The Emerald Isle

    A little over a week ago we boarded an Aer Lingus jet in Orlando and made the 8 hour plane flight to Dublin, Ireland. We left at 8:00 pm and arrived at 8:00 am the next morning thanks to all of the time zones. Our trip was a package deal that included the first night in the Croke Park hotel in Dublin, followed by three nights in Beds and Breakfasts of our choosing, then a night in the five star Ashford Castle (pictured above), and ending up for the last night again at the Croke in Dublin. To try to synopsize the trip into one blog just wouldn’t do (I’ve kissed the Blarney Stone and therefore have the gift of gab!). We took almost 500 photos alone! So I plan to break the trip up into a few blog entries and the best of our photos will occupy a place of honor on the “My Albums” page. So, let’s begin...

    Like I said, we got in to Dublin at 8:00 in the morning after an 8 hour flight. We tried our best to nap on the plane, but only managed a fitful couple of hours so we started off a little tired. We had a bit of an issue with the rental car regarding the collision damage waiver (a very important necessity for driving in Ireland). It took us a little while, but soon we we off to pick up our car. Did I say car? It was really more like a motorized roller skate! 

It was sufficient for our needs but, after driving a 40’ motorhome it took some getting used to. Now, not only was this a much smaller vehicle than I was used to, add to the mix the fact that you drive on the LEFT lane of the road, the steering wheel is on the RIGHT side of the car, and the gearshift is on your LEFT also! If this still wasn’t enough, lets throw the newbie American driver out into Dublin morning rush hour traffic!!! Wow, what an experience! Luckily I had a GPS as a part of the rental car. None of the streets in Dublin are straight. Going from point “A” to point “B” is a convoluted trip at best. Streets names are randomly posted so if the GPS says to turn on O’Connell street, you may or may not see a sign confirming. As such we took several wrong turns on our way to our Hotel.

    Add to all of the above stress, the fact that we had arranged for a Dublin City tour. This was a bus that picked us up at our hotel and dropped us off at several tourist stops within the city center, then returned us to our hotel. We made the reservation for 11:15, figuring we had plenty of time. With the delay at the airport, morning traffic, and inadvertent mis-navigation, we arrived at the hotel at 11:05! We rushed to drop our things in our room and ran to the lobby to wait... and wait... and wait! 11:15 came and went with no sign of the bus. The folks at the hotel tried to call the company and couldn’t get an answer. We reviewed the brochure and saw that their next stop was near us at 11:30 so we nabbed a taxi and screamed to the next stop to wait... and wait... A review of the assembled busses produced no one who knew of them. We dashed off to the next stop with similar results. We gave up at this point and had the cabbie take us back. I have to say that we did enjoy his company and got a good “quick” tour of the city center as we raced around. Once back at the hotel, we got onto the internet and sent a strong, but polite, email to the company. This is not the end of this particular story. Stay tuned...

    Croke Park is actually the huge stadium that houses Field hockey and Rugby matches. The hotel is just across the street from the stadium. Notice how they park in the photo below. No order is involved. No matter which direction you are traveling, if there’s an empty spot you grab it. 

    We decided to spend the afternoon walking the city center and seeing the sights. So we set off and hoofed a couple of miles to O’Connell Street. Here we saw the Post Office building. It was here where, during the Easter Rising of 1916, the building served as the headquarters for the leaders of the uprising. Eventually, Ireland gained their Independence and this building remains a symbol of Irish Nationalism. There are still bullet marks in the columns and a copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic is on display inside. 

    A little further down the road is the Ha Penny bridge. This used to be the only way to cross the river and it cost a half penny to do so. Today you don’t have to pay to cross, but there are beggars on both ends so it still could cost you to get over it. 

    Across the street from the bridge, and back a couple of blocks, you enter into the Temple Bar district. Here there are more pubs than you can count and in the evening, they come alive with music and merriment. The actual Temple Bar is the red colored establishment below. 

The downside to the live music is that nowhere do they begin before 9:30 at night. I’m an old fuddy duddy and usually I’m sitting comfortably in my hotel contemplating a good night’s rest by 9:30, so we didn’t hear much live music this trip. 

     

    You can’t have taverns without paying your penance. Near the Temple Bar district are two monumental churches, Christ Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Both of these are popular tourist stops and they charge for admission to the Cathedral, but there is no charge to wander the beautifully manicured grounds. St. Patrick’s Cathedral was begun in 1192, Christ Church was founded sometime around 1098!

   (Christ Church Cathedral)

   

 (St. Patrick’s Cathedral)

    As we walked along the streets we saw all of the brightly painted doors. We were told that this went back to the time when Queen Victoria died. Seems that all of Ireland was told to paint their doors black in mourning of the Queen. Now, you can’t tell an Irishman what to do (so I was told...) so contrary to directives, they painted their doors every color of the rainbow.  The second explanation given to us was that a husband used the excuse that they could not determine which was their own door when coming home from the pub to pardon their late arrival home was met with the practice of painting each door a unique and bright color.

    We were getting hungry, so we wandered back to the Temple Bar area and had a great dinner at the pub, complete with the national beer of Ireland... Guinness! While eating, there was a song playing in the pub that sounded familiar. Now only my kids will understand this, but the song was “All for me Grog”!! This is a tune that we have heard sung by the Jolly Rogers at innumerable Renaissance Festivals in Kansas City. My boys all know it by heart and it is one of those little moments shared by the family that brings a smile to my face. To hear it played in a pub in Ireland was magic. After all of the problems that started the trip, this was the sign that things were finally beginning to turn around. 

    We made it back to the hotel, a little footsore and tired but we had had a good visit. That evening, we got a call from the owner of Dublin City Tours and he was unbelievably apologetic about the mixup. He repeatedly expressed his apologies about “ruining our visit” and that was not how he did business. He thanked us for letting him know about our experience and told us that our email was very gracious. Since we were leaving the next morning, and not coming back to Dublin until later in the afternoon in a week, a reschedule was not possible. So, he proposed to refund our prepaid tour tickets, and also to pay our cab fare. In addition, to make up for our inconvenience, he wanted to treat us to an evening of food and Irish music when we came back to Dublin. We agreed and that evening, someone delivered an envelope to the hotel desk with our full refund plus the cab fare. This was very gracious of him, and he was a very nice gentleman to talk with. Things were indeed looking better. We went to bed exhausted but excited about getting out into the countryside in the morning.