HigmanTravels

Inside Dublin

Today we took a mellow day to just cruise around Dublin. The EPIC Irish Emigrant Museum was such a great place. They really do a good job with tourist attractions and museums around here. Everything is very interactive and meaningful.

The Irish are extremely resilient people. They are also hard workers. The Irish diaspora is almost as vast as the Chinese diaspora. The Irish have had such influence on the American culture. The Emigrant museum was really interactive and they even give you a passport so you can have it stamped at every station.

Famine Memorial

Emigrant Museum

Jayden drawing at the kiddie table

Orla Kiely is Irish! Love her stuff!

We then headed to the largest tourist attraction in Ireland – Guiness. It was such an impressive building. Guiness owns so much property in Dublin, and they also employ so many of its citizens. We were told that it’s not unusual to see three generation at the plant. Boy, we learned a lot about the brewing process. They use a lot of local products and really support the industries around Ireland. The Guiness family was also very generous. They donate to many charities around the country and really help the needy.

The beginning of the tour

Yes, water is precious.

Waterfall

Bubbles bubbles everywhere

Just a teaser

All those bottles and cans

The harp, logo of Guiness

Beer- we chose the lighter

Overlooking all of Dublin

Rainbow – is there a pot of gold at the end??

I love this saying!

Tomorrow, we leave Ireland. We’ve had such a great time here. We are so blessed to be able to do this. A few observations about Ireland:

People have been amazingly nice.
The weather has not been great but we feel fortunate that we were able to see more sun than rain.
Ireland is very expensive! Definitely a surprise.
We were told that energy consumption is going to overshadow supply. Water is becoming an issue (shortage of water) soon.
Trash is also a big issue. It seems like there is not a very sophisticated garbage collection system. Trash is just left out on the sidewalk and a truck comes by to collect it. But, the truck is basically a large pick-up vs. a dump truck. And, they have to do it every day. Very strange. Trash is everywhere because of this. I think this problem will only get worse if they don’t do something about it.
Recycling is limited but they do charge for bags (good).
The balance of power will shift in Northern Ireland soon as there will soon be more Catholics than Protestants. This will be an interesting occurrence to witness.
Everyone is very nervous about Brexit. This will also put pressure on the separation between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Fairy trees are real!
Cows don’t stink in Ireland. We were in a field of cows and cow poop everywhere, but there was no smell. We need to learn from the Irish with this stuff.
We will come back!!! Haven’t I said that about every single place we’ve visited so far?

Fairy Trees and Braveheart

Today was a very cool day. We learned all about the mythology and mysticism of Ireland. We went back thousands of years to how Ireland started. Unfortunately, it rained in the morning so we couldn’t see a lot of the morning but the day got better as we went along. We all got very wet for a little bit. We wouldn’t have had a successful trip to Ireland without it raining, right?

The tour was of the Celtic Boyne Valley. First was the Hill of Tara. This is when it was raining so we didn’t get a lot of pictures. This was the ancient seat of power and more than 100 kings were coronated there. It is also where St. Patrick came to confront the pagans there.

Statue of St. Patrick

Stone of Destiny – it is said that if the true king touches the stone, it screams

Then, to Trim Castle – It is the largest Anglo-Norman castle but it’s better know as the set for many of the scenes in Braveheart (haha). It’s amazing what they can change a site with the camera. The Norman architecture featured square edges/towers. It took 30 years to build this property and it was protected by a curtain wall, moat, and a ditch.

Trim Castle

Where all the scenes were shot

Family photo

poop shoot

Outer walls

underground tunnels

Slits to shoot arrows out of

Gate, fotified

One of the towers

Underground kitchen, also a natural refrigerator

Banquet hall up to, kitchen underground

Loughcrew is the location of passage tombs and megalithic burial chambers that are around 5,000 years old. In the tombs the ancient carving show us that the people were experts in astronomy and math. We found carvings that allowed them to tell the beginning of Sping and the beginning of Fall.

The passage mound

Witche’s Rock

Inside the passage tomb

Carvings

Stacked rocks creating the mound

The final stop was to the Hill of Uisneacht. This is the spiritual center of Ireland. This is the burial site of the Goddess Eiru (Ireland was named after her), and is the entrance to the 5th province of Ireland – the mythical realm of Mide. This is where all the provinces come together. It is the site where the first fire in Ireland was lit, and in more recent times, it is where people come to gather for political and/or social rallies. The Fairy trees are abundant here and are unique because they grown out of rocks. You are NEVER to cut down a Fairy tree. One story that is told over and over again is that they were building a road from the east of Ireland to the west of Ireland. There was a Fairy tree in the way so they had to spend $10m more Euros to go around it. Another is that the car company DeLorean was building a car factory in Ireland (did you know that all DeLoreans were built in Ireland?) and there was a Fairly tree on the site where they wanted to build. One morning the people woke to no tree on the site- someone had cut it down. It is said that this is why DeLorean is no longer!

Underneath a Fairy tree

Beautiful Landscape

The Fairy Tree otherwise known as the Hawthorn Tree

Goddess Eiru

Clovers!

This is a working farm

Our brains were dead by the end of the day with lots of history and names and Gaelic words. But, it was also a magical day of Fairies, shamrocks, and movie magic.

Belfast and the Titanic

Here we go. This will be the highlight of this part of the trip. That later.

We first visited the Irish Republican History Museum. As you can imagine, it was definitely very interesting and very sad. They say the situation really is not religiously motivated. I agree. It’s discrimination and lack of economic opportunities for one group vs. another. That’s what they did in Northern Ireland – protestants were given the better jobs, better housing, better everything. The Irish basically wanted to self govern. as our bus driver said, it was also sad for all the English people who lost their lives. All we can blame is the government for enacting these policies that split people and families. We see this now too and the people of Northern Ireland identify with the Palestinians, the Apartheid movement, etc. You can see this on the murals all over Belfast.

Entrance to the Irish Republican History Museum

Some of the exhibits

Entry to the Women’s prison

Women’s Prison Room

Some of the IRA’s guns

Murals

Muras

Murals

We’ve been having trouble crossing the streets together

Well, the best part of our travels was here, not because of the Titanic but because of a Black Taxi tour that we added on. The Black Taxi tours are conducted by cabbies in Belfast who had been involved in the “troubles.” Our cabbie Jerry was definitely very informative. We wonder how he was involved. 😉

We stopped by the Peace Wall, which was first signed by Bill Clinton, then a couple of days later by the Dalai Lama. Since then, everyone that visits the wall can sign it. And we did! OMG, they LOVE Bill Clinton there. His name came up about 100 times.

Peace wall – the longest one – 4 km long

We all signed it.

The Higmans are on the wall

The Wall is due to come down by 2024.

The most photographed mural is that of Bobby Sands. He was a provisional Irish Republican Army member who died in a hunger strike while held in jail. He lasted 66 days and there have been films made about him. Michael Fassbender, an Irishman, played Sands and even lost something like 16 kg to play him. Sands was also voted into Parliament when he was in jail. He, obviously, never stepped into parliament chambers. He wrote many songs, books, and poems while in Jail.

We then visited the Clonard Monastery, or Church of the Most Holy Redeemer. You can read more about the church here: https://www.clonard.com/our-church/

Everyone is anxiously awaiting the Pope’s visit this Saturday and Sunday.

Front

Back with organ

Next stop, the HMS Caroline, the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland, the only major naval action of WWI. Honestly, I think it was one of those places that probably doesn’t get a lot of visitors on its own so it’s added to some tours like that of the Titanic. It was interesting but I would have rather had more time at the Titanic.

On the deck of the HMS Caroline

Going down!

Toilet of the Captain’s quarters

Last but not least, we visited the Titanic Exhibition. It was really more of an interpretive center – there were exhibits, 3-D experiences, films, and even a ride. I thought it was done really well. Just wished we could have had more time.

Amazing architecture

Recreation of the sinking

Coming back into town, we went by the Google building, the performing arts center.

Google building on the left Not quite done yet.

I think this is the performing arts center. I’ll find out when I walk by it later.

We ended the night by watching Titanic. We watched Braveheart the other night after we visited some of the castles. We will be off on another tour tomorrow to more castles and where they filmed some more of Braveheart and Game of Thrones. See you then!!!

Castles, Castles, Castles.

After a day of relaxing, we were up bright and early to visit castles! Ireland is known for castles so we are visiting three today.

Our driver/guide gave us a little history while driving to our first destination.

Dublin was first visited by the Vikings in year 241. They stayed for about 200 years. Then the Normans came and expanded the city and built Dublin castle. The Vikings then came back towards the end of 8th century and came back and forth for about the next 40 years. They finally decided to stay and many assimilated into the Irish society. They established many of the ports, including Dublin, and introduced the use of coins into Ireland. The power of the Norse were over by 1014 at the Battle of Clontarf.

The population of the Republic of Ireland is 4.3 million with just over 1 million in Dublin, the largest city. Northern Ireland has 1.7 million population, Belfast is about half the size with half the population. NOTE : we will be visiting Northern Ireland tomorrow. There are 32 counties in Ireland, with 6 in Northern Ireland.

There were 4 provinces in ancient times. Cashel Rock is the first place we visited and is in the province of Munster. This is the site where St. Patrick converted Aenghus, King of Munster, to Catholicism.

Most of what the Normans built was destroyed in the mid-16th century and was rebuilt in the Roman style. The Rock of Cashel was the seat of power for the province of Munster. It was raining out so we didn’t stay for too long and didn’t get too many great pictures.

Next, on to Blarney Castle. There’s a lot of history here so I will just let you look through it here: https://www.blarneycastle.ie/pages/castle-history

But, we were there to kiss the Blarney stone! So we trekked up to the top of the tower to kiss the stone. There are several different stories about the stone, the most popular being that if you kiss the stone, you will never be at a loss for words. But, here are the 4 stories.

Here’s all of us getting a turn at kissing the stone. OK, I thought it was just a piece of rock that I lean over to kiss. But, noooooo, you have to lie on your back and hang your head back to kiss it. Seriously, could they have made it any harder???

Lily

Jevyn

Justyne

Jayden

And, even Justin, though he was all red when he came up.

Here are some sights in and around the castle.

The Blarney Castle

Another view

Some low dungeons

Carriages

One of many amazing trees

A totem in a cave

Pretty water fall

Inside the castle

Look how big that door is…NOT

Spaces to shoot arrows from.

Very narrow staircases

Getting ready to kiss the stone

It’s beautiful from up there!

Looking down at the walls

We’re almost to the stone

Bell on top of the castle

Look through the peeping hole

Looks like the Higmans’ headstone

The weather even cleared up by the afternoon so we had a great day. On to Cahir Castle.

The Cahir Castle was the home of the Butler family from the early 12th century. Theobald Fitzwalter was a Norman who came to Ireland with young Prince John. He was given a piece of land and the important job of Chief Butler or Ireland. That meant, if the King were to visit Ireland, the Chief Butler would have to make sure there was enough food and drinks for the King and everyone traveling with him. So, his name was changed to Butler. It is one of the best preserved castles in Ireland and is the location for many films and TV series. It was built on an island on the River Suir. It has one of three working old style fort doors (see below).

Cahir Castle

Built on a rock

Those old style gate; comes down in 3 seconds

This is where they control the gate

cannon – not originally from the castle

going down the original well

view from the other side of the well

up and down lots of stairs

Antlers from deer from before the Ice Age

A cannon ball stuck in the wall

Site of the original door

We are off to Belfast tomorrow to check out the Titanic exhibition.

Goodbye U.K., Hello Ireland!

We left our cute little Three Crowns Hotel with a great breakfast. Caution: this hotel is not for tall people. Justin bumped his head on lamps, ceilings, everything! But so so cute.

We drove all day from Salisbury to Liverpool. It really shouldn’t have been that long of a trip but the traffic was terrible. Stop and go most of the way. We finally arrived in Liverpool and kicked ourselves for not staying here longer. But, we had an amazing Indian meal. The place was called Mawgli and it served Indian street food.

The next morning bright and early (9:30) we left for Dublin. We took 2 taxi’s because of all our luggage wouldn’t fit in one, then managed our way through a local train line to Chester, a Virgin train to Holyhead (the port), a shuttle to the ferry, then a ferry across to the Republic of Ireland!! Not as simple as just jumping on a ferry but not difficult at all, unless you are us and have a ton of luggage and the trains have no room for luggage.

The ferry was really nice and we upgraded to the club level that had free snacks and drinks. The seats were comfy and the WiFi was good (the most important thing for the kids)!

Very foggy when we started. It was actually very cold in Liverpool

Kind of weird to be on a boat again!

We arrived in Dublin and couldn’t get a cab even though I called for one. We need a system like in New York City. A gentleman who had a big van who transported a big group from our ferry came back to get us so we were able to get into the city. He was very nice and we got his number so we can call him for our return trip.

Our first night in Dublin and what do we do?? Go out for sushi!!

Cute decor

The kitchen

Great atmosphere and great food. We have plenty of time for local foods, right??

Stonehenge and Salisbury

So, what can I say about Stonehenge. Nothing. The pictures will do the talking. It’s just so grand. So amazing. Just for fun, we were reading reviews on Stonehenge as we were driving and some of it was ridiculous. One reviewer talked only about the cafe – how it was over priced and had bad food. Seriously, it’s a tourist restaurant. Another lady wrote about 8 paragraphs about how dogs were not allowed. She was very upset. People are funny. We had a great time and thought the cafe was wonderful and even thought the gift shop was interesting.

Lots of sheep everywhere.

We decided to break up the drive and stay close to Stonehenge tonight so I found a place in Salisbury. Salisbury steak has nothing to do with this town of Salisbury- that’s an American concoction. Just setting the record straight. What a cute town. I picked this town because it was the only place close to Stonehenge that had room enough for the 5 of us. It’s turned out to be a great find. It’s a medieval cathedral city and, boy, does it have a cathedral. It’s grand and gorgeous. We couldn’t go in as there was a service going on. Actually, we could but Jayden didn’t want to. And the town is so so cute. Again, wish we could just hang out here for a few days.

Salisbury cathedral in the background while sheep graze in the foreground

The Salisbury cathedral – so grand.

Cute Main Street

Saw this on our walk and had to take a picture. Must research later.

Playing cards at The Old Mill hotel and restaurant

Our little Three Crowns Hotel. The owner completely renovated this old pub.

Warm brownie with clotted cream (clotted cream is a Cornish tradition)

The town’s most recent claim to fame is the recent assassination attempt on the Russian double agent and his daughter. The park where they were found was still roped off. There are police officers guarding the park 24/7, 12 hour shifts. Justin even talked up a cute police woman! 😜

Revelation…or family secrets

Today was a fascinating day. We started with pasties! What are pasties? It’s a cross between a calzone-look, pastry shell, and a pot pie filling. The inside can be filled with various meats and veggies. Everyone had a traditional one with meat, potatoes, turnips, and onions, and I had one with a Thai filling. Yummy!

Oh, while at the pasty shop we ran into this!!

We took the pasties and went to Roche Rock for lunch. Perched on top of this big rock was a chapel dedicated to St. Michael in 1409. How the heck did they build a chapel on top of this rock?? Seriously, what effort! They really must have liked the rock. Actually, it is a pretty impressive rock and you see as far as you can imagine from this place.

We even picked some fresh wild blackberries along the way.

We then went to see dead Higmans.

This must have been the church that the Higmans attended. Richard traces the Higmans back to Roche in Cornwall.

I think it was dated to about the 1100s.

Then, we walked through the cemetery and saw a bunch of Higmans’ tombstones.

I know you can’t see most of these but it’s very interesting and very old.

So the scandal. We are actually not Higmans but Sticks. We think that Thomas Stick was a farmer and Jenepher Higman worked for him. It was believed that Jenepher had Thomas Stick’s baby but they were not married. Thomas Stick’s father left money for Thomas to provide for John (Higman) until he was 18. But, because John was illegitimate he took his mother’s last name. John was the one who left Cornwall for the U.S. So, we could have easily been Sticks. Actually, by surname, we are Sticks.

We also visited the house John (Stick) Higman was born, what we believe to be the Stick farm.

Ok, now we have a whole new branch of family to explore.

The Roche area is known for China clay (the kind they make plates and such from), tin, and slate. They were all the best in the world but many factories have closed due to cheaper (and lesser quality). We also happened upon a huge slate quarry. This was the largest hole in Europe but has since been overtaken.

Many walls along the road are made of stacked slate. It’s really quite neat.

Some more beautiful views of Trevone Beach where Richard Higman and family live.

And, I met the Queen Mother. What a trip!!

Now, we are off to see Stonehenge!

Higmans, meet the Higmans

After a long drive (as in all day) we arrived in Cornwall. I didn’t know that Cornwall had been independent country. Also, people from Cornwall are Cornish. Cornish hens are from here. They still speak as if they’re independent. This is where Justin’s family is from. Through Facebook, we met his 7x cousin once removed. That means Justin’s dad is the 7th cousin.

Just as a side note, I’m posting this one via my phone as the WiFi at this place is less than desirable.

We went to an amazing little hotel with a pub on the coast called the Port William. It’s on the west coast so the sunset was beautiful. It’s literally on a cliff side. The roads were crazy narrow and directions on GPS were not great. But, we found it and in one piece. Views were amazing as was the food. Yummy!!

The next day we set off to meet cousin Richard and his family. They were as great as we expected. They live in Padstow, a very very charming town on the coast. They’re beach people like us. We had a nice surprise in that another one of our cousins was visiting from Essex so we got to meet him too.

Left to Wright: Michael (Richard’s son) Richard (the one who found us) , Mick (from Sussex), Jill (Mick’s wife), and Paula (Richard’s wife). They were so welcoming and funny!! We had such a great time with them.

Below is their house and the Queen Mother welcomed us (look in the window).

They took us to the center of town where there was so much activity. The visitors are mostly domestic and it’s very crowded. Of course we sat down for amazing food again.

If you’re ever in the U.K., come visit Padstow. It’s so so cute!!

In the time we were standing there the tide came in and totally covered up the sandbar.

It’s all real!

We are in Glasgow today. It’s cloudy and rainy so we are taking it easy and getting some work done. Yesterday was a long drive day and tomorrow will be a long drive day so we’re taking some time to just chill and do some laundry. The European Championships are being held here, too, so no tours today. There’s a closing ceremony tonight that we might try to see.

We visited Inverness and the Isle of Skye yesterday and it was truly magical. I don’t think the pictures will do it justice. Around every corner of the Isle was one more amazing view after another. A day here is definitely not enough. A week is not enough!

Inverness is a bustling little city. There is a quaint riverwalk with hotels/B&Bs and lots of restaurants everywhere. The River Ness connects with Loch Ness, where Nessie lives 🙂 We stayed right across the river from the Castle in town and there was a procession of bagpipes in the early evening. Weather wasn’t great as it rained some, but it could definitely have been worse.

We made a trek to see Nessie today. Started at the Museum, which was really informative but kind of corny and old. They definitely need to update their presentation a bit but it was fine. We spotted her!

Look, we found Nessie

Such beautiful scenery

Urquhart Castle stands over Lochness and is one of the largest castles in the Highlands. The castle was founded in the 13th century and played a role in the Scottish independence in the 14th century. You’ll see that one Higman is missing. She is sleeping in the car.

The tallest tower

catapult

Jevyn looking into the distance.

Where is Jevyn??

Found him again!

Picturesque

Pretty awesome!

Castle from a distance

Then, a nice Indian lunch/dinner. Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs. Jevyn said he bets all the restaurants love it when we come because we order so much. Yes, I bet that is true. It was definitely delicious and we took our leftovers home for dinner.

Lots of food

So so yummy

Next day we were off to the Isle of Skye. It was a “don’t miss” on all of the research we did. Seriously, we could have spent a week here. It is very busy during the summer so if you want to come and spend any amount of time here, book your accommodations early. A great surprise was that we bumped into our ss Rotterdam! And, even saw some of the people who we cruised with.

There’s our ms Rotterdam!

cute salt & pepper shakers

menu boards at Cafe Arriba

funniest bathroom yet!

I can’t believe we forgot to take pictures of the food. It was delicious, especially the muscles!

Now, the scenery. Apparently, they’re filming a spin off of the King of Thrones here. Highlanders is filmed here and inspired by the area as well. This area is known for hiking and Scotland is also a Free to Roam country — remember from Norway? So, you can pitch a tent anywhere, even on private property. Again, there are rules but this is pretty cool. So, if you want to just wonder around, there is plenty to see if you like to hike. The manager of our place in Inverness is from the Netherlands and she moved here because she likes to hike. We understand why.

Highlander Cows – they’re hairy and fluffy with long bangs

Sheep are EVERYWHERE!!!

Beautiful waterfalls throughout

No words

The fam!

This is definitely a place we’d like to come back to and spend a couple of weeks. The amazing scenery never ends. It was quite cold, though, and it’s the middle of the summer. We saw some guys working in tank tops. I guess it’s worm for them!

Tomorrow is a long drive day down to Cornwall so there won’t be much. We are catching up with Justin’s distant relative who we found through Ancestry.com. He has traced the Higmans back to the 1300s and he’s willing to show us all is research. This will definitely be a highlight for us. Stay tuned….

Itinerary

Many of you have been asking about our itinerary. So, here it is.

First leg was Amtrak from Omaha, NE to Boston, MA. We spent a few days in Boston then on to the ms Rotterdam. We have learned that Holland America is targeted to the older crowd. But, Justin and I enjoyed it because it was so laid back. Kids… not so much because there wasn’t much to do.

cruise itinerary

This route isn’t completely right. We didn’t go to Stavanger, Norway. Instead, we went to Alesund and Eidfjord.

We missed 2 ports due to weather — Red Bay and Paamiut.

We have now been to London (overnight only but we will be heading back at the end of the month), Edinburgh, and Inverness. We are headed to Isle of Skye tomorrow then to Glasgow.

That’s it for now.