Built” (I realize, Bill, this is not a very good description, but does it fit?) , that I would see around town, including church..but I never knew who she was. I did not go to ACS in ’62 so I do not know where she went to school.  I have looked in the “Gecko” Year Books, but I do not see her. Maybe she went to Brent. I’ll bet if you found Benjie, he’d know, he probably went with her too!!!  HA!

Gordon and I had a nice visit. I think this is the first time we’d seen each other since the Fall of 1960.  Guess who was “center” and who was guard on our  8th and 9th grade basketball team?

_____________________

From: G Miller [rellimwg@hotmail.com]

Subject: Message from Ireland

Green Greetings!

We finally got to a town that has an Internet cafe —of course, here they call it a Cyber Pub.

Day 1 - BWI to Philly, then Philly to Shannon, Ireland

Day 2 (after flying all night from Philadelphia) —Shannon was socked in with heavy fog, and it rained most of that day and the next. However, we picked up our rental car (silver Corolla hatchback) and Gary has been driving admirably on these impossibly-narrow roads, even narrower than in England. We drove northeast to the Burren area, which is nearly solid limestone fields with gorgeous wildflowers growing through the cracks. No trees anywhere. We toured “Ireland’s finest cave” (not as impressive as Luray) and saw a 2000-year-old Celtic stone altar. Our B&B the first 2 nights was in Doolin along the Atlantic Ocean, and was very nice. We slept like logs.

Day 3 - We took a 1-hour boat trip (on the Happy Hooker) out to one of the Aran Islands (in the Atlantic),took a mini-bus ride over the rock-covered island, hiked to the top of a very old stone fortress (Dun Aengus) which is falling into the sea, and saw a fantastic show of Irish music and dancing. After return to mainland, drove to the Cliffs of Moher, which tower 700 feet above the Atlantic and are absolutely beautiful, even in the rain.

Day 4 - Drove around Galway Bay and north through Connemara. Land became old grass-covered mountains. Looks very much like the highlands of Scotland. Quite deserted, with much less traffic (hooray!). Lots of multi-color-painted sheep nibbling

the grass at the edge of the roads. Saw Kylemoor Abbey (very photogenic), memorials to the many Irish who died during the 1840’s famine, many lakes, the mountain where Saint Patrick supposedly drove out the snakes from Ireland, etc. We’re spending the night in Westport, then off to Northern Ireland tomorrow.  As you may have guessed, Ellen’s typing while Gary is kabbitzing (Guinness in hand).

Next installment of our adventure will come when we find the next Cyber Pub. You can respond to this message and we’ll be able to read it during our trip. The

address is: rellimwg@hotmail.com

Installment (2) - Message from Dublin

Hi! Since our last message we’ve covered a whole new country and are back to the original one. We left Westport and drove northeast into Northern Ireland. Following Rick Steves’s advice, we went into Derry (aka Londonderry in No. Ireland). It is one of those cities that has an old section surrounded by stone walls from centuries ago, and it had a very colorful history (as everywhere here in Europe seems to) back to 500 AD. It was a hotbed of Protestant/Catholic trouble in the early 1970’s, when numerous citizens and British soldiers were killed. There are still some serious hard feelings (paintedon IRA signs in various places), high, barbed-wire-enclosed observation towers overlooking problematic housing areas, etc. Supposedly, things are smoothing out, but we had an uneasy feeling there. 

We left Londonderry and drove on to the northern coast, to a seaside resort called Portrush, where we spent 2 nights in a lovely ocean-front B&B. The next day we drove along the coast to an 80 feet high, 65 long bouncing and swaying rope bridge that went from the main land across an inlet to a small island. We crossed it (white-knuckle experience for Ellen), and returned in the rain. Beautiful sea birds there, Of course, all of this coastal area had gorgeous scenery, with green headlands against the water, and charming white farm cottages here and there between the sheep. Next, we saw the Giant’s Causeway, a large area along the coast where 40,000 hexagonal basalt columns, formed by volcanic eruption, ranged from 1 foot to 60 feet high. We took a long hike there (got to work off all the hours riding between the good meals). Next stop that day, the Old Bushmills Distillery. It never operates during July, but we went in to see the process and do some sampling (ahhhhhhh). Gary offered to be a tester at the end of the tour, and had 10 different samples of whiskey to experience. Yes, he drove home (the drinks were watered down).

Last in that area, we visited the remains of Unluce Castle, which was built on a small rock peninsula, so all the walls of the castle go straight down into the water. In fact, in the 1600’s a big festive dinner was underway when one of the walls actually crumbled into the ocean