We are back in our home, safe and sound. Long day of traveling today, but we did pull of lunch in London. Helene has her Washington monuments tour, Brian has his London in an hour tour. We saw the Millennium Wheel, The Big Ben Clocktower & Parliment (look kids, Big Ben, Parliament), Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. Also a nice London Underground experience and Paddington Station.
We saw approximately 21 hours of daylight today.
We are off to bed now...pictures to follow soon...
6.20.2007
6.19.2007
Another Quick Post
We are back in contact with the world after 5 days in the western part of Ireland. All we can really say is that it is more beautiful than someone can really describe. The best way to show someone would be with pictures...lots of pictures. We have taken over 500 since Friday morning, so...
Pictures will be up after we get home and I have a chance to work through all of the pictures and cull them down. We are flying back tomorrow morning and go to London first for a several hour layover, and then a late afternoon (London time) flight that gets us back to DC tomorrow evening (DC time). Next check-in will be from home and new pictures will be soon to follow.
Pictures will be up after we get home and I have a chance to work through all of the pictures and cull them down. We are flying back tomorrow morning and go to London first for a several hour layover, and then a late afternoon (London time) flight that gets us back to DC tomorrow evening (DC time). Next check-in will be from home and new pictures will be soon to follow.
6.15.2007
Off we go....
We have been surprisingly busy so we don't have pictures. It actually takes me a while to get pictures ready. With the new camera, to get the pictures to look really good I have to do a form of digital developing. Let me just give a quick update of where we are and where we are going. The picture is of Helene and I at the workshop (that is me in the light shirt and Helene in the green shirt standing up, thanks to Laura!).
First, Wednesday night. Wednesday night was amazing. One of the Irish, government funded, technical organizations sponsored the whole night. Buses picked us up at our hotels and chauffeured us to the Guinness Brewery. That place is huge. Of course the whole time we are driving around it, I am whistling tunes from "Willy Wonka". We pulled up to the entrance to the museum/storehouse to find that our guess was right. The place was cleared out and the JWST project had the run of the museum. I kept looking for the Ooompa Loompas. While I didn't see any (they must be quick little buggers), there was a waterfall. It was mixing the water....actually churning the water (you know, no other brewery in the world mixes its water by waterfall). In all seriousness (well a little seriousness anyway) the tour was neat and fun to learn more about what makes a Guinness a Guinness.
As we moved through the museum, we were working our way upwards in the building till we reached the banquet floor. As we came up the escalator, servers were waiting with pints of Guinness. That is the life. The dinner and Guinness were fantastic and they had a live band with an Irish dancer. Helene and I even learned a traditional group dance. I am sure there are some pictures of this floating around that I will try and get up at some point. We had a great time and can't thank our hosts enough.
Yesterday I worked some in the morning. A little more than some really. Helene took the chance to walk around Dublin some more. We met up for some lunch in Temple Bar and yesterday evening went to the taste of Dublin with our friend Curtis and his in-laws. It rained a little. Just a little. Ok, a LOT. I would say we had a plethora of rain. By the time we walked back to the hotel (for those of you that know anything about Dublin, that is a walk from the south side of St. Stephen's Green to the north side of the Liffey by the Ha'Penny Bridge) we were SOAKED. I am talking drenched here. We had rain jackets on, but it was the kind of rain that just penetrates everything. After a hot bath/shower we were both feeling much better and got a good nights sleep. Oh, Helene asked me to mention the cold. Now, it wasn't anywhere near freezing, but for the middle of June, a pouring rain in the upper 40's/lower 50's was really chilly, chilled you to the bone.
This morning we bid Dublin adieu and head off to the west coast. Today we are destined for Clifden and on Sunday we head to Doolin, on the north and south sides of Galway bay respectively. This will be my first time driving on the left side of the road so there should be some interesting stories coming out of that little adventure. We don't know if we will have internet again before Tuesday so we say farewell for now and will post when we have the ability, hopefully with lots of great pictures!
6.13.2007
A Little Work...A Little Play
Yesterday we attended some meetings in the morning but then skipped the rest of the day's discussions that we weren't involved with. We first took some pictures out by the full scale model here at the conference site. It really is amazing to see. It was on the front page of the Irish Times yesterday which was really amazing to see.
After the model we walked over to the Kilmainham Gaol (prison). This was a humbling place. Incredible to think of all of the ways people were poorly treated. Stealing a cow was considered a sentence punishable by death. During the famine people were trying to eat grass and would be imprisoned for stealing the grass of the landlords. Most humbling are the stories of the revolutionaries, particularly the 1916 revolutionaries.
After the jail we went over to the Brazen Head Pub for some lunch. This is said to be the oldest pub site in all of Ireland. There has been a pub on that site since the 12th century.
After lunch we went to Christ Church, another place that has been there since the 12th century. The statuary and stained glass are remarkable as well as some of the antiquities that they have at the church.
Finally, before we headed in for a little food and a quiet evening, we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral. The highlights here are the nearby location of the well where St. Patrick baptized many people, the tomb of Johnathon Swift, and an organ played by Handel.
We continue to have a great time. Today I (Brian) am in meetings most of the day and Helene is touring around Dublin some in the morning and then answering questions on the JWST model for the general public this afternoon. Tonight, our hosts are providing private tours (after hours) at Guinness as well as a catered dinner at Guinness with live music and I am guessing some kind of beer...
Ireland Pictures Day 6
After the model we walked over to the Kilmainham Gaol (prison). This was a humbling place. Incredible to think of all of the ways people were poorly treated. Stealing a cow was considered a sentence punishable by death. During the famine people were trying to eat grass and would be imprisoned for stealing the grass of the landlords. Most humbling are the stories of the revolutionaries, particularly the 1916 revolutionaries.
After the jail we went over to the Brazen Head Pub for some lunch. This is said to be the oldest pub site in all of Ireland. There has been a pub on that site since the 12th century.
After lunch we went to Christ Church, another place that has been there since the 12th century. The statuary and stained glass are remarkable as well as some of the antiquities that they have at the church.
Finally, before we headed in for a little food and a quiet evening, we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral. The highlights here are the nearby location of the well where St. Patrick baptized many people, the tomb of Johnathon Swift, and an organ played by Handel.
We continue to have a great time. Today I (Brian) am in meetings most of the day and Helene is touring around Dublin some in the morning and then answering questions on the JWST model for the general public this afternoon. Tonight, our hosts are providing private tours (after hours) at Guinness as well as a catered dinner at Guinness with live music and I am guessing some kind of beer...
Ireland Pictures Day 6
6.11.2007
Working For A Living
We were both actually busy today with work. We both attended the JWST Partner's Workshop. It is really neat to see how many people it takes to build something like this. There are around 300 of us here, truly from all around the world, and we represent only a fraction of the project.
There was actually a press release that news groups are starting to pick up about the meetings and the presence of the full scale JWST model on display here in Dublin (see my pictures of the same model on the National Mall). Aviation Weekly was also getting some pictures today.
News Article
Tomorrow more meetings but I think we are going to get some time for sightseeing and hopefully more pictures.
Oh, our room...
We knew The Morrison was a nice hotel to start. I called a few weeks ago and asked if we could have a room in our reserved room class with a river view. Ask and ye shall receive. We are on the top floor, the only floor with huge, almost full wall size windows, and we are two doors over from the penthouse suite. The penthouse suite where Beyonce stayed the last couple nights. Jay-Z was over partying last night. I'm hip, I'm with it...
There was actually a press release that news groups are starting to pick up about the meetings and the presence of the full scale JWST model on display here in Dublin (see my pictures of the same model on the National Mall). Aviation Weekly was also getting some pictures today.
News Article
Tomorrow more meetings but I think we are going to get some time for sightseeing and hopefully more pictures.
Oh, our room...
We knew The Morrison was a nice hotel to start. I called a few weeks ago and asked if we could have a room in our reserved room class with a river view. Ask and ye shall receive. We are on the top floor, the only floor with huge, almost full wall size windows, and we are two doors over from the penthouse suite. The penthouse suite where Beyonce stayed the last couple nights. Jay-Z was over partying last night. I'm hip, I'm with it...
Cliffs on the Coast
Finally getting Saturday's pictures up. Not easy culling 200 pictures down to the 84 keepers and then below 30 to post. You can see the various pictures from Northern Ireland now. Some of the highlights include the seaside town of Carlough, the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, and the Giant's Causeway.
Everyone needs to congratulate Helene on crossing the rope-bridge. That was a really neat experience. A rope bridge that runs from the mainland to a small island where fisherman used to work salmon traps. It is pretty high above the rocks and the sea and Helene crossed it, twice (out and back). It was well worth it, amazing views out on the island.
Bushmills was a really neat tour. The 12 year old reserve whiskey was delicious. Helene wasn't really a fan but I still love her.
Giant's Causeway is also an amazing site to see. One of the most astounding natural phenomena I have ever seen. Additionally, the views from the Causeway are amazing.
Not much from yesterday. Yesterday was more hanging around Dublin and meeting up with friends attending the workshop this week. We did walk by the conference site to find them putting the finishing touches on the setup of the full scale JWST model. It was great to see the groups of locals looking at the model and truly interested in what it is going to do.
Enjoy the pictures!
Ireland Day 3
Everyone needs to congratulate Helene on crossing the rope-bridge. That was a really neat experience. A rope bridge that runs from the mainland to a small island where fisherman used to work salmon traps. It is pretty high above the rocks and the sea and Helene crossed it, twice (out and back). It was well worth it, amazing views out on the island.
Bushmills was a really neat tour. The 12 year old reserve whiskey was delicious. Helene wasn't really a fan but I still love her.
Giant's Causeway is also an amazing site to see. One of the most astounding natural phenomena I have ever seen. Additionally, the views from the Causeway are amazing.
Not much from yesterday. Yesterday was more hanging around Dublin and meeting up with friends attending the workshop this week. We did walk by the conference site to find them putting the finishing touches on the setup of the full scale JWST model. It was great to see the groups of locals looking at the model and truly interested in what it is going to do.
Enjoy the pictures!
Ireland Day 3
6.09.2007
Quick Entry...No Pictures
We just got in from a whirlwind day in Northern Ireland. Amazing sites to see and great pictures will come tomorrow morning (well, our morning, middle of the night for most of the rest of you). For now, rest assured that I will get some of my ~150 pictures from today on Flickr. Tomorrow we start meeting up with friends coming in for the JWST Partners' Workshop and see some more sites in Dublin.
6.08.2007
Old & Then Older
Today we started our day by lounging about our hotel room a little longer than planned, so we skipped the walking tour and went to Trinity instead. We didn't skip a great big Irish breakfast though!
At Trinity we saw the Book of Kells. It is amazing to see this book, at over a thousand years old, and other books that date from nearly a century to well over a century in such wonderful condition. The artistry and scholarship it took is astonishing. The school and the Library themselves are great to see as well.
After Trinity we hopped a bus to Newgrange. We thought we had seen antiquities at Trinity! The site at Newgrange is astonishing. There are lots of questions unanswered about the people who built the tomb, but they know they were a well organized and intelligent society. The tomb itself was built 500 years before the pyramids. You can stand inside the chamber and marvel at the construction skills, sheer determination, and knowledge of the sun that was required to build the tomb.
Once we returned to Dublin we had a little food, walked around Temple Bar, realized which room was ours at the hotel (we have a really awsome room, but more on that later), and in for a relaxing evening.
Helene is asleep already and as we are up early for a Train/Bus tour up to the northern Irish coast, I had better follow suite. Pictures tomorrow from the Giant's Causeway, Bushmills, and Belfast.
Thanks for the comments! Keep 'em coming!
Ireland Day 2 Pictures
At Trinity we saw the Book of Kells. It is amazing to see this book, at over a thousand years old, and other books that date from nearly a century to well over a century in such wonderful condition. The artistry and scholarship it took is astonishing. The school and the Library themselves are great to see as well.
After Trinity we hopped a bus to Newgrange. We thought we had seen antiquities at Trinity! The site at Newgrange is astonishing. There are lots of questions unanswered about the people who built the tomb, but they know they were a well organized and intelligent society. The tomb itself was built 500 years before the pyramids. You can stand inside the chamber and marvel at the construction skills, sheer determination, and knowledge of the sun that was required to build the tomb.
Once we returned to Dublin we had a little food, walked around Temple Bar, realized which room was ours at the hotel (we have a really awsome room, but more on that later), and in for a relaxing evening.
Helene is asleep already and as we are up early for a Train/Bus tour up to the northern Irish coast, I had better follow suite. Pictures tomorrow from the Giant's Causeway, Bushmills, and Belfast.
Thanks for the comments! Keep 'em coming!
Ireland Day 2 Pictures
Greetings From Ireland
We arrived yesterday safe and sound in Dublin. Neither of us slept great on the flight so there wasn't a ton of energy left for tourism. You'll notice that a few of the images for the day are from our Hotel room.
Speaking of which, we are in a beautiful room right on the Liffey river and have a great view of the city, the river, and The Clarence hotel directly across the river. This is the hotel owned by U2. Helene is really hoping to see Bono...REALLY hoping to see Bono...
We are getting ready to head off to breakfast now. We are going to take a walking tour of some of the monuments this morning and then it is off to Newgrange this afternoon.
Oh....and the Guinness really is better...
Ireland Day 1 Pictures
Speaking of which, we are in a beautiful room right on the Liffey river and have a great view of the city, the river, and The Clarence hotel directly across the river. This is the hotel owned by U2. Helene is really hoping to see Bono...REALLY hoping to see Bono...
We are getting ready to head off to breakfast now. We are going to take a walking tour of some of the monuments this morning and then it is off to Newgrange this afternoon.
Oh....and the Guinness really is better...
Ireland Day 1 Pictures
6.06.2007
Off To Ireland
We are off to Ireland today. We get into Dublin (after a brief layover at Heathrow) at around 10:30 tomorrow morning Dublin time. We will take pictures and update the blog as we get a chance.
Seriously. Stop laughing. I am going to update. You watch.
Seriously. Stop laughing. I am going to update. You watch.
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