Geo: 53.3441, -6.26749For such a bookish group of travelers, our Trinity College visit was such such a thrill today! Attended by Jonathan Swift and Oscar Wilde, the college also houses the Book of Kells which is a collection of the four gospels of the Bible. Monks over 1000 years ago printed the Bible on vellum (calf skin from nearly 200 calves) and created painstaking illustrations using colored paints made from plants, lapis lazuli, and crushed bugs. The reds, golds, and blues that have survived these thousand years really are the richest hues still today. Then we entered the Long Room in the college library which is home to 200,000 volumes of books. The high arched ceiling and the aisles of volumes smelling of leather and time commanded an air of reverence while marble busts of Shakespeare, ... read more

Geo: 52.0579, -9.50747Today we toured the Ring of Kerry which afforded quintessential Irish views of the rocky green landscape and grey coast of the North Atlantic. Our bus driver Connie fittingly accompanied our drive with a CD of Celtic music and bagpipes. Sheep and cows dotted the hillsides and everywhere we looked was green green green. Our first stop along the Ring was the beach! Even in spite of the chilly breeze we loved combing the beach for shells and pebbles in the softest shades of red and green. The students recovered crab legs and mollusks, kelp and jellyfish.Our next brief stop was a roadside overlook for a short but steep hike up a grassy hill side. While much fog clung to the mountains and hovered around the bay, we still could make out the foam ... read more

Geo: 43.607, -116.193Meet at the airport at 6:30 AM!... read more

Geo: 46.2038, 6.13996... read more

Geo: 43.7405, 7.42543The fact is, the city streets of Nice are anything but nice. It reeks of urine (from people or pets, it matters little) , and if you're not smelling toilet, you're getting accosted by second-hand cigarette smoke. And what's worse, dogs poop all over the sidewalks without any apparent law against it so you're either hopping over steaming piles of poo at the last second, or sidestepping smears where people have tried in vain to clean their shoes. We have new found appreciation for the municipal laws in Meridian requiring people clean up after their pets. Yuck! OK, onto the better events of the day...It was a day of contrasts between old and new, quaint and extravagnt. We traveled first to the old medieval city of Eze Village, perched high upon a cliff overooking ... read more