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Llywindatravels 2019

~ Around the world with Two Suitcases

Llywindatravels 2019

Category Archives: Lyra

Interim–October in Santa Barbara

03 Saturday Nov 2018

Posted by winifredcreamer in California, Lyra

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Festivals, Food

We left Peru with great fanfare, but didn’t get all the way to New Zealand in one hop, we stopped for a month in Santa Barbara, CA. It was a month of relaxation, walks on the beach, exploring the area, and wine-tasting–this is California, after all.

We visited the Avocado Festival in Carpenteria, and the Harbor Festival opening the season for California spiny lobster in Santa Barbara, and ate a few spiny lobster. We tasted wine in Los Olivos, Solvang, and Ojai. Ojai is a town with family history, as Jonathan attended at least part of 8th grade there during his peripatetic childhood following his artist parents around the western US and Mexico.

10.13.18 making lobstersm
10.13.18 making lobster-001cr

As if this were not enough fun, we had visits with friends and family, taking advantage of being on the west coast. It was wonderful.  We had a chance to visit Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) and see Amanda’s experiment that is the basis for her M.A. thesis. At lunch, Amanda and Jonathan made fun of my taking selfies with a regular camera. Why not?

We stayed in a lovely Airbnb, a bungalow remodeled into an open plan living/dining/kitchen area with seating areas outside on both sides of the house providing shaded seating at all times of day. We shared a bit of the yard, and the outdoor shower, with a neighbor in the apartment on one side, but that did not prove to be a problem in large part because of the delightful tenant, Jackie, and her temporary guests Lucas, Henna, and Montana (3 months). A cute baby is always nice to have as a neighbor.

10.2.18 Airbnb Santa Barbara Marys Garden-007sm
10.2.18 Airbnb Santa Barbara Marys Garden-005sm

Under the pineapple guava (feijoa) tree with Kneave and Linda.

Our home was surrounded by perfect contemporary landscaping, terraces of succulents down the small hillside lot made the area seem larger. The tiers and pots of plants were interspersed with just the right number of citrus trees, one of each: grapefruit, oranges, Meyer lemons, lemons, and limes, along with an avocado and a persimmon tree. The persimmons were just ripening, dotting their tree with small bright orange fruit. Jonathan made multi-citrus marmalade, a gorgeous orange-gold color and tasty into the bargain. There were days when we could easily have sat on the terrace all day. In no time, it was time to leave for the airport again.

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Thanksgiving in the Heartland

01 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by winifredcreamer in Illinois, Lyra, Peggy

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Midwest, Thanksgiving

The weather moderated for Thanksgiving. It was mild and pleasant, and we shared our feast with our friend Peggy and with Lyra, visiting from New York. You won’t see Lyra in any of the photos because she was sick on Thanksgiving Day, and we let her sit out the pictures.

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I am thankful for my wonderful family and friends.

For recipes, see:http://llywindarecipes.wordpress.com

 

 

 

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Something new: the toe of Manhattan

13 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by winifredcreamer in Lyra, New York

≈ 1 Comment

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Museums, walks

Wall Street with the spire of Trinity Church in the background.


I thought I knew about Manhattan, having visited quite a bit while growing up and having lived in couple of neighborhoods. I’ve ridden on the Staten Island Ferry and been to the Statue of Liberty. Both require you to go to the toe of Manhattan. What I skipped over until this trip was the neighborhood just inland from the Battery that includes Wall Street. Now that Lyra lives there, we stopped in for a visit and it is a very enjoyable part of the city.

We stayed at the Wall Street Inn (on S. William St.), a very comfortable small hotel with an excellent breakfast included. It’s also near subway stops, but its greatest asset is being located right around the corner from our daughter’s apartment, by Delmonico’s. (We did not eat there on this trip.) We did take in the sights nearby and there are many. We stopped in front of Federal Hall on Wall St. where George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the US.

 

 

 

We saw historic Trinity Church and its churchyard.

Lady Liberty at the Museum of the American Indian

 

 

The former US Customs House, just down the street from Federal Hall, overlooks Bowling Green. Today it is a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian and holds the collections that were formerly the Heye Foundation. It was difficult to visit before moving to the Customs House, because the building was largely storage and had limited display of collections. The museum was located way off the beaten path on 155th St. and Broadway. Now the museum is at the Bowling Green subway stop and the new exhibits show the rich collection of materials from North, Central and South America. I particularly enjoyed seeing the pottery from Costa Rica and Panama that reminded me of the time I spent in Costa Rica while working on my dissertation and how much I admired archaeologist Olga Linares for her book on the imagery on Panamanian pottery, “Ecology and the Arts in Ancient Panama.”

A scary plate from Panama.
A scary plate from Panama.
"The Thinker" as a rabbit, from Costa Rica
“The Thinker” as a rabbit, from Costa Rica

There is also the Wall Street Bull, though it was ass deep in tourists. The “Fearless Girl” statue facing the bull was put in place in March 2017 and was still there.

Just two blocks beyond is the shore, lined with a walkway that is used by strollers and joggers alike. Once you get beyond the area where visitors to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island congregate, it is a relatively peaceful and uncrowded part of the city. The view out over the water to Liberty herself and Ellis Island are sublime. It’s a great neighborhood.

 

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12 hours of madness, and incidentally, New Grange

05 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by winifredcreamer in Ireland, Lyra, Peggy

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Archaeological sites

(Things got a bit out of order and this should have appeared before the previous)

We left Bundoran on Aug. 30 and embarked on 12 hours of madness as we tried to get me in and out of the outpatient unit at University Hospital, Sligo for a shot in my eye to treat my macular degeneration and on to the destination we actually had planned, New Grange. We sat for what seemed like forever in the waiting area at the hospital, yet were able to cross Ireland and make it to New Grange in time to get on the second to last tour of the day. New Grange is an amazingly impressive site and sight. Its sheer size outdoes anything else in Europe. Purists may balk at the reconstruction, but the unreconstructed interior brings all kinds of images of past religious activities to mind (Photography is no longer allowed inside). The 93 or so huge stones encircling the mound at New Grange, as well as those on the inside, have been pecked with spirals, circles, undulating lines, cup marks and other symbols. I admit I did not enter the annual lottery–winners get 2 tickets to see the light of the winter solstice come in the upper window of New Grange on one of 5 days that this occurs each year.

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Lyra rolling down the hill at New Grange. It was that kind of day.
Lyra rolling down the hill at New Grange. It was that kind of day.

As if that weren’t enough, we had decided to return our rental car and stay overnight in the city of Dublin. Leaving New Grange around 6 pm, the thought of driving into the city, disgorging the luggage of four travelers at the hotel and returning to the airport gave us visions of the 9th circle of hell. Around that moment, we discovered that the Dublin airport is on the route from New Grange into the city, so we stopped in, dropped the car, picked up a big taxi and arrived at our hotel for less than the cost of four bus tickets from the airport into town. Not only that but our 6’5″ retired army medic taxi driver told us his best stories of taxi driving. (Unfortunately, the one where the guy pulled a gun on him took place in Chicago….uh oh.) By 8 pm we were seated at dinner, having triumphed over all hurdles, visited a truly world class attraction, and were ready for our last day in Ireland. I am grateful for the patience of my traveling companions that allowed us to make this all happen.

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Last stop Dublin, and what’s Good to Know about Ireland

04 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by winifredcreamer in Ireland, Lyra, Peggy

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Museums, Travel preparation

Our last day in Dublin was spent inside the National Museum of Ireland. Lyra was wonderful in agreeing to stay with her crazy parents in the museum all day when all of Dublin was beckoning.

Ancient Goldsmith's tools
Ancient Goldsmith’s tools
(R) Gold bracelet from Donegal
(R) Gold bracelet from Donegal

After visiting many archaeological sites around Ireland we had often read reference to finds made at a site followed by “now at the National Museum of Ireland.” I was most intrigued by reference to a purse-shaped reliquary of St. Patrick’s Tooth from the church of Killaspugbrone, now at the end of the Sligo airport runway. The church was first built by Bishop Bron, a contemporary of St. Patrick in the early 500s (!). When St. Patrick visited his friend, he either tripped and knocked out a tooth or it fell out and he gave it to his good friend who treasured it.

8.31.17 National Museum of Ireland-187
Patricks_tooth_anaglyph_w800

Much later, the relic case was made for the tooth, and after a trail of owners is now in the National Museum of Ireland. The relic case has images of Sts. Patrick, Brigid (missing), Brendan and Columcille on it as well as one of the earliest depictions of a harp in ireland.

8.31.17 National Museum of Ireland-050
8.31.17 National Museum of Ireland-045

Great jewelry of Ancient Ireland. Chains and amber, what’s not to like?

We went through with an eye for anything from our travels and found carvings and artifacts from all over. It was a pleasure to match some of the objects with their places of origin.

We saw the two most recent finds of people preserved in bogs (2003). Clonycavan man is an example of (possibly) the first man bun, held together by hair gel that originated in France or Spain.

The other find, Old Croghan Man, had very long arms and big hands, suggesting he had been 6’5″ tall (missing his head and lower body, it was difficult to be sure). His well-manicured nails suggested he was not a laborer, but of high status.

 

There was a leather scabbard recovered from a bog with an axe still inside. Leather preservation is impressive–single shoes from all over Ireland.

 

We moved to our hotel by the airport, readying for our 7 am flight to Naples and the next chapter of Llywinda Travels.

Good to Know About Ireland

♣ It rains. It may rain some portion of every day you are in Ireland, so be prepared. Bright sun can shift to a brief downpour in a few minutes. Carry an umbrella, wear a raincoat or be ready to run for cover. Forget about cute shoes. There are sunny days–appreciate every one of them!

♣ It is never hot. Ireland is a great place to go to escape the heat. July-August temperatures along the west coast were in the 60s, rarely breaking 70º F. Beachgoers of all ages wear heavy gauge wetsuits. You rarely see parents sitting on the beach staring at their phone while kids call to them from the sand—the rain would ruin their phone. We saw more families together on the beach here than in other countries.

♣ Driving on the left is always a challenge. Roads are narrow in some places and you have to be ready to pull over or back up to let an oncoming car pass.

♣ We found almost everyone to be friendly and helpful. We shared a table at the potato festival and enjoyed chatting with people from Dingle. We chatted with people on buses and at the store. It was easy to get directions. (That’s handy, because not all streets are marked.)

Some wonderful things about Ireland.

♣ Nature–The west coast is full of beaches and cliffs to walk on. The Burren, Benbulben, Bunglass cliffs are all in amazing landscapes, too. Archaeological sites are everywhere amid gorgeous views.

♣ There are some stunning gardens. Some are tiny house fronts, others are extensive yards. The mild weather keeps blooms fresh for a long time. These are the pinkest hydrangeas I’ve ever seen. Fuschia may be non-native, but forms high hedges along many roads. So do blackberries–we made jam and pie.

♣ We saw puffins, and possibly a whale or dolphin.

♣ The friendliness and good will of people we met was a real pleasure.

♣ Boxty, Irish whiskey, cheeses, butter.

♣ An appreciation of whimsy. Though fewer people today may believe in fairies, places where people saw fairies in the past are still marked, like the fairy bridges in Bundoran, or holy wells. There are decorative fairy houses, too. On a larger scale, you occasionally see a facade decorated with shells and broken pottery in seaside towns.

A couple of things to keep in mind.

♣ You can visit archaeological ruins all over Ireland. Many are marked on maps and listed in guidebooks, while others are not. Guidebooks don’t always list how long a walk it is to the site from the car park, and the walks can be very muddy. Sometimes only a vehicle with high clearance can drive to the end of the road, making the walk to a site a half hour each way. Be prepared.

Cliffs of Bunglass, Slieve Lieg

♣ Weather can get in the way of your views. We visited the Slieve Lieg, also called the Cliffs of Bunglass, some of the highest cliffs in Europe, but the top was in fog. The top of these cliffs is usually in fog, though they are still worth visiting. This is also true of Benbulben, a distinctive feature of the landscape between Sligo and Bundoran. Still worth visiting.

♣ There is a peculiar toll in Dublin, the M50. There are signs along the road that indicate it is an automatic toll. If you rent a car, ask your agency whether they cover the toll. If they do not, you have to go online and pay it (not much). If you do not, there are all kinds of threats of huge fines. Apparently rental cars are not fined as promptly but you are still expected to go to the eflow.ie webpage and pay. Our car rental company did not mention this until I called a couple of times in a panic.

♣ As in every country, the most highly publicized sights and attractions can be very crowded. We were in big crowds at the Cliffs of Moher and at the Giant’s Causeway. We skipped the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge when we found out that even with timed tickets the wait was often 90 minutes to walk across. We did not kiss the Blarney Stone. There can be 20 tour buses parked at such places. Brace yourself or don’t go. In Dublin, the Book of Kells had a long line. The National Museum of Ireland was full of wonderful things and had no line at all. Go there.

♣ If you are returning to the US from Ireland, you may be required to pass US customs in Ireland. This saves time when you arrive in the US, but takes at least an extra hour. Fine, except your airline may not mention that this takes place. Thus, everyone needs an extra hour at the airport but doesn’t know it. Lyra went through all this process at 6 am, including loading the plane an hour early (!). After that, they all sat for 45 minutes waiting for latecomers who didn’t know about customs and weren’t chronically early to the airport.

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Archaeology of Ireland–Northwest

02 Saturday Sep 2017

Posted by winifredcreamer in Ireland, Lyra, Peggy

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Archaeological sites

The archaeology slide show continues in northwest Ireland. This includes all kinds of historic and ruined structures. If I posted about each one separately, there would be a lot of photos of rocky structures. You may enjoy browsing these. We had a great time finding and visiting all of them.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

These are the places in the slideshow.

KIllaghtee Church and Cross Slab, St. Johns Point; Carrowmore Megalithic site; unknown site near Manorhamilton; Wardstown House in Ballymacaward S of Rossnowlagh; Ghost village of Port; Dunluce Castle, Raghly, Cashel Baun, Asseroe Abbey and Mills, Kilbarron Church, Catsby Cave, Grainan of Aileach, Carrowkeel Passage tombs, Cloghanmore court tomb, Donegal Castle, Creevykeel court tomb.

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A few more sights from the neighborhood

29 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by winifredcreamer in Lyra, Morocco

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Architecture, People

Young people are everywhere, here are some hanging out at a local fountain (water tap). What is education like in Morocco? Are there after school activities or part-time jobs available to young people? Is an after school job considered a good thing or a stigma? It’s clear I have a lot to learn about Morocco, but these young men are the face of Fez today.

4.23.16 Fez-004When the king visited recently, there was a frenzy of quick painting, and hundreds of Moroccan flags were posted all over the city. We even saw a motorcade pass, with police clearing the streets and standing with their backs to the motorcade, presumably scanning the route for threats.

I’m sure it was the king.

Unfortunately, most of the pageantry was off limits. Officials in bright uniforms manned every gate of the city but didn’t permit photos. The king’s itinerary wasn’t publicized, so we never did find out whether he was inaugurating a new facility at the airport, or the renovations in our neighborhood, Bab Rcif.

Apparently, the king was unhappy at the pace of renovations in the Fez medina. The dyers’ souk is just about renovated. There’s not much to see because the artisans haven’t moved back in yet, but the new shop fronts are fresh and each shop has new wood doors and canopy with carved decoration. If you look beyond the souk, the neighborhoods where people live are in need of renovation just to make them safe for habitation. This is our street. While picturesque, keep in mind that there are hundreds of buildings in the medina that are similarly braced to prevent collapse.

4.26.16 aShouldn’t this kind of repair be a priority for the king?

The boys in the background just got out of school and after saying “Bonjour” about 15 times each, they decided that staring from a distance was just as interesting as chatting.

Here are some sights from a walk down the street:

Painted plaster carving along the street.
This was in the trash. I was dying to take it home, but I had nowhere to put it.
Look at the date, 1332!

Many buildings have a carved and painted wood canopy over the door.

4.16.16 Ain Noqbi-014smThis horse loaded with yarn may be headed to the dyers’ souk.

Public fountains are an important water source in Fes. Not all fountains are lovely, though many started out that way.

No parking by the fountain

No parking by the fountain

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4.7.16 fountain 4.6.16-046 4.6.16-034

 

 

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Chefchaouen, a blue city

26 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by winifredcreamer in Lyra, Morocco

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Attractions, Landscape

4.21.16 Chefchaouen-012There isn’t much to do in Chefchaouen, other than admire the lovely blue color painted on many buildings. There is a mosque that can be visited after an uphill walk, a waterfall, and a walk downhill from the waterfall along the wall of the medina. You can stroll in the medina admiring the walls, having lunch or a coffee. There is not a lot on display that cannot be purchased in other Moroccan cities, but Chefchaouen is an enjoyable place to stop and stroll.

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We made our visit as a day trip from Fez. I don’t recommend it because it is a long day in the car. Much better to stay overnight nearby or to combine a visit to Chefchaouen with a stop in one of the coastal towns nearby, like El Hoceima.

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Souk Hebdomadaire, Weekly market in Azrou

26 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by winifredcreamer in Lyra, Morocco

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Birds, Landscape, Markets

The same day we visited the macaques (see previous post), we stopped at the souk hebdomadaire in Azrou. This is a traditional weekly market where vendors put up tents or canopies and sell all kinds of goods. A lively functioning market has to deal in goods people really want and in Azrou that ranges from livestock to plastic containers, with lots of clothing, fruits and vegetables, even a flea market section. The only rugs we saw were mass produced, possibly in China. There were no Berber crafts at all, guidebooks notwithstanding. It was animated and crowded, with a very large livestock area (foreground below).

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The animals were all ages, shapes and sizes.

People wound around tent ropes and among vendors.

Shopping is underway.
Most vendors use a balance scale and weights.

Popcorn and pinwheels.
Finding a way among tents.

The day was overcast and quite cool. Smoke from the food tent drew us in for a snack of freshly grilled meat on bread.

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These colorful items turned out to be donkey saddles.

We were happy to have visited in the morning. The sky was full of low clouds, but we could see the fruit trees just coming into bloom.

Apple trees
Plum trees

4.19.16-051It was a lovely drive and we stopped at an enchanting waterfall, where we also saw a new bird, a great spotted woodpecker.

Near the waterfall it got colder and colder.
Lyra near the waterfall.

It began to rain on the way back to Fez and rained most of the night. We were happy to have had our visit before it started.

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Barbary Macaques in Ifrane, a biologist might tear his/her hair

23 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by winifredcreamer in Lyra, Morocco

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Animals

We all love monkeys because they remind us of ourselves. Who wouldn’t want to visit a group distinctive for living in the mountains of Morocco and Algeria, along with a colony in Gibraltar that makes the news now and then? (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/11/gibraltar-barbary-macaques-deported-scottish-safari-park-blair-drummond)

Because Barbary macaques share parenting
I can’t tell whether a male or female is holding this baby.

It is easy to see the groups that live in the Ifrane National Park because they have become habituated to humans and getting food handouts. I read online “feed them anything you have.” ACK! Don’t people know anything about wild animals? NO FEEDING wild animals.


Visitors don’t recognize these animals as wild considering how close they get, trying to feed and pet them. I kept a bit of distance, knowing these animals can inflict a lot of damage with a scratch or bite.

4.19.16-034It’s also clear that the macaques get a lot more food from handouts than any source in the forest. If tourism declines, they’ll starve. Someone said that different groups occupy the picnic area at different times of the day, rotating through the feeding area. I also heard someone say that when the macaques get tired of peanuts they throw them away, preferring bread. (A vendor sells bananas and peanuts to visitors.) It was fun to see them, but now we need to imagine a way to make visiting the macaques better for the animals. Otherwise, they’ll become obese and diabetic caricatures of us, begging for cokes and big macs.

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