Tag Archives: Dublin

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

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”!