Travel

Chinese New Year 2012, year of the DRAGON

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As a few of you know, I was born in the Year of the Dragon, and so was my mom. It’s supposed to be a lucky thing – the descendents of the Dragon bearing dragon children, as they were traditionally the leaders of society. Since this year is the year of the Dragon, of course, I had to go celebrate. Here in Dublin, back on January 22nd, there was a big party in the newly “umbrella” covered Meetinghouse square.

Floating Lanterns against the Umbrella Roof

For some extra fun, I took my friend’s 7 year old daughter, because I thought it would make for a great day out – and a lovely bit of different cultural exposure for her. When we got there, the gates were closed initially, so we wandered around a little, taking some pictures in the temple bar district – including some of the foam flowers in the top of the trees.

Blue & Yellow Flowers

When the gates opened, the first thing which welcomed us was the booming of the drums, loud music, and fabulous red lantern decorations hanging from the roofs and the stage.

Floating Lanterns

Once the crowd was in place, the music was followed promptly by the dragon dance put on by a series of Kung fu and Tai Chi dojos. As the children moved to the front of the crowd to see better, they were mesmerized by the noise and the acrobatics that were shown by the dancers.

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Next up was the Tiger dance – which involved 2 acrobats that kept dancing and then balancing atop each other’s shoulders. They had a beautiful costume in “Irish colors” which had the mouth opening and the eyes blinking – which really gave it a personality… especially as the lead dancer took the head and interacted right in the crowd to the faces of the kids – to many screams of delight.

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After that, there were some chats and presentations, and C and I went over to make a dragon kite as a fun memory of the day.

Making a Dragon Kite

When that was complete, we popped out for some lunch, and then came back in time for the traditional fashion show put on by University students from China who were all dressed in traditional costumes – representing the Emperor and his court. As C put it – they looked like the characters from Mulan!

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Finally, we bought a pink Lantern for C’s room, and I was invited up on the stage to represent the year of the dragon for 1976 – and received a fabulous 20 euro Gift certificate. When that was done, we then watched the last of the dragon dances of the day – this time, put on by local children – between the ages of 5 and 8. This was a hit with C – because she realized that this was totally something that she could do too.

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After a bit of ice cream and the bus home,all that C could talk about on the way was how cool it was to see everything and spend some time celebrating the Chinese New Year. I later heard from H & J, her parents, that she had taken to wearing a red silk robe around the house, pretending that she was Chinese, and talking all about the Dragon Dance and wanting to know more about Chinese Culture. In my view, it was a great day out – but also, mission accomplished to help make this little lady even more aware of the beauty of the world and the cultural differences. 🙂

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Kylemore Abbey Gardens

The remnants of the old Conservatory

Continuing my travels up the West coast of Ireland last summer, I drove from Salthill’s beautiful Galway Bay hotel, through Connemara and its detours, and then on to Kylemore Abbey. Yesterday, I mentioned about the gardens at Kylemore.

view from the High Gardens, Kylemore Abbey

There are several Gardens at Kylemore Abbey – there’s the lower gardens, which are filled with trees and walking paths around Lough Pollacappul. Then, there are the upper gardens. A short drive (or walk) by bus leads you up the hill to the top of the Mountain. When you first get out of the bus, the view (above) is breathtaking and natural. As you walk on the pathway, you begin to see the Walls of the garden – surrounded with these giant trees that were so big that I couldn’t get my arms around.

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The Tea garden cafe is to the right, and as you walk past it, you enter into the first of the walled gardens. Below you can see the interesting layout with the white Victorian greenhouses on the far end, a caretaker’s cottage, and lovely white benches throughout. The second picture is with your back to the caretaker’s cottage, looking toward the entrance.

High Gardens, Kylemore Abbey

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In addition to the caretaker’s cottage (below) which is heated by peat (peat pile 2nd picture) there’s also a second carpenter’s cottage and some ruins (very first picture at the top) of a heated conservatory that is in the process of being restored.

Caretaker's cottage

Peat pile for heating the cottage

Other than the main sculpted garden, there’s also a really nice vegetable garden / herbal remedy garden. This one’s more rustic and has a stream off to the edge.

Grounds of Kylemore Abbey

Lough Pollacappul, Connemara

The stream runs off into a grove of white beech trees.

Grounds of Kylemore Abbey

As I left the upper gardens, It started raining – just in time for me to head back to the Galway Bay hotel. Luckily, I was able to get out the map and avoid all of the fun detours that took me so far out of the way, and get on some main streets to get back to Galway for a massage and a good nights rest with the windows open to the fresh sea breeze.

The next day, I headed back, stopping in Athenry and Clonmacnoise. More from those later.

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Kylemore Abbey

Lough Pollacappul, Connemara

Continuing my travels up the West coast of Ireland last summer, I drove from Salthill’s beautiful Galway Bay hotel, through Connemara and its detours, and then on to Kylemore Abbey.

Map of the grounds & gardens of Kylemore Abbey

The story of Kylemore Abbey is a story of love and loss, vision and tragedy, and finally hope. Without getting deep into the building’s history, I’ll try to hit the high points of the history, and for more details, you can go to the Kylemore Abbey website here.

Druchruach Mountain & Kylemore Abbey

Back in the late 1800’s, an English surgeon named Mitchell Henry and his wife, Margaret, were married. They came to Connemara on their honeymoon and were enchanted by the area’s wonderful hunting and fishing. They vowed to one day return and build a home in such a beautiful place. When Henry’s father died, Henry received a large inheritance and decided to give up medicine for business and politics. He and Margaret bought property in Connemara (some 13,000 acres in land) around the old Kylemore hunting lodge. The property included mountains, a lake and boglands. Margaret and Henry started to build a 70 room home – what is the main portion of the Abbey today, in a Victorian Style Castle. They built the castle in the shadow of Druchruach Mountain and hugging the shores of Lough Pollacappul, to maximize the view. By 1871, the castle and the walled garden were completed. In 1874, while on holiday in Egypt, Margaret died, leaving behind her broken hearted husband and 9 children. Mitchell sent her body back to Kylemore and in the coming years, built a mausoleum in the style of an old gothic church along the side of of Lough Pollacappul to commemorate their love. For 40 years, Mitchell and his family encouraged locals to take up tenancy on his property – and during the time of the Irish Potato famine he is known to have provided work, food and schooling for those that he shared the land with.

Kylemore Abbey & Lough Pollacappul

In 1903, English King Edward VII came to Connemara to visit and toured the property and grounds. Shortly thereafter, Kylemore Abbey was sold to the Duke & Dutchess of Manchester, who bought the home and its grounds in 1909. Sadly, in 1914, The Dutchess of Manchester’s father, Eugene Zimmerman passed away – and because he was financing the home – the property was lost to the bankers.

The property remained mostly empty (caretakers were watching over it) until the 1920’s, when the Benedictine Nuns of Ireland purchased the land and property. They established a convent, guest house, series of gardens, and a Girls School (the school closed in the 1990’s). Today, the Benedictine Nuns still hold the property, making their money off of the location as a tourist attraction and selling their wares locally while doing good works in the local community.

Grounds of Kylemore Abbey

While I didn’t have time (a 2 hour detour does this to ya!) to see inside the house or the Gothic cathedral, I did make it to the gardens, which I’ll post pictures of tomorrow – but for now, a preview of some of the flowers.

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