England
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Gravity Drop at the Millenium Dome
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The Millenium Dome is the result of spending huge sums of money on lots of half-baked and unrelated ideas. I imagine that the original concept was something like 'Imagine the Super Bowl halftime show, surrounded by psuedo-scientific technology-boosting exhibits that must use at least 10 video screens for each line of textual explanation, mixed in with American mall food, plus a giant theater showing a Blackadder film, 10 buildings full of computers configured with low-speed intenet connections and ever-crashing Windows 98, county fair rides, and parking 10 miles away with buses every half-hour!'. I think that they were trying to invent the science museum, Disney Land, and the Imax theater all at once without realizing that all these things in fact already exist. As for the inscrutable extravaganza with dramatic music, people flying around on wires and fire shooting off into the audience, and a 4-line story line.. well it helps to explain why there is a lot more Big Science than Big Art.
Anyway, here we are riding the Gravity Drop. It was fun.
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Finding Food in Gravesend
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Coming home from the Millenium Dome we had the non-futuristic experience of a London traffic jam. It was similar in many ways to American traffic jams, only much, much slower. Evidently these traffic jams are alleviated only when waves of cars give up on reaching their destinations, their biological needs having come to the forefront. We eagely joined one of these defections and drove off in sort of a dazed fashion into the countryside in search of a pub.
Several hours earlier, every beer-loving youth in England had done exactly the same thing. Thus, our alternatives were to dine standing shoulder to shoulder with rowdy lads and lasses holding a beer in one hand and a fistfull of chips in the other (my clear first choice), or to seek out something less populated. We ended up having rather a good meal, albeit a quiet one.
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Ireland
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Bray to Graystone Walk
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This lovely 4 1/2 mile walk from Bray to Graystone is a favorite of local townspeople, smoking French tourists, and the Wickow Cross-Sahara Racewalking Team. Unfortunately we missed the annual Bray triathlon, which conists of a walking leg from Bray to Graystone, a 'boat race' at the Graystone pub, and finally the spectacular Graystone-to-Bray double decker bus rally.
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St. Kevin's Church and St. Kevin's Bed
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After the passing of St. Patrick, Irish monks spread out into the countryside in search of the abundant desolation that their ascetic existance required. Upon hearing that the choicest locations on Ireland's windswept western coast and jagged isolated islands were already taken, St. Kevin settled near the twin lakes of Glendalough to diet and brood. Stoically avoiding the fertile valley below, he took up residence in a cliffside cave now known as Kevin's Bed where he spent the rest of his days praying for the weak-minded monks that he saw cavorting daily amongst the pleny below.
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Face Dancing
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In this expressive montage, Karen shows off her newly acquired proficiency in Irish 'face dancing'. Perfected over the centuries in local pubs by Irish quadrapalegics, face dancing is now performed by the legged and leg-less alike.
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Kilkenny Castle
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Clifford and Susan invite the bourgoise in after purchasing Kilkenny Castle from the ancient aristocratic Butler family for a mere 50 Irish Pounds. The Butlers survived centuries of political intrigue and unrest, only to lose the family fortune on ill-advised investments in pork belly and Beanie Baby futures.
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Hook's Head Light
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This light house has been operated for 1400 years. Susan proudly mentioned that she is from Portland, Maine, where George Washington built America's first lighhouse, Portland Head Light, in 1789. The curator clearly felt that 200 years is a rather brief timespan on Europe's geological scale.
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Spongey Grass, Hook Head
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Grassicus Spongelicus grows abundantly on Hook Head. The Ages of mankind are traditionally divided into the Hard Thing Ages : Stone Age, Iron Age, Bronze Age, etc. It is less commonly known that there is a separate lineage of Soft Thing Ages. The Spongey Grass age preceded the Sea Sponge Age and the Wooly Sheep Hair Age in the technological advancement of mankind.
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Blowholes, Hook Head
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Danger signs and life preservers on posts encourage tourists to explore the dramatic blowholes around Hook Head. Unfortunately, it was low tide so we didn't get to experience an authentic 'blowhole shower'.
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Ballyhack Castle
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Well, more of a piece of a castle really. Somehow we thought that there might be picnic tables around the castle, maybe one used by medieval soldiers for eating lunch and playing cards while laying siege. We did find a park bench outside, but it was clearly not 'original to the castle', as the tour guides say.
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Vinegar Hill, Enniscorthy
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This hilly Irish town has been the sight of several doomed rebellions over the last 3 centuries. In 1789, a rebellion by the United Irishmen ended with a valiant stand on Vinegar Hill. The abortive Easter Rising of 1916 ended almost before it had begun; it's leadership was divided on whether it should even proceed, the townspeople were largely against it, and back-up from German U-Boats failed to materialize. Most recently, in October of 2000, Clifford Gilpin rebelled against the family plan to drive back to Dublin, wishing instead to remain in the countryside for one more night. However, his forces were vastly outnumbered, and he was eventually subdued with cappuccino, biscuits, and an inexhaustible stream of counter-arguments by the Family Loyalists.
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Other nice pictures
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| Grandma and Grandpa Gilpin cutting their 60th anniversary cake |
Clifford and Grandma ponder Grandpa's words |
The family en route from Dublin to Kilkenny |
