Connemara Bike Ride

Lee Ann had found a half-off deal for a guided, half-day bike ride in Connemara near Cong with Connemara Glorious Cycle. We met our guide, Noel, in Clonbur where he provided us with bikes and helmets. Another couple was supposed to join us, but they had canceled just before.
They used to have a bike shop in Cong where they maintained and sold bikes, and organized these tours. But then the company who owned the building they were renting their shop space from, went bankrupt.

Their current address is 7 Radharc Na Sleibhte, Rusheen East, Clonbur, Co. Galway, which is weird. Addresses in Ireland are usually a lot shorter. Something like 2 The Drive, Clonee, Dublin 15, or Hyde House, Dublin 2. Outside of Dublin, there are not even zip codes.
Our GPS brought us to Clonbur successfully, but then it was at a loss. Luckily, the town is not very big. There is a pub, a hotel, a post office, a church, and a little store. Lee Ann called Noel and he appeared out of a house near where we had stopped. Since they (temporarily) lost their business premises they had to spread their inventory among friends and relatives in the little village. At least that is how it appeared to me. I'm sure the haste in which we left one of the buildings after Noel retrieved a bike from there was coincidental.

Off we went along a nature path through the forest along little lakes or loughs. Along the way, Noel pointed out sights like a bird sanctuary and the ruins of a century-old castle hidden in the trees. We stopped to descend into a cave that water had carved into the lime stone and had a great time.
For lunch we stopped at Ashford Castle situated beautifully on Lough Corrib. It is now a posh hotel and the tour included tea and club sandwiches. We, in our biking clothes, were ushered into the castle and announced by name to the Maitre De of the salon where we sat in deep velvet chairs next to a century-old enormous fire place. It was fun. For lunch the place is not quite as stuffy as I made it out to be. There were families with little kids there having their tea, and playing and running around was perfectly OK for the kids.

After lunch Noel collected us, showed us the castle grounds, and we rode back along Loch Corrib, the largest loch in the republic and the second largest in all of Ireland. We dutifully returned the bike and concluded our day with dinner at Cullen's at the Cottage; a very nice restaurant on the castle grounds where jeans are a permissible evening attire.

By the way, if you ever are in the area and want to spend the night, stay at the Ashfield House B&B. We did. It's close to the Castle and Cong, very clean, comfortable, and charming. It is also close to The Neale where you can go admire a pyramid among sheep and other curious follys.

The next day we spent some time exploring Cong and the dry canal between Lough Mask and Lough Corrib. The canal is often described as an engineering fiasco with the explanation that the porous lime stone cannot hold water and that one lough is higher in elevation than the other. Engineers of the 19th century knew of course how to deal with this. The problem was that halfway through construction railways had gained in dominance and the canal was no longer needed for shipping. It was finished as a way to drain off water from Lough Mask, but not intended anymore to be filled with water.

On the abbey grounds in Cong

In the afternoon we visited the National Museum of Ireland near Castlebar with its country life exhibit. It is interesting and situated on beautiful grounds, but a little bit too much straw for me. In Ireland, and especially Connemara, trees and their wood are precious resources. This is doubly true for the times in the past when the English drove the Irish off any land that could be used for farming or forestry. So, the people adapted and did with what they had: straw. We learned how thatched roofs are made and maintained, how straw can be used for ornaments, chairs, baby cribs, baskets, and insulating pads to hang on your front door.

Lee Ann thinks I didn't spend enough time in the other parts of the museum, but after a certain amount of itchy straw I retreated into the museum cafee where they had delicious 21st century deserts.

New York

I'm falling behind again, so this post and the next two will come in quick succession (so I hope) and read more like a travel blog.

In mid-November I spent a couple of days visiting the IBM Watson lab. I was on my way to Denver for the annual Supercomputing conference.  When booking, I had decided to spend the weekend in New York. It had been decades since my last visit to Manhattan. I wanted to see the new Highline park and ground zero. The last time I was there, the twin towers were too.

I was staying in Stamford, CT and took the train into Grand Central station.  Someone had told me that they had cleaned up the ceiling and that now you could see the artwork again. So, when I arrived I dutifully looked up. While I was standing there, a you woman broke off her group, walked over to me, asked "Are you ready?", stood next to me, shoulder to shoulder, raised her cell phone, and took a picture of the two of us.

Then she walked back to her group, they giggled, and walked off. No clue what that was all about.  I still had my billfold afterward. It was over in a few seconds. So, if you see a picture of me and some chick on facebook, it doesn't mean a thing; I swear!

On Saturday the weather was great, but I got there fairly late and by mid-afternoon it was already getting dark in the canyons of New York. The low Winter sun is great for taking pictures, but it disapears early and the tall buildings block out a lot of light early in the afternoon.

On Sunday I was there earlier, but it was raining. It was cool to see the upper stories of many buildings disapear in the clouds, but it made taking pictures more difficult for me. I like lots of color and golden sunlight. None of that was available that afternoon in New York.

As usual, the rest of my pictures are available on picasa.