Belfast

Posted on June 22, 2019 by Cindy

Belfast City Hall
Prince Albert Memorial Clock (it lists a wee bit)
unusual steel spire on St. Anne’s Cathedral
the most bombed hotel in the world–36 times during the Troubles
fun architecture

Our last stop on this beautiful island. We couldn’t have picked a better city in which to wind up our trip. Belfast, with a population of around 350,000, is not a large city, but it’s just perfect for us. It has plenty to offer in the way of art, architecture, history, culture, and outdoor activities, and it is incredibly walkable. We’re staying in an apartment a half-mile south of city hall, and our car hasn’t left the parking lot.

the Cathedral Quarter
Pottinger’s Entry
our favorite pub, the Duke of York
inside the Duke of York
love the artwork!

Our favorite section of Belfast is the Cathedral Quarter. Off its main roads are small alleyways called “entries” that draw you in by virtue of their snugness. I feel compelled to wander down them, exploring their boutiques, restaurants, and pubs.

sheep, an icon of everything Irish
Finn MacCool’s Salmon of Knowledge, aka the Big Fish
my old friend
Thanksgiving, symbol of hope for Belfast
the weir on the River Lagan

The River Lagan waterfront has undergone a major renovation in recent years, beginning with the river itself. A weir was built across the river to allow for control of the tidal river’s water level, making the shallower stretch upstream of the harbor a friendlier place for wildlife, small boat traffic, and development. We chatted for a while with a guy who works at the weir, and he asked us if we wanted a behind-the-scenes tour. Heck, yah! He took us down into the maintenance tunnel that runs under the weir. We walked from bank to bank underneath the river!

The city has commissioned art pieces for the waterfront area as well, including my old friend, the Salmon of Knowledge. [Finn’s Causeway]

the Titanic Quarter
the beautiful new Titanic Belfast museum
shipyard cranes Samson and Goliath, icons of Belfast’s shipbuilding industry
the portal into Belfast Lough, the Irish Sea, and the world

Over the centuries, the structure of the river has been straightened and deepened to accommodate increasingly larger ships in the busy harbor. Shipbuilding, a mainstay of Belfast’s economy for centuries, reached a pinnacle in the early 20th century when emigration peaked in Ireland. In 1907 the White Star Line authorized the construction of three Olympic-class luxury liners to assist in the transport of emigrants to America. The second of the three was the HMS Titanic built by Harland & Wolff ship builders in Belfast between 1909 and 1912.

In 2012, the centennial year of Titanic’s maiden voyage and tragic sinking in the North Atlantic, Titanic Belfast, a museum commemorating not only the Titanic phenom but also Belfast’s shipbuilding industry, opened on property that once belonged to Harland & Wolff. We can attest to the quality of the exhibits; we spent three hours taking it all in. We also had lunch in the new Titanic Belfast Hotel on the property, built in the refurbished White Star Line offices. Very classy!

What was formerly known as Queen’s Island, home to Belfast’s prolific shipbuilding industry, has been renamed the Titanic Quarter and has been a huge boon to Belfast’s tourism industry. The two large, yellow Harland & Wolff (H&W) gantry cranes, nicknamed Samson and Goliath, are no longer in use, as shipbuilding has all but died in Belfast, but were left standing to pay tribute to the industry that made Belfast a major world city. They’re visible from many places throughout the city, and we’re always delighted to see them peeking around a corner.

Love at first sight

Posted on April 23, 2019 by Cindy

What is it about tall church spires that make me weak in the knees? When I first saw the Salisbury Cathedral spire in England six years ago, I couldn’t get it out of my head. I had the eeriest feeling that I had seen (dreamt of?) it before. It inspired me to read The Spire, a dark little novel by William Golding about the building of the cathedral—not the uplifting paean to Early English architecture I was hoping for, but then again he also wrote Lord of the Flies.…

The day we arrived in Cobh, we crested a hill, descended into the heart of the town, and there it was: the ridiculously tall and blatantly gothic spire of St. Colman’s Cathedral, perfectly framed by the buildings on either side of the street and the water of Cork Harbor as a backdrop. As luck would have it, our apartment is right around the corner, with a balcony and double French doors that look out over the cathedral and harbor.

Salisbury’s spire rises 404 feet above flat marshland. The vertical rise is astonishing, but you get that perspective best from a distance.

In Cobh, the spire is a mere 325 feet high, but the cathedral is built on the side of a hill. Its foundation is another 121 feet above sea level. So the spire looms 446 feet above the harbor just beyond it.

And (did I mention?) it’s right outside my window!

St. Colman’s is the first thing I look for each morning—even before my first sip of coffee (there’s not much I look for before coffee)—and the last thing I gaze upon each night. We leave the lights off in our apartment at night and watch the sky darken and the cathedral illuminate itself. What is handsome and regal by daylight becomes drop-dead gorgeous at night. I’m besotted!

Oh, Atlanta

Posted on October 28, 2018 by Cindy

view of downtown Atlanta skyline from Piedmont Park

And so the 2018 Fall Family and Friends Road Trip draws to an end. We said goodbye to Chattanooga, and my nephew and his wife, and headed for home. Atlanta, Georgia, just happened to be directly in our path, so we thought we’d stop for a few days to see what the city has to offer. It’s been almost 40 years since we last visited.

I was immediately struck by how beautiful the city is—pleasantly hilly and beautifully wooded. I read somewhere that Atlanta is the most wooded metropolitan area in the US. The trees really make you feel more like you’re in the suburbs, rather than a sprawling city. Every section we drove through felt like a cozy neighborhood I could live in. I love the architecture of the homes. Most have a traditional, but modern, feel—lots of stately brick and stone. The more contemporary homes look stunning with all that wood and glass surrounded by trees. There’s new home construction everywhere.

potting shed in Piedmont Park–not your typical Atlanta architecture!

To see the city, we rented a tandem bike and rode the marvelous Eastside Beltline, a rails-to-trails convert. First stop was Jimmy Carter’s presidential library and museum. After visiting FDR’s library last spring in Hyde Park, I’m making a point of visiting every presidential library I come across. It’s fascinating to look back on the particular challenges each president faced while in office, especially given the perspective of time. To follow the issues while they are developing is completely different, I find, than seeing how they stand up in the context of American history.

Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum

We continued north up the Beltline to the fabulous Ponce City Market where we stopped to have lunch at an amiable little Cuban restaurant. Then on to Piedmont Park, the crown jewel of Atlanta. Lots of greenery to take in and great views of the downtown skyline.

Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site

On our return to the bike rental shop, we stopped at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site. A touching tribute to a man who devoted his life to bringing about change on such an emotionally charged issue through non-violent means. That his life was ended prematurely by the violence he worked so hard to avoid is a genuine tragedy.

tomb of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King

Oh, Atlanta, we have enjoyed our time with you, but home beckons and we must go.

Chattanooga

Posted on October 23, 2018 by Cindy

the riverfront, with Lookout Mountain in the clouds

Absolutely love this city! It’s the perfect size–large enough to offer great museums, shops, and restaurants, but small enough that you can conquer it in a day. And then the rest of your stay is getting to know your favorite areas in more detail.

the Hunter Museum of American Art on a bluff overlooking the river

Our favorite area is the Bluff View Arts District. It’s not large, but it is jam-packed full of beautiful art and architecture perched high on a bluff over the Tennessee River. Our favorite part of the District was the Sculpture Garden.

These guys welcome you into the garden.

my favorite sculpture

cool–an angular Death Star?

And did I mention the food? Fortunately we have family living here who helped us hone in on the some of the best places.

amazing bakery across from the Sculpture Garden–love the architecture!

On the Delaware shore

Posted on October 6, 2018 by Cindy

observation tower at Cape Henlopen, Delaware

After Rockville, Maryland, we continued on our FFF (Family and Friends Fall) Road Trip to Bethany Beach, Delaware, where my brother and his wife have recently purchased a home.

We love these concrete observation towers along the Delaware coast. Built from 1939 to 1942 to guard the entrance to Delaware Bay after world war broke out in Europe, there are eleven on the Delaware coast and two across the bay in New Jersey. They were built to last only 20 years, but are still standing after almost 80. (And, yes, I did go up in one, despite the rusty old stairs.)

view of Delaware Bay from the top

German ships were a real threat to American shipping even before we were directly involved in the war. When the Luftwaffe was unsuccessful in defeating the Royal Air Force with its eleven-month campaign of daily air attacks against the UK (the Battle of Britain), Hitler shifted gears and imposed a naval blockade in the Atlantic, hoping to starve the British into surrender. German U-boats and destroyers patrolled off the US Atlantic coast looking for American ships headed to Britain that may contain relief supplies.

bunker with Howitzer guarding the bay

These towers are a poignant reminder, especially now that our Greatest Generation is almost gone, of the sacrifices Americans were asked to make to defend their homeland. I hope they last another eighty years. Thank you, Delaware, for honoring the memory of those who served.

On the Homestretch

Posted on June 21, 2018 by Cindy

the Homestretch B&B

As we rounded Niagara, we entered the homestretch on our counterclockwise lap around Lake Ontario. We’ve driven from Greenwich, Connecticut, up the Hudson River Valley to Hyde Park and Lake Placid, across the St. Lawrence River into Ontario, through the 1000 Islands region to Toronto and Niagara. Now we’re back in New York, crossing the Finger Lakes region and the Catskills to return to Greenwich. I was looking for a place to stay in the Finger Lakes region and recalled an article I’d read about Cooperstown, New York. Yes, we all know it as a mecca for baseball fans because of the Hall of Fame, but the article asserted that the village is a destination in its own right. So I found us a B&B just outside of Cooperstown. Appropriately, it’s called the Homestretch B&B.

The Homestretch is owned by a lovely couple. He raises thoroughbred racehorses on their 105-acre farm, refurbishes antique homes (including their own), and is a master carpenter and artist. She is an executive assistant in the local hospital network and runs the B&B, in what precious free time is left in her week. Their two grown children are on their own, so they converted the family home into this perfectly pastoral retreat.

From herbed baked eggs and French toast for breakfast on the side porch to lazy evenings with a nightcap by the fire pit, this was the ideal way to wind down our trip.

the fire pit

bonus: dogs! Bailey & Bud

Lakefront bike ride

Posted on June 14, 2018 by Cindy

Toronto Inukshuk Park

Activity for the day: a 30-kilometre (19-mile) bike ride along Lake Ontario. We rented bikes at the Harbourfront and started our tour on the west end of the lake trail at Toronto Inukshuk Park. I love these crazy man-shaped piles of rock created by the Inuits in northern Canada, Alaska, and Greenland to look like hunters lined up on the hillsides of the tundra. Two converging lines of inukshuks were used to funnel caribou into herds for easier hunting. They’ve become a symbol of native Canadian culture. Pretty ingenious, I’d say. But then, as my living room will attest, I’ve always had a fondness for stacking stones.

seven ducklings!

Next stop: Amsterdam Brewhouse for lunch. No better day than a biking day to order poutine. We eat this traditional Montréal dish every time we come to Canada: French fries topped with cheese curd and brown gravy. Comfort food at its tastiest!

poutine!

After carbo-loading, we rode the remaining nine kilometres to our easternmost destination, Tommy Thompson Park in Leslieville. You would never guess that this bird sanctuary, on a lacy peninsula extending into Lake Ontario, is so close to the city unless you happened to glance up to catch the Toronto skyline on the horizon.

Canada geese have returned for the summer

Toronto skyline from Tommy Thompson Park

the Distillery District

Our post-bike reward was visiting the Distillery District just east of Downtown. A refurbished old brick distillery originally built in 1832, it is now home to several boutiques, restaurants, cafes, and the Mill Street Brewery—forty buildings in all. According to Wikipedia, it is the largest collection of Victorian-era industrial architecture in North America. (You know how I love my superlatives!)

No spirits for us today, but we did enjoy a cold brew to help us cool off on this exceptionally warm and humid spring day. Great ride, great day!