Posted 2:45 PM by MelanieandSteve
Blogger update 8/16/03

No, There isn’t anything wrong with the web site (as far as we know). We just haven’t updated the blogs in a while. Hopefully, we can remember all the fun we’ve had since last update.

This blog is to include Normandy, Ireland, the UK, and briefly back to the USA

NORMANDY:
When we last chatted with you, we were both absorbed in the middle of a good book. It’s difficult for two people to be in the middle of the same book, but we worked it out. We were reading “The Longest Day”, which gave us a very personalized and edifying look into June 6, 1944, D-Day. First we read it. Then we saw it. Our look at Normandy was powerfully moving because of this background knowledge. We saw the Church of St. Mere Eglise where the first paratroopers dropped and one got caught on a steeple hanging alive for hours. Then at Omaha and Utah beaches, where Nazi bunkers still stand, we walked on the beaches and envisioned ourselves in the shoes of the invading soldiers vulnerably rushing ashore under a storm of fire. Between the two American beaches were the cliffs of Point du Hoc. Here soldiers scaled hundreds of feet while Nazis cut their ropes, fired at them, and hurled grenades their way. Above the cliffs, the ground is still lined with bomb craters. We ended by visiting the beautiful and chilling graveyard pictured in “Saving Private Ryan” honoring over 9000 soldiers who died in WWII. So inspired by Normandy, we have begun this week (August) to watch the mini series “Band of Brothers” chronicling one regiment’s journey through the war.

While in Normandy, we also picked up some older history by studying a 70 meter tapestry, circa 1066, depicting the conquest of England by the Norman Duke, William the Conqueror (former AKA, William the Bastard).

Steve celebrated his birthday in Normandy with a day at the beach, Omaha.

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
We started off the new month, July, on a new land, catching an overnight ferry to Southern Ireland. Both on the ship and later on land, We were treated to some traditional Irish music and dancing Riverdance-style, as well as lots of the less formal “Irish Trad” music (traditional) playing nightly at local pubs throughout Ireland. A good time was had in one small pub when a group of locals suddenly moved the chairs and tables to the side to make a larger dance floor and began to show us some of their fun folk dancing (similar to square dancing in the states). Irish enjoy having fun.

It has been interesting to observe the differences in peoples’ circadian rhythms from country to country. In Spain, for example, the bars are open until 4am or later and the people don’t seem to ever stop partying. But Ireland – a land associated with festivity –closes everything down at 11pm. Our own rhythms lies somewhere in between.

Highlights in our Republic of Ireland days were:
-Tour of Waterford Crystal Factory in Waterford
-Brushed up on Irish History by watching the movie, “Michael Collins.”
-A night in Cashel in a hostel nestled between a castle on the hill and the castle-like ruins of a cathedral. It looked like a post card, mistily resting in a huge grassy field, as Irish as scenery gets.
-Cultural center at Bru Brun Irish dancing and dance theater. The formal show was followed by an informal evening mixing with the performers and sharing some singing, poetry, and dance talents of the audience members. Steve wowed them with his old break dancing skills, and they asked for more.
-Trip to the Blarney Castle after a night in Cork. We kissed the “Blarney Stone”, which was so named by Elizabeth I, and is believed to give a person who kisses it the gift of gab (or eloquent speaking). Legend has it that the stone was Moses’ pillow on the mount the night he received the 10 commandments.
-Two nights in a Haunted Mansion in Dingle. Supposedly, the Earl of Cork killed his yound peasant wife here in Room E … Our room. (No sightings, unfortunately)
-30 mile bike ride around Dingle Peninsula – appreciating gorgeous scenery and ocean cliff-sides, reminiscent of the beautiful cliffs on highway 1 in CA. Dingle includes the western most point of all of Europe and the closest point to home.
-2 nights in Galway with a stop at the beach, a walking self-tour (including tributes to JFK), a walk through the fishing town of Claddaugh where the Claddaugh rings originated (the two hands and heart, often used as Irish wedding rings). Visited the place of the first “Lynching” named after mayor Lynch who hung his own murderous son without trial. We met the real Homer Simpson. Really, he looked exactly exactly like Homer. We were both noticing this, and when Mel asked him what he does for work, he answered “I’m Homer Simpson” – explaining that he was a console operator at a nuclear power plant. Weird. He’s an American that loves Ireland so much he was on his 7th trip.
-A night in Dublin: Walked everywhere. Observed high Tea at high-end Shelbourne’s Hotel (where “Presidents and Kings have had high tea” according to Homer Simpson). At a cost of $60, we really we only ‘observed’. Toured the Guinness factory ending at the gorgeous night time 360 degree Dublin-view sky bar.

NORTHERN IRELAND

This ‘country’ was as intensely interesting and surprising as anything we’ve seen. “Country” is in quotes because it’s sovereign, but pays taxes to England.

The history in Northern Island is bloody, cold, divided, and still in the making. But the People in Northern Ireland were among the warmest, quirkiest, funniest, and most enjoyable.

This seems to be a classic territory for gang warfare. The two gangs are not the Catholics and Protestants, as American media often calls it, -- but Loyalists (extremist Protestants loyal to Britan and the Church of England) and the Republicans (extremist Catholics who want to unite with the Southern Irish Republic). They each have their own turf area of town. And, believe it or not, there is actually a government supported wall that runs between their two turfs, standing taller than the Berlin wall, just as grafittied, and separating the two groups. If one crosses over into the other’s turf, his or her “health will be extremely at risk” according to our personal tour guide. You can feel the tension there. And when you ask people questions, they may be willing to answer, but almost universally they lower their chin and answer in a hushed secretive voice.

Well there is also Catholic and Protestant moderate majority areas, and their parts of town are comfortable and friendly. However when we ask questions there, we get the same head bowed secretive response.

It was difficult to see a resolution. Once, England took over Ireland. 700 years later, Ireland was still fighting for it’s country back.. England agreed to give most of it back. Some Irish men felt that if you steal something, you have to give it All back. Others in the North were glad to be part of England. Who’s right? Jury’s still out. People are willing to die, and kill over this. 10 Catholics consciously starved to death in a Northern Irish prison during our life times. Over the centuries, both sides have massacred thousands of the others. The Protestants have murals honoring the men massacred Catholics or were martyred in conflict. The Catholics have monuments to their dead. And due to the wall, neither sees the other’s displays.

We were there in July - - the season that the protestants celebrate their side. They march the streets, they play in bands, and they have humongous bonfires throughout the city. We missed the midnight bonfires but we saw the banners and the wood piles stacked bigger and wider than city buildings. On top, they throw Irish Flags and dummies of the pope to burn.

Sad, hard to believe, juvenile, and tense.


Highlights in Northern Ireland included:
-Tour of City Hall. City Hall in Belfast is a bigger deal and more important to the people than most city halls in the states. This is the hub of so many of their struggles, and the hall includes representatives from all political parties –loyalists, republicans (Sinn Fein), moderates etc…
-Tour of Linen Library: We heard about this historic library which compiles information on the Irish “Troubles” and asked for a tour. The chief librarian agreed to give us a personal tour, including taking us into his office to show us some of his favorite very old books. Mostly we appreciated the history he filled us in on.
-Personal tour by Norman, the taxi driver, in a traditional Black Cab. Norman knew it all, and what he didn’t know, he looked up in his books he brought along.
-Enjoyed the friendly people: outstandingly friendly. Our hostel owner went way out of her way to help us with travel arrangements. Strangers would stop to offer us help. When we left the hostel to walk to the ferry station, one stranger leaned out of his window and yelled to ask if we needed any help with directions. They are a special people.

SCOTTLAND, WALES, ENGLAND

We Loved the rest of the UK (Scottland, Wales, and England). We could tell from our mere snippet of time there that it was a very special place full of warm friendly people. It was also replete with stunning landscape. But we were nearing our departure date, and could not give them anything near the time they deserved. Our Eurrail train pass was not good in the UK, so we were paying hefty prices to get around, and that was another reason to keep our visit short. We plan on returning in the future to give it our undivided attention. The short time we were there, however, was enough to make friends, meet with friends, relax and recoup, and still learn a bit.

Highlights of the UK include:
-Meeting Scotts, Murray, Wilma and their grown kids Katie and Murray Jr.. At the Ayr, Scottland train station, a man returning from two weeks work at the oil rigs named Murray overheard that our youth hostel was permanently closed. He stood there jovially eating his black pudding and French fries, and stepped forward to offer us some chips and a place to stay – his home. We popped into the black taxi cab, back packs and all, and headed for his hometown of Crosshill. We were some surprise to his wife Wilma who hadn’t seen Murray, in a couple weeks. But she welcomed us openly, gave us a place to sleep, and even served us a good filling dinner. We were in heaven. Better than the food and warm home was sitting up for hours talking with them. Turns out Wilma and Murray were also travelers. They once headed for Australia with $20 in their pockets, and ended up spending 16 years there, total. We’ve seen that travelers tend to enjoy helping travelers. We’ll forget neither this fun, funny, generous, warm family nor Murray Jr. who gave up his bedroom for us that night.
-A visit to Robert Burns’ (“Rabbie Burns’) birthplace on Wilma and Murray’s suggestion. Robert Burns wrote O’uld Lang Sine and Tam o’ Shanter, and the Scotts think he’s the best poet to have walked the Earth. We walked his sweet little birth place cottage and surrounding museum. Next to it we crossed the real Brig o’ Doon (bridge of Doon).
-Glasgow: Stopped in Glasgow, but didn’t give it the time we assume it deserved.
-Llandudno, Wales: Steve’s Aunt and Uncle from North Carolina, Sharron and Kenny, just happened to be in the area following the footsteps of the Romans. We met them in this coastal town and all enjoyed a fabulous meal at their water front hotel, their generous treat. The conversation was unhalting and we hated to ended it as it ran into the night. They headed off the next morning. We stayed and relaxed, walked on the beach, read in the sun, and renewed ourselves. A perfect day.
-London, Parliament: Melanie regretted that Parliament was closed when she tried to go in February. We gave it another try. Today it was in session. We sat in as they discussed whether there should be an independent investigation on how Tony Blair got his information about Iraq. For a country where attorney’s wear wigs and are known for acting formally, it was a surprise to see parliament people sitting with their feet up on desks, ‘booing’ and 'here here'-ing – less formal, it seems, than the US counterpart.
-London’s unexpected day of decadence: Our airplane was overbooked and British Air was asking for volunteers to get bumped. We volunteered and not only got a stipend, but got put up in a four-star hotel and treated to three lavish buffets. You could get used to Luxury.

HOME, THE USA

No, we’re not done travelling. But we didn’t want to miss the long-time-planned Parker family reunion. We’ll be here just a couple weeks.

Many people have commented that a life of travel must be relaxing. We’d like to get the picture straight. While this travel is priceless, it is also tough. When you’re long-term backpacking from place to place, you’re never home. You can never just throw your stuff down in your room – you have to lock things up, put them under your bunk bed, put sheets on your bed, find your way around, figure out where to go, but before all that, you have to find your place to stay. That can take your whole day away from you, or half of it. And don’t unpack too far because you’ll be doing the same things tomorrow. And living out of a back pack gives you the great perspective of living on little. We never minded, but as an example, Melanie lived all five months with basically 2 shirts. She hand washed one at night and while it hung to dry, she wore the other. Sometimes when you need something, you can’t find it at a store. In short, many things we took for granted in normal life are a production in travel life. It’s fun, but that’s why we’re enjoying taking a little vacation from vacation.

We came to see things about the US that could use a little change. But we also came to appreciate some things about home, like free water in restaurants, awesome national parks with interesting animals, a great freeway system, convenient stores with affordable needs, and our families and friends.

Highlights in the US include:
-Bob and Jean (Steve’s Dad and Mom) meeting us in the Denver airport. Jean didn’t recognize Steve since Steve’s hair was so long. Mel looks the same, and that gave him away.
-The Parker Family reunion in Wilson, near Jackson Hole WY and also in Yellowstone. We rode horses, white water rafted, pitched horse shoes, played in the pool, and enjoyed lots of together time. All five Parker kids and their families, each who live in a different state, was able to make it. Yellowstone surpassed all expectations.
-Our road trip back to Denver stopping and camping at Dinosaur National Monument Quarry – the bones are still visible in the rock.
-Our safari through Wyoming’s land of wild horses.
-Our drive through Flaming Gorge and it’s geological points of interest.
-Honor and Walter (Melanie’s Mom and Dad) drove to Colorado from California for a week. We went to Rocky Mountain National Park, Hiked in Castlewood Canyon, saw the Great San Dunes (mom and dad even sledded down them their bellies), went to the botanical gardens, dad learned to play horseshoes, and enjoyed lots of quality family time on the beautiful relaxing Parker property.
-Seeing the dogs we missed like crazy: Mom and dad drove Kenya and Nedra out for a bouncy, wiggly, happy reunion – one of the greatest gifts they could give us. But we miss the pooches once again.
-And now, here in Parker, we’ve enjoyed catching up with a few friends and family, playing games, and believe it or not, we’ve enjoyed going through those bureaucratic nuisances that most people hate – like doing taxes, paying bills, getting papers in order before our next jaunt.

NEXT

It won’t be too long till we’re off again, but we don’t have a plane ticket yet, and we’re not even positive where it would go if we did, but we’ve got it narrowed down to two continents. CLIFF HANGER…