When we left Scotland we really began to wind down our trip. We had our tickets back to the US booked, but before we finished out our whirlwind last days through Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Budapest, we headed to Ireland for a few weeks. Elizabeth had already been to Ireland and was anxious to show me some of her favorite spots. We also wanted to make our own memories there so we visited a few other areas and even headed north to Northern Ireland.
The first Irish city on our itinerary – Dublin. Our day in Dublin started with our typical free walking tour courtesy of Sandeman’s. We covered many of the big sights in Dublin: Dublin Castle, Trinity College, the Temple Bar area, an old library where they have the books organized by author name. It was an ok tour. While informative, it was one of those times I was glad the tour was free.
After a lunch of shepherd’s pie, we headed over to get a glimpse of the Book of Kells. It hangs out at Trinity College in a collection of really, really old books/manuscripts. Pictures aren’t allowed within the exhibit, but most everything in there is between 500-1000 years old. Many of the works are written on vellum, calf skin. Almost all of the works are religious in nature. Although Elizabeth had already seen this on her EF tour, she was determined that I view it in all its splendor.
The amount of time taken to create these works of art is unbelievable. Even the mistakes made are beautifully corrected. I cannot imagine the diligence to complete the book or even a page.
We piddled the rest of the day, with only a Pub Crawl to look forward to in the evening.
You read that correctly, we elected/paid/anticipated going on a Pub Crawl. We love a drink or two, but being surrounded with people (usually much younger than us) drinking til they all go home with a messy face (either their own or someone else’s) is not our idea of a real fun time, but when abroad… As you may have guessed, it was a mess. Not for us, but for most of the other folks on the tour. We hung out with a young couple from Ohio and three posh British kids somewhere around the age of 20 who had flown over because they had a long weekend off from University. The Brits were fascinated by Elizabeth and I, an old, married couple from the US. They had plenty of questions, what we did back home, where we were from, and how we could be in a car for longer than two hours without wanting to kill ourselves. They could not understand the concept of how large the US is. Kids amirite?
The next day was split in half. The first half was planning the rest of Ireland. When we arrived in Dublin we had ideas of which cities we wanted to visit but nothing concrete. At the hostel in Dublin we saw a flyer for a craft beer festival in Doolin. I wanted to hear Irish music and Elizabeth wanted to get us to the Aran Islands. In Doolin we could do both. So during the first half of the morning in Dublin we built our trip around getting to Doolin for the festival.
For the second half of the day we went to the store and bought all the supplies for a delicious picnic. It rained, but we had fun anyway.
When we woke up the next morning we hit the road. I was again behind the wheel of a stick shift driving on the opposite side of the road. It didn’t matter, we were on our way to Northern Ireland.
Not the kind of place you would want to go 30 years ago, and we were staying in Belfast. Not the kind of place you want to be lost in at night in the wrong part of town. But in another rental car, we made our way to Giant’s Causeway.
Yet another stop on our Game of Thrones unofficial tour, we had a nice look at the Dark Hedges. Apparently, they film all the places we went. Shame we didn’t make it to Iceland, otherwise we would have probably seen ever set location they have.
The hedges were packed to the gills with nerds, so we left quite quickly and kept moving for the Causeway. We eventually arrived and began to take in this wonder of the world. Unlike anything else you’ve ever seen, the Giant’s Causeway is a magical place. The hexagonal shoreline was created a very long time ago. It was first written about in the late 17th century before becoming a popular tourist attraction during the 19th century.
While it was crowded too, we did manage to enjoy some sections without too many people in the way. Another interesting thing about being at the causeway was the jerk who decided to wear the same shirt as me. Don’t know what his deal was, but I wore it better.
After leaving, we stopped into the Bushmills Distillery. They had finished tours for the day, but not wanting to disappoint those who show up a smidge late, they still let you sample a decent amount of whisky, and for free no less. We hung around for as long as the whisky lasted, then took off to arrive in Belfast before nightfall.
The next day was Sunday, so we loaded up and headed to a Catholic Church in Belfast. Quite a brave thing to do, especially back in the 80’s. Before we got to church, we drove around the “peace walls” in Belfast. Built after a riot between Catholics and Protestants in 1969, the walls were built to separate neighborhoods between the two religions. The walls are still standing to this day and even have gates. Some of the gates for the roads were closed when we drove by on our way to church.It was definitely worth seeing.
After mass, we made our way back south to Dublin. We had a date with a bus to Cork.
cornetravel 