Tuesday, 6 August 2013

Dublin cont...

Forgot to post Molly Malone, but here she is.

Funerals Dublin style.... No name, just wife, pretty impersonal hey.

Temple Bar was pretty good, too.

Here are the striking bus drivers. Very annoying!

The Clarence Hotel owned by U2.

The lamps in Phoenix Park still lit by gas. Amazing.

The other street lamps, beautiful.

Dublin is a real conundrum. The GFC hit them hard but they don't seem to be trying to do anything constructive to help themselves. Heaps of shops/businesses that did not open over the bank holiday weekend which is apparently the busiest weekend of the year. Weird huh.

Lots of street theatre however, but heaps of in your face beggars as well!

Funny place, Dublin. We liked Scotland better.

 

Dublin

We have spent the last few days in Dublin as our tour arrangements had changed. On Saturday we went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. Wow! What a magnificent book. We've seen lots of amazing manuscripts in our travels. No photographs of course, but amazing anyway. Very little mention that it was 'rescued' from Iona in Scotland. Trinity College is beautiful too, of course. The library is incredible!M

 

We then bought tickets on the dublin bus company's hop on hop off bus. Very bad move! They went on strike on Saturday afternoon and are not likely to go back to work before Wednesday at the earliest! Properly annoying!

We had to buy tickets for the international HOHO bus which we used on Monday ( bank holiday) and Tuesday. They were very helpful and sold us the tickets at half price. Good on them. No one knows why the Dublin Bus Co are on strike but they have annoyed heaps of people.

We've spent a lovely 4 days exploring Dublin, but we have to leave tomorrow and go back to London and then on to Oxford. We will have a lovely time exploring Oxford and then we will be leaving the uk and flying home on Wednesday. We've had a great time, but it's nearly over. Home soon.

 

Friday, 2 August 2013

Limerick to Dublin 2/8/13

We left Killarney to go to Limerick. We caught the ferry across the Shannon river and drove to the market town of Kilrush for morning tea. They had a tiny little market in their town square which sold fish, ducklings, plants and veggies and baked goods. It was lots of fun.

We then drove onto the Cliffs of Moher, which are the 700 feet high cliffs the seabirds nest on above the Atlantic Ocean. As we arrived the weather set in. The rain began and the wind picked up. We were lucky enough to climb to the top before the visibility disappeared.

We left the cliffs and drove on through absolutely torrential rain towards Limerick. We stopped at Bunratty Castle and Folk Museum. It remained very wet. My Smiggle umbrella has worked very hard!

We left Bunratty and drove to our hotel in Limerick. The rain finally stopped and we had a pleasant evening in the Limerick countryside. In the morning we began the drive back to Dublin. Finally the rain had cleared ahd there were only occasional showers. We drove into the town of Limerick and had a brief photo stop at King John's Castle. Limerick looked pretty buy we did not stop.

We then drove on to Galway, where we did stop for a while. Galway is a very pretty town. Lots of buskers and very pretty shop fronts.

After leaving Galway we stopped for afternoon tea at the little town of Moate. We had a walk down the Main Street which was remarkably wide! There was a gorgeous little hire car outside the church. It was a 1938 Bentley replica (I know it was a replica cause the owner told us). Moate was a pretty little town. We even found Nole and Norm's pharmacy!

A sculpture called 'Striking the Deal' or 'sealing the Deal', outside the Arts Centre.

We then drove on to Glenealy in County Wicklow to have dinner at the Catherine Fulvio Cookery School and Farm. Catherine Fulvio is a TV chef with program's shown in the USA, Australia, South Africa, UK, NZ and Canada. She was lovely, as was the food. A lovely evening.

We then drove back into Dublin. We were followed by the most magnificent rainbow which was even a double rainbow at times. It came almost all the way with us! We are on our own in Dublin now for the next few days. First order of business, find a laundry! We will then explore the beautiful city of Dublin.

What a rainbow!!!