Archive for February, 2012

Cadair Idris and Why My Knees Hate Me

Sunday, February 26th, 2012

One of the things that we have wanted to do for a long time was to climb Cadair Idris (technically Penygadair). We have been planning it so long that I bought the OS map as a present for IAC more than a year ago but we never managed to line up a weekend, good weather, and free time. With a little encouragement from C&T and a little help from the Met Office we made a plan to go this past weekend. Siena and the two of us were joined by C&T and their beagle and M&S. We set off from Aber and parked near the village collection of buildings called Minffordd and the beginning of the Minffordd Path, one of the three most popular ways up the mountain. The path starts through a Welsh Oak wood and follows the Nant Cadair up to Llyn Cau. The path is rocky and steep but levels out as you approach the lake.

The pathway to Llyn Cau

As you near the lake you get great views of the glacial bowl, the still blue water of the lake, and the reds, browns, and greens illuminated by the later winter sun. You also get unobstructed views of the ridge and summits you have to climb. Pressing on after the photo ops we started to climb to the ridge which would lead us to the top of Craig Cau.

Llyn Cau from the path to the ridge

On top of the ridge southern Snowdonia opened up and we caught sight of the valley below where our cars were parked and where we began almost two hours earlier. Walking along the ridge wasn’t too dangerous as the south face sloped more gently away. Before the final push up Craig Cau, we stopped for lunch near a cut in the rock down to the lake below. As we started off again we noticed the clouds begin to push over the ridge and obscure the views of Penygadair.

View from the top of Craig Cau as the clouds move in

The views to the east and south we expansive and we could see the rolling hills and mountains of Wales. Unfortunately when we turned north we could no longer see the Top of the Chair. Yet we pressed on! The short descent to the saddle gave us a respite from climbing but that just meant we had that much farther to go up before reaching the top. We finally scaled Penygadair with the last 20 minutes in the clouds. Here I offer proof of our ascent (you have to assume I am taking the photo!)

All of us on the summit of Penygadair

The way down offered views of Tal y Llyn Lake and Llyn Cau from a distance. You might think the near continuous ascent to the summits might be the most painful part of the hike, but you would be wrong. About half, if not more, of the descent is spent following a fence straight down the mountain along a “path” which is full of loose rocks and big steps. All of our knees were screaming at us as we finally met back up with the path through the oak wood. I managed to only fall and get mud all over myself once.

Finishing the hike we decided to drive to the nearby and newly reopened Cross Foxes to catch Wales’ 6 Nations game against England. The game was tense and close and watching it with an English supporter didn’t make it any easier. But the men in red prevailed in the end on an exciting try and a little help from the replay official to take home the Triple Crown.

We arrived home that evening exhausted and sore but glad that we did it. We were also fortunate that Siena was so tired she let us sleep in extra long this morning.

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Penwythnos yng Nghaerdydd

Saturday, February 18th, 2012

Just as the title of this post implies, here’s a report on our weekend in Cardiff.

Our friends, J & D, moved south to D’s family farm about a year ago, and we decided to get together with them for a weekend in our capital city.  Upon arrival on their farm, I experienced the best part of the weekend: lamb feeding!

Lamb feeding time!

After that excitement, it was all downhill from there.  Joking I am!  We arrived at our hotel in Cardiff with our stomachs growling for lunch.  Just a short walk away, we arrived at the Norwegian Church for some nice Welsh-Norwegian rarebit.  The church was converted into a cafe and art space, so we enjoyed some of the photos up in the Roald Dahl gallery.  Known for “James and the Giant Peach” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, Roald Dahl was born to Norwegian immigrants outside of Cardiff.  The main square in Cardiff Bay was named after him as well, and we strolled through there from lunch to visit Y Senedd, the main seat of the Welsh Government.  It’s a very new building that showcases many of Wales’s natural resources (i.e., slate).

Looking from the inside of Y Senedd towards Cardiff Bay

We were lucky enough to get a private tour and learned that a lot of the principles in the building design were familiar to us from the previous Parliament building we visited (glass represents the transparency of government, etc.).  Next door, we spent a little bit of time in the fabulous Millennium Centre.  The cool poem written on the walls works best within each language and between the languages (Welsh and English).

D & J in front of the Millenium Centre

We also visited Mermaid Quay, popping into Techniquest to play with some of the science exhibits, before stopping for a pint during the last of the England vs. Italy Six Nations game.  Then we got ready for a big treat: eating at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant in the city centre!  The food was outstanding, and we had a great table overlooking the bar/appetizers kitchen.

Jamie's Italian restaurant

We had a very impressive meal and spent the end of the evening enjoying the Cardiff nightlife.  We turned in early so that we could get a head start on the next day.  We started the morning with an American meal of pancakes, French toast, and waffles at an American diner called Cafe 37.  We learned about the Evolution of Wales at the National Museum which had natural history on the bottom floor and art on the top floor.  Finally, we were ready for the real highlight of the weekend: watching Wales play Scotland in the Six Nations rugby match!

What I have neglected to mention is that since arriving in Cardiff, we were never 10 feet away from a kilt.  The Scots had come to support their team, and they were proudly showing off their national identity.  Throughout the weekend, whenever we bumped into Scots, they were always jovial and willing to engage in fun, teasing banter about who was going to win the rugby game.  My impression is that this friendly rivalry exists between Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, whereas each of those teams vehemently hate England and would rather see France or Italy win.

These fans were clearly supporting Scotland!

This fan was supporting Scotland (kilt), Wales (daffodil), and New Zealand??? (shirt) Talk about hedging your bets!

The streets in the city centre became pedestrianized for the game, and people had been in the pubs since the morning to ensure they had a prime place from which to drunkenly watch the game.  We, however, were going into Millennium Stadium, so after taking in the electrifying ambiance, we headed toward the stadium.  The colorful fans were quite entertaining to watch!

Proudly sporting the symbol of Wales, the red dragon

Proudly sporting the national flower of Wales, the daffodil

Proudly sporting the national root vegetable of Wales, the leek

Note the realistic roots of the leek!  The leek is such an important part of Welsh culture, that the Welsh word for daffodils (“cennin Pedr” or “Peter’s leeks”) is based on the Welsh word for leeks (“cennin”).  Once inside the stadium, we saw other important slices of Welsh culture, such as…

Shenkin III, the Regimental Goat, and the Goat Major, Sergeant Joseph

Traditional Welsh Men's Choir

Soon it was time for the game itself!  We had great seats behind one of the try lines and were able to see quite a lot of the action.  What we found quite strange was how quiet the stadium was during the play.  In describing the two national obsessions, my colleague once told me “Football (soccer) is a game played by gentlemen, watched by thugs. Rugby is a game played by thugs, watched by gentlemen.”  The fans were, indeed, very civilized.  There was not much shouting, jeering, or abuse.  I even got asked (“yelled at” is more accurate) to sit down when at an exciting moment, I jumped out of my seat.  It was certainly different than every sporting event we’ve been to in the US where the action in the raucous stands were at best, just noisy, at worst, criminal.  This atmosphere was very similar to our experience watching shows here.  At the Dar Williams concert in Sheffield, we were struck by how everyone in the audience sat stiffly in their seats and gave polite, never wild, applause after each number.  Interestingly, beer is allowed in the rugby games but not the football/soccer games.

I won’t go into an analysis of the game, but it was an exciting one with yellow cards, several tries and penalties.  Check out our videos here, here, and here.  Wales won, 27-13!

Overall, a great trip, a nice opportunity to catch up with J&D (and practice our Welsh since they both speak it), and our first real foray into Wales’s capital!

Coda: No news on the adoption front still!

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Ich bin ein Berliner!

Sunday, February 5th, 2012

A couple of weeks ago, Dan and I went to Berlin.  ”Why would you go to Berlin in the middle of January?!” you might ask, and rightly so.  We encountered snow, hail, sleet, rain, and freezing rain.  Despite the less than ideal weather conditions, the trip was very fun!  It was a chance to see our friend, S, who is on research leave from Aber, and to see one of Europe’s capital cities that has been built and rebuilt many times through the years. As usual, we packed in a lot but a very cool aspect about Berlin is that you never feel like you are in a crowded city.  It feels like a collection of towns although the Mitte (the center of the city) certain feels very bustling.  Here are a few highlights from our trip.

We arrived late on Friday night so Saturday we started our sightseeing with the Brandenburg Gate.  It is the main symbol of the city, and we saw its image duplicated in many places throughout the city.  We walked under it to get to the Parliament Building, the Reichstag, where we had booked a slot to go to the top of the dome.  I definitely recommend that you go if you are visiting Berlin for the first time. There is a free audio tour, and we were able to get the lay of the land from the great views (even on a gray day!) of the city.

Us in front of Brandenburg Tor

The top of the Reichstag

Throughout our trip, we kept crossing over the old wall dividing East and West Berlin.  Where the wall used to stand, there are markers in the ground to show the location.  We went to Checkpoint Charlie where there was the standoff between US and Soviet tanks in 1961. There are quite a few landmarks left, but I have the sense that it is more for tourists than anything else.  I did not feel the gravitas of what happened here amongst the hawkers selling old Soviet gear and the fake US soldier posing for pictures with tourists.

We are always reminded of whether we are in East or West

The station at Checkpoint Charlie

The remnants of the wall were much better at conveying the conflict between East and West.  There were a couple of places that showed the last places where the wall is still standing, and we visited two: one near the Topography of Terror and the other which was the official Memorial of the Berlin Wall.  Many people, of a range of ages, lost their lives on the wall, and we learned about the numerous escapes, attempted escapes, and escape routes.  My memory of the Berlin Wall coming down is tainted by the news images that were broadcast at the time.  In my memory, it seemed like such an organic process, where fed up citizens revolted and practically took down the wall with their bare hands.  Learning more about it from the Memorial, the November 9 border opening was actually an orchestrated event that was months in the planning.

The Wall near the Topography of Terror

The Berlin Wall Memorial is more like a pleasant park nowadays

Berlin played a big role in World War II, of course, and we visited a few places of remembrance.  We went to the Jewish Museum, which detailed the history of Jews in Germany from the 1300s.  I was a little disappointed that it mostly focused on the persecution of Jews throughout history instead of balancing it with other aspects of Jewish life.  However, I did learn a lot!  For example, I always thought that the horrible stereotype of Jews as greedy was rooted in their occupation as moneylenders (e.g., Shylock in The Merchant of Venice), but what I didn’t know was that Jews were barred from taking up most occupations. Moneylending was one of the very few career choices open to them so it hardly seems fair to force them into certain professions and then claim that it is due to undesirable traits that they are drawn to those professions!

The old and new parts of the Jewish Museum

The other memorial we saw was the Holocaust Memorial.  It’s a large site, very gray, and very powerful.  We walked up and down between the concrete, saw others playing hide and seek, and got lost in the rows and rows of narrow spaces.  It made me think of coffins and graves, and they at first were short and knee-level but pretty soon overwhelmed you with their volume.  It’s easy to get lost and separated, as happened to us for a few minutes and for those in the Holocaust for a lifetime.  But people persevered and carried on, and life moves forward, all messages that I felt were loud and clear in this memorial.  There was a lot of controversy when this memorial was built, but I think it’s very fitting.

It's hard to see the scale of the Holocaust Memorial but it's quite large

Some perspective on how tall the structures are when you are deep inside

Many different sizes, perhaps to indicate the range of people lost in the Holocaust and affected by it

Although there are quite a few ugly moments in its history, Berlin now is an epicenter of art and music.  We saw many examples of art in the streets and in the museums.  The Altar at the Pergamon and the Ishtar Gates were extremely impressive (although much of it is reconstructed as the original stuff is too fragile or broken).  Should plunderers give back their loot to the countries of origin?  Not sure what the right answer is. But the right answer to “should I go to the Berlin Philharmoniker?” is an emphatic YES!  S had suggested that we go for a jazz event there, but I saw the great classical program that was on before it, so we decided to go to both.  4 hours of music was perhaps a little much, even for the most dedicated enthusiast, but I am so glad I got to see this orchestra perform in this hall!  Unfortunately, Sir Simon Rattle wasn’t on the program for the first part and was ill for the second part, so we didn’t see him at all.  Nevertheless, we saw some of the best string-playing of our lives, and despite sitting at the very rear, the sound was magnificent. What a night!

The Altar at the Pergamon Museum

The Berlin Philharmoniker is one of the best orchestras in the world! And this hall has some of the best acoustics in the world!

The trip was also filled with delicious food, of course!  We had a divine German meal at Lutter & Wegner, delicious Turkish food at Hasir, and a perfect Italian meal at Aroma.  S is in our Aber book club, too, and a couple years ago, she suggested this quirky little book called The Invention of Curried Sausage by Uwe Timm.  The book describes how currywurst was invented in Hamburg, not Berlin as everyone believes. Regardless, Berlin still has some awesome currywurst, so we tried it at one of the best spots in town, Curry 36.

Classic German street food: currywurst and fries!

Eating Turkish food in Berlin is a MUST!

Bad weather won’t stop us from having a great trip! We saw plenty and had a fabulous time with S whom we miss very much!  Thank you, S, for being such a fantastic host!  It was a great little getaway before things got really busy at work, and it was a very educational trip as well (in a good way).  Next capital city: Cardiff for the Wales vs. Scotland rugby game!

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