Spring Break: Part II - Galway, Dublin, and the Netherlands

Hello, my good people!

What an amazing spring break this has been! Jessie and I will never forget the kind and generous people, the gorgeous scenery, the inspiring history, and the awesome power of nature that we have met these past three weeks. I personally think the best of these past weeks was spent in the Highlands this past week, but I'll let Jessie tell you about that in the next post. For now, I'll start this post with the close runner-up:  Galway, Ireland and the Cliffs of Moher.

After a lovely, if quiet, Sunday in Cork, we hopped on the train up to Galway. We actually found where we were staying, but couldn't get in because our host was working. But we had the usual lack of wifi problem, so we didn't realize any of this until after a dinner in a cafe with wifi. We finally made it to a lovely little room overlooking the Galway docks, a short five-minute walk from the centre of Galway.

The majority of our trip has been fairly loose in terms of planning. As in, we really don't plan beyond where we are going and where we are staying. As such, we really didn't know what we were going to do in Galway the next day. Luckily for us, our host worked in a local hostel, and, being in the travel/hospitality business, gave us a small discount on a day-tour through Galway to the Cliffs of Moher nearby. Unluckily for us, we had to get up kind of early to catch the bus, and we were tired already from the trip so far.

Don't judge us; we were tired and bored on the bus waiting for departure

The tour guide was very friendly, and seemed to enjoy his job. He told us all about the history of thatched roofs in Irish cottage construction on the way to the first stop of the tour, Dunguaire Castle. He explained that this wasn't actually a castle, but properly called a tower house. The main difference between the two was size, really. These tower houses were all over Ireland, and we actually saw a few during our trip through the Highlands as well.

"It's not a real castle; it's too wee."

Inner courtyard.

We next were able to explore the grounds and ruins of the old twelfth-century Corcomroe Abbey. The pictures will speak for themselves.

Next came a good stop for Jessie to nerd out on Celtic history. We saw and walked around the remains of a Gael ring fort. These were the common dwellings of the Celtic/Gaelic people from the 6th-8th century. At that time, civilization wasn't made up of big settlements, but many small homesteads. These homesteads were made up of multiple generations of families, and their live stock and various other possessions, fortified within ring forts.

Just looks like a hill from the outside

You can see the walls mound up on either side, with the pathway to the center

More ancient history followed. Next was an ancient burial site, called a portal tomb. This was situated amidst acres of limestone, protected within a national park. On the way we also passed another site of a prehistoric burial, called a cairn.

The cairn - stones stacked on top of the body as opposed to burial in the ground

Portal tomb - reminiscent of Stonehenge

Irish limestone

And what trip to Ireland would be complete without some fairy tree rings, coupled with several stories of fairies and fairy trees from our obliging tour guide.

This was all leading up to one of the most spectacular sights in Ireland:  the Cliffs of Moher. Massive cliffs looking out onto the Atlantic Ocean, the pictures really don't do them any sort of justice. They were breath-taking, and not just because the high winds made breathing difficult at times. The winds were seriously the highest I've ever personally experienced outside of that tornado back in Elbert so long ago. But the majesty of the cliffs was absolutely worth the dangerous gusts.

Iconic

O'Brien's tower in the distance

Look at her hair!

I blame that face on the winds.

There were a few things we saw on the way back, but the Cliffs were the highlight. That night we went out to listen to some authentic Irish music live at some local pubs. We were lucky enough to find someone playing the Uilleann, or Irish, bagpipes. We spent the next day seeing the sights of Galway itself. We visited the National University of Ireland Galway, the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St. Nicholas (that's the full name), and a few other historic sites such as the Spanish Arch, dating from the 15th century and part of a wall from the 11th century. That night we were off back to Dublin.

Where our last trip in Dublin focused mostly on the Southern end of the city, we spent this day in Dublin in the Northern part of the town. We saw several monuments, including a giant, unexplained spike protruding far into the sky. The highlight of this trip to Dublin, however, was the Dublin Writers Museum, where we learned about the history of Irish writers throughout history and up to the present. We both were able to nerd out about this place, English lovers that we are. We finished the day attending Holy Thursday Mass at the St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral.

Where does it end? Nobody knows...

Chillin' with Joyce

Marvelous Cathedral

The next day we flew into Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. We had booked accommodations in nearby Haarlem, which used to be known as "little Amsterdam." We met up with Jessie's old high-school friend, Dani, and Dani's new college friend Lydia. We didn't see much of them the night we came in, but the next morning Dani led us into a fantastic little local marketplace to buy food for our breakfast and lunch. The plan for the day was to take our rations to the famous tulip gardens, and eat lunch there among vast fields of flowers. And it was indeed a beautiful day, although our camera unfortunately died on us halfway through. We'll get more pictures from Dani later to fill-out our collection.

I wouldn't argue with that - partly because I only understand part of it

The tickets were printed out on comically large paper

My beautiful wife and I

We spent the night eating dinner and playing a rousing game of Hearts, and then bid farewell to Danie and Lydia who had to return to their studies in France.

The next morning was Easter morning, and we attended Mass at a massive Cathedral which we had found the night before after extensive google searching and translating. Unfortunately, google couldn't translate the Mass for us, which was entirely in Dutch. I did decide that Easter Mass was a good time to wear my formal highland attire, so I spent the rest of the day walking around Haarlem in my kilt. Jessie and I played a scavenger hunt game with a map of Haarlem which pointed out several POIs around the city. We got back to the apartment with aching feet, but satisfied with our explorations.

Cathedral of St. Bavo

Statue of the Dutch inventor of the printing press

The square which had housed the wonderful market the day before

Holland and windmills

The next day we had planned to wake up early, in order to go to Amsterdam to see the Anne Frank house, which Jessie really wanted to see. We wanted to get there 30-45 minutes before they opened in order to beat the lines, and then see a little more of Amsterdam before our flight back to Glasgow. Unfortunately, we arrived later than expected. We made it to the Anne Frank house precisely at 9 am, when their doors opened. Oh, how to describe our misfortune? I will post a video to illustrate our woe on facebook soon. Suffice it to say now that we waited in line for literally over three hours. THREE. HOURS. But the Anne Frank house was an amazing experience, and I'm glad we did get to see it. I would definitely recommend it, but I would also recommend booking your tickets online a few months in advance if ever you do decide to go. 

It got chilly. Especially after THREE. HOURS.

Oh Front Door, I thought I'd never see you

    

We did get to pass by the house of Renee Descartes

Outside the Anne Frank Huis

I'm really glad we decided to stay in "little Amsterdam" rather than the real Amsterdam. I think Amsterdam is alot like Las Vegas in that you can see the greatness of the city and really enjoy it, or get stuck in the mire of filth and leave feeling dirty. My impression of Amsterdam, while a short one, was overall not great. The heavy smell of marijuana was everywhere, with drugs and certain other sins peddled in shops all along the street. Even a few of the buildings were bizarrely leaning back and forth and side to side as though they would topple into the street. It wasn't a place I'd feel very safe in at night. Don't get me wrong; Amsterdam is a beautiful city with a lot of history, a lot of sights, and a lot to offer if you know where to look. But I'm very glad we stayed in Haarlem for our visit to the Netherlands.

Psychedelic... cow?... shop?

Jessie will be back with you in the next day or so to share with you our many misadventures through the Scottish Highlands, including three more of the seven cities (Inverness, Perth, Stirling), Loch Ness, and a few of the Hebrides islands (Iona, Mull, and Skye). In the meantime, I hope this long post hasn't put you to sleep! Thanks for reading, and God bless,

~Jacob and Jessie Wilkerson