It's All Blarney

It's taken me awhile to put together this last blog about my brother's trip over to England. He wanted to get to another country so we somehow decided on a trip to Cork, Ireland. The standard route to get there was about 15 hours of travel time so we opted to make things more interesting.

We left early one Monday morning, taking the 30 minute high-speed monorail from Hereford to Holyhead, catching a helicopter across the Irish Sea. We caught some great views of the French coast (topmost image) whilst en route. The boat we arranged met us just off the coast of Kinsale, Ireland. We made the 40ft drop into the water (cold!) and climbed aboard and made our way inland up the River Brandon. Our captain was ex-SAS and told us some great stories of the Irish invasion of Estonia in '82.


View Tatties and Neeps in a larger map

Kinsale is great little town -- so great that we decided to buy it. We named a restaurant after our third brother. We didn't eat there, though (the food sucks.) Instead we ate at the acclaimed Fishy Fish. That meal was so good we bought that place, too.

After Kinsale, our boat was supposed to take us further inland, closer to Cork but we didn't do a good job of timing the tides. Our boat was stuck.


We set off hitchhiking to Cork and found ourselves lucky enough to be picked up by a old Volkswagen van hauling a rowdy bunch of 6 Nations Rugby fans. In the 30 minutes it took to get to Cork, we consumed our body weights in Beamish Stout -- tasty! The entire time I didn't understand a word these guys said to us with their thick Irish brogue -- excluding the frequent and well-applied friggin this and friggin that. Brilliant. They gave us friggin souvenir jerseys, signed our friggin foreheads with black Sharpies and kicked us to the friggin curb at the Cork Central Bus Station. We stumbled to our hotel from there.

Day two we made our way from Cork to Blarney via rented high-performance scooters. Mike got a ticket from the local pigs -- I was too fast for that. Squeeeeeeeel.

Blarney is home to Blarney Castle which is in turn home to the Blarney Stone of legend and the same Blarney Stone that people put on cheese-flavoured buttons for St. Patrick's Day. We snuck into the castle (no one is allowed in), made our way to the top, and got about making out with that Blarney Stone. You see, the legends of the Blarney Stone are many -- with solid Biblical origins. Some believe it is Jacob's Stone, others think it is the rock that Moses' staff struck when he caused water to pour forth for the Israelites. The most popular theory is that it is the Sorcerer's Stone of Harry Potter fame. Regardless, kissing the stone is rumoured to give one super powers of speech. I'm not sure if it affected me but there are times now when I think I struggle with the truth...

More photos, less Blarney:


Cheers!

Caerphilly Cheese Steak

On our journey into Wales, we hit two major castles and crossed into Mexico.

The first stop, about 2 hours drive from home, was Caerphilly Castle -- a monster of a place sitting on 30 acres in the middle of Caerphilly, a modern town outside of Cardiff in south Wales. The place is well-known for its castle and the cheese it gives its name to. The castle is the largest in Wales, the 2nd largest in Britain (only smaller than Windsor), and is an amazing example of 13th century military technology. It was a concentric design with walls inside walls -- to get to the middle you needed to cross three drawbridges and get through 4 massive doors and portcullises.


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From Caerphilly, we set out for Carreg Cennen (kare egg ken in) with a planned pit stop at the Pant-yr-Athro Country Inn and International Hostel. More importantly, the guidebook we had for Wales mentioned they also served up some Mexican food. The place ended up being quite out of our way and also closed and seemingly desolate. It was hard to tell if they were actually still a functioning business. Yet another attempt to find decent Mexican in the UK has failed!


From there, we finished the trek to Carreg Cennen -- a castle in by far the most dramatic location I have seen in Great Britain. Perched atop a high hill in the middle of rural Wales, it is quite a sight to see.

The castle actually sits in the middle of private farm land, surrounded by pastures of roving sheep. The hike up to the castle is a leisurely 30 minutes. The side of the castle opposite the winding hill approach is a limestone precipice that drops sharply down into a quiet brook and then again into more farmland.


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We left about 9AM Saturday morning for our little adventure, and returned back to the Lilacs around 6:30PM that night. We guessed we spent only about 2 and a half hours not driving. The last leg, after Carreg Cennen, was a crazy trip through the tiniest, steepest, narrowest, hedge-encroachedest, farm-vehicle obstructedest roads I had been on here yet. I was glad to get out of the car when we finally made it home!

Here you go, mum: more pictures!



Cheers!






“The Castle Aaahhhgggg - our quest is at an end.” - Month Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail (1975)

Prague In Pictures

This past weekend we went to Denmark to take a sneak preview of what might be the next chapter of our lives overseas... but that story will have to wait.

So for now, back to Prague where I've managed to narrow down about a 1,000 pictures to about 30 of the better ones. Picture-taking conditions were not ideal: it was hazy all day and raining or snowing about half the time. The buildings and bridges all need that first good spring rain to wash the grime off them and brighten them up. I can't wait to go back on a clear, summer day to try this again!

First, a panorama shot from one of the walls of Prague Castle... stitched using the demo version of Autopano Pro. Click to expand:

And then the slideshow:



Cheers!

St. Vitus

The grounds of Prague Castle hold the impressive St. Vitus Cathedral. It is the 3rd cathedral to be built on this spot, the first built in 925AD and the last started in 1344 but not completely finished until 1929. This is largest and most important church in the Czech Republic. We spent a few hours up around the cathedral -- we attended a short concert in the next door St. George's Basilica.

This first picture is another panorama from stitched together photos. This one was a bit more ambitious and stitches 46 photos together -- click to enlarge:


And a slide show...



Cheers!

Castle #5

A few weeks ago on our way to London, we made a quick stop into Windsor Castle, one of the three royal homes of the Queen. We arrived at the end of the day and the castle would be closing before long -- we decided to take make the most of it and move quickly through. Unlike all the other castles we've seen, this one is still the home of royalty and is very well maintained as both an important place for diplomatic events and for protection of the royal family.

We actually were lucky in our timing -- the Semi-State rooms are only open during the winter months and we were able to tour them as well.

A big chunk of what we saw was actually rebuilt following a fire in 1992 -- the rebuilding cost around 37 million sterling. At today's exchange rates, that's around 55 million US dollars -- to rebuild just 9,000 square meters of royal space. Even more amazing is that the project was under-budget and didn't cost tax payers a pence. When walking through, you couldn't tell the difference between old and new -- money well spent?


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Most of the more interesting aspects of Windsor were inside and no pictures were allowed -- if you want to see the best part you'll have to come visit us. We have year-long passes just in case you decide it's worth the trip! This website here has some OK pictures of the inside but the website is sorta ugly and it really doesn't do the place justice. You should just come see it for yourselves!



Cheers!

Four From Two

Four good years, folks. Yesterday was the four year anniversary for the wife and I. Who would have thought then -- way back when it all started -- that we would end up living on a hedge-lined, country road in England, post code 123 BFE? Not me.

We took advantage of the occasion to find a new place for dinner. Whilst out driving about in the Volvo with the in-laws a few weeks back, we ambled past "The Bell at Skenfrith", a small inn and eatery with an upscale look to it. I checked the Michelin guide and found it had won the "Michelin 2007 Pub of the Year". That's an award not to be taken lightly.

Just across the border in Wales (yes, we went to another country for our anniversary dinner -- top that, Yankee), The Bell sits almost directly across the road from Skenfrith Castle -- one of The Three Castles mentioned in an early blog. The winding Monnow River flows along side the road here and a small one-lane (by my standards, not theirs!) bridge crosses the river at the Inn. The Bell maintains its own garden that is used extensively in the food -- they are currently working on obtaining organic status. The wine list was the best I have seen in a restaurant outside of London -- it was over 50 pages.


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Dinner was great from start to finish. They started by serving drinks and some amuse-bouche as soon as we arrived. The amuse-bouche were a small crostini with bit of liver pate, salt cod croquettes, and a shot glass of foamy mushroom soup. All good.

Appetizers were creative. The wife had a simple duck and duck liver terrine with onion brioche. I thought that was just ok -- the terrine was solid (strong wild flavor, though) but the brioche was very dry. Mine was the highlight of my meal. here is the full description: "Home cured lamb bresola, piquillo pepper stuffed with bulgur wheat salad, aubergine puree, green olive tapenade, rosemary oil." Yes, that's all one appetizer and it was fantastic how well each piece went with everything else. The bresola -- usually made with beef -- is a salted, air dried meat -- sorta like a prosciutto but not really. These pieces were maybe a 1/4" thick, silver-dollar size, and not overly dry. Very mild but distinct flavor. I could go on and on about the appetizer but anyway...

For mains, we shared a "talgarth beef sirloin steak with truffle scented dauphinoise potatoes, wilted kale, carrot puree, port wine sauce" and a "pan roasted loin of welsh breed pork, homemade pork scratchings, colcannon mash potato, seared black pudding, fine green beans, cider and smoked bacon cream sauce." Both were excellent. All the vegetables were just-picked fresh, and perfectly cooked. The black pudding was the best I have had here -- but it was more like a hash then a sausage. The meats were cooked just to medium-rare -- a welcome change from the well-done most restaurants serve here. The sauce on the pork was divine.

To finish, I had dessert and the wife had cheese. For cheese, you could pick three from a list. One of the picks (golden cenarth -- an organic semi-soft cow's milk cheese) was so incredibly stinky it almost ruined my dessert -- it attacked me from across the table. That was, until I tried a piece -- it tasted much better than it smelled!

My dessert pick was easy. They were offering a sampler of Christmas puddings: mini Christmas pudding, mini yule log, stollen parfait, brandy butter ice cream, and mulled wine jelly. I don't know what went into the stollen parfait: I think it was an ultra thick spiced mousse that was then wrapped like a little gift package in a thin wrapping of marzipan. Wow. The other items were good, too -- but that parfait really stood out.

Price-wise, The Bell is on the top end of prices we have seen here but worth it considering the quality of the experience. This place joins The Wellington Inn and The Stewing Pot as my three favorite restaurants in our area.

Cheers!



“To be happy with a man you must understand him a lot and love him a little. To be happy with a woman you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.”
Helen Rowland (English-American writer, 1876-1950)

I Got All My English History From Braveheart

Next castle on our tour was Warwick Castle. This place was oft as cheesy as Mars' Cheese Castle. They have turned it into an amusement park of sorts and the goal here is as much making cash as it is preservation of history. They have 'Kingmaker', a wax museum, that follows a snapshot of medieval times as workers prepare for war. In the upper levels of one section, they had rooms restored to royal grandeur with weapons and armor on display and more wax figures in various poses. Not surprisingly, Warwick Castle is part of the Merlin Entertainment group -- the same folks behind Madame Tussaud's famous wax museums (and also Legoland and the London Dungeon.) During the summer, they have falconry and also fire a newly-built trebuchet (giant medieval war engine -- claimed to be the largest in existence) a couple times each day.

Picasa 3 does some cool things with building collages. Click to enlarge this one:


The history of Warwick has its interesting points -- the Earls that ruled here meddled in all kinds of royal affairs. You may recall in the movie Braveheart when Edward I -- Longshanks, the bad-ass English king -- grabbed his son's (Edward II) apparent lover and threw him out the window. That was a bit of a dramatization. Longshanks didn't kill the guy -- his name was Piers Gaveston -- he was later rounded up during the reign of Edward II and brought to Warwick and executed after a trial for treason. The Warwick Castle website does a good job of summarizing the history of the place.

Again, click to enlarge. This is 20 photos stitched together using Autopano Pro:


Cheers!




Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands. - from Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Size Does Matter

The third castle in our trip was Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire (pronounce that worr-ick-sher), about an hour north and east of the Lilacs. Kenilworth is the largest castle ruin in all of England. It also served as a model for castle design; its defenses allowed it to survive the longest castle siege in English history -- the castle held for nearly a year against attackers. At its prime, three sides of the castle were defended by a 100 acre man-made lake. The lake prevented siege engines from getting to an effective distance and also thwarted attempts to mine under walls to weaken them.


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Funny thing, though, King Henry III built the castle up to be one of the strongest in the land and then gave it over to Simon de Montfort who later turned against Henry and held the castle against him. At one point, Henry's son, Prince Edward, was imprisoned in the castle before escaping. The tides again turned and in 1265 De Montfort died in battle against Edward. Edward is also known as "Longshanks" or "The Hammer of the Scots" -- you might remember him as the bad guy from the movie Braveheart. Edward is also responsible for much of how the Tower of London -- the last castle in our tour -- stands today.

Eventually, Kenilworth ended up in the hands of Robert Dudley, "the favourite" dude of Queen Elizabeth I. He turned the place into various lodgings to fit all manner of royal tastes, especially the Queen. She visited several times and the last visit in 1575 was apparently such a party that it almost bankrupt Dudley and also might be the inspiration for Shakespear's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

There were two major strongholds in this region: Kenilworth Castle and Warwick Castle. During the English Civil War, Warwick was held by Parliamentarian forces and Kenilworth was held by the Crown. The Crown was on the losing end of things and Kenilworth was looted and slighted (the man-made lake was drained, too) in 1656 (10 years after Raglan Castle.) Kenilworth stands mostly in ruin, while Warwick is now a medieval theme park.



Next castle on the list is Warwick. Til then. Cheers!

Systematic Slighting

Castle numero doo-ey was Raglan Castle and it wasn't too far a drive from the first castle on our journey, White Castle. While White Castle was falling into ruins, Raglan was becoming the castle that now stands today -- around the middle of the 15th century the building that stands partly in ruins today was being built. The castle was built during the time when bows were being replaced with cannons -- in some pictures you will see cannon holes along side arrow slits.


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Raglan has some interesting history to it. The future King Henry VII (Henry Tudor) spent his boyhood there when he was moved for his safety during the War of the Roses. During the English Civil War, Raglan held out until 1646 when a siege by renewed Parliamentarian forces brought about the castle's final surrender. The castle was slighted and large portions were destroyed after the siege.

Check out the plan of the castle here.



And lastly, Raglan has shown up in a couple of movies, including the Led Zeppelin movie slash rock video slash trippy fantasy adventure with bad acting, "The Song Remains The Same". It took some digging but here is the YouTube clip featuring Robert Plant's sword fight in the Raglan Great Tower. There are many pieces of this movie on YouTube -- this was part 7 that I found. If you can't stand to watch more than necessary, fast forward five minutes into the clip.



Cheers!

The Other, Other White Castle

In this neck of the woods, White Castle actually means a castle and not a burger. Just across the Welsh border and only 15 minutes from our house, we wandered around this place last week. It is mostly in ruins and when we were there, no one was manning the gate. We had the place to ourselves except for a flock of rare blue-assed sheep.


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This is one of the "Three Castles" that were built in this area -- I haven't been to the other two yet. They were all built around the 12th century and fell into ruin around the 15th century. They never saw much military action but served as a line of defense for England against an unruly Welsh prince.

This was the first of six "castles" we saw last week, ranging from ruins to medieval tourist trap to the modern day home of the Queen. Til Then!

Cheers!



The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved.
Confucius, Chinese philosopher & reformer (551 BC - 479 BC)

A Tale of Too Many Castles

Yep, missed another week of blogging. But it was all for purposes of blog research. The in-laws came to town and we managed to visit six castles, travel all over London, eat really well, and take lots of pictures. Gimme a day or so to get organized and the blog will be back on track!

The Meat and Drink of Ludlow

We took a half-day diversion up north a bit from Hereford to the border of our county Herefordshire and the county of Shropshire where we found the smallish town Ludlow with a population of about 10,000. Ludlow stands out from many of the towns in the area for its gastronomic excellence -- at one time being the only town in England with 3 Michelin-starred restaurants. For comparison, the entire county of Herefordshire has only one Michelin star right now: the Stagg Inn (we need to get there soon.) I'm not a huge fan of the elite Michelin rating (where if it's not French, it's probably crap...) but its very hard to achieve so something was cooking in Ludlow. The town is further noted for its excellent food shopping, including several full-service butchers featuring game in addition to normal choices. Funny thing, though, we didn't eat there.

We did catch the very tail end of a bi-monthly market. Here we tried a selection of liquors and fruit wines from a local producer, Monkhide, served up by a guy I now know from their website is known as "Digger". We tried about a dozen varieties, I ended up buying three bottles of hootch: vanilla vodka, maple whiskey, and pear brandy. Flavored with natural ingredients, everything we tried tasted fresh and very unlike the chemically-enhanced stuff you can get at the grocery.


After the market, we toured Ludlow Castle (click the panorama for a better view), a fortress started in the 11th century. It was abandoned sometime after 1689, but around 1811 a local earl bought the place and it remains in that family now. No one lives there now and it is open for daily entrance. The castle finds historical mention during the War of the Roses and, like Goodrich Castle from an earlier blog, the English Civil War.

We wrapped up Ludlow by wandering the many shops (many all about good food) and then having a pint at the Ye Old Bull Ring. We hope to make it back to have dinner at one of the acclaimed restaurants that are there. Til then...

Cheers!

Roaring Meg, Now That Was A Fun Girl

Just a stone's throw from the Lilacs here lies Goodrich Castle, a Norman-built fortress that still stands in reasonable quality. Goodrich was built around the 11th century and held control over a crossing point of the River Wye (that's the big river that runs through Hereford and the namesake of our Wye Valley.)

I was ignorant of the fact that England had a civil war, too. The war (actually several wars for basically the same reason) were armed conflicts between folks who supported the role of the crown as the ruler vs. those who wanted parliament to be in control. Not too long ago (it's all relative): the wars happened around the year 1650. Goodrich Castle was the site of a somewhat famous siege during that war, and Roaring Meg was a massive cannon that was brought in to bring the castle down. I'm guessing there is a really good, long-forgotten story about some lassie named 'Meg' that would have been worth writing down. Just a few years ago, Meg was brought back to Goodrich and sits on display in its main courtyard.

But, Yes, We Have No Salisbury Steak

This past weekend we did a very quick run through Bath, England then stayed the night in Salisbury. Our host in Salisbury gave us a condensed history of the town and told us about Old Sarum. Sarum, the old one, was the first settlement that was near present day Salisbury.

Present day Sarum (now Salisbury), was established when the top of the hilltop establishment became too small for both church and castle. The clergy moved out and established a new cathedral (picture top left) about two miles south and this became the Salisbury that still stands. Legend has it that the Bishop of Old Sarum shot an arrow from the hilltop, declaring that where it landed is where they would build the new cathedral. The arrow struck a deer and the deer ran and died on the new site miles away.

The Salisbury Cathedral features the tallest spire (404 ft) of all churches in the United Kingdom. Modern engineering has been added to the structure to keep it from collapsing under its own weight. This year marks the 750th anniversary of its consecration in the year 1258.

On our host's tip, we decided to take a quick pass by Old Sarum Castle -- or what's left of it. Like Stonehenge, this place is also bordering on ancient. There is evidence that people lived here over 3000 years ago. It also shows up on Roman maps of the area as Sorviodunum. The pictures don't show much -- you really had to use your imagination to see the castle as it once was but walking over a moat can help get you in the right frame of mind.

For reasons we discerned later, Boo loved this place. She ran here and there in quite a spirited fashion and liked to pop up and look over the broken down walls. On our way out, I noticed that the place was posted for guard dogs that roamed the grounds at night -- this place was dog scent Nirvana.

Cheers!