Author Archives: patricia emerson mitchell

About patricia emerson mitchell

I'm a photographer and professional musician (oboe and English horn). I'm also a wife, mom and drinker of coffee. I attempt to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with my God.

Tuesday, May 26 — Moving Day

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We woke earlier than necessary (7:00) for our 8:45 taxi ride so I turned off my alarm and slept a bit more. I had already laid my clothes out last night, and managed to fit even the thicker things in my luggage so I knew it would go quickly this morning.

I finally rose at 7:30, and made my Nespresso coffee, got dressed, and packed. Still more time to spare. So I sat around a bit, checked email and Quicken — just killing time, really.

Finally it was time to head downstairs and check out. Our taxi driver was already waiting for us. Dan said, “I hope we didn’t keep you waiting long,” but he didn’t answer, so who knows? The drive took a while due to traffic and the distance. I don’t know why we had the idea initially that the airport was closer to the city, as it was definitely not! But still we arrived nice and what I think I’ll call “patty early”. We checked our luggage and raced through security. Here they have you take out laptops and iPads, but nothing else. Both Dan and I triggered the thing that means they have to check us out. For me it was my barrette and Dan had a shirt with a side zipper and that triggered it. They are pretty darn careful here. I actually appreciate that, as sometimes I’ve gotten through with all sorts of things I forgot to remove and they don’t catch them.

We made our way to a lounge to see if we were allowed in (the AerLingus lounge was closed due to renovations but I read that we’d be allowed in the other one here … maybe). Sure enough, we qualified, even without first class or anything. The lounge was pretty tiny, and we were allowed to stay for two hours only, but since our flight was boarding in about 1 1/2 hours that wasn’t any issue. The real reason we wanted to get in was to get free breakfast. We are cheap that way.

As you can see above, Dan had what they call the full English, or is it full Irish? Hm. I didn’t do the meat or tomato and even with what I chose it was a ton of food. As you can also see, sitting in a lounge is so exciting Dan can hardly contain himself. The other people in the lounge looked equally thrilled to be there. Killing time is a riveting experience.

We decided to amble to gate 6, where we were to board our flight. It didn’t take long to hear the announcement that Group 1 was boarding. Alas, we were Group 2. And then, horrors! — Group 3 gets to board with us. Now how distressing can that be?

Okay, it wasn’t at all distressing. So never mind.

We were in row 2 of the plane, with another passenger in the window seat while we were middle and aisle. The flight was completely uneventful. At least for us. One man had to console his crying infant for quite some time. As this photo shows, Dan wanted our pants to match. Or maybe it was an accident. You decide.



And then we landed. Hello again, London Heathrow! At least for a very short time. But oh my, was it hot out! Cork was too warm already. This is “too warmer”!

We weren’t sure what to expect since we were coming from the EU and entering the UK. I’d been told by someone on the Rick Steves group that we could expect nothing, and that person was correct. No passport control or anything. So after getting our luggage we made our way to Heathrow Express.

Into that train we went for our fifteen minute ride to London Paddington.

We were going to have no problem connecting to our next train so I even asked at the station if we could change the ticket to an earlier train but that would have cost something so instead we went to the Mad Bishop and Bear in the station and had some bites and drinks. I tried the non-alcoholic G&T and it was surprisingly tasty! I should have taken a photo of what they used because I’d try it at home. Too late now, though.

Our train departed precisely at 3:23. Our seats were in the “quiet car” — I had reserved them (for no cost) but clearly there were loads of available seats. Right before we departed the station a couple came in with their cat (in a crate) and proceeded to yak. And yak. And yak. I don’t know if they didn’t realize it was the quiet car or if they didn’t care, but no one pointed to the sign. Quite different than another trip we were on when a woman acted as the Noise Police. She needed to be on our train! They got off in Reading though, so silence was then enjoyed.

We had a five or six more stops. I don’t really count them carefully, but I did pay attention because I sure didn’t want to miss our stop! Sometimes I did take a quick station shot. Just because, as well as other rather shabby shots out the somewhat dirty window.

And then we arrived. Hello, Moreton-in-Marsh!

We begin tomorrow on a week-long walk. I would love to say this will be a very easy walk compared to some, but it’s so darn hot I think it will still be challenging. Still, I am looking forward to it.

We walked to our lodging, provided by Cotswolds Journeys since we used them for this walk, checked in, and made our way to our rather large room.

And then the real fun for today: we met up with Greg and Jan! (My brother and sister-in-law.) They are joining us for the walk. I just hope we don’t melt.

After we met up we headed to dinner at the Black Bear Inn. I thought I might be done with fish and chips, but nope … had ‘em again. Food was plentiful, but hey, we have a 7 mile walk tomorrow, so there’s that.

We finished and walked back to our lodging.

And then it was G&Ts. It was just too hot not to. Trust me. (I grabbed this photo below from Greg’s What’sApp post. I’ll try and get the actual photo later.)

After drinks we said our good nights and went to our rooms. I’m hoping we can manage to sleep, but we’ll see. At least I have a fan in my room! (I’m not talking about Dan.)

For now, though … ciao! (I wrote this even more quickly than usual so I hat to think about the typos.)

Monday, May 25

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The morning began in the morning. Kind of like usual. Dan actually woke before me and while I said I was really awake even though I didn’t say anything after my “good morning” he said I was making “sleeping noises” so I guess I dozed on and off. Since I would never snore I’m sure my sleeping noises were some sort of musical sounds or something.

When I finally did actually get out of bed, and made my coffee, I suggested a plan for today, which I had plotted out when I couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night. He said, “I see you have a plan,” or some such thing, but I said, “No. I have a plot.” Sometimes I can be comedically annoying. Go figure.

I also commented on meeting up with some dear people tomorrow and he and I both kind of marveled at the time passing. Stay tuned for who we meet! (Okay, probably half of my four or so readers already know. Heh.)

Finally ready to go, after showering and putting things away, out we went.

First we walked back up to the cathedral we saw from the outside yesterday. A young man working there gave us tons of information and, had we the time and energy, probably would have given us a full tour. He sure knew his stuff. Turns out the outside of the cathedral is quite grand, but the inside never did get fully completed. It was, he said, all built due to the architect’s ego. Also it was to show the Catholics just how grand the Anglicans were. Ah, the lovely conflicts. It was interesting to see so many organ pipes right on the main floor. (I know he was telling someone else about just why and I heard, “It’s embarrassing…”. No clue why, but I guess they had to put them there.)

Again, just as we did yesterday, we went to Elizabeth Fort. We didn’t spend a ton of time there (it seems more geared toward kids), and I was NOT at all fooled by the men I saw. Not one real guy there, although the one being punished in the stocks looked life-like. The views of the city were nice to see.

We walked some more …

… and passed by the Counting House as we went further. So I said, “The king is in the counting house, counting out his money.” For the life of me I couldn’t remember the whole thing, though. (And yes, I had to look it up when we got back to our room. It quickly came back, tune and all.) They are working on the place, so we couldn’t get all that close.

Then, finally, we went to the English market. Full of booths, a few with knick-knacks and such, but more of meats, fish, cheeses, fruits and veggies, and more. We walked through nearly all of it.

Eventually we stopped at a sandwich and salad spot to buy what turned out to be lunch, even while we had planned on late breakfast. And gee, we remembered this time to share a sandwich. Miracles do happen! (This photo makes the sandwich look so small. It really wasn’t this tiny!)

From there we headed to the Church of St. Anne. We had a bit of a walk, including a spot where we had to quickly cross a street to avoid a man who was clearly out of it. Mostly I was thankful his pants, which were falling down, had yet to expose anything I’d not want to see, but I suspect that happened shortly after.

That brings me to a bit about the problems in each of the places we’ve been here. Yes, there are homeless. In some areas quite a few. In Dublin we walked by a woman with a number of scabs on her face, and I saw that she was shooting up, and groups of men who looked pretty bad. When stores close some homeless will take up a spot where they can sleep. It’s so sad to see, and I don’t like to write much about this darker side, but it’s there. Poverty is here. But then walking around San Francisco we see much the same. It’s everywhere.

Okay … back to the church. We walked further and we had a good climb up some stairs. As we climbed we’d walk past houses. The people who live in those places surely must be in very good physical condition!

But St. Anne’s … well … we walked by it, but it just didn’t look like a place we wanted to bother with. We’ve already been in a number of churches, so we passed it by.

Next on the “plot” of the day was the Fitzgerald park. It was a bit over a mile away. So off we went in that direction. What did I know about the park? Really nothing. I’d just read it was a place to visit.

When we arrived we heard and finally saw that a cricket game was happening. A very nice young man explained a bit of the game to us. I managed to comprehend some of it, but I sure couldn’t explain it well if you asked me!

We walked only a short while in the park. At the start of our walk we heard a woman on a loudspeaker of some sort nearby. We finally heard more clearly and there was a school by the park. The children were having races. Cute. Too bad we could only hear but not see them. We continued our walk in the park for a bit. I shot photos of the bird because I’d not seen one like that before. Looks rather crow-like, but the gray made me assume it was something else …?

We realized perhaps today would be a good day to head back to the hotel, take a rest, catch up on writing and downloading photos (the latter for Dan: I always wait until I get home), and just relax. I also started planning just how to pack things up: it has now gotten quite warm, and the remainder of our trip will probably continue with that trend. I have to figure out how to squeeze my warm “shacket” and sweater into the suitcase, along with my warmer pants. It’ll be a challenge, but I have no choice but to make it all work.

After that bit of time in our room I, as usual, became restless. I’m not very good at sitting around. Dan asked if I wanted to get out and walk a bit and of course he already knew my answer, I’m sure. While we had been relaxing I had also looked up pubs that have the “trad” Irish music sessions (trad for “traditional). I found a few and entered them on to my Google map.

Side note: Ah, Google Maps. Sigh. I plot things out, they work. But suddenly they disappear. I’m not sure why. I guess I’m probably doing something wrong, but ugh. We tried Apple Maps on our phones but haven’t managed to get more than one destination on them. I’m sure there’s a way, but so far we’ve not managed to figure it out!

So out we went, across the river once more (it’s the only way to go anywhere from our hotel. The first place we saw was a no-go. Just wasn’t right. The second place we passed wasn’t on my list and I saw no reviews, but at least we knew we would hear Irish music and they had food. Still, I’d rather go to some place that was recommended. We passed some interesting places, though.

Shortly after that we went to the The Oval pub. Such a cool place. They have several “snugs” — little rooms like the two we found in Dublin (at least I think it was Dublin — everything seems to run together after a while). Those little rooms are perfect for those of us who can’t hear well. I had a little beer and Dan had a larger one. As I told him, “Those bubbles fill me up!”

Then more pub hunting. While at The Oval we saw a pamphlet that listed other pubs that had music and one was a place I had already put on my list, so off we went, to “Sin é”. Now about that name. I read that it means “That’s it” and it’s so named because right next door is a funeral parlor. Hah! Well, it looked fine, but had no food and the music didn’t begin for a while. So on we wandered.

Then we found a restaurant. Not Irish. The man we spoke with (the owner perhaps?) was so friendly, and explained that they served tapas in a Latin American style. (Later we learned he was born in Algeria but grew up in France. Just the friendliest man.) We looked over the menu, and said we’d like to eat there. We ordered some mini ceviche tostadas, some guacamole, and a chicken and rice dish. Absolutely delicious. For desert we opted for a bit of decadence. (Who … US??) That was fabulous as well.

After dining there we headed back to Sin é. Some musicians were in the back playing. I couldn’t see them, but could hear them. We squeezed in and Dan ordered our zero zero beers (we are so well behaved sometimes) and we sat down at the first free table. The place was crazy! Things all over the walls and ceiling. It was fun to hear the musicians — it seemed that they frequently took turns doing whatever they wanted to do. There was a fiddle player (at least one), guitar (he sang as well), some sort of squeezebox, and I’m not sure what else. I did some recordings. Of course people talk throughout, but so it goes. It was interesting with the final recording, though: people suddenly got very quiet.

Well, that’s a wrap for now. I’m beat! Tomorrow is another moving day, and we have one flight and two trains to take.

Goodnight!

Stats
17,251 steps, 7.02 miles, 6 flights climbed

Psst …

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I think May 23 didn’t get posted after I wrote it. When I looked in the middle of the night last night (because if one can’t sleep one just spends some time online, right?) I saw it in the drafts folder.

It’s posted now. In case you care.

It’s posted now even if you don’t care.

Sunday, March 24

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Today began with hotel coffee since they had a Nespresso machine and that coffee isn’t too bad. We’ve avoided all the little packets of freeze dried (at least I’m assuming it’s freeze dried), but Nespresso will do. I’ve yet to figure out the kinds of coffee though: there were three colors and none were labeled (so Dan can’t figure out if any are decaf). After getting dressed (for me) it was just waiting until Dan was also ready so we could head on out.

Our first destination, or so we thought, was to be Elizabeth Fort. It wasn’t open to enter, we knew, but we at least wanted to walk by. So off we went, taking some photos as we walked, Dan with his Fuji and me with the iPhone for the moment.

We managed to get sidetracked — no surprise — when we saw this church, St. Finn Barre’s. We shot from the outside, as the gate was closed, but soon a man came up with a key. I suspect opening to get ready for the service. But he said, “Let me open it for you.”

Do you see the gold angel (perhaps easiest to see in the fourth photo)? Apparently the architect of the church, William Burgess, put it there and the legend is that if it should ever fall the world will end.

From there we continued on our way to the fort. I saw the organist’s house and the choristers’ house, but I couldn’t find the oboist’s house. Strange.

Some of the photos of a wall above are from the fort. I neglected to take a photo of the entrance. Oops!

Our next destination was a good walk away. For the first time on this trip I was actually getting too warm while walking. Where did that sun come from?! But on we walked.

I saw a fork in the road but I didn’t take it.

And then we arrived: this was the Marina Market. I thought perhaps it was a market that would have, oh, you know … things that are in a market. Veggies. Fruits. Meats. But no, it wasn’t that kind of market. The area around this is run down, with lots of vacant buildings, broken windows and all. I think they are attempting to change the area. (One building is going to be housing with 25 stories and it’s so strange as they are starting by building two extremely tall — gee, maybe 25 stories tall! — skinny structures, but the photos show a more normal looking building. I should have taken a photo of what is to be the finished structure, but of course I neglected to do so. Oh well.)

But I ramble. Back to the Market. As we started to get close I saw a little girl carrying a tiny violin case. When we reached the entrance of the market I saw why: there was to be a Suzuki performance there. Sweet!

The entrance:

When we entered the building we saw a large number of food options so we toured the entire building in order to search for our first meal of the day.

We settled on a place and while Dan ordered our breakfasts I headed to the coffee spot and ordered our coffees. It took a while to get our food, but oh dear … SO MUCH FOOD! Here I thought today would be a day on which to be responsible. Never mind. I opted for the vegetarian meal and Dan went for the meat. We should have ordered one meal and shared and had we known how much would be in our “breakfast box” we would have. Too late to do that, though. And no, I couldn’t finish. Nor could Dan.

After we ate we walked by the Suzuki concert. I shot only a very short bit. But so doggone sweet to see all those young musicians!

After our meal we ventured back out, ready to walk to our next destination: the train station.

We bought our tickets for a 25 minute or so round trip, and also purchased tickets for a tour at our next destination, and shortly after boarded the train and headed out.

And hello Midleton! We had another mile or so walk then. Since we were early for our tour we looked at a few other things in the village. Every village we’ve been in, be it Ireland or Scotland, always has memorials to the war or wars.

And then it was time for our Jameson Whiskey Tour! We of course had to go to the distillery since they clearly named it after our youngest! Heh. Or not. We hung out for a bit, shopped a little, and finally the tour began. It was really very informative and I enjoyed it. It ended with a sampling of three high end whiskeys. My only complaints about the tasting: it was rather rushed and they didn’t have the little bottles that Talisker had so if you couldn’t finish your whiskey (and who could in that short time?) you just had to leave it behind. Too bad! From there we were taken to another spot where they gave us a final drink. Dan and I opted for the whiskey with lime and tonic water (at least we think it was tonic water). Yum!

Do you see the wings above? That’s representing the “angels’ share” of whiskey. As it ages it evaporates and they say they it rises up and the angels get it. The longer it ages the less whiskey you get from a cask, which can explain why older whiskies cost so much. I also showed a photo of the final whiskey we could sample. It is €240 a bottle! It could only be purchased there, I believe, and no, we didn’t buy a bottle.

When the tour was finished we started our walk back to the train station.

We had about twenty minutes to wait. I was fine with that, as I was quite tired of standing. Then on to the train we went.

I wish I’d taken a photo of the tons of people (most in red shirts that resemble soccer shirts in the states) who were getting on to the train. Wow! BUT as we walked back to find dinner (as if we needed food) there were absolute masses of sports fans. We had noticed some when we were at the Marina Market in the morning and since so many were young children we assumed it was a sports event for children. Nope. It was Cork versus Clare.

But what were they playing? Well, I had to look it up and here’s the answer I received:

Cork defeated Clare by 1-30 to 1-14 in Round 5 of the Munster Senior Hurling Championship on Sunday May 24th at Supervalu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

So now you know.

As we looked for dinner we continued to run into crowds of people. Some were walking to who knows where, some were at bus stops, and many were at various drinking establishments. Most were in the red and white shirts, Cork’s colors. Clare’s colors are saffron and blue (as I later looked up to verify) and I did see a few of those, and one little boy looked rather dejected as he was walking. Poor guy! I wish I’d gotten a good photo of the crowds, but honestly it was hard to get through some areas so I could only grab this one after we made our way through.

We were searching for a place with room for us, so we could grab a bite. We went into one place, thinking it might work for dinner, but the noise was deafening. Thankfully we did find a place called The Raven (looked like no Cork fans were there) and we ordered, surprise, surprise, far too much food. I think I need a fasting day! I had a shrimp sandwich and Dan had chicken. HOW he managed to eat that huge thing is a wonder, don’t you think?

From there we walked back to the hotel. A bit of laundry was done, and I got this entry typed up. What a long and full day it’s been!

Yawn. Time for sleep!

Oh …
21,582 steps, 8.59 miles, 1 flight climbed

Saturday, May 23 — Moving Day

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We were quite lazy this morning: we didn’t wake until a few minutes after 8:00! But today is moving day so there’s really no need to rush.

I showered and packed, and then we went downstairs to have some coffee. We rarely purchase breakfast at these places — €15 per person just seems ridiculous! So instead we went to the bar area because Dan had seen a woman with coffee the afternoon before, and we did see an espresso machine there. No one was in the room so we wondered if we’d have to venture out when a man came from the kitchen. We asked if we could just get coffee and maybe a bite and he said he could bring croissants from the breakfast room and yes, he could make my cappuccino and Dan’s espresso. When he came back with four miniature croissants, butter and jam, and proceeded to make our coffees. Perfect! We sat around a bit, and when it was time to pay Dan again had to wait for someone to notice us. A woman finally came into the room and we found out that the croissants were free and we only had to pay for coffee. Can’t argue with that.

She talked a bit to us about the weather. (Turns out she lived in New York for something like seventeen years.) She said the weather they have been having was colder and wetter than usual. We noticed that, finally, the weather looked quite nice and she agreed. Of course we were leaving so it didn’t matter a whole lot to us! (Side note: and yesterday when we were buying our baseball caps the young woman at the register said she had majored in meteorology and it didn’t do her much good with figuring out the weather!)

Going back up to our room after our little breakfast we collected our things, checked the room carefully as we always do, and checked out. We walked in the direction of the “coach station” (bus station to us). Every time we head out of an area it seems I feel as if we missed a lot, but of course it’s impossible to see it all. So it goes.

Partway there popped into a little store to purchase a sandwich for the bus. Arriving at the station we spotted our door and sat nearby.

I had read that we must be at the station ten minutes ahead of departure time but we were about thirty minutes ahead. My kind of timing! We didn’t have to sit for long, as the bus arrived rather soon after we got situated. I had mentioned to Dan that we get no reserved seats on a bus, so I wanted to get on as early as possible. We did, in fact, get in so soon we could easily sit together and find seats toward the front. Lesson: never just arrive at the last minute — some groups of people had to sit separately and I could see they were caught by surprise.

The bus itself was clean, but the seats weren’t terribly comfortable: they were too upright and there was no way to recline them, and anyone of any girth would probably need to buy two seats! They said they had outlets but they were underneath our seats and nearly impossible reach unless one of us stood and the other got down rather low to plug things in. No issue for us since we had fully charged everything, but I do wonder why they hadn’t thought to put them in front of the seats rather than underneath.

There were rules that I had read (although my confirmation didn’t state any of them and I wonder how many people go online to read them). No drugs, do alcohol, no smoking or vaping, no weapons. Well, okay, I guess we can deal, but what to do with my lightsaber?! We were also not to have “odorous” food. We dealt with that too. We are so obedient.

Almost precisely at 11:30 we left the station. Goodbye Galway! (Although we did one other stop in Galway to pick up more passengers.) The ride was fine. Three hours of “fine”. One thing of note was that people on the bus were much quieter than people on most trains we’ve been on. Curious.

I took iPhone shots as we went. The colors are off since the windows are tinted.

There was a quick stop in Limerick as well. No time to get off the bus, though.

Off we drove. Well okay, I did no driving. Off we sat …

… and then we arrived at our final Ireland destination.

Hello Cork!

We went out in search of a taxi as the walk to the hotel would be over and mile. With backpacks that wouldn’t be an issue, but these roller bags make it less pleasant. The lay of the land — or at least the roads — was odd and the driver had to go a round about way, but I knew that would be the case having checked the map earlier.

Our hotel didn’t have our room ready when we arrived, so we hung out in their lounge for about 30 minutes. No biggie.

In 30 minutes it was, in fact, ready, so we headed up. The room is a good size, with one of those not-quite-king beds. At the little coffee station were two pieces of chocolate which was, well, sweet. (Yep, still imaginative here.)

(The last photo above is from our room’s window.)

But then I saw a box of five little chocolates. Hmm. How nice of them to give us even more chocolate! And then I saw the card … and that was even more fun to read.

We did a bit of in-hotel-room laundry, and then we decided what to do with the remainder of the day. Answer: wander around a bit. Duh.

So off we went, just a random walk.

When dinner was desired we just opted to go in to a restaurant for no particular reason other than it looked like it would do. I had prawn curry and Dan had a chicken burger of some sort. Having forgotten to take a photo yet again, I just quickly shot this silly thing. Why? So I can go back if necessary to remind myself of what we had that night. Why? Because occasionally Dan and I reminisce about a trip and we start naming our meals. Why?

Because.

On our walk back to the hotel we clearly fit it so well with everyone wander about. I’m sure people thought we were locals. After all, most of those out and about were probably college age. Like us. Um. Many years ago.

But seriously, I was surprised by the huge number of younger people wandering about. Not quite as surprised by how so many were in summer clothing even though I was in my wool Shacket , though. I’m sure low 60°s here is just fine for summer clothing for them. Me? No, not so much.

Now we are back in our room, and I guess we might want to make plans for tomorrow.

Ciao for now!

Update: Forgot to post the pathetic stats for today.
7,713 steps, 3.12 miles, 0 flights climbed

Friday, May 22

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About that power outage: it’s fine now, but it did last a while. I’ll have to check and see just how long, since we may end up tossing anything in the freezer. Apparently a damaged semi truck was near a power pole and if it had overturned there would have been a bigger issue, so PG&E opted to shut off power until things were resolved. Or so I’ve read.

We had no specific plans for today other than walking to Salt Hill, which I’d read was a nice walk. There were a few other things we might fit in, but nothing like a tour or museum. So it was to be a relaxed day.

I had read a blog by a woman who fell in love with Galway and said she would be happy to move here. So far Dan and I aren’t feeling that, though. The Latin Quarter is fun but clearly a tourist area. Maybe today would be the day we find out what she’s writing about …?

First, though, coffee. Of course. But look … no sweet roll this time! I had no idea my bagel would be so huge, and who knew crisps were served at breakfast?

Once we finished our breakfast we went toward the Latin Quarter: Dan had seen a cap yesterday he wanted to buy, and I had decided I needed a lighter cap for days when it isn’t cold. Rumor has it we will encounter warmer weather quite soon. My hat was found and gosh, for only a bit more € we could get two so Dan opted for a baseball cap as well. Here I am with my new Guinness hat. (I had to show the back as well, since I do love the harp logo.)

We continued on our way to the place where Dan could buy his linen hat as well. The funny thing is that he now has SIX hats with him: his Mucros wool cap, the new linen Mucros cap, a rain cap, a trail hat, beanie, and his new Guinness baseball cap. Me? I “only” have three: my new Guinness baseball cap, my rain cap, and my little hot pink beanie. (Yeah, really — I’m NOT a pink person, but it came as a free bonus from Woolx.)

Here is Dan modeling just three of his six hats!

Then it was on to find the way to Salt Hill. As we neared that path we saw a lot of booths set up so we wandered a bit. There was one cool stand that had faux leather items made from cork and I was tempted by the keychain. Then Dan said, “Do you have any keys?!” Heh. Well, aside from a mail key I don’t even use keys, so never mind.

While we were there we saw a huge dog. I’m not an animal person, really, but this dog was so sweet … and huge! The people were quite friendly as well.

We found our way to the “long walk” (which is what the walk to Salt Hill is called I guess), and headed out. I won’t write a ton, but I will show photos of things we saw on the way.

We arrived at Salt Hill, seeing the place (from a distance) we might have opted to stay, and while it would have been less expensive we did think where we are is more central and better.

Then it was time to turn around and head back.

We opted to go a slightly faster way, and eventually landed at a place to buy a little bite to take back to our room. I had what was sort of like a pasty, but not quite, of mushroom and sauerkraut, and Dan’s was mushroom and cheese. They were small but tasty.

After a brief respite (is there any other kind of respite?) it was time to go back out. Since we missed out on the live music yesterday, we planned on getting somewhere early enough to grab a spot where we just might hear and see the musicians.

We walked back to the Latin Quarter, looking for the place Dan remembered. Or did he? I guess we’ll never know for sure! He thought he saw something that said music began at 3:00, but we sure couldn’t find it. He also had read about a place that had two floors and we weren’t sure about that either. We did get to see some buskers, as well as a bride and party parading down the street which was kind of fun. (We weren’t sure if we were seeing the father of the bride or the groom … heh … funny how one can’t always tell!)

Eventually we went to a spot to have a couple of “zero zeros” to begin our little adventure.

From there we continued to search, and finally went into a spot that already had musicians playing. I’m not sure how “Irish” all the music was, but it was fun to hear them.

That group of musicians left and another was setting up, but we were planning on heading back out. BUT … well … then were heard what I think were uilleann pipes. That kind of caught our attention. I saw the guy who was playing that then pull out a few recorder-like instruments (Irish whistle?) and we had to stay a bit longer to listen. (Sound is probably bad and too loud so maybe turn the sound down!)

It was fun to hear them. Loud, though!

But then they played “Folsom Prison” and moved on to more contemporary music. I heard a guy nearby saying, “That isn’t Irish!” Heh. No kidding. And it was just too loud, so we then left.

Then it was time to search for actual dinner. We walked almost all the way to our hotel when we found a place that looked like it would do. And it did. Except … there was a group of what appeared to be students (two young men and maybe four or five young women) and an older man who we figured was their professor. Oh. My. Goodness. He was loud. He was annoying. And one of the young women was playing up to him and he had his arm around her. He was clearly drinking a lot. It was pretty darn sad and frustrating to see what was going on.

Okay, enough of my whining. For now.

I had a nice seafood chowder and Dan did the turkey roast thing. It was tasty and, for me, just a nice, smaller meal. I need to do more of those! The place was interesting and I wish I’d thought to take photos, but all I got was the ceiling. Ah well!

Back in our room I am finishing up this entry and then it will soon be sleepy time. Tomorrow we have our one and only bus ride to our next destination. We’ll see how that goes!

Goodnight!

Update:
19,484 steps, 7.79 miles, 0 flights climbed

Thursday, May 21 — Moving Day

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We had a lazy morning: our train was to depart at 11:30 and we didn’t have to check out of the hotel until 11:00. We aren’t so brave as to check out that late, though, for an 11:30 train. Odds are that would work fine, as it’s just a 10 minute drive away, but we like to allow time for any problems that might arise.

After hanging out in the room for a bit we went out to get breakfast. (Since I normally don’t even eat breakfast I sure wonder how much weight I’ve already gained!) Cinnamon rolls and coffee were enjoyed.

We walked back to the hotel to check out and had them call a taxi. Said taxi didn’t seem to show up in the one minute they promised, but another cab dropped some folks off so we grabbed that. The driver was a nice guy and he asked how soon our train was leaving. We told him we had plenty of time and he proceeded to talk about the people who head to the airport with no time to spare. We assured him we always allow time for either train or plane. (Dan knows me well enough to know I’m not a risk taker, and I think he is also quite careful about making it to stations with time to spare.) I took a couple of photos as we said goodbye to Dublin.

We reached the train station, entered knowing we had extra time, and went to a store there to grab something to eat on the train. This particular train had no food to purchase, but I’d prefer picking things up in any case since it’s less expensive off of the train. We waited only a short time for our track number, and when it seemed as if it should have been announced we went up to the spot I thought would scan our tickets but the man there looked at them and pointed us on to a further walk, telling us we were on track 7. As we walked Dan said he thought it was actually track 8 since he saw that on a board and, sure enough, it was 8. It was a good reminder to always double check!

Our car was the second to last. Of course! I told Dan, since we were in car B, that we’d either be right near the front or all the way back. Figures it was the latter. Our seats were in the row right by the door so that was easy, but there was no luggage rack there (I’m guessing I chose those seats because I thought our luggage would be right behind us!) so Dan had to lift the suitcases into the space above us. Even his large suitcase fit there, but lifting it? Well, that was a challenge … but a young man was behind us and offered to put it up for us. Whew! Sometimes it’s not fun to realize we are unable to do things like that any longer, but as Dan said, he’d lifted luggage for other so much so this was just okay.

Soon the train was departing. As it went I did shoot a few photos, including the stops we took.

And then we arrived. Hello Galway!

Oh — and hello rain. Not at all surprising: it seems our trip has been full of rain.

We had to get our rain jackets out of our luggage, but then we took a very easy three minute walk to our hotel. It’s sort of on the edge of the main part of Galway that people visit, and it’s a fine spot. It’s also very expensive. I was rather shocked at prices here for lodging, but maybe it’s because people come here to then go to the Aran Islands. (When we left our room to investigate the area we saw a van advertising eight minute flights — yes, really — to the Islands.)

We are back to the smaller “king size” bed, but so be it. The view from our window … well … see for yourself!

Once we were somewhat settled and got anything of value we didn’t want to cart around in the safe we went out. I didn’t bother with the Fuji camera due to rain. We eventually got to the Latin Quarter (yep, in Galway). I’d heard that you could find a lot of Irish music spots there. We walked through the area looking in at shops and pubs and a rather amazing bookstore, and also ambled into less populated areas. Street art is all over the place.

From there we walked over to the water, where what I think is an estuary (thank you, Dan!) goes to the sea. It was racing out pretty wildly! We crossed over a bridge and read about and saw what used to be a lock as well.

At that point it was nearly dinner time, so we went back to where the crowds were now gathering and tried to find a place we could hear some music and enjoy a meal. Two places were impossible to get into, and we then went to a place where music had yet to start and, toward the very back, found a place to sit. Dan ordered a couple of beers while I held the seats. What we didn’t know until he returned was that it wasn’t a place for dinner. So we sat, enjoyed piped in music until whoever played arrived, and then barely heard the musicians since they were so far away and the place was packed so it was quite noisy. Ah well. Tomorrow we will plan better!

After our beers we left and went to find a place to eat. Nothing really worked in the Latin Quarter (crowds!), so eventually we just opted to eat at the hotel restaurant. First we went to our room to drop some things off. But what did we find? Um. The “safe” wasn’t so safe since we neglected to close it. Hah!

The restaurant downstairs was quiet, which was nice, and we sat and ordered: Dan ordered salmon and I ordered chicken. When they brought our meals both of us had chicken. Oh well! He opted not to tell them, and the food was actually quite good. Typical of me, I forgot to take a photo until I’d eaten most of the food so I think I’ll skip sharing my meal here. Just imagine a nice plate of chicken, peas with pearl onions, and mashed potatoes. (I must say we are getting more than our fill of potatoes and I am actually getting tired of them, which I wasn’t sure was possible.)

And now we are back in our room. I’ll finish up this blog entry and get ready for bed. (But meanwhile I just received a notice that we have a power outage at home. Sometimes I wish I didn’t get these messages, as there’s not a thing I can do about it.)

Tomorrow I think we’ll walk to Salt Hill, as I’ve heard it’s a lovely walk. I think we have seen much of what there is to see in the center of Galway.

Goodnight!

12,404 steps, 4.79 miles, 3 flights climbed

Wednesday, May 20

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We woke to begin our second and final full day in Dublin. We also woke to the prediction of no rain today!

First up, after getting out of pjs and into street clothes because we are just smart enough to know walking around in pjs might look odd, was breakfast. We opted today to go for something much lighter than yesterday’s delicious but large breakfast and instead bought our coffees and we each had a pastry (Something with apple for me and what I assume was a chocolate croissant for Dan.) The place was small but we found a seat and enjoyed our treats.

While there I realized it would be good to have our AirPods for our next destination so our “next destination” actually turned out to be our hotel to collect those. I thought, too, I should share the magnificent carpet in our hallway. I really should take photos of these at every hotel they are so … um … interesting. Heh.

Then it was back out to walk to Christ Church Cathedral. It’s “Don’t Mow Month”. Seems like we’d be smart to have that where we live too. Good for wildlife and the flowers popping up were pretty.

With our tickets we could get the audio tour (thus the AirPods). So inside we went, and I did listen to a lot of the audio and wandered. (The “Musicians’ Corner” was sadly blocked by a grand piano (fitting, I suppose): I would have liked to have seen things better.) I did shoot a good number of photos. (Or if you are bored and don’t like them I guess it’s a bad number of photos. You choose.)

Then we took the stairs to the crypt (and gift shop but I don’t take photos in gift shops).

After the cathedral we walked through a bit of Temple Bar again, but only took two shots.

Then it was on to Trinity College where we walked around briefly. We didn’t enter any buildings, though. I guess dogs aren’t allowed to attend the college.

Our next destination was what claims to be the oldest pub or some such thing. But we’ve seen “the oldest” claims a few times. We’ve also seen “the best” and, for Guinness a pub that claimed to have “the creamiest” Guinness. So who knows? But we walked toward the pub.

After a bit of walking we landed at The Brazen Head. I wasn’t sure we’d eat there, but they had room and we figured we might as well. We decided that would be our large meal of the day. Dan went for the bangers and mash and I ordered fish and chips. I must say my meal doesn’t photograph very well! (And I’m now thinking that should be my final fish and chips of the trip … so darn filling and I know they aren’t exactly healthful. But we’ll see if I stick to that.)

Following lunch it was time to cross the Liffey River and go to another place we’d seen recommended. For the first time I saw the “green walking man” lit on the sidewalk. Cute! (I can’t remember what a “sidewalk” is here, but I know they don’t use the same word. Maybe I’ll come up with it later.)

Eventually we arrived at EPIC — The Irish Emigration Museum. I was hesitant after looking at photos, as it seemed like yet another “experience” place and they just seem odd to me, but I’m extremely glad we went! I learned a lot, and it was quite well done. I didn’t take a ton of photos, but I did take some.

I also took some videos. In one of the music sections they showed how Irish music was then brought over to America.

One song was sung and I recognized the tune, and then another person in the video sang “Streets of Laredo”. Sure enough the tune was nearly identical. I managed to get the original version on video:

I found this so interesting because when we were eating lunch they had Irish music playing and suddenly I heard what we would call “Simple Gifts” — the Shaker tune that Copland then used as well. So perhaps that, too, was actually from a folk tune here.

EPIC handed us our “passports” as we entered the museum, and at each of the sections we had them stamped. Now normally Dan and I are just not into things like this but somehow this one worked and we HAD to get our stamps!

We had purchased our tickets as we entered the building at 2:50 or so (noting that we did NOT buy them at the ticket desk because it was €4 cheaper to purchase online!). We didn’t leave the building until 5:50! I think that shows just how interesting it was — and we didn’t even do all the things we could have done there.

At that point it was time to go back over the river, and I wanted to be sure and go over the ha’penny bridge for that. (The toll at one point for this pedestrian bridge was a ha’penny.) I wish I’d taken a better photo of it, but if you want to see it I’m sure you could google it. There were so many people crossing and I just didn’t have a good shot.

We ambled and went in search of a light meal. Typical of us it took a while to find a place. One pub seemed nice but there were no seats. Another would have worked but there appeared to be a long wait.

Finally we spotted the Bruxelles pub and not only did they have room, but they had a very small room with not one other person in it! Perfect for my ears and no loud music! (Eventually one other couple entered but they were quite quiet.) I ordered a toastie again. I could have done without the fries after lunch, but the toastie did hit the spot. Dan’s “light” meal turned out to be a bit larger. We both had our “zero zero” Guinnesses. These alcohol free beers are actually not bad (we had them at lunch, too), and I was happy to have an alcohol free day.

Speaking of alcohol, on our walk home we saw this place … look at all those barrels!

Once back in our room I packed as much as I could pack tonight, set out tomorrow’s clothes, and got started on this entry. Tomorrow is, once again, moving day. This time we go by train and I tend to enjoy that kind of travel the most. For the first time we are on Irish Rail and of course we’ve never been in the Dublin Heuston station so I’m sure we’ll be there plenty early so yours truly doesn’t stress.

For now, though, goodnight!

20,016 steps, 7.99 miles, 0 flights climbed

Tuesday, May 19

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Our day began sometime very early in the morning. An alarm went off that could not be ignored. I thought it was somewhere on Dan’s side of the bed, but of course being pretty deaf in my left ear meant I have no sense of direction. Dan checked his side and he said it wasn’t his phone (the only way it could have been would have been one of those national emergency alarms and even those aren’t that loud — at least I don’t think so!), and he thought it was on my side. Nope. Eventually we just went back to sleep because the alarm was quite brief.

Then at 4:00 AM it went off again. Just this horribly loud noise that lasted for maybe five or ten seconds. Well, this time we did more investigating. The bathroom fan, which had been on since Dan had some laundry hanging there, was no longer working. Hmm. Odd. We smelled no smoke, and of course the alarm had stopped and I doubt it would have done so had it been a fire. Still, Dan looked out the door and he said the fire doors had closed. Finally he called downstairs. They said someone had an issue with their shower and there was no problem at all. Meanwhile there was this periodic extremely low hum — almost like a foghorn — and we wondered about that as well. (Later I started to wonder if the person in question had run very hot water in the shower to get wrinkles out of clothing, but had left the bathroom door open: I had taken a hot shower some years back and left the door open and it triggered our smoke alarm! So maybe …? But who knows?)

I was just relieved it was not a fire. Going outside in cold temps wearing pjs is not my idea of a fun way to spend early morning, and I suppose if it were a fire that’s what we’d have had to do (although, as always, my clothes were sitting out for the day already).

But back to sleep we went, and didn’t rise until well after 8:00.

Once we did get moving (slowly) we went in search of breakfast. I’d located three possibilities. We chose the one with the higher ratings (although who knows what ratings mean!), and went inside. We were quickly shown a table, and soon ordered and paid for our food and coffees via Dan’s phone. That’s getting more and more common, it seems. Our food was quite yummy. When we first went in there was room for more people, but when we finally left there was quite the line to get in. I guess it’s popular!

Next up was St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We spent quite a bit of time wandering around. I have to roll my eyes sometimes at what they might write about someone who is laid to rest there, or at least has a memorial plaque. They always sound like such flawless men and women! I do hope that, should I even have a service when I die, people are honest and say, “Well, she could sometimes be a handful and could definitely be annoying!” I mean … the truth is just fine by me. Just be sure and mention my incredible wit.

Or not.

I enjoyed reading about Jonathan Swift. (I think I might need to reread him sometime.)

From there we started to make our way to the Guinness location. We managed to make a few wrong turns, but it’s really not a big deal since we like seeing more of the city.

Finally there it was.

We purchased the self-guided tour tickets and made our way inside. I took far too many photos and don’t want to bore you too much, but I might bore you a bit. So it goes!

This water thing was rather cool!

There was a lot of information and parts of the tour were what Dan and I refer to as an “experience”, but really it was interesting and fun. It took much longer than I’d expected, too.

There was a section on an artist who did a lot of work for their advertising that was cute.

When I saw this particular display I cracked up. I had a t-shirt with that saying on it (you have to watch the full video) back in the later 70s. (My dad sure didn’t like that shirt!)

We were taken into a room to do a small tasting, but I didn’t do photos there. We walked a bit more and eventually wound up on the top floor where we were given a pint of Guinness. It wasn’t easy to find a place to sit, but eventually Dan nabbed a spot and we enjoyed sitting, drinking the beer, and I had saved a few packages of shortbread so we also ate those. Who knew shortbread and Guinness would work okay together? (Or maybe we were just hungry enough we didn’t care.) There were good views on that top floor.

We eventually left Guinness and planned on finding a light bite to eat. We walked a bit but didn’t find a place that appealed.

I had to shoot that last photo for my friend Bernie Sheehan!

So on we walked, through St. Stephen’s Green. I loved the sight of all those schoolboys squeezed on a bench!

At that point it did seem like perhaps dinner was in order soon. We ambled more, and even a bit more, not spotting anything that screamed out to us. Eventually I remembered that I had seen an old Victorian pub that seemed quite interesting so I did a quick search and found one. Whether or not it was the one I had seen online earlier I don’t know, but it was really cool. We walked in to find a very long hall. Then to the right there was a pub entrance with high tables. We aren’t exactly high table fans, and I had seen stairs that led to other rooms and I wondered about them. Someone who worked there said we could go on upstairs. So up we went. The first floor had a really nice, somewhat private room and we thought that would be perfect so in we went. I ordered the turkey roast (far too much food!) and Dan ordered the cottage pie. All was very good. Eventually the room did fill up so it was a bit noisy, but I was so happy to have that time when we were almost alone. At 7:00 a musician showed up and started to sing and play in the larger room adjacent to ours. The funny thing was that he was singing songs from our youth like “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” and “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” We had thought we’d be hearing Irish folk music or something!

Walking back out I took a few more photos:

Then it was time to head back to the hotel, passing once more through St. Stephen’s Green.

Thus ends our day. In some ways it feels as if we didn’t do all that much, but the cathedral and the brewery did take a lot of time.

Oh, and my watch was happy with me today. Whew! I’d still prefer to do even more walking, but this’ll do.

16,645 steps, 6.74 miles, 5 flights climbed

Goodnight!

Monday, May 18 — Moving Day

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We woke at 6:00 AM. Too early? Well, for some reason it seemed rather easy to rise, perhaps because I knew we had a flight to catch.

We checked out and got our taxi easily, and then drove to the airport. I was surprised by the expense, but Dan said it was what he expected. The driver was quite nice and we understood most of what he said. There were times, though, when I was at a loss!

Getting into the airport there were a lot of people in lines. Many were school kids — we are guessing high school. They were all in matching sweatshirts with their names on the back. I wondered if they would all be on our flight. I also wondered how long it would take us to get through the line we saw since we did have to check our bags. Thankfully Dan asked at the help desk and we were told that our line was further up and there were only a few people in front of us. One of those in front had a very very red baseball cap on with someone’s name on the back of it.

For the first time on this trip we encountered a maga hat. Dan mentioned to the woman at the desk that it was the first time we had seen one and that we weren’t a part of that group. Her response? “I’m glad.” She was very friendly and clearly relieved that we weren’t maga folks. It just made me sad to see the hat. Even if one is maga it seems as if they should be savvy enough to avoid announcing it. Most countries aren’t too thrilled with the United States at the moment. Ah well.

We got through security in absolutely no time at all, and found a spot for coffee and a sweet roll. We had tons of time to wait. I’m always okay with that!

When we walked to the area where our plane was probably going to be (still not posted on the board), all those kids were there as well. I finally could see their sweatshirts and there was the name of an Aberdeenshire school, Westhill Academy, and “Valencia ‘26”. I didn’t manage to find anything else about it at the time, but I did see they weren’t going on our plane.

Finally it was time to board. This was one small plane. That group of kids probably wouldn’t have fit on to it!

We were in the second row and poor Dan’s knees were right against the seat in front — and then the young man sitting in front of him leaned his seat back. At least it was a very short flight!

I took a couple photos and Dan made a video for me since he had the window seat.

You can really see the bright yellow canola from the plane.

I pretty much spaced out and even snoozed a bit. We were on an Aer Lingus flight and even water would cost money, so never mind any drinks or food. Not that we needed them in any case.

And then we arrived.

Greetings, Ireland! Hello Dublin!

Our taxi driver was very chatty and gave us a lot of information abut the area. I could even understand most of what he said.

We arrived early to our hotel, so we dropped off our luggage and went on a walk in search of lunch. And not “not lunch” but real lunch which was fine by me since my earlier sweet roll was quite burnt. (Darn!)

We ended up in the Temple Bar area. Clearly tourist country. Our driver had told us it was a place to visit during the day even while drinks were more expensive than in other areas. He explained that there was live music and the extra cost was due to paying musicians. I’m okay with that! In the later hours it gets a bit wild and crazy (I’d already read about that as well, and one had to be careful about theft and all.)

We randomly chose a place and went upstairs (where we couldn’t hear the music at all) and ordered our meals. I had soup and Dan had fish ‘n chips. I neglected to take photos but no one really needs to see those — just use your imagination! Instead here’s a photo of Dan and his beer!

From there we did more walking in our typical random way. (The first shot is of the restaurant for lunch.)

We ended up in a shop with tons of gorgeous Aran wool sweaters as well as other wool items. Oh how tempted I was! I know it’s all about the tourists, but honestly the prices for such beautiful sweaters didn’t seem at all unreasonable and they were 100% wool. There was one long one that I drooled over. (Not literally, you’ll be relieved to read.) Still, I resisted. I wish I’d taken a photo of the green one I loved, and the men’s purple — a color I wished they’d had for women. I only took these two photos. One of the jackets and vests and the other of the fishermen’s sweaters. And who knows … maybe I’ll cave and return to buy something. They do say they are made in Ireland, and they are just so doggone beautiful.

From there we just ambled a bit.

I think we were both a bit weary from the early wake up. In addition the bag Dan was carrying was rather heavy (full of his photo gear, I think). Due to all of that we went back to the hotel to get our keys and luggage and up we went to our room. The room is spacious, and the bed is the first truly king size bed we’ve had, I think.

I looked outside our window as well.

A bit of snoozing may or may not have taken place. Just guess!

Eventually we decided to head out in the rain in search of a light bite. I did find one spot we passed rather humorous.

I had done a search on restaurants, and then pubs, but finally I realized the best way to search was to plug in FOOD. That way I’d see even more suggestions. We walked to the closest place but it was burgers and that didn’t grab us. Then we walked a bit further to a small pub but it was so crowded and we didn’t see that they served any food at all. Another place, just a short walk away, was nearly empty and looked okay, but Dan said the one he saw on my map that was only a block or so further down was rated higher so we went to check that out. And that was the spot! It was incredibly noisy, but it seemed more like a local place and we really wanted that. They had all of one food option: toasties. Well, that was something I wanted to try in any case, and it was the small bite kind of thing we were hoping for. PLUS the prices were much more reasonable. The place was full of, primarily, younger people — perhaps college aged. I’m certain we were the oldest people there the entire time! The video I shot doesn’t really show the crowd so much: many arrived just after we did, and some of the slightly older guys had left. (Older as in older than college aged, not nearly as old as us!) You might want to turn your sound way down!

Then it was time to make our (short) way back to our hotel. I did have to stop for this little guy, though:

I mean how very encouraging is that?!

We aren’t sure what’s up for tomorrow. Maybe the immigration museum. Maybe a Guinness tour. Maybe something else. So check in tomorrow to find out! I’m really hoping we get a day without rain, but I’m going to bet that won’t be the case. S’okay — we are having a great time no matter!

And now …

Oíche mhaith!

If what I just read is true, that is pronounced “ee-hah wah” … I don’t think I’ll be speaking Irish any time soon.

It means “goodnight”!