Traveling

The moon from my airplane seat

I have done a lot of traveling in the first half of this year. With Anika in Leeds, we visited England twice, toured the West and North of Ireland, I have been to Switzerland several times, a quick trip to Spain, a conference in Germany, and a day trip to Glendalough last weekend before Anika went back to the USA. She is doing a stop-over in Kansas before meeting up with us again in Albuquerque later in August. Then it's off with her to California for her last year at Mills.

Anika in Heidelberg

On one of my trips back to Dublin I took the picture at the top of this post. There were some storm clouds gathering and I thought I might have an opportunity for a cool picture. I never take pictures from out of airplanes. It is hard to get a good shot and the window distorts the view and is usually dirty. I cleaned the window as good as I could and started snapping pictures and then I noticed the moon rising. Worthwhile.

Heidelberg castle

Anika came with me to my conference in Leipzig. While I was working she explored the city and took a day trip to Berlin. It so happened that President Obama and his family were there too which meant that ordinary tourists like Anika didn't really get to move around Berlin, or see much of it. She was very disappointed.

The round tower at Glendalough

I know that there is a heatwave in the States. We have been having our own here in Ireland. Granted, it's only in the mid-70s and will probably be over before it reaches the end of the third week, but is has been amazing. Especially after the miserable Winter we have had.

At the top of Glenmacnass waterfall on the way to Glendalough

I don't watch the weather report on TV and usually don't talk about it. It's a waste of time; the weather will happen anyway and we cannot change it. Other (more normal? More sociable?) people do talk about the weather occasionally for small talk. Here it is almost mandatory and usually the same: miserable. For the last few weeks people have not been able to express themselves. They don't have words for more than two weeks of uninterrupted sunshine. What's worse: I start talking about the weather! I better stop before this post becomes weather centric.

The characteristic brown color of water flowing out of a bog

Because the unmentionable from the above paragraph has been particularly nice lately Lee Ann, Anika, and I went on a day trip down to Glendalough last weekend. It's a major attraction in Ireland and so there were bus loads of tourists there. But the site is large and spread out so it was still possible to take pictures without too many strangers in them.

 

 

Reefert Church from about 1100.

The site and its surroundings are suffused with religion, myths, and stories dating back at least a thousand years. Good catholics in the middle ages were supposed to do at least one pilgrimage to Rome in their lifetime. Of course, most people during those times could not afford such a journey, in particular from Ireland. Because Glendalough has such a rich religious history and importance, a pope declared seven visits to Glendalough would count the same as one visit to Rome. I've been to Glendalough three times and Rome once. Will I reach four more trips to Glendalough before I see Rome again?

The ruins of a church along St. Kevin's way, a trail crossing the Wicklows West to East

You can see all my pictures from that trip on my picasa album. All four of us we'll be in Albuquerque for the last two weeks in August. So far, after that, we have no more travel plans, but I'm sure something interesting will come up!