Paddy's Day

Yesterday was St. Patrick's day and Anika and I went into town to watch the parade. We found a front row spot near the end of the route and stood there for more than two hours. It took a while for the front of the parade to reach us and by the time the participants and performers had done the two miles to the place where we were, many of them were pretty exhausted.

It wasn't that easy for us watchers either. We had to wait quite a while -- otherwise you would be behind several rows of people -- and it was also cold and, of course, we got rained on. In the morning before we left home, it was snowing! I was hoping for some interesting Dublin pictures with snow on the ground, but by midday it was all gone. RTE, Ireland's TV network, is making footage from the parade available on its web site. I think they may take it down after a while, but I'm sure it will be on youtube as well.

My pictures are as usual on picasa. The city was packed with tourists. That is usually the case around St. Patrick's day, but this year there might be a few more. Ireland has called for a gathering this year. It asked all Irish descendants and friends around the world to come visit this year. This will help the economy here and also bring people together who may not have seen each other in decades; or ever. Although the crowds were probably thinner yesterday due to the bad weather, judging from the turnout, the Gathering is working.

Anika and I walked back to the train station through the Temple Bar district. This is the main area where people congregate after the parade for a beer or two or maybe a third. It seems people had been practicing starting at least the day before. Empty beer bottles littered the streets. I had hoped to be able to take pictures here of interesting faces, but it was raining again and so Anika and I decided to go back home.

Looking at the information board above, which platform do you think the 16:03 train for Maynooth will leave from? If you guessed platform 4, you would have been correct! Despite having been here for two years now, I keep forgetting that pubic transport here doesn't work like other places. We were standing on platform 7 and, of course, the train never came. When we finally went back down to ask about it, the guy in the information booth told us that we had just missed it. When asked about the platform, he said that extra trains for events like today, always leave from platform 4. Of course! How could we not have known.

Drinking coffee in the train station, waiting for the next one on platform 7.

Cold Spain

Montserrat

Last week Lee Ann and I were in Spain. The first four days it rained and was cold. Then it was just cold. This is not the time of year to be in Spain. It is a little bit sunnier than Ireland, but just as cold. We were in a resort town about an hour south of Barcelona and almost alone. That's cool until you need to find a restaurant that is open. The apartment we rented was built for summer. It had a little electric, free-standing space heater in each room, but we were still freezing.

Montblanc

We knew it was not the right season. We visited Lee Ann's sister and her husband who was in Barcelona for a conference. Since this is a cheap time of the year to visit, and much closer than California where they usually reside, we took the opportunity to go to Barcelona and surroundings. Barcelona is a very interesting city and it would be easy to spend a week there. Since we slept quite a bit away from there and have never been in Catalonia outside Barcelona, we only spent two afternoons/evenings in the city (I was only half on vacation and working in the mornings).

Tarragona

One thing we did in Barcelona was to visit Poble Espanyol. Its sort of like the world showcase in Epcot, but dedicated to Spain and in Spain. It was created in 1929 for the world exhibition and is meant to showcase the different areas and cultural aspects of Spain. It's very nicely done and well worth a visit. We were there when the number of tourists was low and the evening light for photography just right. We had to rush a little bit because Stacy had made us reservations for a Spanish dinner and flamenco dancing.

Poble Espaniol

My new camera has the ability of filming HD-quality movies, so I tried that during the show. I'm not much of a film maker;  I can't imagine how much more time you can sink into that than just work on a few pictures at a time. Nevertheless, here are three short clips. Maybe someday I'll win an Oscar and people will look back at these video snippets and discuss my early technique of leaning against a post and trying to hold the camera still.

I liked Poble Espanyol, but it was clearly fake and I was wondering where we would have to go to see the same narrow allies and architecture in Spain. We visited Montblanc on the weekend and got to see the real thing. That was pretty cool; right down to the gate in the city wall where supposedly St. George killed that dragon.

This is where the dragon died!

There is a plaque there describing the incident. Since I don't understand Spanish, I'm not a 100% sure that's what it says, but there are a lot of indicators that this is the place. Including the paragraph in the guide book.

Proof (I think)

Near where we stayed was the town of Tarragona. There are tons of Roman artifacts, including an amphitheater overlooking Mare Nostrum and underground tunnels which gladiators, prisoners, and other performers used 2,000 years ago. As in any town that sounds like a spice, there is good food to be had. We were standing out in the poring rain until the restaurant finally opened at 9 p.m. and we were the first ones there. As it got closer to Spanish dinner time, more guests came. Choosing the food was mostly a guessing game, but it worked out excellently. We were not the first ones to leave, but when we came back the next day for lunch, the same waitress was there still/again working.

Romans walked here

On our last day in Spain we visited Montserrat. Its a serrated mountain in the Catalonian plane that can be seen from miles away and attracts visitors because of its unique shape. More than a thousand years ago it attracted some monks who started building a monastery there half way up the cliff. It's still there, although mostly rebuilt after the French destroyed the place two hundred years ago. One of the things that endured (hidden in a cave) is a statue of the virgin Mary that had turned black over the ages. Supposedly the statue is 2,000 years old and the monks who found her could not move her and therefore built the monastery around her. Carbon dating puts the creation date of the statue into the 12th century.

Pilgrim's way to the cave where the statue was hidden.

None of my pictures from this trip are outstanding. Most of the time we were rushing from one thing to the next or the weather did not cooperate. Nevertheless, as usual, my pictures are on picasa. Here are the links for Barcelona, Tarragona, Montblanc, and Montserrat. Somehow picasa turned into Google+ and some stuff is different. I hope you can still see the pictures.

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! ;-)

Bandelier

Bandelier national monument is about two hours away from Albuquerque. I have been there several times, always liked it, and want to spend more time there, but always seem to have only a few hours. It is similar to Mesa Verde, but much smaller and not as spectacular. Anika and her friend from Mills wanted to go see it and I tagged along to take some pictures. The sun was low and only occasionally hidden by clouds. We were there early enough to get some of the warm colors photographers like, before the sun could not reach down into the deep Frijoles Canyon anymore. You can see the whole set on my Picasa album.

The very fist time I was in Bandelier was in 1984 when my friend Jürg visited there on our grand USA tour. We've had had some trouble with our VW bus and kept getting flat tires. Just as we drove into Bandelier, we had another one. This time the culprit was a set of keys someone had lost. They were laying in the sandy drive and one of them pointed straight up, punching another hole into our tire.
Unbelievably, that's almost 30 years ago! That's when my second life started with a six-month visit to North America, and then continued a few years later with me moving to the USA.

These Bandelier pictures turned out okay. Some of them could have used a little bit more sunlight. For the one above I was waiting for the sun to come back out behind the clouds, but it did so only partially. Taking pictures at sunset is stressful. Should I wait for the light to get better or rush to the next site in hopes that there is enough time to get a good picture there as well?
It was a good time of the year to be there to take pictures. I had hoped for more snow on the ground to accentuate the pictures, but was compensated with a park that had a manageable number of tourists. I definitely have to go back and try again.

Did you know that the national monument was named after Adolph Francis Bandelier? And that he had been born in Switzerland? Another guy from Bern who likes New Mexico ;-) Here is another interesting article about him.
So, this brings us full circle: Swiss leaving their home country, going to Bandelier national monument, and ending up back in Europe. Bandelier in Spain, and me in Ireland.

Christmas

Christmas light display in Hoffmantown Albuquerque

Happy Christmas everyone. They say happy instead of merry in Ireland. I like that better. Merry seems more something out of Robin Hood. Google tried to avoid that whole problem by wishing everyone happy holidays, which some people took as a declaration of war on Christmas.
I view Christmas as a time to be off from work and spend time with family and friends. Those of you whom we haven't seen in the last few days: Peace, and we hope you are having a good time around this time of the year (whatever you may call it ;-)

Making a Picture

We're back in Albuquerque for the holidays and I had a little bit of time working on a picture. Click on it to get the full-size version. I got the idea when Lee Ann and I were walking through a Christmas market in Dublin. An artist had stitched together panorama pictures to create some cool images. I tried to recreate that. It came out okay, but is not exactly what I saw in Dublin. I need to play with this some more.
I started out with a bunch of postcards shown below and then arranged them to solve the puzzle.

Well, actually, I started out with the picture below. I took it last month when I was at Supercomputing. Kurt and I had gone up to Ensign hill park one evening and took a few pictures. Because it was getting dark, I put the camera on a rock and chose a long exposure time. That worked okay, but the picture was crooked since the rock surface was not level. For the picture in last month's post I rotated it and then cropped it. For this project I only rotated it to make the horizon level, but did not crop it. Instead, I put a frame around it.

Then I cut out the smaller sections, added a border to each section, and added a background. This took some time, since I wasn't sure how to get the effect I wanted, and two gigabytes of memory really isn't enough to process that many layers efficiently. The computer was swapping quite a bit. BTW, I use the gimp to this kind of work.

Sunrise and Sunset

Over the last week or so we had some very nice weather. Cold, but sunny and pretty. It just didn't last very long each day. The picture above is around nine o'clock in the morning. The kids are heading for school, frost is on the ground, and the sun is just now beginning to clear the houses across the park. By four o'clock it is well tucked away below the horizon.
This will be the last blog post this year from Ireland. The day after tomorrow we'll head back to Albuquerque to spend the holidays with our kids, but without our cats. A neighbor's teenage daughter is going to "mind" our cats while we are gone. We were discussing whether to activate the alarm system or not. Lately, a lot of house alarms have been sounding off in the neighborhood. Everybody has one because it lowers the home owners insurance, but none is connected to the police. Alarms go off for hours and nobody shows up. According to Dave Barry, the sound of a house alarms is reassuring. If a burglary was in progress, the thieves would have disabled the alarm a long time ago.
There were some break-ins lately around here. It seems one of our neighbors across from the park likes to leave her front door open; even when she goes out shopping. Times have changed. You can't do that anymore around here.

Sometimes clouds are good: a good sunrise needs some backdrop.

Not sure which one of those got burglarized.

Paperwork

Knocking at the Garda station

We have been going to the Garda (police) station a lot lately. Not the one in Enniskerry pictured here, but the one in the town center of Dublin. It is the place where you get visas and residence and work permits. It's a very busy place. We went there twice and were told that they had run out of tickets for the day. The ticket is a number that determines your place in the waiting queue. At another time we were there and were told that we could go in early, before all the foreign students applying for their visas at the beginning of the school semester.

Because Lee Ann is married to a Swiss citizen, she doesn't need a work permit. But she does need a stamp in her passport and a picture ID-type card with her finger prints encoded in the embedded chip to prove that she doesn't need a work permit. On our most recent visit to the Garda station in Dublin we finally accomplished that. I had to go along. It was not enough for Lee Ann to show them my passport.

Now Lee Ann can legally work here. She can also stay here, but only temporarily. As the wife of a Swiss citizen she has the right to reside with me here in Ireland, but that too, requires a form. In this case a residence card. We are halfway there with the paperwork for that, but not quite. The main obstacle remaining is proof that she has taken up residence in Ireland. They send her mail to the house we are renting here, and Lee Ann is responding with mail stamped here, but that is not enough. We need a utility bill that has her name on it and some other thing from the county board that oversees property rentals.

The electricity and gas bill comes only every other month. Given how they run their business, I'm not sure why the Irish government places so much trust in them verifying that Lee Ann actually lives here. It's not like Airtricity comes by and checks up on Lee Ann. They don't even read the electric meter. In many places that is done electronically, and at ours we read it and enter it on their web page. Inspectors do official checks a couple of times a year. Lee Ann and I called Airtricity together on the phone and both affirmed that she lives here now.

A few of those still exist.

It's time consuming at frustrating, but we are making progress. In the meantime it is almost time to pack for our trip back to Albuquerque. We'll spend Christmas and New Year's there.