We had some time to kill before we would meet up with friends we met in New Zealand. So we accepted an invitation from some strangers to come over for a cup of tea. I think they were trying to impress us. OK, their driveway was slightly longer than ours. This is Glamis castle, pretty nice, great pinetum with pines of over 200 years old. The Strathmores live here and queen Elizabeth grew up here. The tour was really good. They did not have replica's of the torture instruments in the giftshop, disappointing.
A nice riverside pint of beer was followed by a great evening with some really nice music at a local pub.
The good thing about a motorhome is that you've got everything with you. Refreshments and food. and we were in no hurry, so we stayed another night.
In the morning we rented electric bikes (on advise of the manager who thought we were too old to do the whole trip the old fashioned way) and put them on the ferry, which brought us to the other side of the loch.
Difficult to see on this picture, but the house you see there was especially build for a royal visit. Queen Victoria visited Loch Katrina in 1859 to celebrate the completion of the waterworks (the lake supplies most of the water for Glasgow). The local councils spend a bit of money to build a suitable accommodation for Vicky. When she arrive the was greeted by 21-gun salute tribute. What could possibly go wrong. Well, the gun salute shattered all the windows in the brand new cottage. Obviously Vicky did not sleep there that night.
Of course, us Dutchies could easily have done without the electric power, heck, we could have circled the whole loch twice before darkness. Nice trip though. Wouldn't you be buried here? So quiet.
Nienke after a small pitstop (lakeside picnic lunch).
We had one more night in our mobile home, which we spend on Loch Lomond. Big mistake! Not only had half Glasgow flocked to the same camping on the lake, the notorious midgets suddenly arrived like Poetin's armies. With total disregard for their lives they attacked me. Must have killed a few thousand, but got bitten several times as well, resulting in bright red, bloody itching lumps.
Our last day in Scotland was in Glasgow. Fortunately less midgets, but the damage was already done. I did not bring steroid creams for nothing.
It appears the students in Glasgow do not respect the old heroes. Or they hate traffic cones as much as Kiwi's do. Anyway, the decoration of the statues was amusing.
The visit of the Kelvin Grove Art Gallery museum in Glasgow was a party. Not only were we welcomed by the choir of the Salvation army, but we really enjoyed all the art in this amazing building.
Again, wow. A brief visit to the Pot Still pub, with the finest collection of malt whiskies in Scotland. I could almost understand the feeling of women in a shoe store......
On advise of some people at home we did the 'Belfast taxi tour', a tour through the quarters where 'the Troubles' were situated between 1969 and 1998. It was actually quite disappointing. All the murals looked like they were hung there yesterday and the driver admitted that it was all for the tourists. Even adding the Israel-Palestine conflict to it to 'modernise' the tour. As we lived in the Netherlands during 'the Troubles' we were well aware of what happened. A really good museum would have been better.
The driver was quite surprised we did not want to sign the mural that was purposely painted over every two weeks, especially for tourists.
Nienke was very happy with all the street art in Belfast.
Can't remember exactly what this was, but we did not agree.....
The Titanic experience was something we thought would be less interesting, but boy, were we wrong. It was not so much about the disaster, but more about how the thing was build (it was build right there in Belfast). The building is the actual size of the ship. We really enjoyed it.
When you meet an Irishman he'll ask you "how are you', not expecting an answer. Occasionally they do not ask 'how are you' but just sit down next to you and start telling about their trip to Africa. And you get to see the 500 accompanying pictures on his cell phone. We had some fun with Sean though.
Some more street art.
One of the many churches/cathedrals in Belfast (allmost as many as pubs). In the adjourning art museum we asked the girl at the reception what the spire on the church was for. She had no idea, never wondered about that. In comes dr. Google. And thus the nice Argentinian girl (practically all staff is foreign) was educated on the fact that the cathedral was so heavy that it started to sink. The archbishop could forget about his big bell tower. Many years later the church settled for the spire.
More street art.
Ain't that true. I've never done one of those ancestry tests, but I may have some Irish blood in me.
This beautiful woodwork called 'Magnus modus', by Joseph Walsh, we found in the beautiful National gallery in Dublin. Just before that we went to the Little museum. I can fully recommend that to any visitor to Dublin. In about an hour they tell you about the history of Dublin, using the different items standing and hanging in the room you are in. The story is full of humour and it is difficult to wipe the grin of your face when it briefly becomes serious. A very funny experience. A few americans came in late and Moira immediately invited them to sit down , telling them that we had just been discussing how everybody lost their virginity, and it was their turn straight away. The look on their face.......Very entertaining start of our visit to Dublin.
Can we sleep here?
Visit to Trinity College. Wow, I studied in Utrecht and that was a great experience, but to study in Dublin.... Very impressive buildings and than the town full of culture, history and entertainment...... If I had had the choice.....
The Pomedoro sphere (sfera con sfera) by Arnaldo Pomedoro, on the square of Trinity College. We did not joint the queue for a brief look at the book of Kells, an ancient book in Latin,. It was probably written by monks on the island of Iona, that we have visited before. We had already seen and heard about it at the Little museum. All right, it was a copy, but nevertheless.
A visit to the whiskey museum then. In 1834 the English government put a tax on making whiskey and they actively searched the countries for illegal stills. In the first decade they found 314 in England, 692 in Scotland and 9198 in Ireland. That does not just mean that the Irish were not very good at hiding things..... Making whiskey in Ireland is something sacred.
Irish whiskey is very smooth. I do have to say I prefer the peated Scottish whiskeys, so does Nienke, who is rapidly becoming an expert.
Some beautiful paintings by Peter de Gree, a Belgian artist, in Dublin castle. Beautiful drawings in black and white giving the impression it was a relief. We've seen quite a lot works of Flemish and Dutch artists in Ireland by the way.
The Council building in Dublin. I think Nienke wanted this picture to propose and upgrade of the Kapiti Council building.
Christchurch cathedral. Very impressive buildings. The first cathedral I visited where they asked an entry fee. The second was St. Johns, also in Dublin.
The church still had some spare money after building the cathedral. Not really knowing what to do with that money they just continued building on the other side of the road. With 'they' I mean the really poor people who dutiful donated money to the church on Sundays, thinking that money was going to be used for the sick and poor in the world. Wrong, it's for a new pool room for the bishops. Nice lamp posts Dublin council has. We visited the much more interesting St. Audoen's church close to the cathedral. Full of history and far less tourists. Recommended. Unfortunately we missed the organ concerto by an Ukrainian lady.
Had to take this picture of the taps at one of the pubs where we listened to music. Nienke did not want one......
Funny card in the gift shop of the Irish museum of modern art. We had a good time there (even though some art was downright bizarre) but unfortunately we had to leave in a hurry as we had tickets with a timeslot for the next event.
A visit to the Guinness museum. Awfully touristy but we can now say that you just have to do this. It is not just a tribute to the beer, but also to the Guinness family and what they and the factory meant for Dublin. Guinness is Dublin and the other way around. Nienke learned that 95% of Guinness is water. She does not tell me to drink more water that often anymore.
Throughout the years they had several advertisement campaigns. The cycling fish above was one of them, the toucan was another one. Nienke always wanted me to buy one of those flower shirts, just to be able to mingle in with the 'more modern men'. I now am the proud owner of a Guinness toucan jungle shirt. Ready for the next beach party!
I just ordered one size up from a pint when this thing turned up. Coincidence? I think not.
We again tried the Brazen head for live music TripAdvisor talked about so much. No music, just food and tourists. One of the musicians in another pub told us that the owners actually asked them to play more popular songs instead of what is called 'trad. music', because that is what tourists want. Not us though. Luckily we heard a flute from the pub on the other side of the road. Checked it out and yes, at 'the Merchant' they had original Irish live music.
We had been warned that Celtic played the last game of the season at home that day. The year before, festivities had gone out of hand a bit with fights between Celtic and Glasgow Rangers fans (the old clash between the catholics and protestants again). We were advised to be on guard and maybe avoid certain area's. But we encountered no problems at all and had a great time celebrating with Celtic fans. Some consolation for me as I almost forgot how my Ajax managed to give the title in Holland to 040 on the last day. Because you can, we took the ferry to Belfast. The bus drive from Glasgow to the Stena ferry was OK, but for the people watching the internet on their phones. Of course the earbuds and headphones they normally wear in the streets were suddenly gone,. 'Everybody needs to enjoy this'. And loud phone calls in which half the used vocabulary is 'Wah?'. The Babylonic crowd on the ferry is one loud bunch of chewing people. It is basically a floating MacDonalds. There were actually Germans using bags instead of towels to reserve chairs for people of their bus who might want to sit there. The old lady that had slept next to me left and was replaced with two new ones who started to declare to each other how nice their tea was for 5 minutes. Then one asked me if I was reading a book, 'no, I am trying to stare a hole in my screen'. Oh, and I forgot the groups of Chinese tourists. The Chinese language apparently requires a lot of shouting and coughing loudly and productively every 10 seconds. Why don't they have a silent room on board of these ships? Nice hotel down centre in Belfast, close to the impressive council building. The town is not very big, but it is loaded with pubs where they have live music.
The real Irish music we found in Kelly's cellar. But we were so lucky to find quite a few other places as well. Not that difficult, there must be about 4 pubs in every street. In Ireland you go to business school to learn about economics, you try to find a niche in the market, a real business opportunity. So you do a bit of market research and then ..... you open a pub next to the other three. And darn, it works!
And another night of live music. Coincidentally again in Kelly's cellars this one. That is because the two in the middle play the Uilleann pipes. The Irish bagpipes something you do not see often. Inflation is not done by mouth like their Scottish counterparts, but with the elbow. Seemed more comfortable.
I think she looks happier than in a clothes store. Maybe we can finally enjoy shopping together.
They even put on a show for us, some great Irish music
and Irish dancing of course.
A great night amidst mostly locals. Some of them clearly not completely sober. The lady in red wanted Nienke to dance. I just played dead! It was a great last night in Dublin. The next day we would pick up a motorhome to discover the southwest coast of Ireland.
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