Goodwood - the Good, the Wet and the Ugly.

Our next adventure was the Goodwood Revival on Sep 13 & 14.  

Warning:  this is mostly about cars and racing.  And Fred said I had to add a bunch of pictures. :-)

The Revival is a celebration of races that took place at the Goodwood Motor Circuit from the fifties to the sixties.  It's a party where you think you've been transported back in time.  All of the cars, the service vehicles inside the track, and the clothing of many of the spectators are from that era.  

Even the mechanics wear vintage clothing:

For the Revival, we flew from Dublin to Gatwick Airport and then drove our rental car to Bognor Regis, where we were staying, about 50 miles.  We drove through 35 roundabouts!!!

Bognor Regis is a small beach town on the southern coast and about nine miles from the Goodwood Motor Circuit where the Goodwood Revival is held.  This is the closest we've ever stayed to Goodwood.  (Unfortunately, the blue sky you see below was from Monday after the races.)

The Goodwood Motor Circuit is a road course built on an old airport. It's the perfect place for the Revival.  All the vehicles inside the confines of the track have to be period vehicles.  So, the tow vehicles, the food trucks and the people haulers are all vintage.  Vintage airplanes take off from and land on the infield during the event (though not usually while racing is going on) and fly low overhead.

We met up with our friends Jaime and Whitney from Alexandria, who were fully into the costume mode.  Here's a picture of Jaime in all his glory:

And Fred with Jaime and Whitney, who had just had her hair done. (I took this with Jaime's iPhone--thanks to Jaime for sending it to me!)

Between the races, the people and the air show, we never know where to look when we're at Goodwood.   Below, part of the airshow--a P-51 Mustang and a British Spitfire.

On Friday, the highlight was watching the Minis qualify in the St Mary's Trophy for "Saloons of the type that raced between 1960 and 1966." (Saloon is British for Sedan.) They are grouped together regardless of size, engine displacement or class.  Note the Ford Galaxie, the Cortina and the Alfa in the pic below. It was a damp track that was made for the Minis.  (Why is it Ford Galaxie and not Galaxy?)

Unfortunately, by the end of the day it started raining rather hard, and for safety reasons, the scheduled 90-minute final race was called after an hour.  

Though not soon enough for this 1951 HW Alta-Jaguar (3.4L), which hit the wall right in front of where we were watching.  Note the lack of roll bar.  Modern roll bars are not required.  As far as we know, the driver was a bit stunned but otherwise OK.

  

Even though the race ended early, it was dark (and still raining) as we walked to our car.  

And walked.  And walked.  Even though, in the morning, we had carefully noted the row number where our car was parked, we exited the track into a different lot entirely and could not find the car!  After much walking and asking for help while getting wetter and wetter, we finally saw the headlights flash in the distance when we tried the key remote.  Note to Goodwood: have the row number start with the letter name of the lot.  Note to ourselves: pay more attention.

On Saturday, it was still damp but not as rainy as the day before.  The racing was fantastic.  

The St Mary's Trophy, where the Minis race, was fabulous, but I think the highlight for Fred was to see twenty-six Ford GT40s race together.  The start of that race, shown below:

A fun moment was being waved into the private paddock area by one of the paddock officials after Fred asked if he couldn't turn his back for a second. LOL, it worked!  We got some awesome pictures.

There was a lot of red paint everywhere.  Maseratis...

Alfas...

A green Ferrari in the midst of all that red?  Say it ain't so!

GT40 after GT40.  Fred was swooning.

C-Types.  I was swooning...

This one won its race.

As at any race circuit, the work goes on between races.

British F1 World Champion Jim Clark's Lotus-Climax 21.  Fred saw him race in this car at Watkins Glen in 1961, in the first Formula One race Fred ever saw.  The tribute to Jim Clark at Goodwood was fantastic.  Clark co-holds the Goodwood course record, set in 1965, in a Lotus-Climax 25 (with Jackie Stewart in a BRM).

We had a great time both days watching the cars at the first turn and enjoying our picnic lunch.  Below, the obligatory photo of Fred eating.

The fans were riveted. (To the racing, not to Fred eating.)

This was our fourth Goodwood Revival, and while it was great, the event has gotten huge.  One could hardly move on the circuit grounds.  However, I still say it is the single best automotive event I've ever been to.  (I probably should stop telling people that--too many people are listening to me!) The racing is simply fantastic.  The drivers race the cars "as if they stole them" as the saying goes.  And the cars themselves--it's hard to believe some of these cars are still around, let alone out there on the track.  And the airplanes....  And the spectator clothing....  Sigh...  

If you want to go, get your tickets early and your lodging earlier.  The event sold out by mid-August this year.

Next:  Portsmouth and the Mary Rose.

Ireland - New Ross, Killarney and the Dingle Peninsula

You can't have a rainbow without the rain.  After a couple of sunny days in Dublin, the real Irish weather returned.  We were told that it rained almost every day in Ireland, and we can't really argue with that. But this rainbow accompanied us most of the morning as we drove from our B&B in Killarney to the Dingle Peninsula, so we couldn't really complain.

But I'm jumping ahead in the story.  

We left Dublin with no real plan, just to see where the roads took us.  

They eventually took us to New Ross in central southern Ireland.  New Ross is famous for its most famous emigrant--Patrick Kennedy, the great-grandfather of President Kennedy.  Patrick Kennedy left Ireland during the Great Famine in 1848.  The rest is, you know, history.  

President Kennedy visited the Kennedy homestead just outside New Ross in 1963. It was a very big deal then, and still is today for the town.  Pictures and banners of the President are everywhere downtown. Members of the family still own and live in the actual homestead but have opened the grounds, a few outbuildings and a very well done visitor center to the public.  The private home, below is where the President had tea with his cousin. The courtyard was filled with poiticians the press and local people who had been invited. 

We ended up staying overnight in New Ross, a nice small town on a river.  Apparently it had been a major inland port since the 12th century.  Patrick Kennedy emigrated from there in one of the saling ships known as "famine ships" and you can tour one in the harbor if you wish.  They aren't very big.  We looked at it and thought about how desperate someone would have to be to leave on a ship that small.

We decided to make Killarney our base for exploring Killarney National Park and the Dingle Peninsula.  We found a lovely historic B&B (above) literally across the street from the Park, and it came with a donkey!  What more could one ask for?  The donkey's name is Paddy.

Killarney National Park is beautiful.  That's all you really need to know.  Go there.  Leave now.

If you're a data geek, here are some factoids--it was the first national park in Ireland, created when the Muckross Estate was donated in 1932.  It's over 25,000 acres in size and, according to Wikipedia, is one of the very few places in Ireland that has been continuously covered by woodland since the end of the most recent glacial period, about 10,000 years ago. 

We loved that, from the B&B, we could just walk into the park and around one of the lakes.  There are well marked trails.  Many are used for walkers, bikers and horse carts (called "jaunting carts") but some are designated for walkers only.  The jaunting carts are quite popular, and you do have to watch where you walk.  An admittedly poor picture of a jaunting cart:

Our first walk took us to the Friory, established in 1445 and broken up by Cromwell in 1652.

Hauntingly beautiful and serene, and amazingly accessible.  We were able to climb to the second floor and would have ascended the tower if Fred's efforts to pick the lock with our room key had worked.

This incredibly ancient yew tree was planted in the courtyard.  Could it have been planted before Cromwell destroyed the Friory?  Probably not, but there are yew trees in the park that are 200 years old.

The walls of the friory stand sentinel over the cemetary, which is still in use today.

We also visited Ross Castle, a 15th century tower house.  We took the guided tour inside which has been restored in part.  The tour gave a very detailed look at life in that time period.  And went up and down a lot of very tiny spiral staircases.

A pair of rooks, a kind of crow, at the Castle.  The older one is in the foreground with the white bill.  We also saw a pair of white-tailed eagles at the lake, part of a population re-introduced in 2007.

We walked to the Torc Waterfall from the B&B only to discover that the tour buses got there first!  Bedlam!  Our serenity was seriously disturbed.  But it was an overall pleasant walk of a couple miles, round trip, greatly enhanced by the presence of toilets at the falls and by the jaunting carts going by on the footpaths.

Our last day at the park we drove to the grounds of Muckross House, built in 1843 and the basis for the original park.  The gardens are phenomenal, and worthy of a visit even if you don't want to visit the house.  Great photo ops and walking paths.  The grounds also have a visitor center and a working farm.

I'lll add a picture of Muckross House after we get home (different camera) or you can Google it.

You might have noticed I still haven't mentioned the Dingle Peninsula.  Dingle deserves its own blog entry....so that's next.

Belfast and the Peace Wall

Aside from seeing the Titanic, we wanted to go to Belfast to contrast it to Dublin and learn more about the "Troubles" and the divison of Ireland.  Of course, the equivalent of about two days in Dublin and an afternoon in Belfast doesn't even skim the surface of this very complicated history, but it's what we had.

Our guide at the Kilmainheim Gaol in Dublin had told us that the line to divide Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland was drawn to include as many "Loyalists" (to the UK) as possible in the North.  "Gerrymandering," I said.  "Yes, exactly!"

And that was obvious when we took our tour of Belfast.  In part of the city, British flags are everywhere.  The streets were lined with the Union Jack.  The "Loyalists" are largely Protestant and the "Nationalists" are largely Catholic. 

We were shown part of the "Peace Line" along the Falls Road that separates, still, parts of eastern and western Belfast--separating the Protestant and Catholic sections.  There are "Peace Gates" which are closed at sundown.  The Peace Lines were started in the sixties, meant to be temporary, but have been lengthened and made stronger since then, including after the Belfast Agreement in 1998.  A survey last year indicated that 69% of residents think the walls are still necessary to curb violence.

The murals of Belfast, many painted on the walls, are famous and quite a tourist attraction.  There are murals depicting both sides of the schism.  The first picture, at the top of this entry, is Fred looking at a mural celebrating black freedom fighters and heroes from around the world--Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Sojourner Truth, Barack Obama.  Obviously, we're passing Frederick Douglas...who apparently visited Ireland in the 1840s.

The one below is to poet and IRA member Bobby Sands, who joined the IRA at age 16 and died in prison leading the the 1981 hunger strike.  The following mural has one of his poems on it.  Reportedly, Nelson Mandela was inspired to do his hunger strike by Bobby Sands.  This is apparently a popular photo op for nationalist politicians.

The mural below is notable for the two murals it contains (Ignore the Jeep ad...).  One is to Ulster Defense Association (Loyalist) member Robert Dougan, who was shot in his car by the IRA in 1998 after the cease fire in 1994.  The other is to Northern Ireland footballer George Best, who died in 2005 of complications of a liver transplant.  Best said of his career "I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars--the rest I just squandered."

We read that some want to take down the political murals as they are seen as divisive, and want them replaced with murals celebrating celebrities, such as the one about George Best.  I hope that doesn't have to happen, but I can also understand the point.

Some more murals...

 

You can take a virtual tour of the murals at http://www.virtualbelfastmuraltour.com/.

Having just been to the Celebration of the 1963 March of Washington, we couldn't help comparing the battle led by Martin Luther King, using non-violent acts of civil disobedience, with the violence across Ireland, north and south.  It's sad that the divisiveness continues today....

The bus dropped us off back in town and we started walking toward (we hoped) the train station.  Those who know Fred will not be surprised to learn that we decided to stop for a snack. :D

We found this quaint shopping area, complete with Apple Store:

Compare it to this building we passed on the bus:

After our snack, we asked a pleasant-looking man walking past for directions to the station.  He promptly reversed direction and guided us to where we could see the station, probably a half mile out of his way!  We had a great talk; it turned out he was in charge of the giraffes at the Belfast Zoo. 

We made the last train out of Belfast for Dublin that night.  That should also not surprise anyone....

Afterword:  we spent the next several days in The Republic of Ireland, but saved our Pounds Sterling to use when we returned to England.  Much to our surprise, they are not accepted in England!  We thought pounds sterling would be pounds sterling?

Next: exploring southern Ireland

A Nation Once Again.

When boyhood's fire was in my blood 

I read of ancient freemen, 
For Greece and Rome who bravely stood, 
Three hundred men and three men; 
And then I prayed I yet might see 
Our fetters rent in twain, 
And Ireland, long a province, be. 
A Nation once again! 

A Nation once again, 
A Nation once again, 
And lreland, long a province, be 
A Nation once again! 

And from that time, through wildest woe, 
That hope has shone a far light, 
Nor could love's brightest summer glow 
Outshine that solemn starlight; 
It seemed to watch above my head 
In forum, field and fane, 
Its angel voice sang round my bed, 
A Nation once again! 

It whisper'd too, that freedom's ark 
And service high and holy, 
Would be profaned by feelings dark 
And passions vain or lowly; 
For, Freedom comes from God's right hand, 
And needs a Godly train; 
And righteous men must make our land 
A Nation once again! 

So, as I grew from boy to man, 
I bent me to that bidding 
My spirit of each selfish plan 
And cruel passion ridding; 
For, thus I hoped some day to aid, 
Oh, can such hope be vain ? 
When my dear country shall be made 
A Nation once again!

--Traditional Irish song of rebellion, written in the 1840s.   It was played on the bus we took in Dublin.  Which, of course, is part of "a nation once again"--the Republic of Ireland.  The nationalists in Northern Ireland are still waiting.