Keukenhof 2008

One of the things I have done every year since I've been here and have really enjoyed doing is going to see the flowers at the Keukenhof in the spring. This year I didn't get there until late in the season, so it wasn't as spectacular as it was in previous years, but it was still really good. The flowers inside the pavilions were especially good. There's not a whole lot to be said about it besides look at the pretty flowers.



This year's pictures are here. I don't think these pictures were as good as previous years, but I blame the photographer for that.

Ireland: Day 9, The End

The main objective of the last day in Ireland was to drive from Galway back down to Cork whence my plane was departing. Along the way I stopped at a number of places. The first was Clonmacnoise, highly recommended in the guidebook and one of the most famous abbeys in Ireland. That said, I was underwhelmed. The crosses in the museum were very good, but the building itself was unexciting. The next stop was Birr, where in the 1800s the local lord decided to build what was then the world's largest telescope

and installed it in such a way that it could only look at whatever was straight in front of it.

From there, I stopped at Cashel to see the castle there. This is one of the best castles in all of Ireland and has a great view over the surrounding countryside.


Then, to the airport and back to Holland.

The rest of the pics are, as usual, here.


Random story from trip.
Old Guy: Ticket please.
Me: Here you go.
Old Guy: So where are you from?
Me: Right now I'm living in The Hague.
Old Guy: Bless you my son.
Me: Ah, so you've been there!

Ireland: Day 8

This day was spent driving around the area of Connemara National Park. The scenery here is very different from that in the rest of Ireland and reminds me a lot of Scotland.


On the way back to the hotel, I stopped at the Ross Errilly abbey. It was a fairly large abbey ruin, and like most sites in Ireland, has been turned into a cemetery for some reason.


The rest of the pics are here.

Ireland: Day 7

This was meant to be the easy, lazy day of the trip. Instead, it turned out to be very tiring, but rewarding. It started off by taking the ferry to Inishmore in the Aran islands. The plan was to get a bike and do a lazy lap around the island for the day. Well, first I set off in a direction with a vague map of the island and figured out there wasn't a road going all the way around the island. As I was biking along, I spotted a border collie along the road. When he got up and started running toward me, I got a little nervous. As evidenced by the one who bit my car, these type of dogs can be very outgoing or very territorial. This one turned out to be outgoing. He started running alongside my bike and kept speeding up like he was trying to race me. Not to be outdone, I went faster. After a while, this got to be very tiring, plus I was losing (in fact he'd run ahead, take a pee, then take off again when I caught up). Before I collapsed, there was a downhill and I caught back up with him. I sped up and slowed down a bit to egg him on before coasting my way to victory at the bottom of the hill. I hadn't planned to go to that place, but that's where the dog was going and I was following the dog. It turned out we ended up at a secluded cove with a wide sandy beach. There were no footprints, so I was the first person there that day. Once I'd walked around to the far side, the dog ran off and started digging in the seaweed. He came back with a stick and laid it at my feet. Not completely believing this, I threw the stick. And he fetched the stick and brought it back. So I threw it again, and again, and again. Eventually, I started thinking I might be there all day throwing the stick for the dog. But, he did get tired, and I was able to slowly work my way back to where I'd left the bike. From there I followed along behind him up a farm track to a nice panoramic view over the town. The dog was quite a good tour guide.


From there I went up to an old oratory on a hill, and then to some cliffs much like those at Moher.

From there, I decided to take the high road to Dun Aonghasa, an ancient hill fort on the other side of the island. This turned out to be a very slow process, but once I got to here

it got much faster, at least until I reached the bottom.

The fort was huge and quite well preserved for its age. I stayed there a while before biking back along the coast road to Inishmore to catch the last ferry home, sore and tired.

Rest of the pics are here,

Ireland: Day 6

Day 6 was Limerick and Co. Clare. Limerick isn't the most glamorous city, it just happened to be right where I needed to spend a night. I saw the castle, then left town for Bunratty. In Bunratty there is a castle (the usual one tower irish kind) and an open-air museum with lots of reconstructed houses and buildings showing life in Ireland in earlier times.


From there I went into Co. Clare to drive around the Burren. This is a very weird area that spreads over much of Co. Clare and to some extent surrounding areas like the Aran islands. The ground is limestone as far as you can see, with deep, parallel grooves that have been eroded into it by the water over time. Very rocky and very alien.


As I left the tomb, I followed the directions my TomTom gave. When it told me to turn left onto a tiny little road, I thought nothing of it, because so many of the roads in Ireland are tiny. Well, this one turned out to be different. First, there was a farmer leading a huge (honestly, 8ft tall) bull down the middle of the road without a lead. I pulled over and stopped to let the bull by. I figured the bull goes where the bull wants to go. Then, the road became to paved strips with gravel down the middle. Then it became gravel, and then it became deep muddy potholes cover the entire road. At one point I thought about turning back, but by the time I found a place I could turn around, the GPS said it was just as far to go back as it was to keep going. So, I kept going, and tried to keep my speed up, because if I stopped in one of the muddy bits I probably would have gotten stuck and no one would have found me for weeks. Eventually, I made it out to a bigger road and all was better.

Next stop was the Cliffs of Moher, aka the Cliffs of Insanity. The cliffs are really huge, but in this new era of health & safety, they keep you well back from the edge.

But, like everyone, I walked past the big sign that said danger and no trespassing to take an obligatory dangling over the edge picture.


The pics are here.