Dublin and Ireland Tour Day 1

Thut 15th Oct

The tour doesnt officially start till 2pm so Es and i had time to kill this morning.
So got a bus day pass again and explored Dublin a bit. Wanted to see some of the church/cathedral area.

Firstly we visited Trinity College. The library holds the Book of Kells which is a major tourist attraction... The Book of Kells originally comes from the Abbey of Kells (just north of Dublin). It's a collection of parchments with the Latin four New Testament gospels that are elaborately illustrated.
The Trinity College tour and Book of Kells admission price was a bit hefty and we werent that interested so didnt end up viewing it.

Es was actually quite fascinated by the solar powered garbage compactors they have at Trinity College. You put your rubbish in and the lights go on and you know it's working somehow... she got so excited putting rubbish in the bin...

Next we jumped onto any bus and ended up arouond St. Patrick's cathedral. It was built in 1191 and is the cathedral of the Church of Ireland (Anglican). St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland as it is said he came across to pagan Ireland and tirelessly worked to bring Christendom to the people. Again the admission was really expensive and we were a little short of time so didnt go inside.

The funniest thing to note about Ireland is that the religion is actually beer. Next to the big Guinness storage tanks is a church... and this is the sign outside St. Patrick's cathedral. I thought it was hilarious!!

St.Patrick's Cathedral is proudly brought to you by... Baileys - fine Irish cream!!

Started to head back but stopped on the way to see Dublina and Christchurch cathedral. Dublina is an exhibition about the history of Ireland. From it's founding by the vikings and the viking age, through the medieval ages and the driving out of the vikings and then touching on Ireland's religious history and then present day Ireland.

Dublina was actually really interesting. So Ireland was invaded by Scandanavian vikings around 820-830 and they settled there.  The exhibition focused on what life was like, what their settlements looked like and their expertise at trade.

I got all excited looking at old artefacts... they wrote in runes.
When i was in yr 5, we read 'The Hobbit' at school... Helgy and I loved it so much that we learnt how to write in runes. We ended up passing notes in class written in runes because if the teacher found them then she probably wouldnt be able to read them easily. All my old diaries were written in runes... dont ask me why... i might have been a paranoid little girl thinking that then nobody could read them... or it might have been cos it was fun!

So the Vikings that came by boat to Ireland were all men who eventually married and had families with Irish natives. A new hiberno-norse (mixed) people were born. But the Vikings were still at war with the Irish so in the end they were defeated and driven out in the early 1000's. The end of Viking ireland marked the beginning of medieval ireland. Catholicism flourished and England had ruling power over Ireland. But under Henry VIII, all the religious relics in the churches were destroyed. Henry VIII made himself head of the Church of England instead of the Pope. The exhibition ended with southern Ireland becoming independant and then being included in the EU.

Adjoining Dublina is Christchurch Cathedral. It had a lot of religious relics that were destroyed by the orders of Henry VIII. The thing i found cool was that 'The Tudors' the BBC series was filmed at Christchurch Cathedral. I think it's season 2 with Peter O'Toole.

Made it back to the hotel to meet up with the tour group for the introduction. We took a bit of a tour around Dublin. The funny thing was... I had read the itinery and Es assumed we were going to City Hall by the description given of our first day... We ended up back at Dublina. But we had a personal guide and so it ended up being better. The admissions guy laughed when we told him we had no idea we would be visiting and kindly refunded the entry fee we had paid that morning.

After a brief tour of Dublin that mostly consisted of driving around the streets and a guide pointing out various things, we had welcome drinks back at the hotel to meet everybody. With the exception of a boy who is 12 and is here with his grandma, Es and I are the youngest in the group. We have heaps of American retirees on tour with us... a couple of 70-80 yr old ladies...

Ended up going out to dinner with a mother and daughter from Washington and Long Island and a couple of older sisters from Boston. The oldest sister is an absolute hoot!
Because Es and I had gone to Temple Bar the night before we knew a little about what we could do. So we ended up picking a place to meet and going for Irish Tapas. Was a great dinner... the best dishes were Gaelic pheasant and steak and guinness pie.

beer on tap at your table...

It just seems to be Irish tradition to drink a lot of beer or alcohol in general. This pub we were at had beer on tap at the tables. You put a bar tab on and then just pour your own beer... Anyway our oldest granny is hilarous cos we were leaving and turned around to find her gone... we found her chatting up some young blokes and looking at the beer taps on the table... i think she really wanted a beer...

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Cardiff to Dublin (via Holyhead)

Thur 14th Oct

I had to be up at 4:30am to catch an early train from Cardiff to Holyhead where I would catch a ferry at 12pm to Dublin. So what to do for 7 hrs on the train... update my blog...

I wanted to sleep for the beginning of the train trip but was too scared of missing the stop that I needed to get off to change trains. The timing of the trains meant I was suck in Shrewsbury station for a half hour waiting for the next connection. The station was absolutely deserted and I felt like I was out in whoop whoop. Got on my connecting train bound for Holyhead ok. It ended up getting full at Chester, Wales.

This couple from Dublin sat across from me and just wouldnt stop talking to me, or rather at me. Dont get me wrong cos they were really nice but my patience wore thin at the end and the group across from me were clearly annoyed.

Passed quite a few of the seaside towns in north Wales. There were lots of demountables which I'm told are holiday bungalows and are actually quite pricey to own and even rent. There's nothing around there though. Even beaches are pretty crappy. I cant understand it but from what the Irish lady was saying, I'm guessing that owning one or holidaying in north Wales is somewhat of a status symbol.

Pass the town that has the longest name in Wales:
LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH.
Crazy!! I was asking how you would pronounce that and the Irish couple didnt know. A guy sitting nearby managed to say it. All the Welsh names seem to have lots of "LL's" in them. And I dont get it but the 'LL' sounds like a 'gacking' sound - it's like "che" or "hle". (Sounds like you're trying to bring up phlegm!!)

try to pronounce this...

Got to Holyhead about 11:30am. It was 2 hrs by ferry to Dublin so got in around 2pm. Dumped stuff at the hotel. Hehe managed to give Es a huge scare. She'd already arrived and checked in. I got my keycard and was searching for the room. Found it and I'm about to insert my keycard when the door opened. I was thinking 'good timing but she was about to go out so I gave her a huge scare by being right there in the doorway when she opened the door.

So what to do in Dublin? Museums, Trinity college, Dublin castle...

Nope... first stop... Guinness Brewery!! It's a self conducted tour on how they make beer... I took a subject called Biotech for my Med sci degree at uni so we got to go on cool excursions to Tooheys and Arnotts... so the beer making process isnt unfamiliar to me... The fun bit was doing a short tutorial on how to pour the perfect beer and then getting a certificate for it!

The bar at the top of the building has 360 degrees of glass walls so you can look out around Dublin as you drink the free pint of beer they give you. Only thing is it's an industrial area so the view is pretty crap. I guess the view in the distance is ok.

Had dinner around the Temple Bar district. It's definitely bustling and there's lots of pubs with live music. Noticed heaps and heaps of Chinese takeaway places along the main street...
I must admit though... call it intuition... but i dont feel safe walking around Dublin streets especially when they are a bit dark. Es and i got all day bus passes so didnt have to walk that far.

Absolutely knackered after a long day... zzzzz
Tomorrow arvo (15th Oct) the guided tour of Southern Ireland starts...

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Cardiff Part 2 - St Fagan's Welsh National Museum

I was meant to fit Cardiff Castle & Welsh National Museum at St Fagan in today but only ended up doing the museum. It's funny that the museum isnt really on any of the tourist pamphlets they give you... but i was talking to a local at the jazz bar last night and he suggested it and said i would love it.

The Welsh national museum is basically a colletion of dwellings from around Wales
- so it's like a life museum. The only 2 structures on the site that were originally there are St. Fagan's castle and a little farm. The rest of the dwellings have come from around Wales. They were donated to the museum.
Most of the the dwellings actual houses people would have lived in not just recreations. They were disassembled and transported then reassembled/restored to be viable structures. You just walk around and can view demonstrations as well. The day I went there was a sadler demonstrating the making of leather goods and a weaver at an old style wool mill. The old grainery still makes wheat from grain that the cafe onsite uses to bake bread. The grinding machine is powered by a waterwheel on the outside of the building... no electricity but authentic/old fashioned waterwheel!

Celtic village - recreated from archeological finds (2000 yrs old)

Nantwallter Cottage (farmer cottage) - mid southwest Wales 1770's

Garreg Fawr Farmhouse - north west Wales 1544

I talked to some people about Cardiff Castle. They all agreed that it's not worth the price of admission (10.50pound) so I decided to give it a miss and do some retail therapy instead. (Although it was more of window shopping - i didnt buy anything cos I dont want to carry it.)

2 weeks in the UK and I'm not totally fond of the food here. For example, the locals rave about the fish & chips but i find it oily and dont really like it battered and deep fried. I'm finding everything quite oily & deep fried here cos i'm eating out all the time. This morning at breakfast, they had deep fried bread!! I had to ask for just plain toast.
So I was craving something a little healthier. I dont eat that much rice at home but I find myself climbing walls because i'm craving rice. So I found a sushi place about 1 1/2km from my hotel but the walk was worth it. And it's all you can eat!
The sushi train prices range between 1.70-3.70pound/plate... so i got my moneys worth by having 14 plates. But I guess the portions were very small. One plate had 2-3 small rolls or 1-2 nigiri.

Cardiff part 1

Today i decided to have a sleep in but forgot to put the sign up so got woken up by the cleaners knocking on my door around 9am.

Hate it when you get to the station and have just missed the train by 2 mins. But i guess it serves me right for not checking the timetable and assuming i wouldnt have to wait long. The train to Cardiff from Bath runs every hour!
So I decided to just jump on a train to Bristol cos it's on the way and I could have a look around.

Well I managed to see the inside of Bristol train station cos I found out that trains to Cardiff run more frequently so jumped on one almost immediately.

Arrived in Cardiff around lunchtime. The first thing I noticed about Cardiff is that it's COLD! And it was a pretty crappy day. My hotel is right near the train station. It's also next to a jazz club and they have a discount agreement for dinner/food at the club.

But since my Britrail pass allows me unlimited train travel I might as well explore!
I decided to catch the train to Cardiff Bay. it's traditionally docklands - the old port of Cardiff.
They are trying to spruce up the bay with pouring heaps of money into new development - new shopping complex and arts centre (Welsh Millenium centre). But there werent many people around and I wonder how the shops survive with little business. Perhaps it's busier in the summer or on weekends...

Roald Dahl plass

Did a geeky thing and went to see the interactive Dr. Who exhibition. I've acctually only seen a few eps of Dr. Who so I guess a lot of it was lost on me. I do however like the spin off Torchwood that features Captain Jack Harkness who was in some eps of Dr. Who.

So I had to walk around Roald Dahl Plass because its where they film Torchwood. Torchwood 3 is a secret underground base under Roald Dahl Plass. That's the geeky side of me - getting excited about being where the show was filmed. My pic doesnt look as good as on TV =(

Nighttime I decided to try out this jazz bar. Free entry too if you are having dinner. Tonight there was a quartet playing 20-30's jazz. I personally prefer more modern jazz but overall an enjoyable night and I got a 20% discount on dinner and drinks as well... bar-gin!

Bath

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Well today was the end of my roadtrip cos I returned the car in Bath today. I totally recommend the Kennard B&B cos it's just such a beautiful place. Loved the decor and it's an old fashioned Georgian townhouse. The view out of my window was of some sitting gardens.. Went down for breakfast and the parlour was really stylish... not tacky or overdone.

After breakfast I 'took a turn' in the gardens out the back for a bit and chatted to some other tourists before returning the car. Then I was dropped back to Bath for another day. Parking is a pain in Bath so i was thankful I didnt have to park overnight again...

Jane as sketched by her sister

First stop Jane Austen Museum. I got back to Bath too late to join the Jane Austen tour which is a walking tour of areas that were mentioned by Jane or relevant to her life. Eg. Where she used to live, where her parents got married etc...

Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) set 2 of her novels in Bath - Northanger Abbey & Persuasion and made reference to Bath in some others. I studied Emma (HSC) & Pride and Prejudice at school and liked them for her perception of human nature and her satirisation of human character - subtle but effective.

I might have read Northanger Abbey & Persuasion at some stage but i dont remember which seems a pity now as I'm now in Bath and would love to be able to put place to references in the book. Possibly a good thing i didnt pay to go on the Jane Austen walking tour. I guess it's interesting to see the inspiration and to learn about the world she lived in to see what influenced her writing..


Today was a very packed day. After visiting the Austen centre I joined a free walking tour of Bath. the history of Bath is quite fascinating. It was a small town in the 1600's with a problem of disease. The plague even went through cos the hygiene of Bath left something to be desired. The 'healing' properties of the water was becoming known and people also just visited because they heard that royals and nobles had previously visited and they wanted to jump on the sycophantic bandwagon. 100 years later the population had exploded and multiplied hundred fold.

The current streets still mark the city limits that expanded. Eg. Westgate St. was where the city's west gate used to be. Today I felt like a dummy and wished I knew more about architecture. A lot of Bath was ruins until the early 18th century when Beau Nash cleaned it up. He and a guy called John Wood are responsible for design and building of Bath. To keep the Roman feel, the architechs used Palladian design which is very concerned with symmetry. The columns and windows are precisely placed.

Wood designed the Georgian style townhouses outside the main town centre and we walked around Queens square. His son then carried on his work designing the Royal cresent which is interesting architectually as it keeps a lot of symmetry but as the name suggests, the block of townhouses is cresent shaped. Mathematically it makes dimentions of the townhouses interesting as the house might not be as wide at the front as the back. There is a hotel in Royal Cresent. 1 room + breakfast cost 700pounds/night.

The walking tour lasted 2 hrs then i rushed off cos i had booked an Abbey tour as well.

Palladian architecture - Roman influence with symmetrical placement of columns and windows.

Queen Square - designed/built in the early 1700's by John Wood

most of Royal Cresent - designed/built by John Wood jnr. in the late 1700's

Bath Abbey tour goes above ceiling to the bell tower of the Abbey. Had to leave bags at the bottom because it would be a huge climb. The first bit was around 150 stairs... and the stairwell was very narrow and steep. The climb definitely worked the legs and im used to stairs in my townhouse but not as many with such a steep gradient. One poor lady was crawling up the stairs on all fours and I was scared she was gonna have a heart attack climbing.

bell ropes

The view from the first landing was quite nice. We went into the bell chamber and saw the ropes that are pulled to ring the bells. Being a bellringer is a tough job because firstly you have to climb the stairs to get to the chamber lol... and then because you need quite a great deal of strength to pull the ropes cos the bells are quite heavy.... then try to do that in sequence and in time for an hour or so...
With the exception of our guide and a couple of younger people, we were told that most of the bellringers in the country are OLD! around 60+ yrs old... They're trying to do a recruiting drive to get younger people...

view of the Roman Baths from the middle landing of the Abbey

Mel hates looking down...

At the end of the tour I actually found going down 200+ stairs was prob worse than going up cos i dont like looking down!!

Roadtrip Day 7: Bournemouth to Bath

10th Oct, 2010

Well after a night Bournemouth in the worst hotel i've stayed in i had to get up early to move my car as i parked on the street cos the hotel carpark was full. Luckily there was a spot for me as somebody must have left early.
Oh no joke the hotel was crap... the staff were rude and i overheard the fact that they were overbooked and trying to relocate a couple of people. I got into my room and there were no pillows on the bed and the bathroom didnt look like it had been cleaned. Am gonna give it a really bad review...

But Bournemouth turned on another great day. I must be solar powered cos i'm happy when the sun is shining. Took a walk along Bournemouth beach before setting off for Bath via Salisbury. Today there were people in the water.
Drove along to Boscombe beach.They take great pride in the fact that they've artificially created a reef to create surf conditions... but the waves are puny... i'm sorry to be snobby but beaches arent anything like Australian beaches... makes me slightly homesick...

It's around a 45min drive to Salisbury from Bournemouth. There's not that much in Salisbury but a magnificent medieval church... the Salisbury Cathedral. It's a massive Catholic church... lots and lots of relics. Also home to a copy of the Magna Carta. There are only 4 copies left in existence and this one is considered to be the most legible.

The Magna Carta is a document or they call it a 'charter' that was written by King John around 1215. There was some rebellion amongst nobles due to his high taxes so King John had to write this document as a concession to keep the barons happy.

The 'importance' of the document is that some of the clauses are still found in the current constitutions of the UK and even the USA and also other Commonwealth countries.

The Cathedral itself is very cluttered with religious relics. From memorial sarcophagii to statues, paintings and brass painting and very beautiful stained glass windows. It's all very pretty but i felt sad at seeing all the idols.
Things made by your hands cant bring you closer to God...



After leaving Salisbury Cathedral I drove to Bath which is around an hr's drive. Couldnt figure out why it was so busy and the streets were so crowded but was informed that there was a big rugby match on and that Bath people are quite passionate about their rugby. Apparently Lewis Moody (who is the England rugby captain) plays for Bath... Well i guess i look like i like rugby too cos i was wearing my Wallabies jersey as well. (except that i have the jersey not cos i'm passionate about rugby but cos i had to buy something with the $200 canterbury voucher i won...)

The hotel i'm staying in is sooo nice. I was reading through some brochures and it's the one that's recommended by the Jane Austen foundation. I'm not surprised because of the interior decoration of the room. I got a free upgrade as well which is nice... yay! Big bed which i'm loving cos i miss my bed at home... well my back is missing my bed at home..

Decided to take a wander around Bath.There was time to do the touristy thing and visit the Roman Baths. Bath and Bristol lie along a crack in the earth's crust. The underground water passes close to the core before convection pushes it upwards. It's like the hot springs really. The water temp is apprently around 46 degrees.
Learnt about the history of Roman occupation and the origin of the Baths. Apparently the water is supposed to have healing powers and a lot of famous people - monarchs, nobles have come to Bath in search of healing.

Roadtrip Day 6: Back to AECC Bournemouth

9th Oct, 2010

Today i left Weymouth early to get back to AECC Bournemouth for the 7th Chiropractic, Osteopathic & Physiotherapy conference (COP). Basically it was a heap of people presenting their research papers... lol... for non chiros it might seem a very boring use of my holiday time... but hey i have to justify the tax deductibility... nah joking... Call me nerdy but i actually really enjoyed the presentations.

Well i learnt a bit about osteopathy today. One school seems to be very similar to chiropractic... they practise manual adjustive techniques, MET and other techniques they deem to be 'structural'. The other end of the osteopathy spectrum is what they call 'functional' which is probably more like the chiropractic neuroemotional technique. Actually i think the girl i was talking to mentioned soft tissue mobilisation and yoga... so yeh i dont quite understand the osteopathic 'functional' technique.

Sorry to bore the non chiros. I just like what i do...  sorry this might seem like a foreign language to you...
the papers that were interesting were on subjects like Activator trigger point therapy vs stripping massage, effect of osteopathic manipulation on median nerve conduction (carpal tunnel implications) and effect of post isometric relaxation on pressure pain threshold.

Ok i'm a nerd.

Some students presented their final year research papers. Reminded me of my final year of chiro where we had to do a research project. Mine was on the effect of backpack loading on the adolescent spine. It was a bit of a topic at the time as there was collaborative research between the chiros and physios to develop the 'chiropak' or 'physiopak'. You see those kids carrying a backpack that must weight half of them so my interest was on the loading effect on a spine that is still growing.
So my research supervisor put me onto a guy who was doing some similar study for his phd. I went to his clinic in Leichardt and got some articles to start me off with my research... anyway... today i bumped into him... how many years later... He sold up and moved to the UK and is now a lecturer at AECC...

How ironic that I would bump into the guy who helped me with my own research project at a research conference...