December brought with it lots of snow to Munich and surrounding areas. Scott and I took advantage of a Monday off from work and took the train down to Tegernsee for a little sledding at Wallberg mountain. During the summer months, the top of the mountain is easily accessible by car. In the winter, the snow is packed down on the road, blocked to traffic, and reserved for ultimate sledding! A 28 Euro train pass, a 5 Euro sled rental, and an 8 Euro lift ticket gets you a 4 km run down the mountain. With no barriers between the road and the steep drops, the first trip down can be a bit unnerving but what an awesome thrill on an otherwise status-quo Monday in Munich!
Monday, January 17, 2011
December brought with it lots of snow to Munich and surrounding areas. Scott and I took advantage of a Monday off from work and took the train down to Tegernsee for a little sledding at Wallberg mountain. During the summer months, the top of the mountain is easily accessible by car. In the winter, the snow is packed down on the road, blocked to traffic, and reserved for ultimate sledding! A 28 Euro train pass, a 5 Euro sled rental, and an 8 Euro lift ticket gets you a 4 km run down the mountain. With no barriers between the road and the steep drops, the first trip down can be a bit unnerving but what an awesome thrill on an otherwise status-quo Monday in Munich!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Rockhounding on Ireland's West Coast
Before I tell you about my trip to Ireland with Amy, it’s worth hearing about some our past trips together to put things in perspective. As college roommates and best friends, we’ve had some wild (mis)adventures, most notably the two weeks we spent sharing a mosquito net and dodging spiders the size of dessert plates in the Amazon rainforest. I think we would both agree that you don’t really know a person until you’ve spent two weeks hiking through the jungle with them and if our friendship wasn’t solid before, it certainly was after that experience. There was also the post-semester in Europe rendezvous in Barcelona. Our reservation wasn’t on file with the hotel we’d planned to meet at and despite Amy leaving a message for me at the front desk before moving to a different hotel, the staff sent me away without relaying the message. This resulted in me wandering around the city, going from one pension hotel to the next as midnight approached, searching for a “chica Americana” while Amy waited frantically for me to show up. I still can’t believe I was able to find her; nor can I believe that I didn’t get robbed in the process.
Having said that, we’ve been conditioned to assume nothing and expect surprises when we plan trips together and I think we were both pleasantly surprised that girls’ weekend in Ireland went off without a hitch. The plan was to spend a couple of days in Dublin before heading to the west coast to do what we do best: rockhound. We are both geologists and while most girls might spend their getaways shopping and sipping martinis, most of our time was spent teetering on the edge of a 700-foot cliff in ankle deep mud searching for rocks. And let me tell you, the trip was fantastic.
We caught up over a few pints of Guinness in Dublin’s Temple Bar district and hit the high spots on the city’s tourist route (Trinity College, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and several other national monuments) prior to heading west. Having come from Munich, where the people are generally more inclined to push you in front of a train than smile at you, I was completely thrown off and pleasantly surprised by the friendly demeanor of the Irish. A couple of times we took out our map and before we could get our bearings, someone always approached us and offered directions. One cold, drizzly night, an elderly lady stopped to help us with directions and even offered to walk us to our destination. I have yet to encounter a group of people who are as friendly as those we met in Ireland.
We boarded a bus on the third day and set off for County Clare and the Cliffs of Moher. During my semester abroad several years ago, I spent a couple of weeks hiking Ireland’s west coast by myself. It is a truly magnificent part of the world and I was so happy to visit the Cliffs again with Amy. Our final destination was the Rainbow Hostel, which is, to quote their website, “a quaint little budget accommodation in the heart of downtown Doolin.” We arrived after dark in the booming metropolis, which consisted of two pubs, two hostels, and a postage stamp-sized grocery store. There is frankly nothing “downtown” about Doolin, but it is overflowing with charm, friendly faces, and a whole lot of Guinness. Rainbow Hostel proprietor and fellow rockhound, Mattie, was delightful and welcomed us into the cleanest, coziest accommodation imaginable for a mere 16 Euros per night. He directed us to McGann’s Pub for a dinner of Irish stew, a pint (or three) of Guinness, and great live music with the locals.
The next morning, Mattie offered advice on the best hiking route to the Cliffs of Moher, as well as a few suggestions for hunting mudstones along the Doolin coast. We set off for the Cliffs pretty early and, despite the chilly air, we enjoyed an unusually sunny November day. After meandering past castles, farms, and friendly locals, we arrived at the Cliffs visitor center.
A lot has changed since my first visit, mainly because the 700-foot cliffs, home to one of the world’s few Puffin colonies, was recently nominated as one of the 7 wonders of the (modern) natural world. The section of the cliffs designated for tourists is magnificent but we wanted to go off the beaten path and did just that by hopping a fence at the southern end of the visitor’s trail.
Beyond this point, there is no barrier between the walking path and the cliff’s edge but the views of the Atlantic Ocean, the jagged cliff edge, and the rolling green landscape are intoxicating.
We hiked for hours, stopping to hunt for rocks and snap a few photos. We reached the very end of the Cliffs just before sunset and soaked in a landscape that is not justified by even the best photographs.
By this point we were also exhausted from a day of walking in the cold and knew we had to get off the unprotected section of the trail before dusk and fatigue set in. We exited the trail and returned to the main road just after sunset and made the executive decision to hitchhike back to Doolin. At this point we had covered nearly 20 miles on foot and walking 9 more miles along a road with no shoulder in the dark of night sounded less than appealing. We are thus forever grateful to the two Polish guys who gave us a lift back to Doolin and I don’t think I’ve ever had a beer that tasted as good as the one Amy and I had afterwards at McGann’s.
We slept that night like…well, like people who just walked 20 miles in the cold…and woke early the next morning to catch the bus back to Dublin. We unfortunately hadn’t had time to look for mudstones along the coast but were content to save that for another trip to County Clare. However, as we walked along the road to the bus stop, a car came zipping up behind us and screeched to a halt right next to us. Of all people, Mattie hopped out of the car, took our bags and tossed them into the trunk, gave us each a handful of mudstones he had personally collected, and dropped us off at the bus stop!
We returned to Dublin for one more night before heading back to the airport the following morning. While Amy had made the long trip to Sanibel Island from England for our wedding back in May, this was the first time in a long time that we’d had the chance to really enjoy each other’s company. It was indeed a fabulous weekend, and in hindsight is a little more meaningful because Amy has since been offered a position with an Antarctic research vessel. I am all for adventure but honestly don’t foresee a girls’ weekend on Ross Island happening anywhere in the near future. We’re hoping for a couple more fun weekends prior to her next adventure but Ireland may always be one of my personal favorites.
Having said that, we’ve been conditioned to assume nothing and expect surprises when we plan trips together and I think we were both pleasantly surprised that girls’ weekend in Ireland went off without a hitch. The plan was to spend a couple of days in Dublin before heading to the west coast to do what we do best: rockhound. We are both geologists and while most girls might spend their getaways shopping and sipping martinis, most of our time was spent teetering on the edge of a 700-foot cliff in ankle deep mud searching for rocks. And let me tell you, the trip was fantastic.
We caught up over a few pints of Guinness in Dublin’s Temple Bar district and hit the high spots on the city’s tourist route (Trinity College, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and several other national monuments) prior to heading west. Having come from Munich, where the people are generally more inclined to push you in front of a train than smile at you, I was completely thrown off and pleasantly surprised by the friendly demeanor of the Irish. A couple of times we took out our map and before we could get our bearings, someone always approached us and offered directions. One cold, drizzly night, an elderly lady stopped to help us with directions and even offered to walk us to our destination. I have yet to encounter a group of people who are as friendly as those we met in Ireland.
We boarded a bus on the third day and set off for County Clare and the Cliffs of Moher. During my semester abroad several years ago, I spent a couple of weeks hiking Ireland’s west coast by myself. It is a truly magnificent part of the world and I was so happy to visit the Cliffs again with Amy. Our final destination was the Rainbow Hostel, which is, to quote their website, “a quaint little budget accommodation in the heart of downtown Doolin.” We arrived after dark in the booming metropolis, which consisted of two pubs, two hostels, and a postage stamp-sized grocery store. There is frankly nothing “downtown” about Doolin, but it is overflowing with charm, friendly faces, and a whole lot of Guinness. Rainbow Hostel proprietor and fellow rockhound, Mattie, was delightful and welcomed us into the cleanest, coziest accommodation imaginable for a mere 16 Euros per night. He directed us to McGann’s Pub for a dinner of Irish stew, a pint (or three) of Guinness, and great live music with the locals.
The next morning, Mattie offered advice on the best hiking route to the Cliffs of Moher, as well as a few suggestions for hunting mudstones along the Doolin coast. We set off for the Cliffs pretty early and, despite the chilly air, we enjoyed an unusually sunny November day. After meandering past castles, farms, and friendly locals, we arrived at the Cliffs visitor center.
A lot has changed since my first visit, mainly because the 700-foot cliffs, home to one of the world’s few Puffin colonies, was recently nominated as one of the 7 wonders of the (modern) natural world. The section of the cliffs designated for tourists is magnificent but we wanted to go off the beaten path and did just that by hopping a fence at the southern end of the visitor’s trail.
Beyond this point, there is no barrier between the walking path and the cliff’s edge but the views of the Atlantic Ocean, the jagged cliff edge, and the rolling green landscape are intoxicating.
We hiked for hours, stopping to hunt for rocks and snap a few photos. We reached the very end of the Cliffs just before sunset and soaked in a landscape that is not justified by even the best photographs.
By this point we were also exhausted from a day of walking in the cold and knew we had to get off the unprotected section of the trail before dusk and fatigue set in. We exited the trail and returned to the main road just after sunset and made the executive decision to hitchhike back to Doolin. At this point we had covered nearly 20 miles on foot and walking 9 more miles along a road with no shoulder in the dark of night sounded less than appealing. We are thus forever grateful to the two Polish guys who gave us a lift back to Doolin and I don’t think I’ve ever had a beer that tasted as good as the one Amy and I had afterwards at McGann’s.
We slept that night like…well, like people who just walked 20 miles in the cold…and woke early the next morning to catch the bus back to Dublin. We unfortunately hadn’t had time to look for mudstones along the coast but were content to save that for another trip to County Clare. However, as we walked along the road to the bus stop, a car came zipping up behind us and screeched to a halt right next to us. Of all people, Mattie hopped out of the car, took our bags and tossed them into the trunk, gave us each a handful of mudstones he had personally collected, and dropped us off at the bus stop!
We returned to Dublin for one more night before heading back to the airport the following morning. While Amy had made the long trip to Sanibel Island from England for our wedding back in May, this was the first time in a long time that we’d had the chance to really enjoy each other’s company. It was indeed a fabulous weekend, and in hindsight is a little more meaningful because Amy has since been offered a position with an Antarctic research vessel. I am all for adventure but honestly don’t foresee a girls’ weekend on Ross Island happening anywhere in the near future. We’re hoping for a couple more fun weekends prior to her next adventure but Ireland may always be one of my personal favorites.
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