Peckish Travels

One of the places Bob and I knew we wanted to visit in Belfast is Stormont, which is the Northern Ireland Assembly building. The building is the seat of the devolved government for Northern Ireland, and as we just discovered today, lies on a beautiful estate that is well used by the public.

The walk from our hotel to Stormont was 4.5 miles and took about an hour and 45 minutes. It took us over a pedestrian bridge and then through East Belfast and other neighborhoods. As is typical in the UK, we had clouds, sun, rain, and sometimes a mixture. The temperature was great, however, mid to upper 50s, and the rain was never very heavy.

We started our walk on the promenade behind our hotel and had an early opportunity for a mixed species big head shot for Bob.

The parliament building is open to the public during weekdays from 9-4, and tours are conducted at 11 and 2 daily. You have to reserve tickets for the tours. We did not because they were all reserved by the time we checked into it. However, when we entered the helpful guy up front took us to the Assembly Chamber where the 11 am tour was ending so we could see the chamber before doing our own self-guided tour later.

Although the Northern Ireland Parliament was established in 1921, this building wasn’t completed until 1932, when it was officially opened by the Prince of Wales, Edward VIII. The Northern Ireland Parliament was dissolved in 1972 by the Stormont Government as a response to the violence (start of “The Troubles”) enacted by the Republicans (IRA) who felt that their needs were not being equally addressed by the government. It was reinstated under the Northern Ireland Elections Act of 1998 as part of the Good Friday Agreement.

Bob and I endured some very bumpy plane rides and some slow immigration processing in Heathrow but have arrived safely in Belfast. We will be here until Monday morning when we head to Scotland to see some good friends and a sweet dog named Otter. To get here and be able to be out of the country for 4 months, we have gotten/are getting a lot of help from Bob’s sister and her husband for which we are very thankful. Also indebted to Bob’s mom for letting us park our car at her house for the duration of this trip. It takes a village.

After our arrival at the AC hotel about 1:00 pm, via taxi from the airport, we unpacked and then headed to the Visitor’s Center to determine our plans for the rest of the day. It was about a 10 minute walk to the Visitor’s Center.

We decided to do a Black Cab Tour this afternoon. It was recommended by Rick Steve’s as well as by our taxi driver from the airport. It is a 90 minute cab tour that provides a visual and informative description of some of the happenings during “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland (or the North of Ireland as our driver prefers to refer to it.). I’m not even going to begin to try to summarize what we learned (from an admittedly Republican vs. Nationalist or Catholic vs. Protestant perspective) except to say that people have trouble living with other people, people like power, and people can do horrible things to each other. In that regard, it was a sobering tour, and while what we heard was specific to Belfast it has similarities with other conflicts at home and around the world.

Down (South) — Bob and the gang have already said goodbye to Houston after a ballgame last night with the Houston Astros losing to the New York Yankees 7-1. They drove to Dallas this morning.

Up (North) — On my drive into Decorah yesterday, I saw road signs that said Driftless Scenic Byway. Usually, these signs just say Scenic Byway, so I wasn’t sure what this meant. Today I learned that Decorah is in a region in the Midwest called “The Driftless,” which means that it was skipped by the glaciers in the last ice age, so the area lacks glacial drift. The Driftless includes parts of Northeast Iowa, Southeast Minnesota, and Southwest Wisconsin. Due to the lack of glacial drift, the area enjoys bluffs and valleys and other geographical features not found in other parts of these states.

I headed out this morning on a bit of a walking tour of Decorah. I started by heading for the waterfall in Dunning’s Spring Park. That walk took me through town, across the Upper Iowa River, and then into the park. The park was small but had the promised waterfall as well as a scenic overlook of Decorah.

Luther College is relatively close to the park, so I headed there next. Luther College is a private Lutheran liberal arts college. It was originally established near LaCrosse, WI, as a seminary in 1861 by Norwegian immigrants. It was moved to Decorah when it became a college.

After my walk around campus, I crossed back over the Upper Iowa River to walk around the town center, which I just visited briefly yesterday with my visit to the Norwegian-American Museum. The downtown is much more vibrant than many of the other small towns that we have visited in Iowa. It also has a lot of signage around town, if you are interested in learning about the history and architecture of the area.

Up and Down — Bob and I are separately watching the Iowa Hawkeyes Women’s Basketball Team compete in the Elite Eight portion of the NCAA March Madness Basketball Tournament.

Bob and I are currently in separate states. Bob’s in Texas on a baseball trip with his brother-in-law and nephews. They are trying to see games at all of the baseball stadiums in the NBL. This time they are visiting the stadiums in Houston and Arlington, Texas. I left Janesville, Wisconsin, this morning where I had been visiting my mom, and am now in Decorah, Iowa, as I make my way back to Grimes, Iowa, and Bob (post baseball trip).

Decorah, with a population of about 7,500, is the largest community in Winneshiek County Iowa. Decorah has become a center for Norwegian-American culture originating from a number of Norwegian settlements beginning in the 1850s. My mom’s ancestors came from Norway, and I grew up eating Norwegian food during holidays, so I had to check out the Norwegian-American Museum that is here. The local Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum is the largest museum in America devoted to a single immigrant group.

The first exhibit was about food, and I recognized a lot of the foods mentioned.

Between 1825 and 1930, over 800,000 Norwegiansleft Norway for the New World, a number nearly equal to the population of Norway in 1825. Only Ireland would give up a greater percentage of its population to emigration.

This was new information as well. This battalion was created to liberate Norway from Nazi control. They got to Norway too late to do that but did help restore order to Norway after the war and help welcome back the king.

There was an exhibit on Herbjorn Gausta, apparently the most widely known American painter of Norwegian ancestry. I was not aware of him, but as you can tell by the blog, I am continually learning new things. He was born in Telemark, Norway, but came with his family as a young man to southeastern Minnesota. He was studying in Decorah at Luther College when he was persuaded to pursue his artistic talents.

Another art exhibit at the museum was called Seven Summers by Arna Renan. She was a Norwegian-American who grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, and later studied at the National Academy of Art in Norway. Her paintings were created over 7 summers in Norway.

Our homeowners were kind enough to leave us some passes for various museums, a couple of which we had not heard of before. Today, we took the handy 146 express bus (which we catch just down a block from the condo on Lake Shore Drive) to the Driehaus Museum. Actually, we got off the bus at Michigan and Erie and then walked a few blocks down Erie to the museum.

The museum is housed in the former residence of banker Samuel Nickerson and society leader Matilda Nickerson. It was completed in 1883 and became known as the Marble Palace. It cost $450,000 when built which seems like that would be a crazy amount in today’s dollars. The museum is named after Richard Driehaus, who sponsored the restoration of the mansion from 2003-2008. The museum showcases the mansion as well as providing art exhibitions.

After our visit, Bob and I walked the 3.6 miles back to the condo against a very strong, cold wind.

Sunday night Bob and I walked about 40 minutes to our nephew’s house, where Bob prepared a great dinner, and we got to spend time with our nephew and his wife, (who made an amazing cheesecake for dessert) as well as our great nephew, Harrison, who is now walking.

Today, we decided to finally checked out Graceland Cemetery, which we had heard a lot about. The 120-acre cemetery was established in 1860 and became the preeminent place of burial for Chicago’s elite. It is the final resting place for a number of people closely associated with Chicago, including architects, businessmen, and sports players and owners. The cemetery provides a helpful map and history of some of the most famous people there. We had a lovely day to stroll the grounds and admire the variety of headstones, monuments, and mausoleums.

Bob and I left St. Louis Park about mid-morning on Thursday and drove the 6+ hours to our new housesit for Mr. Gus, a Cairn Terrier, on Lake Shore Boulevard in Chicago. We had a great walk through and visit with the homeowners Thursday night before they flew to Boston to do their own housesit and visit with their son.

Today, Chicago dyes part of the Chicago River green for St. Patrick’s Day. Our friends from Austin are in town for her mom’s 89th birthday. We took the express bus downtown about 11 am to meet up with them and see the newly green river.

Trying to get in another good walk as well as enjoy a beautiful spring-like day (highs in the upper 60s F), Bob and I headed off towards Medicine Lake (the lake). Medicine Lake is also an independent municipality (population of 330) on a peninsula that juts into the lake that we visited. It is surrounded by the suburb of Plymouth, but voted to separate from Plymouth in 1944.

To get to Medicine Lake (the lake), we traversed roads, sidewalks, pedestrian bridges, and trails through the municipalities of St.Louis Park, Golden Valley, and Medicine Lake. As the blog title indicates, it ended up being about 12 miles round trip.

Bob and I arrived at our housesit in St. Louis Park, MN, (suburb of the Twin Cities) at 4:30 pm on Thursday for a walk through before our homeowners left for a week-long Arizona vacation. We’re caring for the sweet Rico, who is blind but has managed to teach himself to get around his two story house.

Yesterday afternoon, after Bob and I got back from a short neighborhood walk, Bob’s uncle who lives in the area reached out. We ended up meeting up with him and his wife for happy hour sushi. We had a great visit.

Today, we decided to do a longer walk to start getting ready for a walking trip that we will be doing in England in April. We headed to Westwood Hills Nature Preserve, which ended up being about 7 miles there and back and around the lake at the preserve. We’ll definitely need to get more mileage in, but it was a lovely park and a nice winter walk with temps in the low 30s but the wind making it feel cooler.

Bob and I left Mason City, Iowa, about mid morning to head to Austin, Minnesota, on our way to Minneapolis. The attraction for us in Austin was the SPAM museum , which we learned of when living in Austin, Texas, which had an annual SPAM festival.

SPAM is a canned luncheon meat created by the Hormel company in Austin, MN, in 1937. It gained popularity worldwide after its use in WW II and is now found in over 40 countries. The free museum in Austin celebrates this product in a colorful and engaging way.

According to the museum, the name SPAM was chosen after a naming contest at a Hormel New Years Eve party, believed to be the combination of the words spiced and ham.