It was wonderful!!!!
We lost half a day due to Delta not being able to push their plane out from the gate in Boston, causing us to miss our connection in Amsterdam, but it was a small trouble in an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable adventure.
We landed in Dublin, caught our bus to Merrion Square, and walked around the corner to our hotel. Then we walked through Merrion Square, St. Stephen's Green, up Grafton Street and down Nassau Street. We ended up in Foley's for dinner, where we were introduced to Club Lemon (a soft drink) which was delicious, because they were out of Club Orange (our other favorite Irish drink). We were also introduced to the HUGE portions that seemed to be standard for every meal. Fish and chips that first night. Delicious!
The next day we went to catch our bus to Powerscourt and Glendalough, but the tour was cancelled (we were the only two that signed up), and ended up just going to Powerscourt instead. It's an old great house (read estate) with 50+ acres of manicured grounds. Beautiful grounds with several varieties of gardens. My favorite was the Japanese gardens and a little rock labyrinth area off to one side. My other favorite thing, was the little alcove they had for storing a rowboat. It was a "had to be there" thing, but really cool! We then returned, saw the book of Kells (fascinating, if a little overpriced, but you have to see it), and had an early dinner of crepes at Lemon, a cool little creperie that I wish would suddenly appear in Hillsboro. After dinner it was time for some pub hopping. We started with the Dawson Lounge, the smallest pub in Dublin. It's a little room in a basement off Dawson street, and holds maybe twenty people if everyone's standing. Then we went looking for music and ended up in the Temple Bar area and at long last found --- Oliver St. John Gogarty's --- Yes, we loved the music there. They have a regular line up of musicians that cycle through on some arbitrary schedule, so you never know who will be in playing, but the music was loud, good, and by the end of the trip we could even sing along with a few of the songs.
Next day was the hop on/hop off bus tour. Our two main stops were Dublin Castle (including the Charles Beatty library - houses an exceptional exhibit around religious art) and Kilmainham Gaol (a must if you want to understand the fiery passion for politics and freedom of Dubliners). We ended up the evening listening to some live music in The Blarney Inn, a pub closer to the hotel, but the highlight of the night was the snow! Yes, we saw it snow in Dublin, which according to the locals is rare indeed.
The next day was Sunday and we spent the better part of the day just going out to attend church with the Finglas Ward. A grand time was had by all, and yes the church is the same everywhere you go. On the way back to the hotel we dropped in to the National Museum of Archeology (I wanted to see the bog men) and were amazed at the quality and age of some of the pieces on display.
Overall a wonderful trip, experience, adventure ... just a good time all around.
New and improved ...
OK, this little piece of my life is about to get a lot more activity. I deactivated my Facebook accounts, and all that creativity will now show up here. Theoretically leading to more and better posts. We'll see.
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