Monday update

I posted this because I can

click it to embiggen

It's closer to Tuesday   . . .which is the day of the week these pictures were shot.
The only real relevance they have to the other Ireland posts is they're in Dublin and I shot them.
Some may be under the impression this saga is done.
Nope!
There are still a couple of days left.
I am just trying to line it up so we finish on Saturday.
That's the day we came home . . .three weeks ago.

We wandered through the streets of Dublin near the city center and Trinity College and observed a few things.
Like beer kegs at the curb.
I found something about this picture just a little ironic.

click to enlarge

There is a little irony in the following photo, too.
It's a family thing and has nothing to do with fish [or how the vehicle is parked].

yep   . . .click

Oh!
Remember that picture I couldn't find yesterday?
This is it.
Almost ironic. . .

I wasn't allowed to take a photograph of a masterpiece, but nobody said I could take a picture of a part of it being used to promote viewing the masterpiece.

The man is renting a bicycle

The secret is actually that the wall is part of the exterior of Trinity College, just around the corner and across the street from our flat.
We pretended that nobody knew we were in Ireland to celebrate our birthday.

Another secret. . .

. . .there are burritos in Dublin.
No, we didn't indulge [it may have had something to do with the name].

Finally, just for grins, a map of Ireland.
I shot this to show where the different families were located.

click it to see the words

 It was in the National Museum of Archaeology and History  . . .which is also where the photo of the decorated stone on yesterday's post was shot.

Hindsight says we covered a lot of ground in one day.
I'd tell you where and what we ate, but I can't remember.
I will tell you we had no bad meals.

back tomorrow with better more stuff

Is it Tuesday yet?

Patience Grasshopper, we'll sync this blog with the travels yet  . . .or sink it.

(BTW - it's Sunday)

So. . .   where were we? Dublin!!!



We did go see the Molly Malone statue, but it was darn near impossible to get a picture without a crowd around it and some fool [or his brother] copping a feel.

We rose early on Tuesday, 11 August because we planned a visit to something special at Trinity College and only so many folks at a time are allowed in.

click the image for an official explanation

They're some ancient manuscripts.
They are on display with some other ancient and more recent stuff.
 It's in this building that I took a screen shot from Google.

Not much of a line here

Once inside I took out the camera [as usual, most of the images may enlarge if you click on them].
There were lots of folks inside the library. . .

. . .and some other historical documents

. . .as well and some ancient artifacts.

It seems ol' Brian Boru is a distant relative from down County Clare way.

After visiting the gift shop we went outside and explored the Trinity College Campus a little further tried to the gate where we'd entered.

While wandering we noticed a small crowd.

They were viewing Sphere Within Sphere by Arnaldo Pomodoro.

from there we walked, and walked some more around, arriving at a construction site, that turned out to be the National Gallery.
The one picture I really wanted to take was not allowed.
(and the image I thought I had is among the missing)

this is the sign next to the picture

this is the sign next to the next picture

We went back out and looked at some street scenes.

like Georgian buildings.

and magpies in Merrion Square

But we're not done yet.

there's more

Cont'd from Friday

(. . .or Monday, because that's the day of the week it was)

After situating ourselves, we decided on lunch.
We were too late, by minutes for a pub lunch at O'neill's, just half a block away toward Trinity College.

Screen shot from Google maps

The only alternative was to go walking to find lunch.
We made our way past Trinity College [which is really big and not exactly an open campus] to a more commercial area, what some of us would call downtown.

We found it was a long walk past Trinity College.
There aren't a lot of entries to the campus   . . .and thus, as we found on another occasion, even fewer exits.

Just about our first sight in the shopping district.

Not the Tourist Office, but the place next door

One of the first things tourists are warned about is the Tourist Office is not really a tourist office.

But I digress.
Lunch - we went to the Westin Hotel, which used to be a bank.
We ate at the Mint Bar, which used to be the vault, in the cellar.

We then walked about the area a little, to size up what is in the neighborhood.

That may sound simple enough, but there is a lot of street repair being done in the immediate area.
The sidewalks are fenced, forcing pedestrians to certain intersections that are not necessarily convenient.
And. . .  as it is August, when all the Europeans [and, it seems, Asians] go on holiday, the sidewalks were very crowded.

I can't remember what else we did that day, other than have a light supper [and go to bed after playing Internet on our computers].

Wait. . . there's more tomorrow

Monday update

No, no, no. . .  not today, but Monday, August 10.
(It's really a normal Friday)

We cleaned our flat  . . .well, took out the trash and washed the dishes.
Then lugged our baggage (I had a couple of paper bags) down the stairs to the curb to await the taxi to the train.

I'd have taken a picture of the train station, but it was easier to use a screen shot.

We'd already bought tickets, so it was only a matter of queuing up.

But before getting in line, I needed a snack.

Yeah, that and a banana.

Our chariot to Heuston Station, Dublin

not exactly the train route

If you click the image it will get bigger.

No pics from the train.

Upon arrival at Dublin we found a taxi and went to get the keys to our new flat.
After some brief confusion regarding where the keys were, we were allowed in the building and given instruction on how the doors work, why there is only hot water for showers in the morning, and other peculiarities of what seemed to be a fairly modern building conveniently located less than a block from four pubs. . .  and only a little further from the Trinity College campus.

Our flat was in the building on the right.

The first balcony was ours
Yep, we were only one floor up from the ground   . . .and there was a lift.

There was also this about every 5 - 10 minutes.

Fortunately, it wasn't as loud as one might expect and they didn't run all night.
In fact it proved convenient to have them close at hand.

more tomorrow

Would it help?

Maybe I should have referenced the dates of the events in the previous posts?
. . .or at least which day in the week?

So, let's see.
We arrived on Wednesday, August 5. . .   Happy Birthday to my oldest sister (she's not older, but she's the oldest girl)
Thursday, the sixth, was the first bus tour (Burren and Moher).
Friday we stayed in Galway and wandered around.
Saturday, 8 August, was the Connemara tour where we saw lots of stuff through the bus window [well, there was that one long stop at Kylemore Abbey, where everyone crowded inside, with all of the people from the other buses, so they could stay dry) and the rest stop at Cong so everyone could look at pictures of John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara].

Which brings us to Sunday. . .

Once more we stayed in Galway and walked around a lot.
I apologize if you've seen these pics before.

Wolf Tone Bridge over River Corrib

That's the bridge we walked across at least once each day we were at Galway.

When I turned around I saw this...

Spanish Arch

From this side you can see the wall.

From here we went exploring.
That was so we'd know what train to catch the next day to go to Dublin. . .  and where the train station is.

One thing we did learn about Galway. . . there's almost always a direct route when you're walking, not so much in a vehicle.
Monday, the 10th we head for Dublin.

this is the last of Galway

I know they're around here. . . somewhere?

The major drawback to writing posts about something that happened almost three weeks ago is it can be difficult to remember what has already been said. . .

. . .and if it was said here, which is fairly simple to research,

or on F/B, which isn't simple in any respect.                          

So what I'm gonna do is pretend it's all new material.
If you see something hinky, pretend you didn't.

Aha!
Here we are.
Going on the bus again

Some of the roads kinda remind me of U.S. 395 in Southern Oregon.
About the only difference is it's cooler, wetter, and greener in Ireland.

We were traveling through the peat bogs, but it really wasn't conducive to shooting pictures.

Kylemore Abbey

There was this tree that really, really caught my eye

The statue below is well up the hill mountain behind the abbey

Most of the images on this page will enlarge if you click on them.

Somehow I managed to get a shot without any people walking into the frame.

Maybe it was because they all went inside the visitor center to get out of the wind and rain?

After the abbey we went past Killary Fjord

There's a large aquaculture setup in the fjord, farming oysters, mussels, and salmon.

Then we went over the hill to Lough Nafooey.
It wasn't visible as we came over the pass.
The bridge below was on our road.

This is the spot where the map says, "Killer Sheep."

Google Maps screen shot from about the same spot as the picture above

From there we proceeded to Cong.
It's where the The Quiet Man was filmed, starring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara.
I thought this more interesting because I'd seen the movie when I was a kid.

Our last official stop was at another old church friary.
It was down this road.

It looks better from here.
It is used exclusively as a burial ground today

There was another bus.
Yes, it was wet.
That's another reason there are no pictures.

time for a hot shower