Sitting in the Park with Friends

This post features a smattering of fun events, visitors, and so on which have occurred over the past month or so...

Julie Williams, a friend from Spearfish, and Laura in Trafalgar Square. This giant ship, a replica of the HMS Victory--the ship with which Admiral Nelson won the famous Battle of Trafalgar--was created by an African artist with the goal of reconciling the imperial/colonial past. No one can figure out how he got the ship into the bottle! Anyway, Julie was in town for a few days with a study abroad program, so we had dinner and showed her around town a little bit!

Our next "friends in the park" refers to our good friends Ben Harper and Eddie Vedder, who played a nice quiet, quaint concert just for us. OK, we are very generous people and allowed about 30,000 other "friends" to join us. It was Laura's first Pearl Jam concert (and her first mosh pit, though it was a pretty tame one!), and they rocked. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get any pictures, as we had stupidly forgotten our camera.

The next day, our good friends Jessie and Dennis came into town on their way to Sweden & Italy, so we went out for an amazing dinner at our favorite Indian food restaurant and enjoyed each other's company. The next day, we spent some time wandering around London before the next concert!

Posing in front of the statue in front of Buckingham Palace. You can't tell from this picture, but it was BLOODY hot!!!

Jess and Den in front of Buckingham Palace.

This is what Crosby, Stills, and Nash look like from a very great distance. We're pretty sure that's really them. They were awesome.

[Commence screaming]

Ahhhhhh!!!!!!

Paul McCartney!!!

The concert was unbelievable. McCartney was just radiant, and incredibly energetic. He switched instruments nearly every song, playing some of his own tunes and many of the Beatles classics (Day Tripper, Paperback Writer, Hey Jude, and so on and so on.) He even brought out the ukelele for Something in a tribute to George Harrison--Laura's favorite Beatles song, and a fantastic version it is. We were so glad to share the concert with Jess and Den, too!

Just a little "teaser" with some of Paul's theatrics.

Unfortunately, Dennis had to leave the next day for his business trip to Sweden. But Jess was able to stay a few more days, and we had a lovely time doing all sorts of things: exploring the city, shopping for wedding dresses (no luck there, yet), and getting duped into free theatre tickets!

So, the story there is that we noticed a show called "Prisoner of Second Avenue," a Neil Simon comedy starring Jeff Goldblum, on the Old Vic Theatre website. It was very difficult to understand the woman on the phone as I bought the tickets, but I knew (so I thought) that the tickets were for that night. So, we enjoyed a fun day seeing some of the sights before going to the Old Vic Theatre to see the show. After about 5 minutes of conversing with the box office staff, who were nearly freaking out because they could not find our tickets anywhere in the system, I realized we were at the wrong theatre...with about 3.5 minutes to Curtain. But then we were informed that "Prisoner of Second Avenue" didn't start until the next night. I was obviously embarrassed; then the guy turns around and asks "So, do you guys have plans tonight? Obviously not. So here you go, head upstairs and see a free show and sort out your tickets for tomorrow in the morning." So that's how we got free tickets to "As You Like It" at the Old Vic Theatre, which was absolutely fantastic. We're going to start doing that more often.

These pianos were all over London as part of a summer arts festival, available for anyone to stop and play. This is in St. Paul's Cathedral churchyard.

Sister-Friends on the Millennium Bridge; behind us Tower Bridge spans the Thames.

Jess snapped a nice photo of Derek and I in front of the Tower of London.

Looking across the Thames at Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. It was SO wonderful having Jess and Dennis with us--we're hoping that they can return soon for a longer trip. It was like having a little taste of home here for a few days, and great to enjoy this amazing city with our dear friends. Jess headed off to Italy to meet Dennis and enjoy the Italian lake country...and informs us we'll have to go ourselves someday!

Killarney Day 3

From Killarney to Kenmare and Back

View Kerry in a larger map

So, this was our longest ride and we covered about 35 miles, but it was also one of our best days, I would say (though the boat ride day with the Gap of Dunloe was pretty incredible). You can see basically where we went on the map above, but briefly, we headed out from Killarney with the intention of taking the "Old Kenmare Road" part of the way to Kenmare before meeting up with the Kerry Way trail and riding through a valley down to the coastal town of Kenmare to watch the U.S./Slovenia World Cup game. Several people had told us that this would be an excellent bike ride and full of spectacular views. However, when we reached the Old Kenmare Road early in the day we found a rather obvious sign warning us that bicycles were not allowed on this road and so, we had to take the main road to where it met the Kerry Way. This meant dealing with more traffic, but we also got to ride by an old castle, an old church and a very pretty creek as we hugged the three lakes in Killarney Park on our way. I'll let the pictures below do the rest of the talking.

This was the old church which stood at our turn off of the main road and on to the Kerry Way. It was a bit of a climb up to this point and Laura felt particularly good to be at the top and off of the busier road. However, the celebration may have been a bit early as there was still plenty of uphill to go.

Another view of the church with the creek that runs past in the foreground.

This is a bit closer to the top of our ride. You can see the gap in the hills behind us which was the highest point on the way to Kenmare. There was absolutely no one on this trail except for a bunch of sheep, as the video below will show.

So this is our first attempt at uploading a video. Someone should let us know if it worked. Enjoy!

Looking back the way we had come, towards Killarney. We were happy to be at the top, and the sheep were happy to see us go. We pondered the idea of hiking up one of the hills at the top (you can see part of one better in the picture below), but decided against that, and for lunch, beer and the match.

This is the view of our trail as we came down into the area of Kenmare. As you can see, it wasn't much of a path for bikes, but we did our best and used our brakes often.

Another view coming down into Kenmare. You may just be able to see the ocean and the bay in the background off to the right which Kenmare sits on.

(And now Laura takes over the authorship of this post...)

Yet another look at the road toward Kenmare. We decided we'd wished we had just camped along the way, as one of this meadows would have made the ideal campsite. We hadn't seen another person for hours.

In Kenmare, we were too hungry and distracted to take photographs. It's an adorable town, and we found a fantastic little vegetarian cafe which served heaping plates of several varieties of salads as well as main dishes like butternut squash stuffed with bleu-cheese and walnuts, and red-onion Gorgonzola cheese quiche. YUM. We justified eating ridiculous portions with the 20-some miles we had just ridden. We justified topping off our meal with cheesecake...somehow. Anyway, then we asked around for the best pub to watch the game, and headed down high street for a pint of Murphy's Irish Stout. No justification needed, there. (By-the-by, it was a great game!)

Then, with very full bellies we ventured on, taking a smaller road as far as we could before joining up with the main highway. We enjoyed a leisurely ride for a while, and immediately after joining the main road began the climb we had to tackle to complete the loop. The picture above is at the point on the way up where my legs gave out, and looks back south, toward Kenmare.

This is at the tippy top of our ride back to Killarney, a spot called Moll's Gap, which is marked on the map by the westerly green arrow. I was overjoyed at this juncture, as I knew it would be downhill most of the rest of the way. Derek was overjoyed that I had finally stopped whining!

On our way down, we bumped into this spot, called "Ladies' View" apparently because it's a view fit for Queen Victoria. So, you're looking East, toward the lakes and mountains which lie in the boundaries of Killarney National Park.

Here we are, in front of the Ladies' View, looking North. I was ready to be finished, but didn't want the day to end. And, oh...ready for more food already (and a pint), and sleep. This truly was an amazing day. I was glad we had saved it for our last day of riding.

We spent the next morning returning our bikes, eating a leisurely Irish breakfast, and strolling about the town before heading home to London. When we arrived home, we decided it was time to start hunting for some "new" bikes of our own...

Killarney Day 2

View Kerry in a larger map

Our second day started off wonderfully, and perhaps in Ireland as it ought to: with a castle and a boat ride on a fisherman's dinghy. Our boat, which was to deliver us and our bicycles to the starting line of our next cycle route (shown in red on the above map), left from a pier next to Ross Castle (apparently the Rosses were an important family in this region at one time).

A side note: Unfortunately, Google Maps does not show the lakes/rivers in this area except in satellite mode, but the terrain mode allows for an easier view of our route. This map is interactive, though, so feel free to click on it and explore. Also, you should be able to enlarge any of the photos on the blog by clicking on them. I have only recently figured this out, and just in case any of you are equally blog-savvy, I thought I'd share.

A wonderful shot of Ross castle (which took several minutes of waiting for the many people milling about to move!), and the picturesque view behind the castle as well. Unfortunately, we didn't have quite enough time to tour the castle...perhaps on another visit.

The crew on our boat (which we agree we would call a small motorized row-boat) consisted of the two of us, two other couples, and a "boatman" who was several minutes late and spent the first several minutes of the ride on his hands-free cell phone (whilst steering the dinghy across the lake). In fact, another, older man is the one who arrived with the boat and, cup of coffee in one hand, steered the boat single-handedly into the dock with incredible penache. This older gentleman helped us load our six bicycles and then said "it'll be a few minutes while you wait for the boat man. I'm going fishing." (apparently, for salmon). It was the beginning of an awesome journey, chronicled below in photographs. Above, a shot looking back at Ross Castle.

Orange is really Derek's color, don't you think?!

Innisfallen Abbey, the boatman tells us, was the site of one of the earliest universities (in Europe or perhaps in the World, he didn't really specify). Of course it looks, from this picture, like a teeny little Fransiscan Monastery sitting on a teeny little island in the middle of a large loch in Ireland. And it is.

Here you get sort of an idea of the size of our boat. In the background, you'll see the bridge upon which we had taken a photo of the two of us the previous day. It was sort of neat, seeing the same place again but from the other vantage point.

This is The Old Weir Bridge, at a place aptly named "Meeting of the Waters," as it is, indeed, the place where one lake meets the other lake, and the river pours into them both. The waters were quite shallow, and I was surprised when the boatman steered us in this direction. Then, he said abruptly, "I'm going to have to ask you all to take a short walk." He maneuvered the boat toward shore, where he asked Derek to hop out and hold the boat steady so the ladies (and one of the men) could get off. He asked Derek and one of the other men to stay on. "Just meet us down the other side of the bridge," he noted, and quickly began spouting off directions to his crew (which I didn't quite hear).

The Pirates of the Unnamed River: Derek and Heinrich (I call him this because he was German but I don't know his real name) pulling our boat and boatman upstream, beneath the bridge. As I said, the water was shallow, as they were having a bit of a drought. Derek says the boat was scraping the bottom just a bit. Funny, they didn't advertise this as part of the adventure. I thought it was quite amusing, but tried not to chuckle about it too loudly.

Back on the boat, at a place titled on our map "The Long Range." The river opened up here and offered lovely views in all directions; we were surrounded by green, and rock and mountain.

I was a little "trigger happy" and was enjoying this view of our bicycles, being moved along with us by motorboat upstream along this scenic river. The whole ride took us an hour and a half. I wonder that we couldn't have ridden a similar route faster...but considering the experience and the views (and the fact that there isn't a path or road that follows this route) it doesn't really matter.

The view coming into the third lake, cleverly dubbed Upper Lake, and at the end Lord Brandon's Cottage, where we ate a lunch of vegetable soup, pie, and coffee, before continuing our journey via bicycle. (This spot marked on the map as a yellow monopoly-looking house, directly south of Purple Mountain).

This picture taken just after we had stopped to fix a flat tyre on my bicycle...Derek was rather pleased that: A) we had asked for a puncture kit at O'Sullivan's Cycles before they sent us off on our journeys, and B) I happened to get my flat tyre next to a gently flowing stream, which made finding and mending the hole much easier. (Not to mention the view, the sunshine, the warmth, and the journey which lay ahead.)

This picture taken (and they're all of Derek because Laura is typing this post) just after we took a wrong turn, which was nearly a four-mile detour, I suppose, but it was splendid and (as you'll see in the next picture) brought us a lot of joy.

Yep. Totally worth the detour. Derek was able to get in some practice for the upcoming International sheep dog trials at Antrim, Northern Ireland. (Yes, I looked that up.) Our first sheep encounter was an adolescent lamb who had managed to end up on the wrong side of the fence line, and was happily nibbling away. Derek blew past it, hardly realizing it was there, but scared the wool right off the poor thing; it immediately tried to jump right through one of the squares in the wire fence. It almost made it, but its wool was just too thick to get past the shoulders. I slammed on my brakes, still a short distance away, to let the thing calm down in case it should actually injure itself. Then, very slowly, I pedaled past, and ready to jump at the slightest wrong movement, the lamb (and now, its mother, who had wandered over out of either sheer curiosity or concern for her little one) glared at me as I went past!! I laughed, and asked Derek (out of my concern for what--the busy road???) whether we should pick the thing up and toss it over the fence. Silly. Later, we came across several more sheep who had wandered to the wrong side of the fence. These two in the picture were particularly dim-witted, and kept running directly away from us down the road. Finally there was a break in the fence at some rather large boulders, which they scrambled up lest we should catch them!

After sheep-herding practice, we discovered we had very probably made a wrong turn as the road we were on turned into an incredibly rocky path obviously meant for walking and not for cycles. So we headed back the way we had come, and up a very big hill. And up and up. It was hot. The road was literally melting. But, we finally rejoiced as we made it to the summit, which looks down into the Gap of Dunloe--and, originally, the main purpose to our trip. Funny how that purpose changed into Adventure of All Sorts. Anyway, here's the view from the top. We were rather pleased with it, but decided it might be worth a hike farther up one of the hills to see what we could see.

Making it not quite to the top of the hill, as it became very rocky and because we realized we were running pretty low on water, but this lovely false-summit/saddle made an awesome view. This view looking back toward Upper Lake and our boat-journey.

This, the view looking in the other direction from our hike's summit: and, we realized, in the direction of our accidental detour down a rather beautiful valley. It was fun at this point to realize what a treat it was to have actually gone the wrong way. Again, fun to see things somewhat accidentally from two different vantage points.

Luckily, sheep are generally decent photographers. Tough to push that button with a hoof, but this one managed alright.

We headed back down the hill on foot, and then hopped on our bikes and enjoyed the ride down into the Gap, stopping a few times to enjoy the creek tumbling down alongside us and the pools it filled. This one in particular, toward the end or bottom of the Gap, was lush and green and gorgeous (and this picture looks back up toward the summit of the Gap) Another thing made this trip so much more amazing: there were very few cars, and thus few people.

We stopped for a pint and dinner at a place called Kate's Cottage (on the map, the yellow house on the west side of the lake), which was great fun--we ended up talking to some people, including a couple from Australia (the guy had gotten his PhD in Geography, so he and Derek had plenty to chat about). Anyway, then we headed up around the top of the lake and, after finding ourselves on a very busy road, soon found a path heading off into the woods in the general direction we needed to go. We soon found ourselves in a park (not sure if it was part of the National Park or what) with this lovely view, and a nice easy ride back into Killarney via cycling/walking paths. It was really nice to see this view from the North side of the Lake, as it was the only time we did see it from that angle.

St. Mary's Cathedral, which we came upon just as we returned to Killarney. Built in the mid-1800s, it is often referred to as one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in Ireland. It was a nice welcome back to civilization after a very long day--well, that and the beer.

Later that night, a friendly bartender taught us how to drink a "proper pint of Guinness." Don't ask us to share: it's a secret. He also tried to water down my Smithwick's with red lemonade to make it a "Smithwick's Shandy" which he noted was an excellent hangover cure. Of course, I was not hungover at the time, and I just hate it when people put fruity things in my beer, but seeing as he was rather friendly I forgave the waste of a perfectly good drink.