World Famous Cliffs

 

In the summer of 2018, after having attended a wedding in Istanbul and toured a bit of Turkey, we spent a week in Ireland and I realized that I never wrote about that trip on my blog. Since I am not going anywhere this year, it is a good time to tell you about it. 

The Cliffs of Moher - Irish Aillte an Mhothair - are probably the most famous tourist attraction of the country. It was the only place where we saw crowds and the parking lot was filling up with tour busses quickly. Even though we had arrived relatively early, it was already crowded.

These sea cliffs are in the west of the country in County Clare. They are on the Southwestern edge of the Burren region - more about that area in a future post. They run high above the Atlantic Ocean for about 14 kilometers (9 miles) and rise to 120 meters (390 ft) at Hag's Head on the Southern end and 214 meters (702 ft) just North of O'Brien's Tower. 

There are warning signs everywhere around the edge. 

The weather wasn't at its best when we arrived and I couldn't resist the temptation to process one of my photos to make it look even more sinister.

In the distance you can see O'Brien's Tower. It was built in 1835 by Sir Cornelius O'Brien, an Irish politician. Its location on the cliffs offers great views of the cliffs, but also out over the Atlantic to the Aran Islands in Galway Bay. There is a narrow staircase that leads up to the top of the tower. 

We then decided to hike along the trail on top of the cliffs. The weather had become a bit nicer, but it was quite windy. There were many opportunities to take photos and of course we had to take the obligatory family photo.

Walking so high up on the cliffs offered a lot of fabulous views.

The Cliffs of Moher are an important bird area. We saw a colony of Atlantic Puffins and on a fence what I first thought was a "weird raven". I later learned that this is a rook (Corvus frugilegus).

And now a word on something that truly bugged me. No matter where you go to in the world, there are always people who have zero respect for nature and are in competition for the Darwin Award. The trail was to the left of the sign, the unstable cliff edge to the right. Yeah, that's where the people are. In the end, they're ruining it for everybody (not that they care).

Even though the Cliffs of Moher are quite impressive, this wasn't by far my favorite part of Ireland. There were spots I fell in love with and one I didn't like at all. More about those in future posts.

Ireland wouldn't be Ireland without its music, and so there were some musicians playing music on the side of the more crowded trails (but not on the cliffs). I loved listening to them and in coming to an end of tis post I will share this snippet with you.

Since there are quite some faces in this post, I'm sharing with Nicole's Friday Face Off.

Attention, Fragile!

 

Rain's prompt for Thursday Art and Dinner Date is "glass". Of course the first thing that came to my mind was wine glass - what else? Come on, I live in wine country after all.

But of course there are so many other kinds of glass as well - warning, this is a very photo heavy post. I had way more photos to choose from and really had to restrain myself here!

Let's start with glass in architecture - like these glass buildings in London (left) and New York City (right).

Munich's modern airport, the only airport in the world with a beer garden (which was the first fun fact our daughter told us after we had arrived).

Windows can offer great views...

View from Dominus Flevit Church, Jerusalem

... or no views at all.

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

Many churches have beautiful windows with stained glass that provide a very special atmosphere.

Cathédrale de Notre Dame, Paris

And the opposite - broken windows...

What would be a ride on the London Eye without the glass?

I have a thing with windows in old buildings.

It is simple magic when the evening sun is reflected in windows like here at Langer Markt (Long Market) in Danzig/Gdansk, Poland.

Window glass is perfect for reflections...

... and can be used as a fabulous center point like here in the Bundestag (Parliament) in Berlin.

Mirrors, of course, consist of glass

The German word for mirror is "Spiegel" - and with this I add a different take on our prompt: "Spiegel im Spiegel", a hauntingly beautiful piece of music by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. You can listen to it here:

More glass - blue bottles on my kitchen windowsill.

Beer glasses and (sun)glasses - this is also for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

A glass with my name on it at the bottom.

Glass in art - the incredible glass creations by Andy Cao and Xavier Perrot, "White Cloud" (left) and "Red Lantern" (right).

Finally, glass in (street)lamps...

Baden-Baden, Germany

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

On my porch

Let's not forget the dinner part of today's TADD. I love to use my wok for cooking, usually without any recipe. It is fast and delicious. I made Udon noodles with tofu (baked in teriyaki), broccoli and red bell pepper - very tasty.

As usual I had made too much for us to eat in one sitting, so I took the leftovers and made a meal with shrimp that I had marinated in toasted sesame oil.

If you haven't done so, please stop by my giveaway-post and vote for your favorite photos.

If These Walls Could Talk

Right behind the Hagia Sophia, as soon as you have entered the grounds of the Topkapi Palace, you can see the beautiful Hagia Irene - or Aya Irini in Turkish - to your left. Often overseen in the shadow of its big famous sister it is a true gem.

One of the historical buildings in Istanbul it was the first church completed in Istanbul (then Constantinople), before the Hagia Sophia. However, the church we see nowadays is not the original building since it burned down in 532. The groundbreaking of the "modern" Hagia Irene was in the same year.  It's built with brick and stone in the Byzantine style and if you don't look closely it resembles its big sister a bit.

However, it lacks all the stunning interior decor of the Hagia Sophia. No mosaics, no tiles, no chandeliers. Just walls. But those walls are impressive.

Hagia Irene has always been a church. It never had to go through all the changes like Hagia Sophia - it never was converted into a mosque, but it no longer functions as a church. It is often overlooked, there are only a few people who go there and you have the place pretty much to yourself.

It hasn't always been like this. There used to be mosaics and frescoes and you can still see some of it.

However, I do like the bare walls. Just think how old they are! If these walls could talk, what would they tell us? They sure got their share of wars, prosperity and desperate times. But they're still here after almost 1500 years. Can you imagine our modern buildings still being here in 1500 years? I sure can't. We certainly don't build for eternity anymore.

Even though Hagia Irene is rather "bare" there is much to discover. It turned out to be my favorite historical building in Istanbul. Its simplicity holds a lot of fascination for me. It has a very special atmosphere - a bit mystical, a bit dark, a bit mysterious. A hidden gem.

Nowadays, Hagia Irene mainly serves as a concert hall for classical music performances because of its excellent acoustic and the unique atmosphere. I would have loved to listen to a concert here - I can just imagine the music rising up to the dome, sounding back from the walls, surrounding the breathless audience. What an experience this must be.

Oh, and of course it has some permanent residents here...

I could have stayed much longer within these walls. This is a place I go back to in my mind over and over again.