When Irish eyes are smiling...

Back in the early weeks of my trip, I went on a Trafaglar tour of Ireland. I missed a few entries towards the latter part of the tour, so the next couple of posts will feature some images of this beautiful country, that is the ancestral home of so many Australians, particularly those with a convict history. 

Galway is a harbour city, situated on the west coast of the Republic of Ireland. It is reknowned as a cultural hub and the home of many music and arts festivals.

In the older parts of town, the streets are for pedestrians only.

It was hot and sunny on the day that we visited and the streets were buzzing with activity. There were buskers and other performance artists as well as lots of tourists and many locals enjoying a long lunch in the sunshine.

The village of Claddagh - home of the legendary Claddagh Ring - is in Galway. There is evidence that fishing and trading took place in this ancient village as far back as the 5th century. Unfortunately the old thatched cottages were destroyed in the 1930s and replaced by a rather unattractive council housing estate.

We travelled through the Connemara countryside, which provided some of the most picturesque images of Irish countryside.

There's a popular saying that Eskimos have a hundred words for 'snow.' I think that the Irish need a hundred variations to describe 'green.'

But wait...there's more!

The trip is over and I'm coming to terms with 'normal' life again. Thank you sincerely for your interest and support along the way. It really meant a lot to know that I was sharing some of my joy and amazement with my friends, colleagues and anyone else whose curiosity led them to this site.

The Grand ol' Duke...

The last weekend of our European adventure was spent in York, another English city which has well preserved evidence of its ancient beginnings. The skyline is dominated by the York Minster - 'minster' being a fancy word for a church that used to include a monastery.

The city was founded in the year 71 AD and the site of the Roman fortress was discovered beneath the foundations of the church. However there is archeological evidence that Mesolithic people inhabited the area as far back as 8000 BC.

We walked from our guest house into the city via the medieval wall that surrounds the city, which is almost completely intact.

The main city gate is still used by visiting dignitaries, as a sign of respect. Even the Queen enters the city this way.

York is situated on the river Ouse...

which is the perfect spot for some traditional English fish and chips with mushy peas.

Medieval walls on top of Roman foundations are featured in various ruins within the York Museum Gardens. Several stone coffins lay at the base of the remains of this defensive tower, which apparently used to house a catapult.

We found this cute fellow in the gardens, too. The locals regard them as fluffy-tailed rats, but they're fascinating to visitors like us.

This gorgeous old building is the Merchant Guild Hall, the construction of which began in 1357, as a meeting place for the city's merchants.

These days, the fabulous Great Hall is used for wedding receptions and other functions, while the ground floor rooms feature museum displays.

Clifford's Tower was once the keep of the York Castle complex.

I'm always amazed at how crooked some of these old buildings are. Have a look at the angle of the first floor of this white one. This house is in an area known as the Shambles, which backs on to the old marketplace and is now full of souvenir shops.

Oxford

Our hotel in Oxford was just a 5 minute stroll down a country lane towards a section of the River Thames that is referred to as The Isis. The buildings on the river banks are the clubhouses belonging to the college rowing clubs.

It was uncharacteristically quiet during the summer break with only the occasional punter, ducks and geese to be seen.

A sightseeing bus tour took us to the major landmarks in this university town and gave us a snap history lesson. This pedestrian bridge linking two of the colleges is Hertford Bridge, but it is commonly referred to as the Bridge of Sighs because of its similarity to the bridge in Venice. 

The settlement of Oxford began in Saxon times and the earliest reference to the university is found in 12th century records. The Bodliean Library is one of the oldest libraries in Europe and is now comprised of 5 separate buildings, including the copper-domed Radcliffe Camera, seen below.

Christ Church is both a university college and a cathedral. It is set amongst beautiful parkland and gardens and the associated buildings have been used in the filming of the Brideshead Revisited series, the Harry Potter movies and The Golden Compass.

Christ Church College has produced no less than 13 British prime ministers, which is equal to the number produced by all the other 45 colleges put together. Interesting facts!

Across the Pond

We were finally on the home stretch of our adventure and spent our last night on the European continent in the historic city of Bruges, in Belgium. I had heard Bruges described as being 'authentically old' and this is true.

 The 17th and 18th century buildings feature the decorative Dutch gabled facades of The Netherlands. Flemish is spoken by people in the northern areas of Belgium, whereas the French language is dominant in the south.

With daylight fading fast, we chose a horse and carriage ride to take us around the town. The variety of architecture is rather like Brussels, but on a smaller scale. 

There is a also canal system in Bruges, although it is not as extensive as that of Amsterdam. I don't think I could ever tire of seeing swans on the water. They are so graceful.

 We felt like we had stepped back in time several hundred years when we explored the back streets of the old town.

This was the view directly opposite our hotel, which was a converted canal house.

We chose Bruges for our last night as it was less than 2 hours drive to Calais, where we had to board the P&O Ferry the next day, for the channel crossing back to the United Kingdom. Here are the last of the trucks boarding the ferry.

It was an overcast and gloomy day, but there was no rain. These are unmistakably the chalky white cliffs of Dover.

We never let a tourist opportunity go begging, so we decided to visit Canterbury. The cathedral was too big and grand to fit into one shot.

I had promised myself that I wouldn't take any more pictures of church interiors or ceilings, but the turquoise colour inside this one was exquisite.

The charming period houses were straight out of a storybook.

We drove through the quaint little villages of Stow on Wold and Burford, on our way to Oxford - home of the famous university. Oxford pictures will be published in the next post.

Amsterdam

The city of Amsterdam is an amazing arrangement of canals, purposely built in the 17th century, to make the most of the Amstel river. A canal cruise is the best way to get around and see what the city has to offer.

There are rows and rows of tall, narrow buildings with stepped gable facades, which used to be mostly residential. These days however, they are generally owned by corporations and the very rich, with the interiors having been converted to office blocks, units and hotels.

 Notice how all the buildings have a beam that protrudes from the top of the gable. Historically, these were used to winch provisions and deliveries from the canal boats below, up to the higher floors.

My Amsterdam highlight was a visit to the Van Gogh Museum, which has the largest collection of the artist's works in the world.

Click here to view Van Gogh artwork.  http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=425&lang=en&section=sectie_museum

The Rijksmuseum includes works by Rembrandt and Vermeer.

This very plain looking building below, has a very special interior. This is the house where Anne Frank and her family spent two years in hiding during Nazi occupation, before they were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

 

The rooms have been maintained as they were when Anne Frank wrote her diary there. The pictures that she pasted on the walls to brighten the room are still there. She died of Typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the age of 15, just before liberation.

 Just like other famous places with terrible histories, it was an incredibly moving experience to visit the Anne Frank house, to look at the original diary entries, to step behind the bookcase and climb the narrow stairs and into the rooms where 8 people lived in fear and in secret for 25 months. Her father Otto Frank, was the only one of the 8 to survive the war and it was his mission that the house be preserved and that Anne's diary be published. It is this image of Otto Frank in the house that will stay with me.