Reading the Irish Times this morning, I saw an article which tells us that Ryanair are planning to charge for the use of the toilet. They haven't decided on whether to charge on the way in (wouldn't like to be caught short) or on the way out (aargh, I've forgotten my wallet!). Neither appeals to me.
You'd have to wonder about the attraction of this particular "low-fare" airlines between being charged for the loo and your next-seat passenger using his mobile phone....
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Thursday, July 31, 2008
The skellig visit, finally
I highly recommend pre-booking either through your B&B if you're staying in Portmagee or there are contact details available. Around 6/7 boats go out from Portmagee, weather permitting from April to October I think. Only 12 are allowed on each boat, so numbers can be tight - some people who turned up at the quay on the morning were turned away so be prepared! It's €45 per head, but for the couple of hours or so it's really not that dear - 1 hour out, 3 hours on the rock and an hour back. Also, the nice people at the Moorings provided us with a packed lunch (sandwich, yogurt, fruit and juice) which was good - whatever preparation you make bring some food, there's no shop on the rock, and you'll be out there till after lunchtime - and the steps and sea air will do wonders for a landlubber's appetite.
This is the little skellig, just next to Skellig Michael. Lots of Gannets. Smelly Gannets. Beautiful, graceful gannets, that can skim the surface of the waves for upwards of 100m without taking a beat. Still though, it is a crowded rock. Apparently somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 birds call this place home, and they form nice neat lines along the ledges!
Jump-off point onto Skellig Michael, not the best picture.
This is one of the beehive huts. Up to 12/14 monks might have lived here at any one time, between 800AD and 1400AD. A transient population, changing from time to time as monks came for a stint then left, they got some supplies from the mainland, but were quite self sufficient as far as vegetables and drinking water were concerned (they had 2 cisterns on the rock!). There are a number of these corbelled huts, built of dry stone hewn off the Skellig itself. 2 larger ones served as a church and a community living hut, with the other smaller ones used as dormitories. I know it was a nice calm day when we were there, but they've built it in the lee of the rock, so it's very well sheltered from the prevailing southwesterlies.
This picture gives you an idea of the scale of the settlement, you can see the 6 beehive huts in the left and the background, with the big one on the left being the town hall. There's a more rectangular building on the right of the picture, which was built later as a church.
It's important to point out that I haven't posted any pictures of puffins or steps yet. The puffins are funny looking birds, much smaller than I expected, though larger than a garden bird, but with beautiful coloured bills. They also make a funny coughing noise, so I suspect they're smokers. There are approximately 660 unevenly spaced and unevenly surfaced steps leading from the Atlantic Ocean to the hermitage, which are not easy to conquer.
Finished typing now for the night, maybe more soon!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Reinstalling Windows
It might come to that. PC isn't working great, it keeps dropping the internet connection and not running important programs like Dawn of War. So I'll also need to go buy a backup hard drive - which I've been meaning to do for a long time now anyway. I hope I don't kill it....
Just back from a lovely weeked in Portmagee, Kerry. More on that later when I've downloaded pictures. Suffice to say, Skellig Michael is a must-see.
Just back from a lovely weeked in Portmagee, Kerry. More on that later when I've downloaded pictures. Suffice to say, Skellig Michael is a must-see.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
The Post you have all been waiting for!
This is a brief history of the Roman Visit. (Photographs and hyperlinks are being added as we go, folks, please be patient!)
We flew in on the 17th March, from Shannon, with Ryanair. Shannon has its advantages, being small and compact, but also it's far away. But if there's serious money to be saved, then it makes sense. Parking costs the same as at Dublin, though! So, arriving at 12 midnight, we agreed with taxi driver that €50 was a fair price to the hotel from Ciampino. (There are fixed fares [check, but I think it's 30 to Ciampino and 40 for da Vinci/Fiumicino] to the airports from within the city walls, which we only realised on the way back!)
The hotel was fine, as most hotels are, clean and reasonably comfortable. Lacking in tea and coffee making facilities though. Also, being close to the Termini made it quite convenient for buses and metro - though we only realised this on the last couple of days as our feet chafed and even the blisters complained!
I've kinda lost track of when exactly we saw what we saw and did, but I'll try and list and describe as much as I can. Rome is full of things to see and do, and certainly you can't see everything in one visit - perhaps you can't even see enough in one visit to prevent a return! In brief, at almost every street junction there is a church or fountain of some repute, and the big attractions like the Vatican and Forum could possibly keep you busy for a day if not longer. Thankfully, we'd visited just before Easter (when Rome's hordes of tourists really start coming) so queuing wasn't so bad and we could see plenty. The Dorling Kindersley and Rough Guide were our weapons of choice for guide books.
In no particular order, (stream of consciousness!) we visited:
The Colosseum. Big, impressive, perhaps under-explained.M and I had seen a big, impressive amphitheatre at El Jem in Tunisia a few years back (boast, boast, boast) which was better preserved than the Colosseum. We also had a guide there which really helped to prompt the imagination. Guides, naturally, were available at the Colosseum, and perhaps it might be worth your while arranging a tour to help with imagining the spectacles that must have taken place here. Visit, and visit early to avoid the crowds (though you could say that about everything). While we were there, there was an eye-opening exhibition (literally) of ancient art relating to Eros (the god of love...). Shall we say, the Romans didn't leave much to the imagination...!
The Forum. Big, rambling collection of ruins at this stage. What really impresses about this place is that it was the centre of the world for so long, so long ago. Decisions and speeches made here might have resonated in countries far away, in Britain or France or Spain. Could you call it the first UN HQ? Again, a good amount of interpretation either from a good guide or a good guidebook is required to make sense of these ruins. We also saw the Palatine Hill, which is above the Forum (costs a couple quid or else a combined Collosseum ticket will get you in!) and is better preserved. From here there are some spectacular views of the city, and there's a lovely garden for to have a picnic in. And orange trees.
The Pantheon. Despite grumblings of disagreement from my travelling companions, I maintain this is the highlight of my trip to Rome. Perhaps its the Engineer in me, I'm not sure, but it's the first time in a long time that I've really been impressed by something. The Dome has a span of 43m, and the same height. But, there's a 9m diameter oculus (a circular opening) in the centre of the dome - i.e. it's missing it's "keystone", and all of the structure holding up this immense dome is hidden in the dome itself. Not to mention it's about 2000 years old, and made from cast in-situ concrete.... It's fantastic, impressive, huge,and at €0, is a real must-see. More information here, or here, or here.
The Spanish Steps. Some steps. In a nice piazza. With a tea-room that charged €10 for a cup of tea. Which we didn't patronise. Did I mention that these steps are really famous?
The Trevi fountain. One of all of the fountains throughout Rome. It's very nice. But how long can you look at a fountain for? Especially with the street-hawkers trying to sell you buzzing magnetite (or something), bubbles, and dodgy sunglasses. Some of these fountains marked the end of the great aqueducts that brought water to the city, but no doubt the water's pumped through them these days, in the modern fashion. This was always very busy, but then it's on one of the main tourist thoroughfares, so that's understandable. It's just up from the Pantheon. Did I mention how impressive the Pantheon is?
The Pasta Museum. We didn't visit it, it costs €9. What!? It's Pasta!
The Circus Maximus. What a field. This is one of the least well-preserved monuments I've ever seen. In Ireland we'd have already built on it (some local authority offices or somesuch), but this is/was the Circus Maximus. There's nothing left except for some earthworks. Oh well, it's good for a 100 yard dash anyway. And because it's now a field, it doesn't cost anything to see. But unless it's on your way somewhere, don't bother.
Coffee. Coffee prices vary in Rome. Wildly. From €7 sitting outside near the Forum to €0.60 further out. Madness.
The Aurelian walls are very nice, if you like walls. I wouldn't go to see the pyramid of Caius though, because if you do, it will rain - and it will rain all day....
The Vatican (also here). We went to see the Basilica of St Peter, which is awesome. (Like the Pantheon - did I mention it's really impressive?) We first joined the queue for the dome - 550 steps of upness. But it's very cool, because you actually go up the stairs which are within the cupola of St Peter's. And the view, if it wasn't for the rain and clouds (see, we'd been to see that pyramid) is fantastic. Because the stairs are within the double-skinned dome, as you get higher and higher, you have to lean to the right as you go up! About halfway up, you find yourself on a balcony within the basilica, just at the base of the cupola. You get a feeling of being very high up, but we hadn't seen the basilica yet - and that view didn't give us any idea of the scale of this place.
You climb down 550 more steps, and arrive shaky-leggedly glad to be back on the ground, within the basilica. The Basilica of St Peter is huge. It's gigantic. It's all the big words for bigness combined, it's that big. And as big as it is, the opulence of the decoration would ruin any other church in the world. Gold and marble and bronze everywhere, statues, mosaics and paintings at every turn of the eye. And the dome's nearly as big as the Pantheon's, without an oculus. Michelangelo's Pieta is here, and it's easy to understand why it's so well appreciated, it's very well sculpted.
The Audience with the Pope happens every Wednesday morning and we'd arranged tickets to be there. If you're lucky enough to get to it, I recommend that you don't bother going up to the front or to the middle. Stick near one of the aisles marked out by the timber crowd fencing, and you'll be close enough to Il Papa as he flies past in the Popemobile. Bring a good sized chunk of patience too, as the Pope greets all the visitors in a myriad of languages and groups (schools, choirs, visiting priests etc.) get a mention from the Cardinal in charge, and feel the need to give a whoop back to the Pope!
The Vatican Museum / Sistine Chapel. Like the Pantheon (it's really impressive), this is another "must see." Queuing around 2 corners for upwards of half an hour was definitely worth it, and it costs €13 in. The Vatican has an expansive and eclectic collection of paintings and artifacts from all around the world, but the highlights of the museum for me were the map room (where all the various regions of Italy are depicted), the Raphael Rooms (boy, that lad could paint) and the, Sistine Chapel (Michelangelo could paint even better than Raphael). You go through the Raphael Rooms on the way to the Sistine Chapel, and you just know you're being built up gently to see the fantastic painting in the Chapel. Of course, you'd go to see the Raphaels on their own, but here they merely play a supporting role to the main attraction, and it really is an attraction.
The colours of the Sistine Chapel have been recently restored (enhanced?) and have such vibrancy and strength that you find it hard to believe they weren't painted last week. The clever use of light and shadow gives the ceiling a 3-dimensional appearance despite its flatness, and the figures are painted with such life and vigour, it really impresses. Apart from the hordes of visitors pressing through, you could stand and look at the ceiling all day, with your eyes pointed upwards and your jaw on the floor. All four of us left the chapel with cramped necks!
What else was there? Pizza, and pasta of course, 2 of the 3 fundamental food groups. Oh, and gelati too, the third.(The food pyramid you see, it's a triangle with 3 sides - pizza, pasta and gelati. Given that Pizza and Pasta both start with P, it's actually an iscosceles (or ilikessausages) triangle).
Castell Sant'Angelo - very brooding castle, especially when it's hailing on you (Hail, Caesar!) and the thunder echoes around the castle. The Pope has a secret passage here. Don't tell anybody. The guidebooks mentioned impressive collections of arms, but I was disappointed. There were a few swords alright, but no arms. Besides, the armoury in the Doge's palace in Venice is much betterer.
Other churches (only 2 included for brevity) visited included San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter in Chains) which has what are allegedly the chains that held St Peter when he was in prison. It also has a sculpture which was started by Michelangelo, but not finished, because he was busy - but this gives you a good comparison of the ability of Michelangelo compared to other sculptors as someone else did the top statues, whilst he had already finished the others. The original Vatican if you like, or San Giovanni in Laterano, was the centre of the Catholic Church until the Lateran Treaty in 1929 when the Vatican City was ceded. It is huge, and opulent too, and fantastically decorated throughout. Those heads we saw above the altar used to be attached to Ss Peter and Paul. (Rome is such a charming city, there are bits and pieces of people everywhere)
Is there anything not to bother doing in Rome? I'm not sure I can comment. Rome is a city that you could spend weeks in, and you can feel a little like you're rushing through an attraction so you get to the next one, and also, you can be a little overpowered by it all. By which I mean, and the Raphael Rooms in the Vatican Museum are the prime example of this, there is so much to see that the beauty and impressiveness of everything tends to be diluted by the sheer volume of it all.
It's not an overly expensive city. Being careful where you eat and drink is the main problem, but you can do this fairly easily by going off the beaten track. If you're going for a weekend, be decisive before you go about what you want to see and do, and I recommend you stick to that, trying not to be distracted.
We threw some money into the Trevi and legend has it that if you toss a coin into the fountain, you guarantee your return to Rome. I'm not so sure I'll return because of that, but I think I would like to go again sometime. I hope the links help...wikipedia can be a fantastic gateway to learning more.
We flew in on the 17th March, from Shannon, with Ryanair. Shannon has its advantages, being small and compact, but also it's far away. But if there's serious money to be saved, then it makes sense. Parking costs the same as at Dublin, though! So, arriving at 12 midnight, we agreed with taxi driver that €50 was a fair price to the hotel from Ciampino. (There are fixed fares [check, but I think it's 30 to Ciampino and 40 for da Vinci/Fiumicino] to the airports from within the city walls, which we only realised on the way back!)
The hotel was fine, as most hotels are, clean and reasonably comfortable. Lacking in tea and coffee making facilities though. Also, being close to the Termini made it quite convenient for buses and metro - though we only realised this on the last couple of days as our feet chafed and even the blisters complained!
I've kinda lost track of when exactly we saw what we saw and did, but I'll try and list and describe as much as I can. Rome is full of things to see and do, and certainly you can't see everything in one visit - perhaps you can't even see enough in one visit to prevent a return! In brief, at almost every street junction there is a church or fountain of some repute, and the big attractions like the Vatican and Forum could possibly keep you busy for a day if not longer. Thankfully, we'd visited just before Easter (when Rome's hordes of tourists really start coming) so queuing wasn't so bad and we could see plenty. The Dorling Kindersley and Rough Guide were our weapons of choice for guide books.
In no particular order, (stream of consciousness!) we visited:
The Colosseum. Big, impressive, perhaps under-explained.M and I had seen a big, impressive amphitheatre at El Jem in Tunisia a few years back (boast, boast, boast) which was better preserved than the Colosseum. We also had a guide there which really helped to prompt the imagination. Guides, naturally, were available at the Colosseum, and perhaps it might be worth your while arranging a tour to help with imagining the spectacles that must have taken place here. Visit, and visit early to avoid the crowds (though you could say that about everything). While we were there, there was an eye-opening exhibition (literally) of ancient art relating to Eros (the god of love...). Shall we say, the Romans didn't leave much to the imagination...!
The Forum. Big, rambling collection of ruins at this stage. What really impresses about this place is that it was the centre of the world for so long, so long ago. Decisions and speeches made here might have resonated in countries far away, in Britain or France or Spain. Could you call it the first UN HQ? Again, a good amount of interpretation either from a good guide or a good guidebook is required to make sense of these ruins. We also saw the Palatine Hill, which is above the Forum (costs a couple quid or else a combined Collosseum ticket will get you in!) and is better preserved. From here there are some spectacular views of the city, and there's a lovely garden for to have a picnic in. And orange trees.
The Pantheon. Despite grumblings of disagreement from my travelling companions, I maintain this is the highlight of my trip to Rome. Perhaps its the Engineer in me, I'm not sure, but it's the first time in a long time that I've really been impressed by something. The Dome has a span of 43m, and the same height. But, there's a 9m diameter oculus (a circular opening) in the centre of the dome - i.e. it's missing it's "keystone", and all of the structure holding up this immense dome is hidden in the dome itself. Not to mention it's about 2000 years old, and made from cast in-situ concrete.... It's fantastic, impressive, huge,and at €0, is a real must-see. More information here, or here, or here.
The Spanish Steps. Some steps. In a nice piazza. With a tea-room that charged €10 for a cup of tea. Which we didn't patronise. Did I mention that these steps are really famous?
The Trevi fountain. One of all of the fountains throughout Rome. It's very nice. But how long can you look at a fountain for? Especially with the street-hawkers trying to sell you buzzing magnetite (or something), bubbles, and dodgy sunglasses. Some of these fountains marked the end of the great aqueducts that brought water to the city, but no doubt the water's pumped through them these days, in the modern fashion. This was always very busy, but then it's on one of the main tourist thoroughfares, so that's understandable. It's just up from the Pantheon. Did I mention how impressive the Pantheon is?
The Pasta Museum. We didn't visit it, it costs €9. What!? It's Pasta!
The Circus Maximus. What a field. This is one of the least well-preserved monuments I've ever seen. In Ireland we'd have already built on it (some local authority offices or somesuch), but this is/was the Circus Maximus. There's nothing left except for some earthworks. Oh well, it's good for a 100 yard dash anyway. And because it's now a field, it doesn't cost anything to see. But unless it's on your way somewhere, don't bother.
Coffee. Coffee prices vary in Rome. Wildly. From €7 sitting outside near the Forum to €0.60 further out. Madness.
The Aurelian walls are very nice, if you like walls. I wouldn't go to see the pyramid of Caius though, because if you do, it will rain - and it will rain all day....
The Vatican (also here). We went to see the Basilica of St Peter, which is awesome. (Like the Pantheon - did I mention it's really impressive?) We first joined the queue for the dome - 550 steps of upness. But it's very cool, because you actually go up the stairs which are within the cupola of St Peter's. And the view, if it wasn't for the rain and clouds (see, we'd been to see that pyramid) is fantastic. Because the stairs are within the double-skinned dome, as you get higher and higher, you have to lean to the right as you go up! About halfway up, you find yourself on a balcony within the basilica, just at the base of the cupola. You get a feeling of being very high up, but we hadn't seen the basilica yet - and that view didn't give us any idea of the scale of this place.
You climb down 550 more steps, and arrive shaky-leggedly glad to be back on the ground, within the basilica. The Basilica of St Peter is huge. It's gigantic. It's all the big words for bigness combined, it's that big. And as big as it is, the opulence of the decoration would ruin any other church in the world. Gold and marble and bronze everywhere, statues, mosaics and paintings at every turn of the eye. And the dome's nearly as big as the Pantheon's, without an oculus. Michelangelo's Pieta is here, and it's easy to understand why it's so well appreciated, it's very well sculpted.
The Audience with the Pope happens every Wednesday morning and we'd arranged tickets to be there. If you're lucky enough to get to it, I recommend that you don't bother going up to the front or to the middle. Stick near one of the aisles marked out by the timber crowd fencing, and you'll be close enough to Il Papa as he flies past in the Popemobile. Bring a good sized chunk of patience too, as the Pope greets all the visitors in a myriad of languages and groups (schools, choirs, visiting priests etc.) get a mention from the Cardinal in charge, and feel the need to give a whoop back to the Pope!
The Vatican Museum / Sistine Chapel. Like the Pantheon (it's really impressive), this is another "must see." Queuing around 2 corners for upwards of half an hour was definitely worth it, and it costs €13 in. The Vatican has an expansive and eclectic collection of paintings and artifacts from all around the world, but the highlights of the museum for me were the map room (where all the various regions of Italy are depicted), the Raphael Rooms (boy, that lad could paint) and the, Sistine Chapel (Michelangelo could paint even better than Raphael). You go through the Raphael Rooms on the way to the Sistine Chapel, and you just know you're being built up gently to see the fantastic painting in the Chapel. Of course, you'd go to see the Raphaels on their own, but here they merely play a supporting role to the main attraction, and it really is an attraction.
The colours of the Sistine Chapel have been recently restored (enhanced?) and have such vibrancy and strength that you find it hard to believe they weren't painted last week. The clever use of light and shadow gives the ceiling a 3-dimensional appearance despite its flatness, and the figures are painted with such life and vigour, it really impresses. Apart from the hordes of visitors pressing through, you could stand and look at the ceiling all day, with your eyes pointed upwards and your jaw on the floor. All four of us left the chapel with cramped necks!
What else was there? Pizza, and pasta of course, 2 of the 3 fundamental food groups. Oh, and gelati too, the third.(The food pyramid you see, it's a triangle with 3 sides - pizza, pasta and gelati. Given that Pizza and Pasta both start with P, it's actually an iscosceles (or ilikessausages) triangle).
Castell Sant'Angelo - very brooding castle, especially when it's hailing on you (Hail, Caesar!) and the thunder echoes around the castle. The Pope has a secret passage here. Don't tell anybody. The guidebooks mentioned impressive collections of arms, but I was disappointed. There were a few swords alright, but no arms. Besides, the armoury in the Doge's palace in Venice is much betterer.
Other churches (only 2 included for brevity) visited included San Pietro in Vincoli (St. Peter in Chains) which has what are allegedly the chains that held St Peter when he was in prison. It also has a sculpture which was started by Michelangelo, but not finished, because he was busy - but this gives you a good comparison of the ability of Michelangelo compared to other sculptors as someone else did the top statues, whilst he had already finished the others. The original Vatican if you like, or San Giovanni in Laterano, was the centre of the Catholic Church until the Lateran Treaty in 1929 when the Vatican City was ceded. It is huge, and opulent too, and fantastically decorated throughout. Those heads we saw above the altar used to be attached to Ss Peter and Paul. (Rome is such a charming city, there are bits and pieces of people everywhere)
Is there anything not to bother doing in Rome? I'm not sure I can comment. Rome is a city that you could spend weeks in, and you can feel a little like you're rushing through an attraction so you get to the next one, and also, you can be a little overpowered by it all. By which I mean, and the Raphael Rooms in the Vatican Museum are the prime example of this, there is so much to see that the beauty and impressiveness of everything tends to be diluted by the sheer volume of it all.
It's not an overly expensive city. Being careful where you eat and drink is the main problem, but you can do this fairly easily by going off the beaten track. If you're going for a weekend, be decisive before you go about what you want to see and do, and I recommend you stick to that, trying not to be distracted.
We threw some money into the Trevi and legend has it that if you toss a coin into the fountain, you guarantee your return to Rome. I'm not so sure I'll return because of that, but I think I would like to go again sometime. I hope the links help...wikipedia can be a fantastic gateway to learning more.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Monday, March 12, 2007
Visit to Latvia, instalment 1.
Last week I went to visit my friend in Latvia again. Took the Aer Lingus bus to Riga, at 0630 (and Dublin Airport was milling with people!) and arrived about 11, just in time for a rest. I spent Thursday afternoon wandering about Riga, stopping for lunch and coffee here and there. Bought myself a book to read whilst sitting - the War of the Worlds. As the church with a view was closed last year (beware of Monday in Riga), I visited it this year. As you can see below, it was a little, well atmospheric!
Also, it's worth noting that this church was almost totally destroyed (inasmuch as I could make out from the display inside - my latvian isn't great...!) during the World Wars, and has been recosntructed a little untidily since. Hence these fantastic cantilevered stairs....
Quite elegant I'm sure you'll agree. Anyway, it cost 1 lat (€1.30) to go to the top of the church spire, in a rickety old lift operated by an attendant. The lift made a journey up and down every 10 minutes. 5 would have been enough, it was quite cold and exposed up there.
After quite a long day, I retired early. Not before seeing some nice Art Nouveau buildings again though.
Friday morning we went to collect our steed for the weekend, which turned out to be a Ford Focus. With, importantly, heated seats. We found 2 or 3 to be the most comfortable setting, on the whole.
We took off to Jurmala for the afternoon. Jurmala is a seaside resort to the East of Riga, and while it was a little gray and bleak thanks to the time of year, there's a nice expanse of beach there and I'm sure it's lovely in the summer. That said, we were walking on the frozen Baltic Sea, which was cool.
More tomorrow!
Also, it's worth noting that this church was almost totally destroyed (inasmuch as I could make out from the display inside - my latvian isn't great...!) during the World Wars, and has been recosntructed a little untidily since. Hence these fantastic cantilevered stairs....Quite elegant I'm sure you'll agree. Anyway, it cost 1 lat (€1.30) to go to the top of the church spire, in a rickety old lift operated by an attendant. The lift made a journey up and down every 10 minutes. 5 would have been enough, it was quite cold and exposed up there.
After quite a long day, I retired early. Not before seeing some nice Art Nouveau buildings again though.
Friday morning we went to collect our steed for the weekend, which turned out to be a Ford Focus. With, importantly, heated seats. We found 2 or 3 to be the most comfortable setting, on the whole.
We took off to Jurmala for the afternoon. Jurmala is a seaside resort to the East of Riga, and while it was a little gray and bleak thanks to the time of year, there's a nice expanse of beach there and I'm sure it's lovely in the summer. That said, we were walking on the frozen Baltic Sea, which was cool.More tomorrow!
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Sunday in New York
Sorry, if you thought I'd forgotten about my trip to New York...There follows a report on the Sunday there. Am I boring you by posting this way?
Slept in late. It was Sunday after all, and we'd been busy up till then. So it was almost lunchtime by the time we got into town, and we went for lunch in one of those useful places that has counters all over the shop selling all sorts of grub, sangwidges on one side, pasta and pizza on another, salads somewhere else etc.
As the weather was reasonable, we wandered around Central Park, and we hired a rowing boat on the lake. That was nice, and I highly recommend it, as it only cost $12 for an hour, with a $20 deposit. Which you get back if you don't sink the boat. Of course, the muck stirred up by your oars will convince you not to sink the boat.
We wandered some more, and watched roller discos and concerts and baseball and football and all sorts of things that go on in Central Park. If you're buying a pretzel, try one with something on it, as the plain one we bought was a little, well, plain.
Coffee was had in Zabars, as was an intense jealousy of the shops in NYC. Zabars is a deli, but no it's more than a deli. There's a huge array of coffee, chocolate, meat, dried meat and almost anything foody that you could think of all in this huge and pokey shop. Upstairs are any number of kitchen implements, from knives to pots, from pasta makers to bowls. Fantastic shop altogether.
Dinner was had in the Hard Rock Café, where we had a reasonable meal under the watchful eye of clothing, drumsticks and other memorabilia of the stars. Worth a visit, but once is enough. The memorabilia are what make it, to be honest. But then, how do you know if that really was Billy Joel's beautiful Moto Guzzi, or Madonna's knickers from some tour or other? Maybe I'll start a rock memorabilia collection here at home? Hmmmm.... ("that's Elvis' guitar there, those jeans belonged to, eh, Bono, and that sock? That sock belonged to the great Ronan Keating!)
Apologies for the lack of photographs - my camera battery had become well, moderately discharged.
Slept in late. It was Sunday after all, and we'd been busy up till then. So it was almost lunchtime by the time we got into town, and we went for lunch in one of those useful places that has counters all over the shop selling all sorts of grub, sangwidges on one side, pasta and pizza on another, salads somewhere else etc.
As the weather was reasonable, we wandered around Central Park, and we hired a rowing boat on the lake. That was nice, and I highly recommend it, as it only cost $12 for an hour, with a $20 deposit. Which you get back if you don't sink the boat. Of course, the muck stirred up by your oars will convince you not to sink the boat.
We wandered some more, and watched roller discos and concerts and baseball and football and all sorts of things that go on in Central Park. If you're buying a pretzel, try one with something on it, as the plain one we bought was a little, well, plain.
Coffee was had in Zabars, as was an intense jealousy of the shops in NYC. Zabars is a deli, but no it's more than a deli. There's a huge array of coffee, chocolate, meat, dried meat and almost anything foody that you could think of all in this huge and pokey shop. Upstairs are any number of kitchen implements, from knives to pots, from pasta makers to bowls. Fantastic shop altogether.
Dinner was had in the Hard Rock Café, where we had a reasonable meal under the watchful eye of clothing, drumsticks and other memorabilia of the stars. Worth a visit, but once is enough. The memorabilia are what make it, to be honest. But then, how do you know if that really was Billy Joel's beautiful Moto Guzzi, or Madonna's knickers from some tour or other? Maybe I'll start a rock memorabilia collection here at home? Hmmmm.... ("that's Elvis' guitar there, those jeans belonged to, eh, Bono, and that sock? That sock belonged to the great Ronan Keating!)
Apologies for the lack of photographs - my camera battery had become well, moderately discharged.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Friday 22 in New Yorkl
The first item we mentioned in the journal for Friday is the Toys R Us shop at Times Square. Very impressive - this is the only shop I've ever been in that had a ferris wheel, a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Lego pick n mix station. Cool.
After that we walked across town to the USS Intrepid Air Sea and Space Museum. That's a fair long walk to be honest, but I thought it was worth it. The Intrepid is a WWII aircraft carrier. So it's big. The hangars have been converted into a museum on such things as the Purple Heart medal, NASA endeavours, and a couple of missiles. It's impressive seeing the size of the lifts used to transport ordnance and aircraft up to the flight deck, but you can't see the arrestor cables or the steam catapults or the engine room. On the deck is a slightly rusty collection of aircraft from an F16 Falcon to a Blackbird (not an SR71, an A12 - a slightly earlier model), with F14D and some foreign fighters aswell. There're some whirlybirds too!
Just on the far side of the dock to the Intrepid is a Concorde sitting sadly on a barge. What a beautiful airplane. A very graceful line on what is a surprisingly small plane! You can walk through the cabin, and view the cockpit but you can't sit on the seats as they're walled in with perspex. Shame. And there's also a missile submarine, the USS Growler, which is a bit of fun to scramble through. It's quite warm in there though.
In fairness, the Intrepid was away for refit in October, so we can't really complain about getting to see it while we were there!
After that we headed to the Natural History Museum. The original moans of "do we have to go in" from a certain travelling companion changed to a "do we have to leave" when the museum closed at 6! This is a fascinating and well laid out museum, charting the evolution of animals, explaining certain body structures and so on.
There's a slice from a redwood tree that's 1341 years across. Most importantly, they have DINOSAURS!!!! They have really gone all out with it, and we could have spent a whole day in here. This was a real highlight, and I can't recommend it highly enough for a visit.
After a quick stroll in Central Park (it was getting darkish) we went for dinner in TGI Fridays which wasn't at all bad - if it's good enough for the NYPD it must be good enough for tourists!
Just on the far side of the dock to the Intrepid is a Concorde sitting sadly on a barge. What a beautiful airplane. A very graceful line on what is a surprisingly small plane! You can walk through the cabin, and view the cockpit but you can't sit on the seats as they're walled in with perspex. Shame. And there's also a missile submarine, the USS Growler, which is a bit of fun to scramble through. It's quite warm in there though.
In fairness, the Intrepid was away for refit in October, so we can't really complain about getting to see it while we were there!
After that we headed to the Natural History Museum. The original moans of "do we have to go in" from a certain travelling companion changed to a "do we have to leave" when the museum closed at 6! This is a fascinating and well laid out museum, charting the evolution of animals, explaining certain body structures and so on.
There's a slice from a redwood tree that's 1341 years across. Most importantly, they have DINOSAURS!!!! They have really gone all out with it, and we could have spent a whole day in here. This was a real highlight, and I can't recommend it highly enough for a visit.
After a quick stroll in Central Park (it was getting darkish) we went for dinner in TGI Fridays which wasn't at all bad - if it's good enough for the NYPD it must be good enough for tourists!
Monday, October 16, 2006
A New York Post
I thought that was a clever-ish title? Anyway, the first couple of days went someting like this -
Thurs 21 (sounds like months ago!)
We took the subway into town, and the 7-train terminates in Times Square. Whilst I was impressed at the buildings, and the artificial light beaming down on top of us from the advertising, I managed to keep my jaw, and the back of my head off the ground. So we went to find our first NYC breakfast, and found it in the form of some french toast (mmmm - french toast was to feature heavily throughout this trip) and an egg roll.
Views, naturally, are fantastic - but it's kinda hard to keep interested! It ends up looking so similar from each compass point, but that's not to diminish the impact. It genuinely is a cool view, and such an iconic building too.
So we queued to get back down, and wandered around the ground (first) floor a little, amazed at the number of tenants in a single building, and fell back out onto 5th Avenue. Lunched in one of those fantastic lunch shops that abound in NYC, where you can get sushi from one counter, a sandwich from another, and anything in between! We don't like Cherry Coke.
Our next stop was Saks, on 5th. Brown Thomas has nothing on this place. This is the Department Store to have a bag from, but we wouldn't afford anything in there - a single shirt was $450 and they had a domino set for $175. We didn't stay long in there, needless to say. Wandered on Downtown along Broadway, whereupon we found ourselves at Ground Zero (via Chinatown and a café).
Turning the corner 2 blocks away, it's immediately apparent that there's a huge gap in the city. You can see too far. It's too bright. Now, I think I finally have some tiny inkling of the loss and damage that New York suffered in 2001.
We wandered on, through Battery Park (near the Hudson) watched lucky people going out to learn to sail, and saw the sunset behind the buildings across the river in New Jersey, I think. Headed back to Broadway, and got something to eat in a nice restaurant. Made our way back to the subway, and our feet thanked us for finally giving them a break!
To be continued....
So there we were, walking down the street, when all of a sudden I spied a large gorilla atop a building, swatting away some pesky airplanes. Wonder of wonders, if it wasn't the Empire State Building! The sign said only 15 - 20 minute queues, so we subjected ourselves to the search, repetitive sales pitch for the audio tour (ignore it, just enjoy the view) and queuing. What a lift. 82 stories in about the same time that you'd get up 6 or 7 in the multi-storey.
Views, naturally, are fantastic - but it's kinda hard to keep interested! It ends up looking so similar from each compass point, but that's not to diminish the impact. It genuinely is a cool view, and such an iconic building too.
So we queued to get back down, and wandered around the ground (first) floor a little, amazed at the number of tenants in a single building, and fell back out onto 5th Avenue. Lunched in one of those fantastic lunch shops that abound in NYC, where you can get sushi from one counter, a sandwich from another, and anything in between! We don't like Cherry Coke.
Our next stop was Saks, on 5th. Brown Thomas has nothing on this place. This is the Department Store to have a bag from, but we wouldn't afford anything in there - a single shirt was $450 and they had a domino set for $175. We didn't stay long in there, needless to say. Wandered on Downtown along Broadway, whereupon we found ourselves at Ground Zero (via Chinatown and a café).
Turning the corner 2 blocks away, it's immediately apparent that there's a huge gap in the city. You can see too far. It's too bright. Now, I think I finally have some tiny inkling of the loss and damage that New York suffered in 2001.
We wandered on, through Battery Park (near the Hudson) watched lucky people going out to learn to sail, and saw the sunset behind the buildings across the river in New Jersey, I think. Headed back to Broadway, and got something to eat in a nice restaurant. Made our way back to the subway, and our feet thanked us for finally giving them a break!
To be continued....
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Hello
We're back from New York! Pictures and report to follow, if I can find the time and the inclination (those often don't occur together). We had a great time - but it's a tiring town. More on that later.
I apologise for any confusion with the blog - something funny has happened, I thought I'd deleted the double post that you see below, and I thought I'd told you we were going to NYC. Anyhoo, you takes your free stuff and you pays for your chances.
So, glad we didn't go to Thailand then, given the news of the coup was on the screens whilst we were waiting in the departure lounge.
No progress on the house. I did note yesterday that whilst the ESB have our address for bills, they appear not to have it for those courtesy notes that say "all your frozen stuff will be thawed on Wednesday evening, free of charge" which is great.
Anybody who knows how much the taxpayer spends in Ireland on a) road safety and b)construction site safety? I'm doing a quick calculation..... whilst on a 4-yearly safety pass course I wondered if the monies are comparable or in proportion to each other - at the end of 2005, 9 people per thousand workers (ppt) were killed on construction sites (for 2005), whilst
in the same year, about 17 ppt licenseholders were killed on the roads. Do we spend twice on road safety what we spend on site safety? Should we get a Safepass for the Roads? Anyone with figures or thoughts, you know where the comments button is. If you don't, leave a comment and I'll get back to you.
I apologise for any confusion with the blog - something funny has happened, I thought I'd deleted the double post that you see below, and I thought I'd told you we were going to NYC. Anyhoo, you takes your free stuff and you pays for your chances.
So, glad we didn't go to Thailand then, given the news of the coup was on the screens whilst we were waiting in the departure lounge.
No progress on the house. I did note yesterday that whilst the ESB have our address for bills, they appear not to have it for those courtesy notes that say "all your frozen stuff will be thawed on Wednesday evening, free of charge" which is great.
Anybody who knows how much the taxpayer spends in Ireland on a) road safety and b)construction site safety? I'm doing a quick calculation..... whilst on a 4-yearly safety pass course I wondered if the monies are comparable or in proportion to each other - at the end of 2005, 9 people per thousand workers (ppt) were killed on construction sites (for 2005), whilst
in the same year, about 17 ppt licenseholders were killed on the roads. Do we spend twice on road safety what we spend on site safety? Should we get a Safepass for the Roads? Anyone with figures or thoughts, you know where the comments button is. If you don't, leave a comment and I'll get back to you.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Quick post before I go!
Off to NYC in the morning. An Úll Mór, cheapaim go mbeidh sé go h-iontach!
In other news, disposable razors don't appear to be as good as the fancy 3, 4 or new ridiculous flavour 6-bladed razors. But while the price difference is tempting my chin complains of numerous nicks and whatnot. So, that's my useful recommendation for the week.
Any of you who don't look at my blog, and ask for news should look here in the first instance. Yes, that means you! You who aren't looking at my blog. (Brian apologises for a weak attempt at irony there).
I hope to have some fancy pictures of skyscrapers and bridges and subways and stuff in about 12 days' time! Until then, I bid you all good afternoon.
In other news, disposable razors don't appear to be as good as the fancy 3, 4 or new ridiculous flavour 6-bladed razors. But while the price difference is tempting my chin complains of numerous nicks and whatnot. So, that's my useful recommendation for the week.
Any of you who don't look at my blog, and ask for news should look here in the first instance. Yes, that means you! You who aren't looking at my blog. (Brian apologises for a weak attempt at irony there).
I hope to have some fancy pictures of skyscrapers and bridges and subways and stuff in about 12 days' time! Until then, I bid you all good afternoon.
Monday, September 11, 2006
What news, you ask, with bated breath......
Not much really.
We bought more tiles this weekend (I'm finding it hard to look tiles in the eye, I really do!).
I'm going on holidays this Friday. Nothing is booked. If anyone sees a last minute deal, please let me know! There was a chance we would go to Thailand, there was a good deal - however it would be the rainy season over there at this time of year and we're a little dubious about going in that kind of weather.
Kawasaki ER-5 for sale to good home. 04 model, 22k miles, dark blue. Great first bike, 500cc - factory restricted to 25kW (that's 33 old-fashioned nags) for use by learners and newly-promoted riders still in their first 2 years after passing what passes for a test in this country. I'm not emigrating, and it's not stolen. (see my previous post about the K75s!)
Go do the star rider course too.
Catch you guys another day. Oh and if anyone heard an interview on East Coast Radio today, let me know what it was all about won't you?
We bought more tiles this weekend (I'm finding it hard to look tiles in the eye, I really do!).
I'm going on holidays this Friday. Nothing is booked. If anyone sees a last minute deal, please let me know! There was a chance we would go to Thailand, there was a good deal - however it would be the rainy season over there at this time of year and we're a little dubious about going in that kind of weather.
Kawasaki ER-5 for sale to good home. 04 model, 22k miles, dark blue. Great first bike, 500cc - factory restricted to 25kW (that's 33 old-fashioned nags) for use by learners and newly-promoted riders still in their first 2 years after passing what passes for a test in this country. I'm not emigrating, and it's not stolen. (see my previous post about the K75s!)
Go do the star rider course too.
Catch you guys another day. Oh and if anyone heard an interview on East Coast Radio today, let me know what it was all about won't you?
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