London to Dublin

Going to Dublin

The train trip from London to Hollyhead, Wales, was a lot of fun. There was an American family sitting behind us. The grandmother was there visiting her son, daughter-in-law, and grand child who were living in London. The son worked for Expedia.com and was transferred there temporarily, so the family from Missouri was taking advantage of that and doing some traveling around Europe. There was also another group of students from the University of Evanston—taking a semester abroad (London), so they were on their way to Dublin as well, although they were going to take the PaddyWagon tour of Ireland—three days of visiting various counties in Ireland. We had a drink with them later on the ferry.

Let’s talk about the Irish Ferry (called the Ulysses). It was more like a cruise ship. On one floor, it had three restaurants, a snack bar, two theaters (playing UP in one and Sherlock Holmes in another), three bars, a family room with playground equipment, a gift shop, and more. It was quite exquisite and almost impossible to tell we were on the ocean except for the huge picture windows all over the place.  The ramp leading from the shore at the train station to the ferry must have been 5 miles long and I’m sure I’ll be paying for that walk tomorrow!

When we arrived in Dublin, an Irish cabbie picked us up and on the way to our bed and breakfast, gave us a tour of the city. He was very cute, very Irish, very informative, and very funny.

Our bed and breakfast is on the Liffey River, right at the Millennium Bridge. The Liffey River separates the city into North and South Dublin, with 2/3 of the city living on the south side. Since we didn’t want to walk around at night, and so late, we checked in and had dinner in the restaurant downstairs, The Italian Corner. The food was pretty expensive, though I feel less guilty spending euros than pounds (euros are about 1.15 dollars and pounds are about 1.45 dollars). I had a delicious linguine in white clam sauce and Bob had a pizza. We both had wine and for dessert, I had probably the best panna cotta that I had ever had anywhere (even in Italy). It was creamy and garnished with a small red berry on stems (like little grapes). We didn’t know what they were, so we asked the waitress who told us that they were currants. Hmmm—nice—a bit tart and sweet.  Perfect with the panna cotta. This would be where we will have our Irish breakfasts every morning too.

The room was very nice, third floor, room 301. Large bed (two twins together with one Queen mattress) with a great big picture window view of the river, across the river, and the millennium bridge. The key card had to be used to enter the building, the elevator, the hallway, and the room, so I feel pretty secure.  By the time dinner ended, it was almost 9:00 PM,  but there was live music—a performer with a fiddle playing music more like Stephan Grappelli than the Chieftains. He had a nice, though quirky in the style of Louis Armstrong, voice and sang songs from our parents’ era. Still, live music is a treat and it was romantic and entertaining. To bed at 9:30 PM so we can get up early to have a full day.

Day 2 Dublin

Woke up at 7:30 AM, down for breakfast by 8:45 AM.  I had a full English breakfast with an egg, Irish bacon, Irish sausage, white pudding (Irish white pudding is made from flake or leaf lard and oatmeal, spiced and fried), hash browns, grilled tomato, toast, jam, Irish butter, coffee, orange juice. Delicious. Bob had scrambled eggs and Irish bacon, toast, coffee, orange juice. It was almost too much as when we left, I felt too full to walk around, but we did anyway.

Our first stop after walking a bit in the Temple Bar area (a bar is a pathway along the river and Temple was a land developer in the area long ago) not far from our hotel was the Dublin Castle. There we bought a bus ticket for a tour of Dublin. The tour was two hours long and we hopped on and off a few times. We tried to brave the cold in the open part on the top deck of the double-decker, but could not last the whole trip—it was cold and windy. But then we got the front seat inside on the top and that was even better for Bob, the photographer. On the tour we passed by and learned about the following: O’Connell Street (one of the widest streets in Europe), Trinity College (one of our jump-off places) which houses the Book of Kells, Nassau Street (shopping, Museum of Archaeology and history), the National Art Gallery, St. Stephen’s Green, Chirst Church Cathedral (Dublinia museum), St Patrick’s Cathedral (stands on the place where there has stood a church since 450), the Guinness Storehouse (tour tomorrow and free pint at the end), Royal Hospital Kilmainham and Museum of Modern Art, Heuston Station (the biggest railway station in Dublin), Kilmainham Gaol (an old prison), Phoenix Park (and the Dublin Zoo), National Museum, Old Jameson Distillery (and tour), Bachelor’s Walk, James Joyce Center, Dublin Writers Museum, and more. Tomorrow we will revisit a number of these within the same district.

Lunch was a pub off of Grafton Street, a chi-chi shopping district. When we walked in, I was the only woman in the place—I thought at first I’d not be allowed to enter. They didn’t serve much food—just soup and a grilled ham and cheese sandwich (grilled in plastic) with onions and tomatoes, but that was fine since we were cold and hungry. After a couple of pints of Guinness for Bob and a Carlsberg for me (my new favorite), we were ready to continue window shopping. This area was very expensive, but there were some interesting shops I may revisit for gifts for the kids. At this point, my knee was killing me (I can’t walk without limping) and though it was only 5:30 PM, we headed back to the hotel for some Advil and ice packing. I think (and hope) this will help me sleep tonight and be better tomorrow. Tomorrow we plan to visit some of the sights we passed on the tour.

Tonight, a pub or two in our area and then maybe a booking for a show at the Abbey Theater for the weekend. We might also take a bus tour outside of Dublin—maybe Kilkenny.

Day 3 Dublin

 This morning we had breakfast at about 9:00AM in the hotel--fruit salad, eggs, Irish sausage and Irish bacon (which is more like Canadian bacon than our bacon).

Today we walked all over the place in south Dublin. We were on Grafton Street again, but another area of it--the hotsy totsy shopping district, though there were many sales. Since my suitcase barely closed when we came, I'll not be buying much except the tiny gifts for family members. One of our stops included Bewley's Oriental Cafe, the oldest cafe in London, and it was very nice. We had espresso and scones (another difference in cuisine as English and Irish scones are doughier and not as sweet as ours, so they come with butter and jam). After some people watching, we continued exploring this side of the city, the Dublin Castle, various gift shops. We saw Marks & Spencer and went to St. Stephen's Green. There were street musicians, but the most interesting was a group of 5 strings musicians--two bass players and three violin players--all quite accomplished (they were selling their CD's) and very entertaining. We went to the Powerscourt mall because there was a market with Irish artisan goods. Beautiful woven clothing, hats, nice original jewelry. We went to a market called George Street Arcade--here is where I think Bryn would find some clothes she could love and buy. Reasonable and edgy. The Irish girls, if you can find them, dress very well. Boots, long, fashionable scarves, leggings or tights (just tights) with boots and cute warm woven hats.

Lunch was at a place near our hotel (everything is near our hotel) in Temple Bar called the Shack. It was quite quaint and we had Irish coffee, soup (onion and potato) with soda bread, bangers and colcannon (mashed potatoes and cabbage). It was very good, though I'm getting pretty tired of sausages and chips (fries) which comes with almost everything. I do like Carlsberg beer though.

After lunch, we took a little nap and then went pubbing in Temple Bar, hitting about four pubs all with live music. We hit the sack at about 11:30 PM.

Day 4 

Since this was Sunday, and very few places opened before noon, we slept in until 8AM, were down for breakfast at 9AM. We decided to explore north Dublin. We went to Henry Street--another shopping area, but on the north side of Dublin. We crossed over the Millenium bridge to a few shopping "malls" and found them to be too "American" so we continued along Henry street making our way  into a few really nice department stores: 

We also saw Christ Church Cathedral on the hill, first Cathedral to  be built in 1038 (the original church was a wooden structure). Spent some time window-shopping on Francis Street, a very high-end antique area. Went into one of the supermarkets and we were quite impressed with their ready-made, packaged food collection, very exotic and simple, but convenient: fresh, ready-made pancakes, tarts (both sweet and savory), pasties, stews, all kinds of stir fries, etc.

Bob took a picture of me next to a  statue of James Joyce.

The fashionable shoes and boots, I believe, are much edgier and more fashionable than anything we have in Phoenix (and that includes Scottsdale). There is nothing dowdy or conservative about Irish fashion. Even the scarves and gloves are beautiful--colorful, with crocheted designs, various adornments, elegant artistic masterpieces almost. I almost bought a pair of flat boots (mine have heels and today was a good walking day which I didn't want to risk for the sake of fashion). A stop at Carroll's Gifts and Souvenirs resulted in a few good CD finds (Irish music to replace those lost/stolen during our trip cross country this summer), a failte sign for above our outside door, and a gift. We also browsed around Sheridans Chesemongers, Throntons Chocolates, Fallon and Bryn (Like a NY food hall),

On O'Connell Street in front of the GPO (General Post Office) we saw bullet holes from the croppy boys 1798 Easter uprising in the stately columns, got a better look at the spire in the square, and headed back toward Temple Bar.

Lunch was delicious: at Quays Pub and Restaurant in Temple Bar. Live Irish music, a pint of Guinness for Bob and a pint of Carlbergs for me, Irish Stew, Guinness gravy, mashed potatoes. YUM. It started to rain as soon as we went inside, so we enjoyed watching the people and the rain from our window seats.  A stop at a nearby Gelateria, topped off the lunch nicely. 

One thing we've noticed is that we have yet to run into a true-blue Irish waitress, salesperson, --- our waitresses so far have been from Transylvania, Lichtenstein, Romania, Slovakia---it's pretty weird. And when you talk to them, they have an accent from their country but the lilt of an Irish brogue. Many of them are going to school and majoring in hotel management and tourism.

We have been trying to get together with Jim and Eddie Meehan, but I don't think it's going to happen as they are both busy and don't live in the city center, so transportation would be difficult for all of us.

Tomorrow, we're going on the Guiness tour, the Jameson tour, the Writers Museum, and whatever else we have the strength for as we leave on Tuesday for Madrid at 3:30 AM (by taxi to the airport for the place that leaves at 6:30 AM and arrives in Madrid at 9:55 AM (guess there's an hour's difference).