Author Archives: bretbosma

Crosshaven

Took advantage of the nice weather today and went for a bike ride to Crosshaven.  We stopped at a local market for yummy breakfast burritos on the way.  Crosshaven is a nice village on the opening to Cork Harbor.  It was originally a Viking settlement and has five beaches within a 2 mile radius.  We walked around a bit, had a coffee and walked out to the point.

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Edinburgh

I had an opportunity to go to Edinburgh for a couple of days for work to see the opening of a new wave tank which was very impressive.  See a news article about the opening here.

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They showed some fun waves as well as some more traditional waves that would be used in testing. Shown here is a fun focused wave.

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I also got to visit a smaller tank that they are refurbishing

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and got to go for a hike up Arthur’s Seat with my coworker, Florent, after the official event.

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On the Dingle Peninsula

Next we spent a couple of nights in Dingle.  We have been there so we went back to some of our favorite spots

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and found some new ones as well including this traditional music/storytelling/dancing session

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and of course we did some hiking and found some great sights

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Cahersiveen

Some friends came to visit and we took the opportunity to explore the Southwest of Ireland a little bit more.  Me, Erin, Emily, (y)Emily, and Dan took to the road with our first stop Cahersiveen.  We stopped along the way and saw some spectacular sights.

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Cahersiveen was a great little town on the Ring of Kerry which was touristy but not excessively so.  We rented bikes the second day we were there and toured Valentia island.  We took the ferry to get there and had terrific weather and spectacular views.

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Including great views of the Skelligs Islands.

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The next morning we went to Ballycarbery Castle.  Built in the 16th century, it is in a perfect state of ruin.

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We then headed over to Cahergall Stone fort which dates from 600AD.

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INORE Symposium La Vega Spain

On the way to the symposium I got to spend a half day at the beach in Santander

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The symposium was in a small village about 1.5 hours by bus from Santander.  Here is the hostel we stayed in for the week.

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Some views from the town of La Vega where we were staying.

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We had a game night where we played a local version of bowling

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One afternoon we went for a hike with spectacular views

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Another day we went to tour a massive wave tank located in Santander

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Impromptu games of cricket broke out sporadically throughout the week

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The Oregon State University alumni

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Final feast… quite a spread

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All in all a great symposium.

Kim and Rocky come to town!!!

Kim and Rocky came to visit over the past weekend and we had a great time. We took them to many of our favourite restaurants and watering holes including the winebar below.

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The following morning we took off towards Killarney and made a couple of stops on the way.
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Emily’s favourite tree!!
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The next day we decided to go for a hike and boat ride in the national park.
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It started out fairly miserable.

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You can hire a horse drawn trap, and driver but we decided to walk it.

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The Gap of Dunloe is a narrow mountain pass between Macgillycuddy’s Reeks and Purple mountain.
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After hiking through the gap one ends up at Lord Brandon’s Cottage where we had a coffee and prepared for our boat ride.  It was pouring for the start of the ride.

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Rocky wasn’t too happy about it!DSC_0897

Our boat guide told us that people had been doing the trip that we were doing for over 200 years.  He said that up until 1980 the guides rowed the boats by hand but luckily we had a small outboard to get us through the three lakes.

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The end of the  boat ride took us to Ross Castle,  built in the late 15th century.

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We then left Killarney for Schull.  This was the view of a couple of the lakes as we drove away.DSC_0939

In Schull we stayed at a very nice Bed and Breakfast and then went for a tour of the most south point in Ireland.  On the way we found our own private beach.DSC_0968DSC_0960

I was playing around with the kaleidoscope function on my camera.

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We then got lost trying to find a stone circle and ended up going down an extremely narrow road to a graveyard.  We eventually found the circle however.

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A great weekend all in all!!!

 

Drone tour of Cork City

Bret found this drone tour of Cork city.

Around 6:43 there is a great shot of our neighborhood. the Marguerita Villa.

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If you look hard, you may be able to see me taking my garbage to the curb.  I came inside and told Bret I had just seen a UFO flying around St. Finbarr’s Cathedral and he thought I was crazy.

Bret doesn’t endorse this behavior (nor do a bunch of the commenters).  It seems the guys who taped it may be in big trouble, so who knows how long the video will be up.

 

The Dingle Peninsula

Climbing Mount Brandon
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Top of the mountain but not much view.  Still a great hike, however.

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The view from Connors PassDSC_0552

…and the other direction…

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Former location of our favourite Kerry county beer brew pub.  It is for sale if anyone wants to buy a pub.

 

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