New Adventure Story Blog Address with Word Press

Hi Family and Friends:

In future, please join me at:

www.lyndanoppe.wordpress.com

Blogger doesn’t allow the addition of photos, apparently. In the new Word Press blog, scroll down for previous blog posts.

See you at Word Press — Cheers,
Lynda

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Here we are surrounded by ancient buildings going back more than 400 years.

The Old

Cuernavaca, City of Colour and Light

Hello Everyone 

Welcome to Cuernavaca!

In our hotel videos stream on umbrellas around the pool

This is a lovely little heard of city 1 1/2 hours by bus south of Mexico City. Bob happened upon it when booking this trip a year ago. People are friendly and helpful and because they live in homes smaller than ours there's a lot of visiting in the streets and parks and although the streets are full of cars, sidewalks are full of people too, often chatting and laughing. So the air is congenial and full of bustle. We haven't seen any tourists actually and don’t hear other languages  in the hotel and restaurants, I suppose because November is a shoulder season.

This is our third full day and our last here. Tomorrow we leave by bus for Taxco, a city of vast silver mines and jewellers. A wonderfully exciting and dangerous place for me to visit. 

I’m posting this blog very tentatively and if the photos will import, I’ll use Blogger instead of WP which is clunky. Many photos for you to see if the technical stars are aligned.

Best,
Lynda

St. John's Charm

Hello There!

After five whirlwind days here I'm leaving tomorrow with memories of a genuine, friendly and helpful people. I wish I could bottle some of their nature and pack it home with me.

Yurting on the Bruce Peninsula

Hi Everyone:

The miracle of Georgian Bay cliffs.

To celebrate Canada's 150 years, we booked a yurt in Bruce Peninsula National Park and so lucky we weren't in a tent. Yesterday was gorgeous though. Georgian Bay's turquoise waters and scraggy limestone paths and cliffs are visual gifts.

The Bruce Trail leading to the Peninsula's famous grotto.

I think this most northern part of the Bruce Trail is the most beautiful.

But, I was guarding against another ankle roll on the knobbly rock.

Forty girls and boys from Camp Celtic in Lion's Head gradually scrambling 

down the scraggy cliffs to the grotto's north side.

They are like monkeys and must have signed a waiver!

Having emerged from the grotto's north side.

After the grotto a dip into the Bay.

Not daunted with an outdoor temp of 8 degrees, those girls in their bikinis are ready to jump into Georgian Bay. The boys were observers. For me it was a four layer day.

Waters of Georgian Bay.

Water tumbling from Cypress to Horse Lake.

On the shore a 50 cm. iron ring for tying up ships.

Looking down five stories from the top of the visitor centre parking lot.

 I couldn't have done this in my pre flying days.

A Mercedes van in the visitor centre parking lot that came all the way

by ship from Germany to explore North America.

After having toured through Europe and Australia.

Our yurt's view through the back door. Not shabby. Sleeps five and lots of room to hang out. Indoor temp without fire in the stove was 10 C., with heat a toasty 22C.

On the right a Murphy bed and to the right of the front door a small station with treated concrete top that we used for cooking during two days of rain. The deck outside has a roofed in cooking station with concrete top, barbecue and more tables and chairs.

Bob and I had a lot of time to think, read and hike while away. As we meet people here and in other countries, I realize more and more that we are all moving through life in similar ways, finding success, moving towards our goals, doing mundane chores, lamenting that things might not be going the way we'd like or wishing for more. Sometimes we might think the other guy has it better. And we might also not think of the billions of people

 for whom having the luxury of peace, health and financial stability 

to explore our amazing world is a wishful dream. 

I'm looking forward to touching bases with you again during my next adventure. 

Until then, chao.

Around Dublin

 It's hard to believe that today was our last in Ireland. It rushed by like the speed limits on the roads. More than anything else we wanted to see the Book of Kells that luckily a friend said was a "must see" since we'd never heard of it. Good thing I bought fast track tickets online a month ago because even now the lineups are impressive. More about the Book of Kells later.

Things that caught our eye around the city --

    Fun name and eye catching door.

   A whole store of knockers. Who uses knockers anymore?

              And the knockers.

And a very nice door with black knocker.

       Guy on left in vogue.

        

Must have been hot in those getups.

You could put 15 country roads side by side in some Dublin streets. This one is wider than Toronto's University Avenue.

I'm struggling to read Joyce's Ulysses for the third time. So we visited the James Joyce Centre.

This is the original old 7 Eccles door featured in the novel from the late 1800s.

   The Hoards of Ireland on display at the National Museum 

Between the Neolithic period through the Iron And Bronze Ages the Roman and Medieval Eras, people hoarded their valuables in the bogs. They buried stunningly beautiful gold ornaments, copper items, coinage and tools into the bog, sometimes for personal safe keeping, sometimes to hide, occasionally as offerings to Gods. They often intended to retrieve the items and had perhaps forgotten the location or had to flee the area. Perhaps they'd gotten killed. Those were brutal, brutal times.

This fellow is wearing in his ear the gold Bronze age (2500 BCE to 500 BCE) object that you see below. The object contains gold nuggets.

               A gold neckpiece.

Bog Bodies

I love learning about ancient peoples but not necessarily their violent deaths. The bog people, on display at the National Museum are fascinating because they are so old, dating back to 8000 BC and so well mummified in peat bog.

Bog bodies are exciting for scientists because they retain their skin and organs. So with careful measurements and MRIs, quite accurate models are made from the specimen. The head below was created based on the body below it.

The head modelled from the bog body below. These people are white. Chemicals in peat tans the skin.

The fellow is 2500 years old, from the Iron age and was probably killed by an axe during a ritual sacrifice. I wonder how you would feel if you were about to be scrificed. Maybe to be chosen would have been an honour.

Tollund man lived in present day Denmark in the 4th century BCE. He is the best studied bog body and so well preseved that people thought he was a recent murder victim.

            Tollund Man.

Ed

       The Book of Kells

The Book of Kells, on display at Trinity College, is an illuminated manuscript of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It was created by monks in a monastery in Ireland around 800 CE. The beautiful text and illustrations are written with feather pens and a variety of inks made from natural dyes from around the world at the time combined with substances like arsenic on vellum made from calf skin.

It's a miracle that the Books have survived because they escaped Viking and other plunderings, raids, fires and wars. At one point the four books were buried in the ground. The manuscript takes its name from the Abbey of Kells where it lived for centuries. 

 Pages  from the Book of Kells.

We'll remember the friendly Irish people, their smiles and laughter despite hardship. I'll always have the beautiful green countryside in my mind's eye. Bob will never forget the roads.

     From the window of our Doolen B and B.

This road was for two cars, but you had to edge off the road to pass. On the left side of the road you can see a road narrowing sign that makes you think they've got to be kidding.

Bob and I send you best wishes and thoughrs until our next adventure.  Be well, Lynda

The Cavers and The Burren

             Hardhats waiting.

As we descended the wet metal stairs into the dark cave of Doolin and then walked bent over along narrow passage ways, our hard hats sometimes bumping the stony clay overhead, I felt queasy and couldn't fathom how two young students had the stamina and bravery to crawl on their bellies following an underground stream in hopes of discovering a cave those almost 65 years ago. They had just four hours for the round trip and I wonder if they were sure they'd get back out. They were students charting the caves of the Burren area with their university, had left their group, had gone exploring on their own when they noticed a small stream disappearing at the bottom of a huge limestone cliff. They pulled back some boulders and dug their way into a narrow passage and managed to wriggle their way along for a half kilometer until they reached the large chamber that contains the Great Stalactite.

 The Great Stalactite 7.3 metres long is the longest free hanging stalactite in the Northern Hemisphere.

A grade four class created fairy houses from the area clay and placed them in the dark forest near the spot where the cavers started to follow the stream underground more than a half century ago.

The Burren

In the cracks of the 350 million year old limestone of Burren, Arctic, Mediterranean and alpine plants and flowers grow side by side. The melting of glacial ice removed more vegetation after the last ice age leaving the awe inspiring rock that you see in these photos below of the Burren. Today we took the coastal route from Doolin to Galway, mesmerised by so much rock. No wonder houses are made of it here.

                 Nature's art.

  

    Peeking over the edge.

     Beautiful patterns in the fissures.

       Bob at the ocean's edge.

     Clinging to the rock.

 Off in the distance a mountain of rock the goes on forever.

See you in Dublin tomorrow.