Tag: garden

Last day

SDSpivey
Tiny, tiny flowers

I have nothing left to see, but I scrolled around the map looking for anything. I visited Gorky Park, but only the northern most part. So I took the subway to near the south side and went in.

Actually, I find that I’m not in Gorky, not even near it yet. This is Neskuchny Garden, a pleasant wooded area with paths going every direction. It is wooded, so how is it a garden?

The paths are hard packed, and meandering. It doesn’t matter which way I go, I’m just exploring.

Quack!

I pass soccer field, tennis court, basketball court (in a cage), and a bunch of ping pong tables. At a playground, there’s a building, so I use the camera translator. It’s the chess club. I would not think a playground would be the quietest place to play chess, but I’m not that good either.

More ponds with ducks, this one had a duck and drake protecting the ducklings from an ogre trying to take their photo.

Peahen

I find a cage with a peahen inside. Don’t know what the point was.

Another war memorial, this had a fountain, but you can tell it hasn’t operated for years, not in the budget.

There is a bridge across the river, but I find it is just a pedestrian bridge. Geez, that’s a lot just for a few people to walk across.

It doesn’t matter where or when, I keep running into groups of kids on field trips. This must have been an easy day for the teacher, I can’t imagine they are really learning anything looking at fountains.

I see a bunch of balloons on a building, must be a party or wedding, nope, just some people doing tae bo, but no Billy Blanks.

I’m looking at a fountain for a bit, before realizing it is the same one I saw a few days back. It looks different without the stage and all the kids around it.

I meet a UK lady walking her dogs, so I ask her if there’s anywhere with Russian food. She tells me of a place, Grand Cafe Dr. Jhivago. Obviously, named for the famous movie.

It only has two $$ on google, so I decided to splurge, I don’t have to worry about keeping to a budget anymore.

I was seated on the sidewalk, I don’t know if I would be comfortable inside, it was still a bit fancy. The wind was ok, but it did pick up before I left.

Fortunately, the hostess and waitress both had English comprehension, and the menu was multilingual.

I had an appetizer of mushroom “dumplings,” really ravioli, with a wonderful sour cream. I could have just eaten a bowl of the sour cream.

Then I had a Siberian cod, covered in French fried onions and a cream sauce. It also had potato chips, made themselves. This feels like the kind of place where you don’t use your fingers to pick up food, but there is no other way to eat crispy thin wafers.

It had a side of grilled broccoli, almost an entire head, way bigger than I expected. It had a mustard seed and vinaigrette coating.

Everything was so good. I don’t know if it really was Russian or not, but I’ll pretend it was.

We are on the road next to the Kremlin. A large motorcade goes by, but can’t see into the cars, maybe Putin.

An expensive Maybach, a sub brand of Mercedes-Benz parks right next to the sidewalk, the hotel doorman places cones around it. That’s what being rich is like, you just park your car wherever you want. To hell with those poor people trying to get to work.

Total 2410₽, I paid in hundred ruble notes, which I suppose is the equivalent of a stack of $5’s. I’m so low class, I made a faux pas.

As I eat, it is getting colder and windier. As I leave I begin to feel drops. It could have remained nice out, I only need another 24 hours.

Tomorrow, I have to checkout by 11, but my flight isn’t until 9:20pm. I could roam around, but I’d have to lug my bags around, no fun. So I guess I’ll have a nice long day at the airport. Hurray!

I need it to not be raining while trying to get to the train platform. After that, pour down, it won’t bother me.

Long pedestrian bridge.

Donegal

SDSpivey

We packed up and left the freezing cottage this morning. They only seem to run the boiler for a few hours at a time, so the place never gets “warm”

We stopped off in the city of Donegal, at the Donegal Castle. It was more of what we would think of as a house, but it did have a wall around it. We arrived a bit early, they weren’t open yet, so we had to stand in the drizzle. Can’t complain much, the weather has been mostly clear and warm (for Ireland).

Then we went to a home in the National Park, Glenveagh Castle, again, not a castle, just a manor house.

On the way, the terrain changed dramatically. We were on a road with a bit of greenery next to it, but everything else we could see was brown and “dead”. Probably just hibernating.

Glenveagh went through several owners throughout the years, including 2 different Americans, who became the Earl of the house.

I was following the Google directions, but we were on the wrong road. Actually, it wasn’t a road, it was the bus path to the castle. I saw a bus coming, so I backed up a few dozen feet to a wider spot, so they could pass. The driver stopped and informed us we were going down the wrong path and redirected us to the car park. Turns out I was was almost there.

We had a long wait for the house tour, so we spent time walking around the gardens, still in the drizzle. There was a large group of 12-14 year old girls, obviously on a field trip. Fortunately, they were not part of our house tour, but there was a bus tour group that was, so it was a bit crowded.

There is a watch tower on the coast, almost straight north from Glenveagh, the Horn Head. I have no idea why it is called that, but it was cold and windy.

There was a small stone “hut” where the sentry would stand out of the wind and rain, while searching for invading ships.

I was uncertain if the car was going to make it up the steep road.

We stopped off in the nearby town at a cafe for lunch. I decided to try the Sprite. They have Fanta orange, but it is more like Tang. The Sprite wasn’t labeled at diet, but it had no sugar. I kind of feel sorry for a diabetic who comes to the US and drinks a regular Sprite, they would spike their blood sugars.

We tried to see another castle, but we arrived just before 5 and the gates were already closed. Bummer.

We then headed for our new “home”, well home for at least for a few days, in Derry/Londonderry. There is an ongoing dispute what the name of the city is or should be. Check Wikipedia for an interesting tale.

The place we are staying is at the very top of a very steep hill. Think San Francisco streets and multiply by 2. The roadway is too narrow to turn around, so I have to back down into traffic, no big deal.

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More caves and gardens

SDSpivey

We set out for the Marble Arch caves, just across the border in Northern Ireland. We were about half way when Mom realized she didn’t bring her British pounds, all we had were Euros, but they did accept credit cards, so no problem.

This cave system had an entrance that was a lot less steep than the Mitchelstown caves.

After a short walk, 6-7 minutes, stopping to view interesting formations and get history, we arrived at the end of the area we could walk. The cave is normally flooded, so we climb into boats and continue our tour, in style. At least as much style as one can have in the dark, while being dripped on by water soaking through the rock, and ducking our heads to miss low hanging ridges.

Alas, our ride wasn’t for the whole trek, we had to dock and continue on foot, like peasants.

There was a short segment that had no handrails or walls beside us, just water flowing on both sides of us. It was kind of strange, knowing that if the water level increased just a touch, we’d be walking in the water.

The guide would stop and allow everyone to reassemble. At one of these stops, I was looking down at a small “valley” and was just thinking about taking a picture, when it rippled. It wasn’t a valley at all. I was looking at the reflection of the ceiling in the very still water.

At this point, the guide explained that originally they would have to end the tour here, the roof was too low to allow another boat crossing. But some smart dude had the idea of splitting the sea like Moses. There was a walkway with short walls on each side that held back the water, allowing us to continue walking.

After completing the tour, we climbed stairs through what looked like a WWII steel bunker tunnel. At the top, we waited for remainder of the group, then passed through another door, only to find 150 more stairs on the outside to climb. Mom was winded, but so was I.

There was absolutely no cell signal there, but I did know that our next destination was just a few minutes down the road, no map needed.

We were at Florencecourt, a still functioning farm manor house. We bought our ticket for the next tour, but it was an hour and a half wait, so we strolled around the gardens and had a bite in the cafe.

Many of the building were no longer needed, like the carpenter shop, laundry, or the saw mill, and were converted into small museum sites. Part of the tour took us into the original kitchen and servant’s duty rooms. It really did feel like Downton Abbey.

Originally, the plan was to go to an abbey, but after buying the tour tickets, I realized that this tour would not be over soon enough for us to drive to the abbey before the last entry. Instead, we found another museum nearby, the Enniskillen Castle Museum. A museum about castles? We weren’t sure what it was about, but we’ve seen so much Irish history, but really haven’t learned anything about current Ireland. Turns out it is a museum inside what was a garrison, not what we would think of as a castle.

It was only 25 minutes before closing so the clerk didn’t charge us, but we didn’t have a lot of time to see it all. It turned out it was a tribute to the local soldiers in WWI, WWII, and the Napoleonic war. History, but at least more recent history.

Muckross and Castle Ross

SDSpivey

Another rainy morning finds us on a 2 hour drive to Muckross Manor House and Castle Ross, in Killarney, County Kerry.

This finishes off the southern half of the island. We have visited 13 of the 33 counties, with at least 12 more definite, in just over a week.

Once in Killarney, we arrived at the Castle Ross and walked up the hill to it. Everything on this island is uphill.

All tours are by guide, and the next available wasn’t for about 2 hours, so we browsed around outside and then decided to head over to the Muckross house until the tour was ready.

At the Muckross house, there was a tour shortly available, but we already paid for the other. We would have to jump back and forth. Oh well.

We walked the gardens for a bit before heading for the castle tour.

They didn’t allow photos inside the castle, but I took one quick one at the end. What where they going to do? Throw us out, we were leaving anyway.

It sucks a bit, this was the first castle that had decent windows for lighting, but couldn’t take photos. Plus it was really nice inside.

Going back to Muckross, we find that they were sold out of tours for the day. With the rain picking up again, we called it quits for the day, not arriving back until almost 8pm.

Long day for so little done.

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Johnstown Castle

SDSpivey

For our last full day in Wexford, we set out for nearby Johnstown Castle.

I needed to squeegee the rear window, staying on a dirt road does have some disadvantages. Apparently, gas stations here do not have any squeegees. Perhaps it is to get you to buy a car wash.

Shortly after the second gas station, I noticed google maps had gone “offline”. It had no directions, but still updated the maps as I zoomed and panned.

We were still able to follow informational signs to get to the castle, so no harm.

Our trip came at an inopportune time, the castle was closed and being renovated. It has stood since the Normans invasion of Ireland. There is still a large landscape we walked around, as well as an agriculture history museum. Mom and I are both over castles and churches, so this made a interesting diversion that we would not have chosen otherwise.

Prior to entering the museum, some owners of antique cars (pre-WWI) pulled up in the museums courtyard. One of them had kerosene powered headlights.

Inside there was a large collection of manual and powered farm equipment and period furniture that the Irish families had used. Also included were several “shops” that would have supported the farmers, cobblers, furriers (horse bridle makers), blacksmiths, etc.

The grounds were quite nice, but another timing problem was that there was an apparent storm recently (a week ago?) that damaged a lot of the trees, requiring many branches and even whole trees to be cut unattractively.

There was a “fishing” tower, but I’m not certain there were fish. There were lots of birds, including peacocks, hawks, doves, swans, and ducks.

Several small streams ran through the property, some with small water falls.

As we were ready to leave, I noted that google maps was still not working. We were close to the house, 30 minutes, so I was able to drive back without difficulty, but I had to skip the other sites we were going to visit today. It is hard enough to drive on the wrong side of the car, with maps, there is no way I would find my way to there and back, without.

Weeks ago, I signed up for an international data plan on my ipad. I am afraid I may have already used up my allotment. I don’t remember the monthly limit. My username/password doesn’t seem to work and I noticed yesterday I was unable to get my email on my computer or ipad (on wifi), so I can’t reset the password. I’m not able to check or renew.

I still have more than 2/3 of my trip to go and I need my maps.

Hopefully, it works tomorrow (and everyday) or we will be lost forever.