Weekend update...

The weather has been amazing, scary warm...made for scary storms last week! Friday night we visited happy hour at Del Sol. This is the restaurant bar at the Grand Plaza (formerly Crowne Plaza, formerly Wyndham, formerly Radisson?) The food here is the best I've ever had at a hotel and we are totally hooked. It makes for a really nice Saturday family day out actually; a visit to Imagination Station with the kids and then head next door to Del Sol / Aqua Bar with a Restaurant.com coupon. I digress...

Friday night after 1 of everything on the appetizer menu and a couple of "Smutty Nose" at Del Sol with some friends, we went to Its Friday at the TMA. There were a couple of nice dance numbers in the great hall (Ardan and then Toledo Ballet). We walked the galleries for a while and then called it a night (a very good night).

Saturday was a combination of kids activities, some outside time at the park and back yard, and then the evil weekend homework. Sunday was church, then an afternoon shuffling from one kid activity to the next. Where does the time go!?

Calling all artists

Please support this art store downtown...it is beautifully done and is the kind of business that nurtures the creative types in our city. It really raises the bar for us.

http://www.artsupplydepo.com/

Does anyone remember when Richard Florida came to speak at the Peristyle? I think St Claire street's revival is what he helped us envision.

Dublin

Spent an excellent weekend in the fine capitol of the Republic of Ireland. Arrived on Friday night and got soaked through from the rain in wandering Parnell street looking for the hostel. Didn't hit it off well with anyone the first night, but that was ok because I was shattered anyhow.

Saturday I set off early and spent about 5 hours in the National Gallery, who's collection really amazed me. This photo is part of the National Gallery...it goes on and on inside eventually merging into a newer galler with some really imposing modern architectural lines. Get to this area and see the Irish artists exibition near the cafe.



Things I liked:

Harry Jones Thaddeus - Market Day
Roderic O'Conor - Farm at Lezaven, Bretonne
Daniel Maclise - Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife
Signac - Lady on the Terrace
Beatrice Lady Glenavy - The Intruder
William Orpen - The Holy Well
John Laverly - The Artists Studio
William John Leech - Convent Garden, Brittany
Pietra Della Vecchia - Timoclea Brought Before Alexander
Also they have a magnificent Caravaggio there called The Taking of Christ that seems like it was recently re-discovered and is on loan through a private collection.

Later I wandered through temple bar...lots of street performers, shops on Grafton street, passed loads of cafes and pubs. Made my way to the James street for a tour of Guinness. This is very touristy but probably for the best considering how many people come to see this place. They've done some nice things with the old parts of the factory and displaying artifacts like all the old bottles or the 9000 year lease for the land. The vantage point from the gravity bar at the top is not to be missed.


Made my way back to the hostel to rest and see where people were going for the night. Struck up a conversation with a couple of guys from Newcastle who invited me to join them. We went to many pubs, my favorites being the Porterhouse (the red porter is top notch there) and Oliver St John Gogarty's with some great live music blasting through the place. From what I recall each had about 3-4 levels of lounges and bars...and some great beers, ales, porters, etc on tap. We also went to O'Sheas and The Brazen head, probably a couple others (gets hazy). We eventually ended up at "the Church" which really seemed creepy similar to Alma de Cuba in Liverpool. But I guess if it takes a nightclub to save a building and get young people back into church then I'm all for it.

These two pubs in Temple Bar are not to be missed:

Oliver St John Gogarty

The Porterhouse



I woke up on Sunday morning, thankfully safe back in my hostel bed with the vast majority of my cash being the the only thing missing (can blame no one but myself there). I stocked up on the great breakfast they include with the accommodation (the Bunkhouse), and set off to see a few more things before flying back to UK. Wandered around Trinity College, National Museum of Archeology, Kilmainham Gaol (very moving), Modern Art gallery, Chester Beatty library, walk around Dublin Castle, and one last stroll through temple bar. There was this terrific puppeteer with his ornery little marionette playing tricks on people, dancing, looking up women's skirts, so funny. Temple Bar is one of those districts you could go back every weekend for 6 months and check out the different shops and pubs, taking in the street performances, sounds trite but ahhh it was so cool!

A couple photos of the jail where many Irish revolutionaries were held and executed early 20th century:




A part of Dublin Castle, taken from nearby Chester Beatty Libary



The restored gate near the jail where you can find the modern art gallery:

Klimt Exhibition

Today I took off work, dropped the kiddies off at school, and took Megan to Liverpool to see the Gustav Klimt exhibit at the Tate gallery. We had a pub lunch and a nice walk around the new section of town near the John Lewis...all looks very nice.

I'm do enjoy the design of arts and crafts movement and art nouveau... subjects I'd like to learn more about. I've very much enjoyed visiting various Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles Renee Macintosh buildings. Some of Macintosh's art was also featured in this Tate exhibit.

There was more than just paintings, you could see sculpture, furniture, and architectural models of Klimt's contemporaries and friends. Its a special exhibition not to be missed by anyone interested in art and design.

Bristol

The lack of posts recently has a direct but opposite correlation to the amount of post worthy activities that have gone on. My blog is missing 2 months of the busiest time of my life!

Families have come to call, and we've gone to Germany, Nederlands, France, around UK, etc. But that isn't what this post is about.

This weekend we went to an eco-festival in downtown Bristol. It is a terrific city with a harbor and quays, all done up very nicely with museums, parks, housing, resteraunts, pedestrian bridges, mature trees, coblestone streets, all very nice. The festival was mostly focused on healthy / sustainable lifestyles and food. It was not really a vegetarian focus, but more about organic methods, the negative impacts of flying foods around the world to be consumed, consuming them in season, that sort of thing.

There were music acts, variety shows, acrobatic performers, kids activities, all around a very good family friendly event. We took a harbor cruise on the Matthew, a replica wooden sailing ship with modern amenities. A ship like this is what John Cabot discovered Newfoundand with. Another famous replica ship we were able to tour was the Amistad, which has been to Toledo before, in 2003 I think. We met a young lady on board from Toledo, who lived near UT like us. Small world!

We also went to the Create center, which is full of eco-friendly exhibits and educational materials. One of the neatest parts about it is the eco-home which is right next to Create. The natural heating and cooling of the structure is based on convection, similar to Enertia homes. The most amazing thing about these facilities is that they are city government sponsored projects and maintained by volunteers!

We spent a couple of hours at the Bristol City Gallery, what a terrific museum. It blends fine art, living history, and natural history together, all for free admission.

Also in town is Explore@Bristol which is a very nice science museum, we had a quick walk through part of it but not enough time to stay :-(

We traveled via the Virgin speed train, and stayed in the youth hostel. The hostel was decent basic accomodation at a perfect location, breakfast was excellent. I'll post some pictures when I can.

An evening at the Prince Edward Theatre

Tonight after a trip to the Tate Modern I took Megan, Carol, and the kids to see Mary Poppins. One of the most amazing productions I've ever seen, incredible cast, set, and nice venue. Megan's mom said it made her whole trip so anything extra from that point would just be bonus.

The girl was pleased to finally see a Jackson Pollock up close, but I think later in our trip while visiting the Musee de Orsay the boy and I convinced her that impressionism like that of Van Gogh and Seurat is worthwhile too.

Another Place

Today we drove to Crosby, a coastal town where an artist named Anthony Gormley put a bunch of human statues in the sand walking out into the sea. Its titled "Another Place". Rumor has it the whole installation is moving to NYC sometime soon.

Weekend log

Saturday we went to a fair in Victoria Park, right here in Widnes. It had these great old organs, ranging from very small to gigantic. The biggest one had a dance floor in front and some girls were showing off thier vintage dancing skills from the turn of last century.


Some intereting cars and motercycles on display. This 1960's Triumph Herald is for sale for 1500 GBP.


Also they had plenty of junk food, midway games, and carnival rides.

Today we took the train to Liverpool. The Widnes station is a mile and a half from our house. It takes 30 minutes to get to the end of the line. It cost 11pounds total for our round trip tickets. From Limestreet Station you walk a block and arrive at the Walker Art Gallery, central Library, and Liverpool World Museum. Both the gallery and the World Museum really impressed me. Admission to both were free, and either would have been worth paying 10 quid per ticket, easy.

The art gallery was very good for families, because they've redesigned a wing just for kids. After they've played for a while, they get a scavenger hunt to look for certain works around the museum. Both kids were into the hunt, but I could see them stopping to take a good stare at some of the paintings...wonder what was going through those little minds. The world musuem is done up very nicely, with 5 levels divided by subject matter (sea life, 4 great human civilizations, bugs, pre-history, and space). Then on the other end of the buidling it has in depth sections on other civilizations, Indian-Asian, Japanese, African...you could spend days going through all the stuff. Once again, they worked really hard to make things interesting for adults but also for kids. My son loved counting the 24 arms of the bodhisattva or compassion, and my daughter was quite taken with the mummy.

Something tells me we'll be going back there many many times!

Paris: Day 3

We slept until 10, had a lazy breakfast at the hotel hotel. Made it to the train station at noon. Took train to Chatelet Les Halles station, which lets out at an underground mall in the center of the city. In this mall, as with many places in Europe, you must pay to use the toilets. In this case there is a man with remote control opening and shutting doors after you pay him. At least when the restrooms must be paid for, they are typically clean!

The center of the mall opens up to the sky, it was pretty neat! When you come up to street level, you see these terrific gardens and a huge cathedral (St Eustache) at one end.


This park has a couple of play grounds tucked in. I let my kids play in one for about an hour while Megan browsed around. There was a huge sand box, water fountain, play equipment, etc. It was really cool watching these 4-6 year olds try to play together and realizing they had no clue how to communicate with words.


After this we started walking Paris ...mmmm banana crepes. We walked around chappel of saints, house of justice, Notre Dame ...mmm ice cream/gelatos.

We noticed an area called the Beach, down by the river. Evidently the city wanted to give people a reason to stay in the city on the weekends rather than going to a real beach. They trucked in tons of sand, and set up free umbrellas and reclined chairs. You could bring your own towel if you wish, or just sit in the sand. There were even shower stations to clean off!


What a great use of the waterfront! There were so many people walking up and down it. There was garden area, that many people took advantage of the misters to cool off.


For the pre-teens, there was this great obstacle course...all this for free. They had ballroom dance lessons (once again, outdoor dance floor), food vendors, street performers, and more.


We made our way down the river to the Louvre court. When we walked in I could here this opera singer and was just overwhelmed. I felt shivers and my eyes welling up, just giddy, very similar to my friend Christine one time at the Toledo Museum. We saw the glass pyramid, reflection ponds, the arch out front, but we were in no shape to go inside today. So we walked back toward Le Halles.


On the way I noticed a metro entrance that the one in front of the Toledo Museum must be modeled after! What serendipity!


One thing that really stood out about this city, is the great mixture of transportation. The trains and buses were excellent, but you also saw cars, scooters, bycycles, and plenty of walkers.

We ate Chinese for dinner, train ride back to bus station, bus ride back to hotel. What a long but terrific day. In the train station, my son tried to befriend a boy with a couple of french words he picked up, and the boy didn't understand. His mother came over and told me in English that the boy didn't speek a word of French (or Enlglish), only Hebrew. Never know what you'll find!