More castles, a miracle, and Petra at night

We left Amman today and headed south. In no time we had left the greener hills of the north and saw instead wide, flat vistas of dry desert rock. It looked as though the land was farmed, because a lot of it was plowed. We couldn’t see anything growing, however, and Nashat wasn’t sure what […]

Jerash and Ajlun Castle

I could happily spend another two days in Jerash.

Amman Citadel and Qasr al-‘Abd

My girlfriend Margaret invited me to travel with her to Jordan. The timing worked well. In between my two training sessions in Annapolis, and before the winter term classes begin. I had hoped to travel to New Zealand for my 50th birthday in January, but at the time when I needed to begin making reservations […]

Irish Doors

I can remember the mood and excitement of the moment when I took the photo.

Castles of Cashel and Cahir

The two well-maintained and managed places we decided to see up close were in Cashel and Cahir.

Dingle Peninsula

Have I mentioned that the spot is magical?

Driving to Killarney and Dingle

We had breakfast at the hotel since it was Sunday, it was early, and NOTHING was going to be moving until 11am. We took a taxi to the airport and rented a car. We rented a car!!! You know what that means, of course. It means I had to DRIVE in IRELAND. I had been […]

Half a day in Cork

We didn’t plan our time well and gave ourselves 3 minutes to eat the buffet breakfast we had each paid €13 ($15) for. Instead of eating, we collected food into take-home containers we had saved from the day before and ran out of the hotel with rollerbags and shoulder bags, and paper bags of breakfast […]

Ancient Ireland

This particular region is packed with neolothic sites and points of interest.

Kilmainham Gaol and another look at Dublin

And there we were, in the very place where it happened.