Second Half of Day One

In the afternoon we went through my Village Walks of Ireland box, that the ladies I work with at  Le Papier had given me for my birthday and picked out the walks we wanted to do in Dublin with the time that we had. Even though she loves Dublin, Maureen wants to get out of the city, so we arranged to leave  a day early. She is more of a country girl. an island girl really.Our first card to be used was Number Six- Merrion Square. It brought us to the Dublin National Gallery and it was marvelous.

  Among the  hundreds of beautiful paintings,

 Monet and Renoir, two of my favorites.

 Could have spent the whole day there but we only have so much time and too much to see.  Merrion Square park

 was lovely and the doors of the stately Georgian homes that line the north side of the square are a knockout. 

Took lots of pictures. 

 Stopped for a baileys hot chocolate at the Earl of Kildare Hotel Pub which was built in 1837.

 A  lovely little break in our meanderings. 

Some window shopping on Grafton street where we picked up postcards from little shops.

 It did rain on us but we were armed with raincoats and umbrellas. 

A little side note.  They use paper bags in Ireland. You hardly ever see plastic bags. The first time I bought post cards and they placed them into a paper bag, I thought  'are you mad! it is raining outside and the bag will turn to mush and my cards will get ruined'.  Of course I didn't say that . 

What I said was  'thank-you'.  Yes my paper bag did get a little wet but things did not turn to mush

 and nothing got ruined. 

 Anywhere we went we saw very little evidence of an  irresponsible use or abuse of plastic. There are very few plastic bags hanging around in trees or blowing down the streets in Ireland. Actually there was very little garbage on the streets any where. A very tidy country. 

 

Decided we were famished  so pulled out Village Walks card Number Two- Temple Bar and bravely sallied forth. Maureen in her bright green raincoat with the reflective tape strip across the front and back which looks really cool in flash photos and I in my green raincoat with the light plaid liner in the hood. 

Wandered around  the temple bar area in the rain seeing  the famous ha'penny bridge , built in 1816, and all the way down to Fishamble lane, one of the oldest streets in Dublin. We saw the entrance to the castle gate but not a great view of the castle, oh yea, it was raining and dark by now.  A lovely  dinner at La Pino Restaurante in Temple Bar. Very Tasty. We had already had our first  Guinness   "Slainte"   earlier in the afternoon at the Stag Heads Pub which  is steps away from our hotel, (our uneducated palates thought the beer  bitter),  so for dinner we had wine. After  a large dinner a little more wandering around temple bar to walk off dinner,  more of a waddle really. History ! History! History! Vikings are in Maureen's family history so found the village walks card number One-Viking Dublin, very interesting  The rain was gentle  but steady and we found a hostel which charged almost as much as our hotel with not as many amenities ! We finished off our first evening in Dublin  tucked into our warm, dry beds in the Hotel ,talking of all the experiences  we had that day, planning our activities for tomorrow,  content in the knowledge that we were in Ireland .

Ireland!

the customs fellow at Dublin Airport said I looked Irish. what a great guy!

I only had my carry on so I went straight to the buses which were good. Went to Dame Street and found the Adams Trinity Hotel with no difficulty.

I proceeded to check in only to find that Maureen was not there yet. This was a great concern to me as she is my traveling mate and she was supposed to be here yesterday. I immediately had visions of accidents, sick family members and/or of Maureen being lost.

I went up to my room and in about 15 minutes there was a phone call from Maureen.

WHERE WAS I? (what do you mean where was IIIIIIII)

Well I was in the hotel room that's how you go ahold of me. Where are you?

Turns out she couldn't find the hotel yesterday as I gave her an incorrect address. She was at the airport for two hours waiting for me and somehow we missed each other.

So she is on her way now, she says she will catch the bus. I waited for her outside by the bus stop.

There is lots of traffic and tons of people. I wonder if it is always like this?

She took a cab and surprised me by being in the hotel when I went to check to see if I had missed her.

After a much needed quick buffet lunch at the hotel in their dark wood second floor mezzanine dining room, we both decide that

trials and tribulations aside, we must go see Dublin!

We are in Ireland!

For 13 days!

With places to go and things to see.

Museums

Art galleries

Shopping

Restaurants

People

I love Dublin!

Getting there

Flying to the Minneapolis airport was a short flight. sunny in Minneapolis. The airport is very large with lots of interesting shops and restaurants. I kept myself busy by sketching, by walking to the farthest point away from my gate and then taking one of the little golf style carts they have to transport passengers back to my gate. I took the shuttle train  and , after exchanging some canadian money for american, I had some Sushi. 

The flight to Amsterdam was long I watched movies. Last Chance Harvey, The day the earth stood still and  Marley and Me. Only slept for a few hours. saw some lovely little lights over England or Scotland. The flight locator map was not real accurate.

 Coming into amsterdam  there were 60 wind generators in the bay very cool. I loved the red, cream and brown rooftops of the buildings in the city. Amsterdam has a most interesting airport. They have roads under the airport, which  I found quite an interesting use of space on their part. Lots of chocolate and cheese. I bought some postcards and had a croisssant and a tea and wrote a few quick notes to son in law Brent, Friends Nina and Will, Sister Kelly and Aunt Marg. Afew more hours and then on to Aerlingus.