Where have we been, where are we going

Summer is upon us, the Irish holiday season. The last day of primary school (elementary school for the americans out there) is today.The summer break for the kids is shorter here , only 2 months, end of June to end of August. Most of the Irish will take their holidays in the summer when the kids are out, usually week or 2 week long trips. Portugal is one popular choice

What will we do this summer?...We have lots of camps scheduled- hurling/camogie, gaelic football, football (soccer), art, etc... Camps are usually 10-2 so not all day affairs like they would be in the U.S. We will probably do 1-2 day trips around  Ireland and maybe UK on the weekends. We are also planning to do a barge trip though ironically some recent good weather (almost 2 weeks of sun 60s-70s) may make that not work due to too many weeds in canal.

The map below red represents some of the places still on our to do list. The blue represents places we have already been. We will see if we can make the Ireland map more blue.

For the big picture, here is Europe. The blue is where we have been so far, Red are some of the to do's.
Still need to add some more red targets , such as Italy, Greece, Germany, etc... Will tackle some of these in the fall and spring

that's all for now...

Rob

Crime in Ireland , a dichotomy

As some of you may have "heard" on facebook we got robbed the other  week.

Our neighbor said this is the 4th time this house has been robbed, a nice little tidbit that would have had us more diligent.
The house does have an alarm which we hadn't been using. It turns out that most houses in ireland have alarms .I would say over 80% of the Irish  houses have alarms for sure. This is start contrast to the US where alarms are a rarity . The alarm systems are usually sound only.
According to the garda even with the noise as a deterrent the criminals may still go on just due to these incidental alarms making people not care.


as to the dichotomy
The irish may lock the door during the day at all times, but they still feel comfortable letting their kids walk into town. We have seen various neighbours letting their kids walk into town:
family 1- 2 girls (10)
family 2- boy 7, girl 10
Not uncommon to see young kids unsupervised hanging around the town.
so they may not feel their house is safe but they trust the people


Rob

Genealogy 101

So one of the side projects here in Ireland is family trees...
On my side my mom did some great work developing here family tree using Ancestry.com. The software is nice enough but they do charge for access to records and what not. More over US based is one fee, UK/Ireland another, worldwide another.
I did find a free website Wikitree that can take file from Ancestry as input. Using this I was able to find the missing link in my Dad's moms tree which is a name change from Hirrell to Harol when moving from Ireland to the U.S.
This led to finding that my grandmother Thompson's family hailed from Donegal, Ireland. We did a scouting trip during Christmas and likely met some distant cousins.

Recently, I got hold of Sarah's family tree. With the help of Ancestry.com I was able to link Sarah's tree with others and others... This led to over 28 generations of ancestors on her side.

The observations from this research
Ireland ancestry is hard to track- whether due to bad records, the turnover from English rule, name changes, it is unclear but it is hard to go very many generations back. I see 2-3 on my dads side, 3-4 on my moms side , 1-2 on Sarah's side before trail runs cold.

Canadians do great job with Ancestry, this led to tracking Sarah's ancestry to mainland Europe. Well over 6 generations of French on Sarah's side

We have turned out to visit many of the countries of Sarah's ancestors- Wales, Portugal, Ireland ... Will need to knock England off the list. Due to the lengthy tree for Sarah there are quite a few nobles (counts, countesses) and possibly the King of England. Quite entertaining stuff

Some stats to stew on

Rob's tree
Oldest American
Oliver Leonard 1749, Springfield ,Mass

States
Ohio, Kansas, Tennessee, Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Illinois, California, Florida, South Carolina,Oregon, Virginia, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kentucky,

Oldest non-American
Daniel Joseph 1709
Yorkshire, England

Countries
Canada 2, German 5, England 8.France 1, Ireland 7.

>5 generations

Sarah's tree
Oldest American relative
John Davis 1643 , Massachusetts

States
Connecticut, Massachusetts, California

Oldest non-american  relative
Ega Leutharius
 Alsace, France  B 565

Countries
Belgium 13, approx 110 canada, England 22, Germany 20, Ireland 10
Italy 4, Netherlands 2, Portugal 31, Scotland 7, Spain 5, France approx 190
, Switzerland 4,Wales 1

>28 generations

Even more fun when we actually get to meet some of these distant cousins...

Rob

Cooking in Ireland

Or maybe I should have said baking in Ireland...

Recipes in Ireland will typically list the dry ingredients in grams, unlike the US (typically cups).
The problem is that they don't sell measuring cups that measure in grams.

Back to science class folks ...
Cups, ml, oz, fl oz are all volume measurements.
Grams, lbs are weight/mass measurements

For most recipes in the US for baking they will say 1/2 cup sugar, 2 cups of flour etc....
1 cup of flour =128 grams
1 cup of oats =85 grams
1 cup of sugar =201 grams
clearly the volume method in the US is much more convenient. The typical Irish way would be to use a scale to weight the dry goods.

After having no luck in store I found this on amazon

Hopefully this solves the cooking frustrations, and makes for some happy baking in the household




Rob

The Portugal post

Our trip was Tuesday to Saturday. Just like Paris we rented an apartment. This apartment was in the Alfama district which is one of the 2 districts not damaged in the 1755 earthquake.  Lots of old homes (apartments?) all attached.  Sun each day; 15C never felt so good (around 60F) the weather was quite pleasant (a little chilly in the mountains but we still made it work in shorts...)

The Portugese love tiles, and the building facades were covered with them.

The streets and sidewalks were also better than your typical asphalt. Small pavers/stones often in black/white patterns.

The buildings are amazingly colorful, pinks, purples, yellows, blues. Tiles and no tiles.

and due to the hilly nature of the region there were tons of places with amazing views, the Castelo de Sao Jorge, The Monument to the Discoveries, The pantheon, etc... a few panos from said locations

We arrived on Tuesday night so only had time for check in and dinner. Wednesday we went to the Castelo de Sao Jorge. We then tried the recommended tram 28; however, it seems like every guide book says this so while the tram was cheap it was packed and with no seats we couldn't see out the windows...
Thursday we were off to Sintra. If we had known what Sintra had to offer we would have spent more time there. A beautiful Moorish castle on one hill and the Pena National Palace on another. There was one more palace we didn't see plus parks, museums, etc... We had decided ahead that we were going to try and get to the beach in Cascais. Unfortunately, it turns out the bus from Sintra to Cascais is slow especially as you close in on rush hour. We did briefly stop at Cabo da Roca (westernmost point in Europe). Eventually we did make it to Cascais, but it was just before sunset. The kids still troopers played on a beach for an hour before the sun went down and bladders gave way.
A nice fish dinner in Cascais and then back home.
Friday, our last full day we walked the town, went to see the Santa Justa Elevator, had some Portugese pasties. Then a tram ride to Belem to see Padrão dos Descobrimentos (monument of the discoveries) which has 33 explorers on it with Vasco de Gama at the front. The view from up top is great .
Saturday was the last day, Stacey had an early flight , and we had a late one We went to the Fiera da ladra (flea market , which supposedly translates as thieves market). We loaded up on momentos - charms, tiles (from 1880s), backpack, linens,... then went to the National Pantheon. Another tall structure with great views of Lisbon.

and so ended our Portugal vacation.
I quizzed Audrey on her rating and she said 9 out of 10 then 10 out of 10.
She says so far 10/10 Wales and Portugal and 9/10 for Paris

 I will upload a plethora of pictures soon
https://plus.google.com/photos/103368911484787026594/albums/5993962619475722465?authkey=CNzZ-IakzMPQMg

Vacations are for sharing...

A vacation is like a fine wine, best shared. Our favorite third wheel joined us in Portugal.
Kids loved having Stacey along (as did the adults).

Here is a montage of Stacey moments
The stacey collection

Rob

St Patrick's day weekend in Ireland

The weekend started with wear your greens on Friday at the schools. The kids came in more than just green, there were tri-color wigs, fake beards, bishop costumes (presumably St Patrick), and many other assorted oddities. We then noticed at night the local church highlighted in green

Saturday of the weekend was business as usual. 2 morning soccer matches then afternoon Gaelic football and hurling practice.

Sunday it was off to the Belvedere house in Westmeath. There we saw some trad music and irish dance, also walked the grounds and of course visited the house. The house was designed by the same architect who designed many of the other great estates in Ireland, so it was interesting to compare.

Monday the local parade. The locals had said it was modest, but it was actually quite good.
There were 2 pipe bands, 4 irish dance schools and all the other local organizations. A good 20-25 groups participating.
We had a quick bite, then grabbed some sweets at the local sweet chop, then a pint of Guiness and some trad music at McMahons. Quick break at home then off to the GAA club. There were Gaelic football challenges (hot the shamrock. kick the ball in the tire, beat the goalie), bouncy houses, and lots of friends. Jack ended up playing almost 2 hours of impromptu soccer which mom settled into the club and had some stew. Then she and Audrey learned to the shoe the donkey at Ceili (impromptu dance session) at the club


all in all a great day and worth being here for

Rob