from Princeton to Oxford: June 2017

Friday, June 30, 2017

Happy 4th Birthday!

It isn't every year one is able to celebrate a birthday in Northern Ireland and Ireland. This one certainly enjoyed her big day!

Birthday balloons in the morning

Cake at St. George's Market, Belfast

At the gates of Trim Castle - Trim, Ireland

A birthday princess in Trim Castle

On top of Trim Castle's keep

Birthday dinner at Bollard's Pub - Kilkenny, Ireland

Special happy birthday song at the pub

Cake at the pub

Best big brother hugs

Thursday, June 29, 2017

The Titanic Experience - that's what the main exhibit is called at the Titanic Belfast Museum, and it really is an experience. There are some traditional museum displays, but much of it employs 3D or 4D or virtual reality exhibits. From the ride through the assembly dock to the virtual elevator through the ship's decks to the enormous theater showing footage of the wreck and debris field, we saw and felt a lot of what it was like to build and sail on the Titanic. It was an engineering marvel, and Belfast was very proud of her ship.

Scale model of the Titanic in its dry dock,

with today's museum next to it

Former location of Titanic's dry dock

One of the final pictures of Titanic as she departed

Queenstown, Ireland, her last port of call

A virtual deck view

Iceberg of life vests

Standing at the bow of Titanic in her dry dock

The second part of the exhibit took us to the Nomadic, which is a small tender ship that transported passengers from the French port of Cherbourg out to the Titanic, and other ships that were too big and had to anchor offshore. Its decor was mostly original and gave us a slight feel for what it would be like on the Titanic. And we got to dress up as passengers!

Some of the passengers who tendered

on the Nomadic to the Titanic

Dinner at The Northern Whig

After our adventure to the north coast, we were ready for a good dinner and a pint (or two). We dined at The Northern Whig, a restaurant in a building formerly housing a gentlemen's club and a newspaper, both of the same name. The building was constructed in 1820. We enjoyed fish and chips and Sullivan's Red Ale - brewed in Kilkenny, which is our stop-over as we return to Oxford.

Dunluce Castle

Just a few minutes drive from Giant's Causeway brought us to Dunluce Castle, perched on a craggy cliff overlooking the sea. We walked over a bridge from the mainland and explored the ruins of the castle built in the 13th century. We could see hexagonal stones in the walls - sourced from Giant's Causeway. It was purportedly deserted in 1639 when a portion of the kitchen fell into the sea and the castle's mistress insisted on leaving! I would have stayed... the views are spectacular.

Standing where part of the castle collapsed into the sea

Giant's Causeway

We drove to the northern coast on Wednesday and enjoyed the spectacular Giant's Causeway. This site is famous for its geology - thousands of hexagonally shaped columns of basalt line the coast. The rock formations were created 50 million years ago by the pooling and cooling of lava. Now it is a vast landscape of stone pillars.

Or... the legend goes that a giant named Finn MacCool created the hexagonal columns while making a causeway to a Scottish island where another giant resided. When Finn realized that the giant across the sea was three times his size, he retreated to his home, where his wife disguised him as a baby. The Scottish giant came across the causeway, saw how big "baby" Finn was, and ran away in terror. On his way back, he destroyed the causeway between him and the Irish coast.

Either way, it's a phenomenal site and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We climbed around on the rocks and then hiked up the cliff to take in the views from above. Luckily we were able to get there early and enjoy the beauty before it got too crowded. The kids did well with all the hiking - the free audio guides helped keep them entertained!

Contemplation

The "giant's organ" ...

Find the people to get the size perspective

The causeway from above

Queen Elizabeth visited one year ago to the day!

Dropping in at the European Physical Society Conference

We stopped into the EPS conference Tuesday afternoon to see D and his poster presentation. Looking good! The kids were disappointed that they couldn't stay for the talks afterwards, but they got some cookies :)

Ulster Folk & Transport Museum

On Tuesday, the kids and I drove a bit out of Belfast and saw two museums - the Ulster Transport Museum and the Folk Museum.

First stop was the Transport Museum. The first exhibit was a collection of locomotives and passenger cars, some of which we could climb on and explore. That was the best part for the kids!

Indeed.

There was a brief but interesting exhibit on the Titanic. These plans confirmed A's favorite Titanic fact: that the fourth smoke stack did not function as an engine exhaust pipe (although we learned that it did provide air intake for the other three engine rooms).

The next part of the exhibit showcased historic trolley cars and buses from the area, mainly Belfast. There wasn't as much climbing to be done on these buses, but we did find some horses for C to drive.

We recognized these street scenes from

our walks in Modern Belfast

Next up was the car exhibit! We found some interesting vehicles; however the little one was disappointed that none could be clambered on. We didn't make it to the Flight exhibit... I know, I can hear your groans of disappointment! The kids were sad too, but we had to save time for the Folk Museum, and I told them that we've seen it all at the Air & Space Museums in San Diego and Washington D.C. ;)

1924 Sunbeam Grand Prix

DeLorean!

Sad that we couldn't go inside the Invalid

It was a short drive to the Folk Museum. We saw this cool engine on the way. I liked that it was next to an electric car charging port... interesting juxtaposition of transportation modes.

The Folk Museum is a reconstructed town showing the ways of life 100 years ago... similar to Colonial Williamsburg. The kids loved exploring inside all the buildings!