Driver's License

Midnight

After you have lived or driven in Ireland for about a year, you are supposed to get an Irish driver's license. For Europeans that is pretty easy: you turn in your old one from your previous country, pay 55 euro (for a ten-year license), and get a new one. Americans (and some other third-world countries ;-) are less trusted. Lee Ann will have to take 12, hour-long formal driving lesson's and then pass the test. The lesson requirement, even for experienced drivers like Lee Ann, was introduced last year mostly to ensure that young drivers had the proper training before they got into traffic alone.

My new license

Starting this January, new driver's licenses in Ireland look like mine above: A credit card size plastic document. Until now, the licenses were larger and printed on paper. My Swiss license I traded in, was also on paper. The Swiss have had the credit card style licenses for ten years now, but I still had the old one, since it was the last one I got in Switzerland before coming to the USA.

The back

When you go to the motor tax office here to exchange your European license, they look at a catalog on their computer to see if it matches the looks of the known license types from the country it was issued in. Mine was not in their catalog! They had to send it to the main office and it took a couple of weeks before they could assert its validity. A further complication was that it had no expiration date: Swiss licenses (at least back then) are good for life. Until a certain age, when you have to start going in for regular checks to make sure you can still sit upright and see.

My old Swiss license

In case you wonder why Midnight is at the head of this Blog entry: I was using my telephoto lens to take pictures of my new license. I put the license on a sheet of white paper on the floor and stepped far enough away from it to be able to focus. Midnight thought that piece of paper was meant for him and decided to lay on it.

Fondu in Switzerland

We are now the proud owners of this fondu set. Lee Ann and I spent a long weekend in Bern to visit family and friends, and used the occasion to get a new fondu set. The other one is still in Albuquerque. Although the weather wasn't great, it was a lot better than what we currently have here in Ireland. Can't wait for Spring.

We also had a chance to meet up with some of my old class mates. It was a fun evening and we did not take the last train home. We were on the one that left fifteen minutes earlier ;-)
Looking at the pictures I selected for this post, I realize this might be the first one for which I did not take a single picture. I don't know if that improves the post or not, but at least you get to see me in a picture for once.

During the winter, the local ice hokey club sets up a small ice rink in front of the Swiss national parliament building. Any good tourist attraction or place of activity in Switzerland must have a restaurant. This was no different. We celebrated the evening in a temporary building adjoining the ice rink. Of course, we had a cheese fondu!

Kells

I've been wanting to blog, but ever since we got back from Albuquerque it has been very busy at home and at work. Today was the first day in a while where it was sunny the whole day. It took a while for this to sink in, so it was two in the afternoon before we decided to go somewhere and hoped into the car. By that time we had less then three hours of daylight, so we couldn't really go far to take pictures. We decided on Kells, since we have never been there before.

The high cross at the southern end of Kells

Kells is a typical Irish small town with a long history and several important remaining artifacts. There are (parts of) five high crosses in town, an intact Irish round tower (minus the cap), St. Columba's Church, and St. Colmcille's House. The 1200-year old Book of Kells was kept here for centuries until its move to Trinity College in Dublin. Viewing of the replica in Kells was not possible today, and we wouldn't have had enough time anyway. If you'd like to get your own facsimile, I found this place that sells it. I wonder how much it costs?

Not the book of Kells, but nearby the facsimile

Commercialism Irish style

We had an excellent dinner at the Vanilla Pod restaurant in the Headfort Arms hotel. The name Kells comes from a Gaelic word which in turn comes from an even older word that means headfort; hence the name of the hotel. By the time we were done with dinner, it was pitch black outside. Another three month and we'll get to enjoy daylight until well after ten at night. We're ready!

A window in St. Colmcille's house

St. Colmcille's house, sometimes called Columba's house, is at the top of the hill on which slope Kills lays. Although there is a Garda station right next to it, Columba's bed -- a large stone slab -- was stolen from the house. It is not quite clear to me why someone would steal such a relic, but it reminded me of the this video clip. I meant to show you that clip in a blog entry about how difficult it can be to understand the Irish when they speak English.

Now there is a big lock on the gate to Columba's house and a sign that says to go down the hill a bit to ask Mrs. Carpenter for the key, if you'd like to go inside the house.
The house is very close to the church that bears his name. The church is interesting because it was built next to a much older round tower. The church itself is also somewhat unique in that its square tower is separated from the main church building. Surrounding the church is a cemetery with lots of graves. We were there near dawn and I was able to grab some pictures with very nice light from the setting sun.

I guess Betty was less important

As with many cemeteries I have seen so far in Ireland, it is a chaotic mixture of very old, moss covered stones with unreadable inscriptions and much more recent graves. I really like the Celtic crosses and there are some nice ones here with Celtic knots and everything.

Kells has five high crosses, with the south cross near the old courthouse probably the most important and best preserved. It is now under a glass roof to protect it a little bit from the elements.

South cross

A damaged high cross at St. Columba's church

There are actually three more in the yard around St. Columba's church. I only noticed the one above when we were there. Below is another one, but its top part is missing, so I didn't recognize it until I did some reading for this blog entry.

This was a good day and a nice scouting trip for a future day of photographing in Kells. I found two brochures online that give you an idea of what else there is to see in that area: Kells and District and Boyne Valley. These places are less than an hour away from where we live.

The round tower in Kells

Stained glass window in St. Columba's church

On Wednesday, Lee Ann and I will fly to Switzerland for a long weekend to visit family and friends and pick up a fondu pot we ordered there. It's about time we eat something here without two sides of potato every time ;-) We are also thinking of a week-long trip at the end of February to visit with Mark and Stacy while they are in Barcelona. Both of these destinations are two hours away from Dublin airport. That should take care of the first 1/6 of 2013!

A butcher shop in Kells

With religion so deeply woven into Ireland's history and so many century-old artifacts remaining to this day, it is no wonder that some people ascribe mystic qualities to the emerald island. I've heard several new age stories before, but when looking up St. Columba, I came across this interesting site. It claims Columba's teachings were based on first-hand knowledge because Columba and Jesus were contemporaries; on the same island. According to the site, Jesus actually grew up in Ireland! Also according to the site, UFOs exists, but I already knew that, having lived so long in the same State as Roswell. What I didn't know was that Star Wars is true as well. The Force telepathically transmitted episodes four through six directly into George Lucas' brain without him realizing it. Cool! ;-)