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On Friday, we checked out the Wicklow Way Trail as we searched for a letterbox and drove to Glencree and Killney Hill before having dinner at China Sichuan again in preparation for ending our very brief Irish sojourn to return to England on Saturday.

Ireland was not originally on our itinerary for this trip, but after our EasyJet experiences, we decided to try RyanAir, the Irish discount airline, and pop over to Dublin for a couple of days.  Even more than EasyJet, the flight attendants performed a non-stop commercial for items the airline has for sale.  That didn't stop us, however, from arriving 10 minutes before schedule in Dublin accompanied as the plane touched down by a recording of the Call to Post bugle riff played at the beginning of horse races.

    

By the time our Tuesday evening flight arrived and we picked up a rental car and drove to our apartment in the suburbs, it was 9:15 when we walked to the China Sichuan restaurant next door for a late dinner.  We mentioned to the manager that it was our 38th wedding anniversary, and he sent glasses of champagne to our table.  After our server pointed out another couple at a nearby table celebrating their 36th anniversary, Ken walked over to their table and wished them a happy anniversary.

    

"Who the f^@k are you?" the man replied.  Ken smiled and explained that we shared the special day with them.  The man laughed and both of them came over to our table and visited with us over another glass of champagne for about 20 minutes, offering suggestions of places to visit in Ireland and explaining the kind of dark Irish humor behind his response to Ken's initial good wishes.

    

     

Mellifont Abbey

Before leaving Mellifont, we located the letterbox near the ruins of a chapel on the grounds.  The box was in the corner of a tiny cemetery that you entered using a very clever and rustic stile, one of two interesting stone wall stiles we came across today.
     

Styles of Stiles

How did we know when it was time to move on to the next letterbox location?  The Irish weather told us.  When we arrived at the site of the abbey, the weather was quite cool but sunny and remained so while we were touring the site and searching for the letterbox.  Almost as soon as we finished stamping in and returned the box to its hiding place, the rain began to fall and we raced to the car.
     
A brief shower later, the sun was back out and the sky was blue, just in time for our search for another letterbox at Dowth Mound in County Meath.  A prehistoric monument, Dowth was built more than 5,000 years ago to house the remains of the dead.  It was designed to align with the setting sun on winter solstice, which flooded the tomb with light.
     

Dowth Megalithic Passage Tomb

Although we found the location described in the clue, the letterbox at Dowth was no longer there.  We had searched for some time and knew it was time to quit and move on when the rain began to fall.  On we went to Slane, a village on the River Boyne that almost expired in the 17th century when the family Flanders emigrated to America and abandoned the village.
     
Our destination for the letterbox we were seeking was the Hill of Slane, which is north of the village and stands 518 feet above the surrounding area.  Legend has it that St. Patrick lit a fire on top of this hill in the year 433.  Ruins of a friary church and college, which were abandoned in the 1700s as well as a beautiful cemetery top the hill.
      

Hill of Slane

After waiting for a visiting group of young school girls to leave, we located the letterbox cleverly hidden in a recess behind a tombstone, and just after we returned the box, the rain began.  It was almost becoming eerie.
     
From Slane we drove to the village of Skerries on the coast, locating a letterbox near the Skerries Martello Tower and one near Ardgillan Castle in Balbriggan.
     

Ardgillan Castle

At both places the rain began to fall after we had completed what we were there to do.  How to explain this incredible phenomenon?  The letterboxing gods must have been with us?  Lady Luck riding in the back seat?
     
Nothing so fanciful, I'm afraid.  It's much more likely that we were experiencing typical Irish weather.  Because Ireland is an island and is affected by the Gulf Stream, the weather is extremely changeable.  In our four days here, we have seen a similar unpredictable pattern every day:  sun, rain, sun, rain, sun, rain.  This goes on all day, and we've just been lucky enough to letterbox between the showers and enjoy a sample of the stunning Irish countryside.

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Scotland’s geological makeup is rich with sandstone.  At one time, 1500 sandstone quarries were operating in the country.  Much of the Scottish architectural heritage was built of sandstone, including utilitarian buildings, housing and historic structures.  After the demise of widespread pollution generated a stone-cleaning campaign in the mid 1960s, concern built in historic preservation quarters about the damage that this cleaning was causing to the fragile sandstone fabric.
      

Sir Walter Scott Monument

Short term benefits had been gained at the expense of the long term welfare of important historic buildings, and by the late 1980s, the damaging and disfiguring effects of cleaning spurred preservationists to rally against the process.  Because of the physical changes that can and do occur, stone cleaning has been considered an ‘alteration’ to historic buildings since 1992 and subject to the rigorous approval process of other changes proposed to heritage properties.  Some researchers even assert that the sooty stain provides a protective coating that may protect the sandstone from further decay.
     
An activist group formed a few years ago to oppose the demolition of historic properties in the older section of the city called itself by the cheeky acronym of SOOT (Save Our Old Town).    Many visitors agree with locals that the Gothic and Georgian structures of Edinburgh look best dressed in black.  The city is often described as one of Europe’s most striking, lending new meaning to the 1960s adage, “Black is beautiful.”

   

Our afternoon matinee tickets were to a dark comedy called Pandas, which made its world premiere with this production at the Traverse Theatre (pictured above).  Set in Edinburgh in the spring, Pandas tells the story of three couples, whose lives become intertwined with each other and with various connections to pandas.  James, a police detective, has hit the bottle and ignored his wife Julie once too often, and Julie is leaving him.  Jie Hui, an enterprising entrepreneur, is regretting his partnership with shady dealer Andy to import panda-patterned rugs from China after customs officials begin breathing down their necks and Andy is shot.
     

Julie, Andy and James (photo by Traverse Theatre)

When James goes to the hospital to interview Andy about the shooting, he discovers his soon to be ex-wife at Andy's bedside.  Then Andy's bitter ex, Madeleine, a neurotic entomologist who studies panda lice, throws herself at James when he questions her about her whereabouts during the attack.  

     

Meanwhile, Jie Hui is dealing with his first visit from Lin Han, an internet matchmaking contact from China with whom he has exchanged 536 emails and 68 pictures.  She is a wide-eyed pragmatist who matter-of-factly informs him that she is trying to decide whether to fall in love with him or not.  Her family also happens to manufacture the panda rugs in question.
     

Jie Hui and Lin Han (photo by Traverse Theatre)

The cast was uniformly excellent and served well by stellar directing, clever sets, and very sharp writing.  Pandas clearly personified Edinburgh's theatrical excellence in black and white.
     
With just enough time for a nice dinner and stroll in between performances, we made our way to the elegant Festival Theatre on Nicolson Street for our evening event.  The location is Edinburgh's longest continuous theatre site, dating back to 1830 when Dunedin Hall was constructed there.
     

Several reincarnations later, the Empire Palace Theatre opened at the location in 1892.  Designed by a great British theater architect, the Empire was lavishly decorated and seated 3,000 people on four levels.  For the next two decades, it hosted the top attractions of the period until a disastrous fire struck the theater on May 9, 1911.
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Beauty and Lafayette

During a performance by the Great Lafayette, a famous illusionist and friend of Harry Houdini, an electrical fault in a lamp triggered an onstage fire.  When the elaborate set caught fire, the audience thought it was part of the illusion and did not attempt to leave until directed to do so.  A fire curtain was dropped, enabling the entire audience to escape unharmed, but all the performers, including the Great Lafayette, perished.

Tonight's production at the Festival Theatre was a performance by well-known British illusionist Paul Daniels in tribute to the Great Lafayette and the 100th anniversary of his untimely death.  It was part of a weekend festival of magic and illusion in honor of the great master, who was the highest paid performer of his time.  Daniels paid homage to Lafayette by performing some of his tricks and in retelling the story of his career and last performance.  Like earlier in the day, we were thoroughly entertained and glad to have been in Edinburgh on the day that this very interesting man was honored.

For more information about the Great Lafayette and his beloved dog Beauty, who was a gift from Houdini, google the Great Lafayette Festival site.SATURDAY, 7 MAY—SUNDAY, 8 MAY 2011

On Wednesday (day 65), we traveled by train from Paris to Edinburgh.  Although we could have made the trip in less than two hours by plane, we opted for rail to have the opportunity to travel through the Chunnel, the 30-mile tunnel that passes below the English Channel to connect the United Kingdom with the mainland of Europe.

    

Since this marvel of engineering opened 15 years ago, we have been fascinated with the idea of getting from England to France by train.  We couldn't resist the opportunity and were giddy with excitement on the day of the trip.  Little did we realize. Near Calais, the Eurostar train taking us on this magical ride sped into a large hole in a remote area.  For the next 35 minutes, our view was of the tunnel infrastructure (pictured above).  Then we sped out of the tunnel and into the English countryside.  Yawn.

     

    

On Thursday, our first full day in Edinburgh, we rented a car and drove to a few small villages near the city to search for letterboxes.  By Friday, we were ready to try out the laundry facilities in the apartment we had rented.  Our clothes had been only hand washed since we encountered the laundry facilities in Rome, almost a month ago.

    

Because they are such voracious consumers of energy, tumble dryers, the type used most often in the U.S., are found in only about half of British homes.  With high energy costs and growing concern about energy efficiency, the use of tumble dryers is widely discouraged.  Even the BBC reports that line drying is growing in popularity.

Integrated Washer-Dryer

We were pretty surprised therefore to find a compact, handy-dandy Hotpoint BHWD129 tucked into the kitchen cabinets at the apartment.  Smashing!  After handwashing our clothes for two months and with complete disregard for our carbon footprints, we were eager to give the machine a try.
   
This integrated machine does it all, according to the manual.  Insert your dirty clothes and remove them clean and dry and ready to wear.  Save money and hassle with this economical and functional machine, the advertisement promises.  Clearly it does not mention saving time.  Nor does it suggest what your clothes will look like at the end.  There is a good reason for that.
     

The complicated dashboard (thankful it's in English!)

After a lengthy study of the control panel and the user manual, which we located online, we made what seemed a reasonable selection of cycles, inserted our clothes and detergent, and pressed the start button.  Like magic, the machine began to fill with water and agitation soon followed.
     
We weren't terribly surprised when the sounds were dissimilar to what you hear from a U.S. Maytag at work.  So we closed the cabinet door and pretty much ignored it.  An hour and a half later, we looked in the porthole to see what was happening.  We suspected that the washing stage might be finished because the high-speed spin cycle had been intermittently jarring objects across the kitchen counter and rattling our teeth for the previous 30 minutes or so.  Based on the numbers of fillings lost and cups broken, we estimated about 4500 rpm during that phase.
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Soon we entered another cycle.  In addition to the continuation of occasional gurgling sounds, the drum would turn for a couple of minutes, stop, and begin turning again, but in the opposite direction.  Sometimes it would spin at a rapid pace again, but probably only at about 2000 rpm.  The indicator light told us it was in the drying phase.
     
This process went on for another hour.  When the END indicator finally lit, we eagerly opened the door to retrieve our clothes.  What a surprise!  We removed our clothes to find them slightly damp, prune-like with wrinkles, and somewhat smaller than when we inserted them more than two and a half hours before.  But, by golly, they were clean!  So we've cancelled our order for an outdoor clothes rack.  We're sticking with the modern technology!  Faster, easier, and carefree-- once you dry, iron, and stretch everything back to its original size.

     

Wondering if clothes might dry faster like this

     

This is the place.

Grandma's 1938 boarding house

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Searching for letterboxes in Paris has led to the discovery of some surprising sights, over and above the expected must-see Paris attractions.

   

Near the Louvre Museum, on a small square named Place Colette is what has been called the most photographed subway entrance in Paris.  Installed in 2000 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Paris Metro system, this glass and aluminum design (pictured above) was created by artist Jean-Michel Othoniel for an entrance to the Palais Royal metro station.  Called  "Le Kiosque des noctambules" (Kiosk of the night-walkers), the two cupolas represent night and day, and the colored balls are made of Murano glass from the Venice area.  Since there is actually no sign indicating that this is the Metro entrance, one might legitimately question its effectiveness, but never its style.
                                                              

Never to be confused with your corner drugstore, the Publicis Drugstore des Champs Elyséess is another work of art applied to a mundane function.  The most prestigious street in Paris, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées commands some of the highest rent in the world, as high as $1.5 million annually for 1,100 square feet of space.  It runs 1.25 miles from the Place de la Concorde, the largest public square in Paris, to the the Arc de Triomphe, one of its most famous monuments.
    
Near the Arc is the Publicis Drugstore, a world-class example of the meaning of full-service.  Sitting on the site of the old Astoria Hotel, where General Eisenhower headquartered when serving as the commander of Allied Forces in World War II, the store was the brainchild of Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, a French entrepreneur who founded France's first advertising agency.  His goal was to put luxury within the reach of all Parisians, while creating a welcoming space where people would want to linger.  As his massively successful advertising career and this project attest, he had a keen understanding of what Parisians want. More than 20,000 people pass through these doors daily.
     
Iranian-American architect Michele Saee completely redesigned the building inside and out in 2004, covering the exterior with the same transparent glass used for the pyramid at the Louvre.  Walls and doors that might block light were removed to expand transparency and allow an interaction between the activities of Publicis and the life of the city.  In Saee's goal to create a design that was "organic and feminine," angles were replaced by curves, vertical planes turned horizontal.
     
Really a complex of shops and eateries, Publicix offers a highly rated restaurant with a famed executive chef, a recording studio, a bookstore, an extensive newsstand with publications from around the world, two theaters, a gourmet food store, a wine shop, a designer jewelry store, a cigar store, other boutiques and shops, and you can even have a prescription filled there.

   

A gem of another type that we encountered while letterboxing around the city was the grave of Marquis de Lafayette, renowned friend to rebellious colonists and hero of the American Revolution.  He is buried in Pipcus Cemetery, one of only two private burial grounds in the city.  Situated near the place where the guillotine was used during the French Revolution, Pipcus is the final resting place for more than 1,300 executed by that instrument.  New burials today are limited to descendants of those victims.

   

With its wealth of history and culture, Paris is filled with hidden gems.  We are thankful that our hobby of letterboxing leads us to some of them.  

As we have traveled around Paris in the last couple of days looking for letterboxes, we have seen some of the quintessential Parisian sights, those visited by every tourist and recognized the world over.  The most famous, of course, is the Eiffel Tower.  Although this was our third time to see the tower, it never ceases to create a jolt of excitement.

      

Built in 1889 as the entrance arch for a World's Fair type exposition marking the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution, the Eiffel Tower is the tallest building in Paris and the world's most visited monument.  At 1,063 feet (about the height of an 81-story building), the tower has become a universal symbol of France and one of the most recognized structures in the world.

Originally intended as a temporary structure, the tower was meant to be dismantled after 20 years.  When the construction was complete, many Parisians considered it an eyesore.  However, the initial opposition to its design  were overcome, and when the tower was found to be extremely helpful to radio transmission, it was allowed to remain.

   

Interesting Facts about the Eiffel Tower:

1. When Thomas Edison visited the tower in 1889, he signed the guestbook with this statement:  "To M Eiffel the Engineer the brave builder of so gigantic and original specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu, Thomas Edison."
   
   
2.  The tower lost its title as the world's largest structure in 1930 when the Chrysler Building in New York was completed.
   
   
3. When Paris was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940, the French cut the cables to the elevator at the tower, determined that if Adolf Hitler was to make it to the top he would have to climb.
   
   
4. The tower has seven million visitors per year; 75% are foreigners.
   
   
5. Maintenance schedules call for the tower to be repainted every seven years, a project requiring 60 tons of paint.
   
   
6. The Eiffel Tower is one of the most replicated structures in the world.  The oldest duplicate is Blackpool Tower in Lancashire, England, built in 1894.  The largest and best known is the one at the Paris Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, about half the size of the original. Two American towns named Paris, in Texas and in Tennessee, also have copies.

     

FRIDAY, 29 APRIL—SUNDAY, 1 MAY 2011