Category Archives: city

city, engineering, friends, history, UK

Belfast & Giant’s Causeway

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With the trip rearranged for a week later due to the UK being unable to cope with a little bit of snow, we eventually made it to Belfast this weekend gone.  A plan was hatched a few months ago over drinks with workmates that we should go on a weekend break before Bhupesh’s visa expired & he had to go back to India.  It may be the middle of winter, but I’m hardly going to let such a trifling matter get in the way of a trip somewhere new.

With all of last year’s trips under my belt, somehow it fell to me to organise everything – perhaps I was the only one motivated enough to do anything on the planning side.  It was great to have friends along for a trip for a change, but organising it all and making sure everyone is enjoying themselves (I’m pretty sure most don’t share my love of history) while still trying to make sure I get to do the things I want to was something I was not used to.  When the accommodation rebooking fell apart on the morning of our departure, I was not enjoying being sole organiser; but plenty of emails, phone calls and not small expense sorted that out eventually.  In the end, I’m sure no one had a bad weekend, I got to see most of what I wanted and managed to get sufficient time to myself (three’s a crowd & all that).

Apart from the last minute hiccup, airbnb worked out well again – where else can you rent a three bedroom house for forty quid a night?  The neighbourhood in South Belfast was pretty grim, but as always I found plenty of interest – and taxis were cheap & prompt.

All that was left standing of the terrace across from the front door – I suspect because this house (the blue bit) had some sort of memorial to a fallen soldier

It didn’t get much better across the next street – demolition and breeze-block windowed houses, classy

An old library on the walk to catch the day-trip coach

The recommended activity for the day was a trip up the coast to see the Giant’s Causeway, so that what I managed to convince all was a good idea.  The day dawned bright & cool, but the clouds soon rolled in.  Our driver/guide for day was recovering from illness & seemed determined to drag us all down with him as he had the air-con continually chilling us for the first few hours – I’ve never seen so many people on a modern coach still wearing winter coats, beanies & gloves (it was quite a contrast to the infamous roach-coach).

We wound our way up the coast road with an informative commentary that never seemed to stop – I’m unsure just how many times I heard the phrase “there’s another little piece of useless information for you”, it’s a pity I’ve forgotten most of it, as it was truly useless.  Not to worry – the scenery was pretty and there still a dusting of snow around.  Our first proper stop was at the rope bridge of Carrick-a-Rede, which was a bit of a walk from the parking lot.  Graciela by now had developed a sore throat & was not keen on an exposed walk, so I headed off by myself into the bracing wind along the top of the cliffs.  There’s been a bridge over to the little island for over three hundred years, mostly for fisherman to get across to collect large salmon catches – but that has dwindled now & it is mostly tourists trip-trapping over the plummet to the sea below.

All I could think of was the Bridge of Death and the Gorge of Eternal Peril (Oh, whacko) and making sure I got the five questions, three questions, correct.  Convincing myself that my favourite colour is indeed still green and reassured by the bridge-keeper from the National Trust not looking a bit like the Old Man from Scene 24, I made it across safely.  There wasn’t too much to see on the island itself, but the view along the cliffs was nice & I could easily look over to the Mull of Kintyre (where I was with Mum & Dad but four and a half years ago).  The weather closed in again & started liquid-sunshining (raining) on me as I walked briskly back – it was a really pleasant hour out of the coach along beautiful coast.

Just down the road was the UNESCO World Heritage site of Giant’s Causeway, which I was keen to see as on the trip with Mum & Dad mentioned above we went to Staffa (not far away, but over off the coast of Scotland) and saw similar basalt columns.  It managed to stop raining for the walk down to the sea & we had a good hour or so mucking around on the large, wet, slippery regular paving stones – the tessellation results from the cooling of the basalt after a volcanic eruption.

Some of the steps suddenly dropped off a few metres – probably good not to get blown over there

Other people to take photos of me – hoorah!

The wind may have got up a bit more

It was a quiet & quicker drive back to Belfast – it’s always surprisingly tiring work sitting on & getting in & out of a coach all day.  We stocked up on breakfast supplies (potato bread is a thing of Irish genius – I bought extra to bring some back home) before warming up & heading out for a night on the town.  Belfast was extremely busy for a mid-winter Saturday, it took us quite some time to find a table to eat at in the Cathedral Quarter.  After which I was reminded how tedious I usually find nightclubs – on the upside, the pint of Guinness was better than the one from the night before.  Oh yeah, by now Graciela had all but completely lost her voice so while that was amusing on a superficial level it did somewhat kill the joviality of the night.

Sunday morning was a bit lazier, but I managed to get everyone out the door before noon – so I counted that as a win for not wasting too much of the day!  We pottered around City Hall (no Union flag flying, odd that) as nothing much opens in Northern Ireland before one o’clock on a Sunday.  The others were intent on shopping, I was more interested in eating – so I went & found a nice lunch by myself before we all headed out to the recent (last year) Titanic Belfast museum.

It’s a striking building

And there’s a feature wall of steel slab, which of course made me happy

The museum is very well done & worth the entry fee.  There’s a good split between how Titanic was built (shipbuilding is a large part of Belfast’s very proud industrial heritage), what the ship itself was like and, of course (the bit that was in the back of one’s mind throughout the rest of the exhibit), the disastrous sinking and loss of life.  There was also plenty about Southampton, another proud maritime city, so I really must go and check out some of the local museums when I’ve got spare time at home.

Not sure how I’ve managed to write so much about a relatively quiet weekend (I definitely did a lot less walking & saw less than if I’d been by myself), but it was a good one & I’m glad it all worked out in the end.

Africa, city, history, travel

Egyptian Museum & Khan el Khalili

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I don’t think I slept quite as well on the train overnight as the previous journey, but it was a much calmer drive back from Giza Station to our last hotel – Friday morning is the start of the weekend in Egypt so the traffic was quieter.  Although, we were told that there are many more road accidents in the weekend’s reduced traffic as Egyptians aren’t used to driving at speed – so they do the same crazy things going five or ten times faster than normal & wreck.

With the mandatory carols still playing in the hotel lobby, we once again got an early check-in & settled into our rooms.  All the hotels we stayed in during the tour were of a high standard, but this one was another step-up – with a pool the like of which I have not seen in a hotel before.

Late morning it was back on the road again for the short drive into the centre of Cairo, for the first time, to head to the Egyptian Museum.  Once again we had to leave our cameras in the bus or check them in – so all I have is a few sneaky phone photos.  The Egyptians don’t appear to be overly proud of their flag as it was almost a week in before I found one to snap a picture of – this is on the front of the museum.  The building looks rather European – designed by an Italian apparently.

Being right on Tahrir Square, it wasn’t too far away from all the revolutionary activities two years ago.  This is no more obvious than by looking next door at the burnt out shell of a building of a Ministry of the former regime.

To no-one’s surprise, inside the building is packed with just a small part of the largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities.  Construction of an astoundingly large new museum has begun just down the road from where we were staying in Giza.  The footprint and piles of sand point to this being a massive undertaking – Lafarge will be pleased to have that concrete contract.  Only nine-hundred-odd days to go until completion – or so the big sign outside told us every time we drove past.

Far & away the highlight of the museum was seeing that recovered from Tutankhamun’s tomb – which I’d been in the morning before.  Considering the size of the tomb, it’s staggering that so many things fitted in there.  It took Carter twice as long to empty & catalogue the tomb as it did for him to find it (five versus ten years).  The golden shrines (outer coffins) are there and they get progressively smaller from very large boxes (at least two metres tall & even longer) a smaller box – still big enough to hold a sarcophagus.  I think Russian Dolls have much greater value as a childhood amusement than having one’s own set of Egyptian coffins to play with.

Now that I’m at the point of describing the room that held the most valuable and spectacular of Tutankhamun’s possessions for afterlife, I’m running out of superlatives.  So much gold, so many jewels.  The most famous, and most spectacular, piece is of course the Gold Mask – eleven kilograms of gold and so intricately detailed; it really was worthy of a lot of staring and inspection.

It was good fun wandering around the rest of the museum as it really is quite old and has the old, dusty museum feel to it that makes one feel like the clock has been wound back or you’ve been dumped into a film.

Through the building traffic we set off for a bit of a shopping afternoon.  First off a perfume factory, where I wasn’t in any way tempted to spend the last of my Egyptian pounds.  Our journey took us past the huge Citadel (originally built by Saladin to keep out marauding crusaders) and the quarries where the stone for the pyramids was excavated.  Our destination was Khan el Khalili, a market in the Islamic part of the city dating from the late fourteenth century.  With plenty of warnings of how persuasive the shopkeepers are and knowing not to be lured away from the main streets, we set forth with our undercover bodyguard/Tourist Police Officer.  It was great fun looking in (from the narrow alleyways) all these shops as the salesman tried everything approaching physical contact to entice you to buy their particular piece of Chinese-made tat.  Unfortunately there wasn’t enough exotic foodstuffs to hold my interest for long, so I just wandered feeling generally bemused at the banter of the shopkeepers until I found the meeting point.  The rice-pudding at the cafe where we met was worth the effort – it was scrumptious.

We had our final dinner together as a group that night & said a lot of goodbyes.  Six of our group departed for a few more days beside the Red Sea in Dahab, while the remaining four of us slept through their early morning departure.  With postcards hurriedly sent and the last little while spent by the pool, it was off to the airport.

So that was my Christmas week in Egypt – absolutely fantastic, a fair dose of third-world craziness, a mind-boggling amount of history and, nicely, much drier & warmer than the UK in December.  If anyone has the inclination to head over that way, I recommend it – we had no safety issues and the country could really do with more tourists to get back to where they used to be.  I’m glad I took my first tour, as I’m sure having to deal with transport in Cairo would not be too much fun independently.  I can also whole-heartedly recommend on the go tours and, in particular our guide Hesham, as well organised, professional and very knowledgeable.

Africa, city, history, travel

Alexandria

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After another fantastic early Christmas meal laid on by Trish, it was off across London on the rails dragging suitcases behind me to Heathrow.  A pleasant overnight flight (most of which I tried to sleep through) on Egyptair and the new Cairo airport confirmed my expectations that Egypt would be similar in affluence in Turkey; however, these were quickly dashed as we (four other Kiwis & I that were going on different tours with the same company) were driven across Cairo and Giza to our hotel.  There was much excitement in the van (sleep deprivation may have been a contributing factor) when we sighted the famous pyramids looming up behind the multitudes of unfinished multilevel houses (I can’t really go so far as to call them apartment blocks).

Wisely or otherwise, I had arrived in Egypt the day before I needed to and opted for a add-on day trip to Alexandria.  So under-rested and underfed I joined a few other day-trippers on the small bus to the coast at 7.30 am.  Climbing on the bus there was a smell of diesel pervading and the floor at the rear of the bus was very slippery – it turns out that on such a long trip (200 km) in Egypt it pays to carry a bit of extra fuel as in the recent climate one can never be guaranteed a supply and some of this had spilt.  From working in various industrial and chemical plants I have a reasonably high tolerance of such odours, so it wasn’t too bad; others didn’t feel the same way so we stopped along the Desert Road (much more appropriately named than the Desert Road in New Zealand as this one runs along the eastern edge of the Sahara) for hurried cleaning – I could get some much needed sustenance.

I’d heard a bit of Alexandria from Trish whose husband spent quite a few years growing up there and her father had also been stationed there during WWII – with fascinating photos to prove it [Trish, that statue that was uncaptioned in your Dad’s album was of Mohammed Ali (not the boxer)].  So I was interested to see some of the sights of the black and white photos in real-life colour. The chaos of the traffic became apparent as we approached the city – in many hours in traffic in a city of near five million I saw one set of traffic lights and no street signs.  First we had to pop down to the famous Corniche promenade to pick up a couple of South African guys that would be joining us for the day & trip back to Giza.  Eventually we made it to our first sight of the day, by which time we’d had plenty of time for Hesham (our guide for the day & also the guide on the week-long tour I was on) to explain a bit about Egypt and Alexandria.  The history of Alexander the Great’s brief rule and the extended rule of the Ptolemies and Cleopatras was fascinating – they’re still finding historical pieces from these eras in the Med.

Our first stop was the ancient catacombs, Kom al-Shaqafa, which were discovered believe it or not by a donkey in 1900 – it fell down the access shaft.  While not nearly as big as some catacombs I’ve been in, it was interesting as there was a merging of Egyptian, Roman and Greek art.  Excuse the poor quality of the surreptitiously taken photos.

A short distance from the catacombs is the well-known Pompey’s Pillar.  Set on top of the old Alexandria (I don’t know why I bother qualifying that with the word old, as most everything in this country is proper old – but then I come from a country that is not even two hundred years old) acropolis is the granite pillar (a single piece forms the twenty-seven metre tall shaft ) that used to be part of a Roman temple.  Here we started to see the first of many sphinxes.  The slight rise of the hill gave a good view of the surrounding neighbourhood.

Following lunch by the Mediterranean (where I was so hungry I forgot the rule of not eating salad that may have been washed in tap water – my digestive system survived, mercifully) we were off to the last sight of the day – the Modern Library.  On first hearing this, I was disappointed as I didn’t really come all this way to see a library.  It turns out that the ancient Royal Library of Alexandria (from around third century BC) was quite the library way back when (unfortunately it burned at various points).  The modern replacement was heaving with students (a university is just across the road) and despite the guide’s rather oddly accented English, the tour was interesting as the main area was an absolutely huge open-plan and tiered library.  The architecture is simply stunning inside & out.  It’s quite the facility and it was pleasing to see so many students spending so much time in the library – hopefully this bodes well for the country’s future.

So that was my brief visit to Alexandria, most enjoyable even if I was rather tired from the flight and hungry from not quite enough/any food during the early part of the day.

bikes, city, Europe, event, family, friends, history, NZ, snow, travel, UK

2012 was certainly different

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For the first time in four years, I’ve managed to live in the same place all year and to be working for the same company at each end of those twelve months.  While this has given life a bit more stability this year, it hasn’t been without plenty of variety.  The event that influenced half of the year was having surgery on my shoulder to stop it dislocating.  Six weeks in a sling and six months before being fit to mountain-bike again was quite the upheaval – but it was all worth it as my shoulder is much more stable & predictable now.

Not being able to ride my bike did have the advantage of forcing me to find other things to do with my time & money.  Consequently, it turned out to be a bit of a travel year with twelve significant trips:

First up was an excellent week of skiing in the Alps with good friends

The day after the sling was banished, I finally crossed Rome off the top of my list – it had been there some time

The Pantheon was the highlight for me, followed closely by climbing St Peter’s Basilica

A week in Turkey was mostly spent in Istanbul, where the architecture continually impressed

Hot-air ballooning early morning in Cappadocia rates near the top of all I’ve done in the last three years away from NZ

Prague – with Te Puke school friend, Levi, a long way from Fairhaven Primary

The country was gripped by the Olympics late summer, great to be around for that

I was lucky enough to take a last-minute spare ticket & made it along to watch some of the mountain-biking – quality athletes & a great course to be a spectator

The highlight trip of the year was finally heading back to New Zealand for a whirlwind two weeks of thirtieth birthday parties (mine), a wedding (not mine), and tripping all around the country & spending time with dear family & friends (not to mention meeting quite a few additions that have arrived in the intervening three years).  There was also the added bonus of the physio declaring my shoulder fit for gentle exercise – so I managed a bit of mountain-biking and a ski too.

Treble Cone, near Wanaka, is a spectacularly beautiful ski field it turns out

These photos don’t come around as often as they should – excellent to have all the family together

Shortly after NZ, a work trip to Italy sprung out of nowhere – I managed to tack Venice on the end

Gorgeous city for a day – but I found the lack of trees, grass and bikes a little disconcerting

Pleased to finally make it back briefly to Edinburgh & even see the sun

I’d waited a long time to see Sagrada Familia, after hearing Dad’s stories – it didn’t disappoint and was, in a word, incredible

Watching football with eighty-odd thousand Spaniards at Camp Nou; Barcelona crossed off the top of the list

Still managing to explore England a fair bit, mainly the south – Leeds Castle (in Kent) was one of the most enjoyable visits

Fancy that, a summary of my year & no mountain-biking pictures, that should change next year – here’s hoping.  In the last few months I have been riding a fair bit (even though my bike-commute is short, the miles add up), but it’s pretty flat & wet (for now, or perhaps always) around here so the riding isn’t too exciting.  Work will be changing a bit next year too; I managed to be a process engineer of sorts for a year but am now moving into a different role scheduling the site’s production, amongst other things.

So that’s about it for this year – thanks to all who had me to stay, travelled with me, helped while my shoulder was out of action or simply kept in touch.  I’ll have to take this opportunity to wish all a merry Christmas and the best for the New Year, as I’ll be incommunicado then – Egypt will be off the list by the end of next week.