camp in Season 2.  This is where Catelyn Stark agrees to a treaty with Renley on behalf of her son Robb Stark. 

I would have liked to have visited another Game of Thrones filming location, known as The Dark Hedges.  This is a beautiful avenue of beech trees near Ballymoney, planted by the Stuart family in the 18th century as an elegant pathway leading to their Georgian mansion Gracehill House.  This was used to represent the "King's Road" which Ayra Stark took to escape King's Landing.  Unfortunately it would have taken us too far off the coastal path and we weren't quite sure how to find it, so we didn't go.  But photos that we found online show how beautiful it would have been.   We missed another Game of Thrones filming site in Cushendun, which we did pass through but did not know to look for the caves just outside of the village.  So we didn't get to see where Melisandre gives birth to the shadow baby after being brought ashore by Davos Seaworthy.  Instead, we settled for taking photos of the scenic Cushendun coast, which was lined with pretty houses.

We had been lucky since leaving the Giant's Causeway in that the rain had mostly subsided.  That luck ran out when we approached the village of Waterfoot in County Moyle, when the skies darkened and then it started to pour.  We felt sorry for the poor cyclist in front of us, who was caught in the rain.  We had planned to stop and walk around Waterfoot, but the inclement weather nixed that plan.  Instead, we continued driving out of Northern Ireland  passing right through Belfast long the way.  So I can say that I did see some of Belfast, at least from the highway.  Once we were back in Ireland, we headed
towards our final overnight stay of this Northern Ireland road trip, the tiny village of Donore in County Meath. This would be put us strategically close to Newgrange, where we planned to visit first thing in the morning before heading back to our home swap base in Dublin.