La Ville de Lumière (or: Oh, hey, Paris!)

Trip Date: August 9, 2011

When I scheduled my flight from Dublin back to the US, I had the option to route it through Atlanta, New York City, or Paris. In each possible layover scenario, I would have to wait for at least 16 hours again before my connecting flight so I thought to myself, "Eric, you've already spent a day in Atlanta and you've been to New York a number of times. You're already in Europe, it's been a while since you've been to Paris, and you'll get to visit another airport!!"

Paris it is!

My flight left Dublin at 9am and I arrived in Paris's Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG) a little after noon. On the way to Ireland, if you remember, I had problems with an overnight layover and had to claim my luggage at ATL rather than checking it all the way through to SNN. On the way back, though, the ticketing agent at DUB asked if I wanted my bag checked all the way through back to ORD and after I confirmed I would not need to pick it up in Paris, I was scot-free and only needed to worry about my backpack and camera!!

Part of the reason I decided to hit up Paris was that some good friends of our family from home in Michigan sold their business a year ago and moved to Paris. I figured this would not only be a great opportunity to see a few sites, but a great opportunity to meet up with some friends, too! Judy sent me explicit instructions on how to get from CDG to their apartment and it was at the airport that I ran into my first obstacle: the RER. There are multiple ways to get from CDG to downtown Paris, but the RER (Paris's light-rail system) is the easiest...if you have change on hand. There are about 50 ticket-vending booths for the RER and they take most credit cards and coins. I had my AmEx and MasterCard on me, but the machines did not take AmEx and only took the European MasterCards: thus, not mine. Noon at CDG is a very very busy time and the lines for the RER offices were hundreds of people long and I didn't have time nor the patience to wait. After all, I just needed to exchange some €10 and €20 notes for coins...but the exchange machine (the one exchange machine) was out of order and I was told to wait in line. All I needed was €7 and I decided it would be time to try a new approach, so I went to the little café in the lobby, bought a bottle of Coke with a €20 bill, and tried asking in my much-forgotten French, "Est-ce que vous échangez mon papier pour les argent?" I have absolutely no idea what the word for bill or coin was, so I hoped she would be friendly enough to understand what I wanted. I was disappointed and walked away with a €5 and a €10 bill and about €2 in coins. So I needed €5 in coins... I got frustrated with the café girl and walked back out to the lobby and started waiting in the big line. But the obvious thing to do didn't come to me for another ten minutes before I went to a newsstand and bought a bag of candy with my €10 bill and got enough change in coins to buy my ticket. FINALLY!!


The ride in from CDG to Paris didn't take too long at all and the trip was pretty comfortable and I soon found myself standing in front of my friends', Bruce's and Judy's, apartment. It was really good being able to see them and they welcomed me in to their cozy, but spacious, flat and we talked for a good hour before deciding we would take a little excursion.


Bruce and Judy live only a few blocks away from the Seine so we walked down to the riverfront, right through the plaza in front of the Hôtel de Ville. To me, it is absolutely amazing the variety of architectural styles in Europe. Berlin was more industrial and there was no real unity, architecturally, from one building to the next, though the European elements were still present. And Ireland was much more pastoral and simplistic with the smooth, painted, stucco-front buildings lining the small town centers. The buildings in Paris are pieces of art themselves. Every street is lined with stone buildings, each façade flush with the next, but the amount of detail going into the stone carvings, the wrought-iron, the courtyard gardens, and window glass was so precise that it just makes you wonder how many days' worth of work went into building what are even now simple apartment complexes! And then of course you have the city landmarks like the Hôtel de Ville that take the level of detail and architectural style to an entirely higher and more unfathomable level!


In Paris in the summer, there is a Caribbean beach vibe as the city brings in loads of sand for beach volleyball courts in front of the Hôtel de Ville and along the Rive Droite (Right Bank), the city closes one of the streets that courses right along the bank of the Seine and turns it into a beach called Les Paris Plages, complete with lounge chairs, sand sculptures, playgrounds for kids, and a host of other activities for people of all ages! It was so neat to be strolling through Paris and feeling like you're somewhere tropical!

The ornate façade of the Hôtel de Ville

Les Paris Plages

Les Paris Plages

Looking across from Les Paris Plages to La Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before her death

Playing volleyball in front of le Hôtel de Ville

We hopped on a Metro to get from Les Paris Plages and took it to the Trocadéro stop where once you get above ground, you look to your left and see one of the most magnificent structures known to man! The Eiffel Tower, built and designed by Gustav Eiffel, was constructed for the 1889 World Exposition being hosted in Paris in celebration of 100 years of Independence. The tower took a lot of criticism because it was so big, cost so much, and literally had no purpose and it was slated to be deconstructed after the Exposition. At the time it was the world's tallest man-made structure and after encouragement from Eiffel, the tower was left standing and re-purposed as a radio and communications tower that was then opened to tourists. Today, it is one of the most striking, interestingly complex, yet elegantly simple structures in the world! We walked underneath its four supports and on down the Champ de Mars, deciding it would be better to go up into the structure some other time when I was not short on time. Even with the number of tourists around, you feel like it is just you and the tower and that it is yours. It is truly breathtaking and I look forward to my next visit to go up into the structure.

These photos need no captions

 

 

 

Bruce, Judy, and I took a bus back toward le Hôtel de Ville where Bruce left us to go home and start working on dinner. Judy and I then walked over to my favorite landmark in the world: Le Cathédral de Notre Dame de Paris. When I was in fifth grade Disney Animated version of Victor Hugo's classic, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (which I read earlier this year) was released and I'm not sure if it was the story, the music, the colors, the animation, or what, but I immediately was enamored with this building! The intricacy of the stonework, the sun glinting off the colored shards of stained-glass, the menacing looks given by the gargoyles, the majestic flying buttresses, the tolling of the bells...everything about this structure comes together in a symphony of texture, visuals, and sound that is unmatched by any other building that I have ever been to. The last time I was here in Paris was in 1998 with my family on our first European vacation and while we visited Notre Dame, the front façade was being refurbished and cleaned and sadly covered in scaffolding, but not this time and it was beautiful!

Full façade of Notre Dame

Upper façade of Notre Dame

Lower façade and transepts of Notre Dame

Main rose window

Bell towers from behind

 

Rear of the cathedral and its flying buttresses

Judy and I then walked across a bridge to the Île Saint-Louis, the smaller of the main two islands in the Seine, stopped for some gelato, at a nice little shop where I was able to use my French to ask about different flavors and order. It was refreshing to have someone working the store who knew I was not a native French-speaker yet spoke a little more slowly and clearly so I could understand what he was saying. It was my only successful foray into conversational French the entire time I was there. Judy explained to me that Paris is divided into 20 different "arrondissements" or neighborhoods. The oldest part of the city is in "le Première Arrondissment" (or the first section) and as new arrondissements were added to the city the layout kind of spiraled around the old city-center, giving the layout the nickname of l'escargot (the snail). Judy gave me a tour of the Quatrième and Troisième Arrondissements on the way back to their apartment and we passed such sites as the Place de la Bastille and La Place des Vosges before returning.

July Column in the center of La Place de la Bastille commemorating the July 14, 1789 storming of the Bastille (a political prison set up by the monarchy) and successful capture of the arms and ammunition being stored there.

Le Place des Vosges was built by King Henri IV  (completed in 1612) and is one of the few buildings in Paris made of brick. It is also one of the oldest and earliest planned squares, an archetype for many more subsequent constructions all over Europe. In the corner of the square is the home of author, Victor Hugo.

Judy and I got back to her apartment and we sat down to a great chicken dinner with asparagus, potatoes, and salad and spent the rest of the evening catching up. It was so much fun to be in such great company and be offered such fantastic hospitality, but just as all good things, it came to an end and I was soon getting a few hours of sleep before having to work my way back to the airport.

My original idea in coming to Paris for the day was to run a smash-and-grab sightseeing operation, but I am so glad we took things easy because there is just so much to do that one day is not even enough time for a single site. Paris is a city I will need to visit again and take a few weeks to explore!

Until next time, Paris, au revoir!

Ireland: Dublin

Trip Date: August 8, 2011

Finally, the culmination of a week of beautiful sites and weather in Ireland! We woke up early in the morning, ate our complimentary and traditional Irish Breakfast at the hotel, packed the van, and off we went! I was the unlucky one who got stuck riding in the fold-up seat in the very back of the van next to all of the luggage. It actually wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought, but still, it's cruel and unusual punishment to have a 6'2"-tall person scrunched up in such a small space. The drive across Ireland was pretty, but we were on a big highway and there wasn't much to look at, so I spent most of the drive reading The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson on my iPad. It really didn't take long and before we knew it we were on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland's largest city and its capital, and then BOOM - we were downtown at our hotel.

We were too early to check in so the clerk behind the desk let us put our luggage in a side storage room for the time being and then Dad, Britta, and Carl left to take the van back to the rental agency at the airport while Lizzie and Rob showed me around Dublin. The rest of my family was here on their first day in Ireland and it seemed like they already knew exactly where to go. Rob confessed that Dublin was his favorite city and that he wanted to move here, so that explained why he was so enthusiastic to be my guide! We walked along the River Liffey, stopping to take photos with statues, until we got to the Temple Bar neighborhood, which has a convoluted history on how it got its moniker: Temple was the name of a family that owned a pub in that neighborhood early in Dublin's shipping days. The Pub was positioned very near a natural sandy shallow spot in the river called a bar. So for its early history, the pub was near this bar and it became known as Temple's Bar - a name that soon became the generic name for the whole neighborhood. Lizzie, Rob, and I snagged a midday meal at a really good restaurant where I sampled Bangers and Mash and my favorite, MUSHY PEAS!!!!

I decided to help this poor dock worker

Rob did too, but he wasn't really putting his back into it...

Looking east down the River Liffey

Rob and Lizzie in front of Temple Bar

More of the Temple Bar neighborhood

Bangers and Mash!!! The sausages are the bangers and the potatoes are the mash

Mmmmmmm....mushy peas......mmmm

This sign was in the restaurant and I felt it was very true

Quays Irish Restaurant. Good food stop!

Lizzie and Rob had to do a little bit of shopping so I split from them and walked through Temple Bar to get to Trinity College. The school is one of Ireland's oldest and most elite, but because it was set up by the English it did not allow Catholics to attend, even as late as the 1970s!! The school is frequently referenced in movies such as the Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman flick, "Far and Away." Trinity College is most notable, however, for two things: it houses The Book of Kells and the Long Room of the Old Library. I was on a tight time-budget so my interpretation of the history of both is not too detailed. Sorry!

The Book of Kells was a sacred manuscript illuminated - or incredibly intricately depicted and illustrated - by monks on the Scottish island of Iona. It was then moved to Kells Abbey in northeast Ireland. Cromwellian forces sought the book as they had heard that it was the most valuable item in Ireland. It was protected and eventually was sent to Trinity College for protection where it now remains under very tight security and protection from cameras and physical touch. You pay about 10 euros to get in to the exhibit and there are fantastic displays showing the history of these types of books, how they were made, who made them, and what materials were used. Some of the minerals and plants used as dyes for the ink used in illuminating the Book of Kells would only have been found at the time as far away as the Middle East, so the finished book truly was a marvel! You can see two pages from the actual Book of Kells, and I believe the museum there switches the pages every so often.

Central campus area for Trinity College

Poorly representative photo of one of the pages from the Book of Kells (photo courtesy of independent.co.uk), but you get a very good idea of the amount of detail that went into just one of the pages of this huge tome!

The Long Room of the Old Library at Trinity College is a masterpiece in and of itself! Frequently seen on posters or in textbooks or even in a few movies, the Long Room is well...a long room full of research books - mostly old medical books - but it is still used by students at the College and you have to be very quiet as you gaze up and around you at the numerous stacks of books, marvelous carved wood, and busts of Irish literary notables. If you're lucky you can tour both the Book of Kells and the Long Room in peace and quiet, but during the middle of the day, expect to wait in a long line and not have the place to yourself. Regardless of how many people are there, it is worth the wait!

The Long Room at the Trinity College Library in Dublin (photo courtesy of teachertravelsblog.com)

Looking west, up the River Liffey to the famous Ha' Penny Bridge

Statue of Daniel O'Connell, an Irish independence advocate from the 1800s who served in the British Parliament at a time when Catholics were not allowed to hold public office

Close-up of one of the statues at a memorial to those who died in the Great Potato Famine given to Ireland by the Government of Canada

Here is the whole haunting memorial

Though not in use anymore, this was a couter-weight system used to raise a section of the road over a canal to a small backwater marina and shipyard!

It was nearing 3:00pm, a rendezvous time the family set up to meet back at the hotel, check in, and decide what to do for the rest of the day. Lizzie and Rob once again went off to check out the east part of the River Liffey, Britta and Carl went to Temple Bar where Britta got coerced to play the fiddle and dance with the musicians at the pub they went to, and my Dad and I  went of on our own.

We first went back to O'Connell Street, one of the main shopping thoroughfares in Dublin. Along the street is the Dublin Post Office where some of the major events of the Easter Uprising of 1916 took place. Along with the rest of major historical and cultural sites of Ireland, the Post Office is a nondescript place, offering interpretations of the history that happened there, but nothing showy or flashy. Just outside the Post Office is the Dublin Spire, the world's tallest sculpture (398 feet), built in the early 2000s as a centerpiece for the newly refashioned downtown shopping district and on the site of the much older Nelson's Pillar (a monument to Lord Nelson that was bombed in 1966).

Façade of the Dublin Post Office

 

Dublin Spire

Looking up the Spire. It is 3 meters at its base and 15 centimeters at the tip

My Dad and I headed back toward Trinity College and to Merrion Square Park where there is a memorial to the Irish writer and poet. We then passed the Irish government building and stopped in at O'Donoghue's Pub for a pint where I met a couple, both professors at the University of Michigan. The pub was really cool - your typical Irish hole-in-the-wall pub with fancy but worn wooden furniture and posters, photos, and international currencies stuck up haphazardly on the walls. Our walking tour then brought us through St. Stephen's Green and over to Dublin Castle, the old seat of Irish Government, where you can walk around the grounds and go in to some of the buildings free of charge. But our real destination was St. Patrick's Cathedral, which is neither a Catholic church nor was it the seat of a Bishop, so it really does not deserve the title even though it is a magnificent building! It was too late in the day for us to go in and even though I made a little scene in front of the security guard, he was stubborn and didn't let us in. We then passed Christ Church - another beautiful church in Dublin - and made our way to the actual Temple Bar for another pint before having to meet up with everyone else for dinner.

Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Square Park

Irish Parliament Building

Dad standing outside O'Donoghue's Pub

Center square of St. Stephen's Green

Inner courtyard of Dublin Castle. Throughout the summer they have numerous sand sculptures on display

Central courtyard of Dublin Castle

Gatehouse of Dublin Castle

Central tower and chapel of Dublin Castle

Façade of St. Patrick's Cathedral

Christ Church

We met everyone back near the hotel for dinner and then went back to the hotel where we started packing our suitcases one more time. Liz, Rob, and I played some cards, but then went to bed. My flight left Dublin early the next morning and so I needed some sleep, whereas Rob and Liz didn't need to get up for a while.

I absolutely wanted to spend more time in Dublin because it is such a historical city and so many places to explore and get lost and parks to take naps in! I was not disappointed when I left because I just put Dublin on my list of "Things to do Next Time" and will check them off in time. What a fantastic end to such a history and site-filled vacation. I started off these sets of blog posts by mentioning that this was the first family trip in 10 years and while I missed being able to share the time and experiences with my mom and grandparents, I know they were looking down and happy that we were able to do and see everything we did!

But my travels are not quite over yet! I scheduled my return flight to take me through Paris for nearly 24 hours before coming back to the US, so I have one more post from this whole travel excursion! Wait for it. I promise you won't be disappointed...well...you be the judge :)

Ireland: Back to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren

Trip Date: August 7, 2011

For as small of a country as Ireland is - it's just a little bigger than West Virginia - it takes a long time to get anywhere! Mostly this is due to the narrow, winding roads, but it's also due in large part to the fact that the transportation infrastructure is dictated by the topography and Ireland is a very mountainous country! For these reasons, we got up early, finished packing, took showers, ate a quick breakfast, and prepared Agma for our departure. With suitcases packed as orderly as possible and everyone tight on space, we left Bantry shortly after 9am.

It took us a while to get back on to any major sort of highway, but we joined the big one just near Killarney and kept driving until the little town of Adare, just southwest of Limerick. It was a cute town with some neat ruins and churches and thatched roofs, but all in all, the few restaurants that were open were ex-pen-sive and I immediately got the feeling that this was the town where wealthy people from Limerick come to play golf... We stopped in Limerick, too, albeit very briefly for a late morning meal which we got in a restaurant beneath a parking garage after getting lost a little bit. I don't think anyone else was too psyched about stopping there but we didn't see much else open. The restaurant was big, however, and had a lot of large TV screens showing an Irish Hurling match.

Hurling is a game that goes back almost 4,000 years! It's central to Gaelic culture and each county in Ireland has a team. The players are all amateurs in the sense that none of them get paid, but being on a team is highly respected, and there is no way I would want to go toe to toe with any hurler. Hurling is a hybrid of soccer, rugby, lacross, and...well...quidditch (yup, I went there). Players on each team use their hands and a hurley (a type of stick) to hit the sliotar (ball) between uprights at the opponent's end of the field for a point or into the goalie-guarded net below the uprights for a goal (worth three points). There's a lot of smashing and grabbing and throwing and bouncing, but we caught on pretty quickly. The national championships are all played in Croke Park, a stadium in Dublin. Croke Park is interesting because it was here on Bloody Sunday in 1920 that English officers entered the stadium during a football match and started shooting into the crowds in retaliation for the murder of other English officers earlier in the day by Michael Collins. While the stadium is the third largest in Europe, only traditional Irish games administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association can be played in the stadium. All other sports that appear to have a direct competition with Irish sports, including rugby and association football, must now obtain special permission to use the facilities after a total ban was recently lifted.

Back on the highway after getting our fill of food and hurling (the sport), we were one our way back up to where I first came with Ryan and Sarah, to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren. Britta and Carl, while having been to Ireland before, never got up to this part so this was especially exciting for them! We once again parked in the over-crowded, touristy parking lot at the cliffs and walked over. It was much better weather today than it was when I was here with Ryan and Sarah. Lizzie and Rob wanted to take photos like Sarah, Ryan, and I had done out on the adjoining private property, so we went off and let Dad, Britta, and Carl do their own thing. Dad watched Britta and Carl go up on another trail close to the cliff edge and while he enjoyed the views, he couldn't take the heights and went back to the car.

Beautiful Cliffs of Moher

Lookout castle at the cliffs

Clear view out to the Aryn Islands

Lizzie and Rob 400 feet up!

Me 400 feet up! (ocean for scale)

We found Dad back at the car and soon we were all packed in again, ready to head to the Burren, but not before taking a nice country road into the town of Doolin, famous all over the world for its traditional Irish pub music. A lot of people now say that Doolin is too overrun by tourists and non-traditional, non-Irish musicians that it's lost its charm. Just don't tell that to the people a Gus O'Connor's Pub because they seemed to be having quite a good time!

Neat castle on the road to Doolin

Irish group playing their tunes for no one in particular except themselves!

But this little guy was enjoying the music, too!

And another group in the room next to ours. Fantastic music!

Dad outside of Gus O'Connor's Pub

The last time that my family was in the Burren it was rainy and everyone was wet so the windows were fogged up and it was dark out, so we never really got a good chance to experience the Burren. That was in 2001 and I had the pleasure of already being here on this trip, so I brought them back to through the Burren by way of the Poulnabrone Portal Tomb. It started spitting a little bit so we didn't linger long and while one the road through the Burren we came across some good luck. We found the END of the rainbow!!

Back at the Poulnabrone Portal Tomb

Rob, Lizzie, and me

The rainbow ended right in that field!! If only we stopped to see if there was really a pot of gold there..

While you can see a lot of grass in the photo above, the Burren is much more rocky with extremely little vegetation of any sort, especially as you get closer to the shore and the town of Ballyvaughn. We drove the coastal route and pulled in to the town of Oranmore right around 9pm, found a cheap hotel, and then brought fish 'n' chips back to the room while playing a round of cards. And the next thing we knew, we only had one day left in Ireland.