Thursday 30 September 2010

little dorrit

Trying to map out the logistics but not totally plan it to death of our next adventure, I realized what a challenge it is to puzzle out a comprehensive and fluid travel guide.  I had thought it would be handy to be able to generate something that was both brief and comprehensive enough to winnow away from bulkier travel books something that was targeted to the area one is visiting, with some needful pointers for orientation.  In the process, I also learned how rich in sights and activities this one area was and never mind if we cannot go further afield. I tried to cobble together something for us--mostly taken from Wikipedia, adapted to our needs and time constraints.  For what it's worth, I though I could share this framework, this flowchart.

Stepwise: Western Ireland

Arrival & orientation: Dublin [Ir., Baile Átha Cliath] Airport (10km north of Dublin City in Finegal [Ir. Fine Gall – Foreign Tribe]) is one of only two European airports where pre-clearance to the USA is possible, the other being Shannon, and is the headquarters of Ryanair and Aer Lingus. Construction for this airport began in 1936, and a second terminal is scheduled to open in November 2010. From the airport to points west, take the M1 to the M50 (13km) to the N4 exit towards Baile (7km) and continue (44km) on the M4. Next take the exit M6 for Galway and Athlone (57km).

At Athlone, either continue on the N6 (3.5 hours) of take the M6 north and bypassing Galway (4 hours), passing through Roscommon, Claremorris, Castlebar and Westport, on toward Connemara. Athlone, at the junction, bridges the River Shannon and is a historic crossroads. The route from Dublin passes through the downtown areas of several towns and villages along the way. From either route, after Westport or Galway, Clifden and Leenane are the only major villages on the peninsula (Route N590). The journey is about 280km in total, and there are tolls of about 4€, payable in cash only.

Leenane [ Leenaun, An Líonán – the filling pool, das Teig] is considered to be the “gateway to the Connemara” and is at the mouth of the Killary Habor. It is the crossroads of trails into the Maam Valley, Clifden and Westport, and hikers have access to Mweelrea, Sheefry, Paltry and Maumturk Mountains. The harbor is bounded by a high fjord that extends for 16km westward. “The Field” was filmed here and the Kelly Family recorded an album here. One can mingle with the local fisherman and sheep farmers in An Carraig, Gaynors or Hamiltons pubs.

Maam [The Pass] is a village in an ancient wood in the shadow of the Maamturk Mountains with their numerous pre-historic and early historic sites. The Western Way, a long distance walking trail runs from the southern end of the Maam Valley to the ancient site of Mámean. On the way there is 'Leaba Pháiric' [Patrick's bed], a rock recess and 'Tobar Pháraic' [Patrick's well] mark places of pilgrimage. The well is believed to cure cattle as well as human ills. The town is the filming location for the “Quiet Man” starring John Wayne in 1952. The nearby market has centuries old traditions, including a harvest festival in October.

Kilfenora – Southern edge of the Burren, has a decorated high cross. The Burren has over 90 portal dolmen and ringed forts (Dun) like Cahercommaun on the edge of an inland cliff, and the well-preserved Caherconnell Stone Fort. Corcomroe Abbey ruins (by Ballyvaughan) is one of the area's main attractions. There are no bogs and few pastures, making the landscape unique, and instead there are huge slabs of limestone called 'clints' with fissures called 'grikes'.
Most of the drainage is underground caves, but unless one is an experienced spelunker they are not recommended, as they become flooded rivers in times of rain. Explore The Burren underworld in comfort within the developed cave at Aillwee, near Ballyvaughan.

Man has settled here since the stone-age. Evidence of his habitations and tombs are all around; massive dolmens, tombs and stone forts called cahers, (the homesteads of farmers of long ago), survive in various stages of preservation. Churches and castles indicate later periods of settlement.

The Burren is also famous for its plantlife. Foxgloves and rock roses grow here and rock's microclimates also support plants found in the Artic, Alpine and Mediterranean regions. Botanists have been unable to give a comprehensive answer to this. Many of the views around The Burren are truly spectacular: Corkscrew Hill and its view across Galway Bay or the journey around Black Head or the view from Ballinalacken Hill across to the Aran Islands.
Clifden [An clochán – bee-hive cell] – with Clifden Sky Road with castle ruins, Kylemore Abbey is at the edge of the Connemara with access to several islands and the mountain ranges of the area. Kylemore, [Coill Mor – the Big Wood] dominates the valley with its magnificent architecture and gardens, especially the Victorian Walled Garden. Today it is a convent run by Benedictine nuns, but the woman for whom the castle is built is entombed in the neighboring church, like Lenin. Oughterard with its tower ruins is also on the Clifden Sky Road. Marconi’s wireless station here was the first to transmit a radio signal across the Atlantic.

Liscannor [Lios Ceannúir – Ringfort of Ceannúr] seaside village 3 km from the Cliffs of Moher between Doolin and Lahinch, with castle ruins, cemetery, St. Brigid’s well and rich local folklore. The Cliffs are 8 km long and 214 m high. The tower at the cliffs was built by Cornelius O'Brien, a descendant of Brian Boru, the High King of Ireland. From here one can easily view the cliffs, the Aran Islands, and Galway Bay as well as the Twelve Bens and the Maum Turk mountains to the north in Connemara and Loop Head to the south. The submarine was invented here.

Galway [Gaillimh - stony] is the third largest city in Ireland and has many areas of interest: Lynch’s Castle on Shop Street (medieval town house), St Nicolas Church (built in 1320), and the Spanish Arch with its Long Walk along the harbor or wander along the quays through Claddagh promenade at Salthill. For dining, Oscar’s and Abalone’s on Derrick Street in the town center come highly recommended, and there is a 24 hour Tesco on Headford Road.

Other villages in County Galway to visit are Kinvara [Cinn Mhara – Head of the Sea] at the southern end of Galway Bay with Dunguaire Castle and Claregalway with its abbey and Burgo Castle ruins.

Rossaveal [Ros an Mhil – peninsula of the sea monster] ferries to Aran Islands (departs 10:30 and return 17:00 or Doolin Pier at 9:00). Inishmor has the most attractions. There are mini-bus tours and taxis available on the islands. These are reasonably priced and usually come with a local guide with experience on the island going back generations. Tours can be arranged with the ferry companies. Another way to see the islands is on foot or by bike. Be aware there are very rough and jagged rocks. While touristy nature of the pony carts waiting in Cill Rónáin may be off-putting, paying the little bit extra for one of these is often worth it for the history lesson or an invitation to a party.

Consider walking the islands to see the sights, time permitting. It is easy to walk on the roads between sights and one is more likely to really begin to understand the scale of the islands and the feel of the place. But, keep in mind, it is best to plan to be back before dark as the roads are not lit and ferries do not run at all hours.

Dun Aengus is a fort situated on the edge of a cliff at a height of 100 meters overlooking the Atlantic on the Aran Islands, Inishmore. It consists of a series of concentric circular walls, the innermost; the citadel encloses an area approximately 50 m in diameter with 4 m thick walls of stone. These walls have been rebuilt to a height of 6 m and have wall walks, chambers, and flights of stairs too.

O'Brien's Castle on Inis Oírr in the Aran Islands was built in the 14th century. The castle was taken from the O'Briens by the O'Flaherty clan of Connemara in 1582. Additionally, Dun Eochla and Dun Eoghanachta are ringforts located on the interior of the island, visible from the main road. Clochan na Carraige is a beehive hut, perfectly preserved and unaltered. The structure is unusual because the outside is circular but inside it is rectangular.

there's water at the bottom of the ocean or someone has been lying in my bed

Just a few short months ago, the Kepler satellite opened its eyes on a postage stamp sized area of the heavens and nearly instantaneously seven hundred candidate planets popped into view. A parallel European Space Agency project was also hunting for stars possibly harboring planets using an alternate method of measuring slight gravitational perturbations caused by an orbiting body, as compared to Kepler's gauging the twinkling that happens when a planet partially eclipses its host star. Discoveries, I think, will be exploding like firecrackers from here on out. This excitement relegates mundane worries like the economy and manic power-grabs to the domain of petty Astronomers are planning to reexamine candidate sites to see if alien oceans or atmospheres can be detected by looking for glints of sunshine, like off of sunsets at the beach. There was no chance to test that method, however, before Gliese 581 g, as Reuters reports, was discovered slinking about the so-called habitable, Goldie Locks zone of a star some twenty light years away. It is a bit chauvinistic to think only life as earthlings know it is out there, but hoping that life, in all its creativity and super-abundance, might at least be familiar on a chemical level is comforting. The exo-planet in the constellation Libra has been unofficially called "Zarmina" after co-discoverer Steven Vogt's wife, and I think that's a perfectly spacey name for it.

Wednesday 29 September 2010

the other shoe or mit schmähungen

Though obscured by wiry, frantic reports of a pandering and vacuous variety of that in no certain terms a terror-plot, kicking it Bombay style, may happen some where in Europe or America, or not--it sounds as if the Grand Poobahs at the Department of Homeland Security have been honing their vagaries by reading their Nostradamus, the Associate Press, via the Huffington Post, had an important dispatch.  A special court has been invoked in order to seek to prosecute Iceland's ex-prime minister for dereliction of duty when it came to minding the country's treasure.  The former government certainly had a role in the financial collapse and resulting ripples and though it could be agreed that the people's greed was on par with any duping or unscrupulous conduct and had their come-uppance by being summarily voted out, or that the charges will never stick or make up for squandered funds.  It is important, however, symbolically that a responsible individual does not escape punishment or is even rewarded for bad behaviour, because the perception and reality is that current and former leaders are immune from justice and summonses, whether from a kook wanting to sue the Queen or legitimately from the International War Crimes Tribunal, are toothless and too timid.  It is too bad the breaking news palette was too full to follow these develops--besides, the old terror bug-a-boo would be overcome, in Europe at least, by all the threats of transportation strikes.

Tuesday 28 September 2010

ahoj-hoj

My parents are treating their house guests with a road trip to the Czech Republic with a posh stay in Prague. They took off this morning, and in a pretty nifty coincidence, it is the country's national holiday, St. Wenceslaus Day. I am excited for their travels and hope they're having a lot of fun, and it's definitely time for us too to re-visit that area.

doubleplusungood

Salon contributor Glenn Greenwald has a very important analysis of the US government's petition for internet omnipresence, drawing dangerous and uncomfortable parallels to totalitarian regimes in the Mid-East and China. Of course, this has repercussions that mean spillage far beyond US borders and for US citizens of interest. Internet utilities, the load-bearing beams of the architecture, like bookFace and voice-over-IP services, which have been conveniently embraced by the American government and military to enhance recursive meetings about meetings, will put the activities and opinions of people world-wide squarely in the hands of American benevolence. If one is not careful, nothing will be private or temporary any longer with archives made enduring, and neither will the flavor of the month, popularity be without a heavy yoke.

Monday 27 September 2010

bartleby the scrivener

I wonder if the State of Texas has levied a cease-and-desist order against the Republic of Chile for flag besmirchment. It is surely causing public confusion, what with all the attention to those trapped miners and that girl who fell down a well near Odessa, Texas back in the eighties that launched this breed of car-chase, tragically unfolding journalism. Maybe like the virtual office assistants or automated, frequently-asked-question regurgitators, there should be a pop-up solicitor, like the Great Gazoo, that gives warning that an image may be subject to copyright,
this video is no longer available in your country due to an agreement with some big recording label, litigation is in process or ownership is pending, or whether one's latest offering stands up to the rigours of ethical business practices. Maybe by making legal advice, whether asked for or not, into a hovering, cartoon attorney would make people less ligitious overall, since it would become something ignored or batted away like aggressive advertisements or End-User License Agreements (EULA).

Sunday 26 September 2010

fundgrube oder jurassic auto park

Because of the lapse in the rainy weather, H and I venture out and took a long drive to a truck-stop fleamarket.  We found a heavy, old bronze plaque of a fish.  Right away, it made me think of the archaeopteryx or that fish everyone thought was extinct since millions of years until one turned up in a fishing net.
This bronze is an impression of a rather famous fossil, too, however, a kind of catfish that existed during the jurassic era.  Afterwards, we toured the nearby town of Werneck, known for its baroque castle. 
The sprawling complex hosts a hospital and psychiatric clinic, and I had always guessed that grounds were off limits to the casual visitor, but this was not the case.  This imposing and functional monument is another homage in the area to Balthasar Neumann whose grand embellishments and engineering innovations defined baroque architecture are found in building elements throughout Franconia.

Saturday 25 September 2010

viral


A relatively novel and sophisticated, complex enough to suggest the monetary backing and support of a state-financier, computer virus some suggest (auch auf deutsch) may be the first volley of a new cyber war. While I believe that this may be local retribution for the death sentence of an Iranian blogger in absentia whose punishment may be transferred to his father, because the bulk of infections have been visited on industrial control systems, vulnerable to infiltration, in Iran, many think it may be a collaborative effort between the Mossad of Israel and the United States to either gather intelligence or outright sabotage Iranian nuclear facilities. This is a dangerous move, especially since it could propagate out of control and invite reprisals.
Rather than dampen Iran’s efforts--maybe experimenting in this sandbox is just a distraction for something else, however, I believe a bigger target of opportunity for these or any nation, because of the nature of the Stuxnet virus which can obscure the safety parameters of an industry system and fool operators into thinking that the system is running normally when in reality its overheated or running on empty, would be the antique and clunky relays of the New York stock exchange to clandestinely inflate trading and sustain confidence or else plunge it into panicked selling. World stock markets are probably the single most influential and easily accessible industrial control systems out there and much of the swings in trading are adjudicated by the reflexes of machines.