Days 22-24

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Day 22: Miravet-Barcelona-Dublin

At 6 this morning we made our way with our bags down the steep road, through the tunnel (under sleeping people, perhaps), across the town square where the resident maremma barked at us until he recognized us, and headed off between the sandstone houses towards Barcelona.

On the road we missed an exit to the airport, and attempted to make good by taking a 20km cross-country correction. Bad decision. This was the Deans Marsh-Lorne road, except longer, through steep mountains and punctuated by little villages with more traffic than people. Our conservative policy of adding an hour to every travel time to an airport came into its own.

The plane was not full but occupied by two school groups, one of twenty small boys and the other some teenagers. For Helen, it was just like being in school! The boys were excited and talked loudly for the entire trip and (I’ve never heard this before) a huge round of applause for the pilot as we took off and an even louder one when we landed!

At the other end, in Dublin, we made our second big driving error for the day. The nice lady at the car-hire desk told us to get onto the ring road just up the street, drive right around the city in a big arc and exit at the other end. The helpful man also in the office pooh-poohed that and said it’ll take us about three times as far as we need to go, and he drew us a nice easy line on our map of Dublin. We took his advice, and arrived at our hotel, about eight km away, well over an hour later. Dublin is the most difficult city we have ever navigated, for the following reasons:
1. There are no right-angled intersections, as far as we can tell.
2. Long thoroughfares change their names every so often. The main road from near our hotel to Trinity College, a distance of about 2km, changes its name six times.
3. Street names are frequently absent, or erratically placed on the sides of buildings (but often illegible).
4. Property numbers are displayed only occasionally.
5. One-off road rules concerning bus lanes, taxi lanes and the like come randomly into play. I wish I’d had time to photograph a permanent “no left turn” sign directly in front of a traffic light with a green arrow.
6. Just when you have that Eureka moment of “Aha! I know where we are! We just need to turn right at the next intersection and we’ll be home free!”, the next intersection features a one-way street, going left. This happened twice.

When we finally arrived, we had a nice long rest, walked down the road to Roly’s Bistro for a pleasant dinner, walked home and went to bed.

- Andrew


Day 23: Dublin

We seem to be getting later in starting our days, but that doesn’t matter when we are on holidays and time is immaterial. Dublin is a small city, confusing (as above) and not easy to navigate as we walked to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells exhibition. It was marvellous: the preservation for a text from the C8th is amazing, written on vellum (calf skin), and the colours still so bright. The value of explanatory notes in English is not to be underestimated. Universities are not always full of students these days, and it was good to see so many around – it seems exams are close.

Off to the Trinity library to see the collection of 200,000 books that’s been there for hundreds of years and also so very well preserved. There are shelves of books, some huge, some small, bound in leather and occasionally wood – pretty heavy, one imagines. There are ropes to keep visitors away but the feeling of the library and the size of the collection are stunning. On to some shopping along Nassau St. and a lunch where we had a lovely waitress. Uniformly all the Irish we have approached for directions – and there were many yesterday – and cabbies have been unfailingly cheerful, kind and so ready to help. We notice that quaint usage where they refer to ‘herself’ (you) as in ‘is it herself speaking?’ and ‘ourselves’ (us).

In the National Library we found a Yeats exhibition, which was beautifully mounted, and the collection of videos, photos, original documents and letters was a truly comprehensive way of getting to know him. Apparently his wife collected a great deal of the material and kept it safe, and the family donated it over time. It seems that marrying much younger women was quite the fashion; and having a few lifelong women friends also important for Yeats. I found myself really enjoying some of the readings of his poetry.

The national museum for Middle Ages and Viking history was at the very end of the day – we only had about 45 minutes, but it was enough to see some extraordinary artefacts. The amount of gold jewellery, the designs which were so intricate, and the weight of some of it were incredible. This was a highly sophisticated civilization who really were so much more than a bunch of raiders. The Vikings certainly left their mark.

Off to dinner at the Schoolhouse Bar, a modern pub down the road with (again) great food. What some travel writers have said about Irish food, that it was basically awful and boring, seems not to be the case now – we have has great food. We are enjoying the spring lamb, and gorgeous beef always described as to its source and its size which can be up to 1lb!
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Day 24: Dublin

Taxi this morning: we need to reduce the walking load a bit, though the city is only 15 mins away and there are buses. We decided by the time we sort out buses and timetables we could take a taxi. The cabbie was brilliant, up for a chat and again picked that we are not English, or American. He explained how the interesting road signs work – there are J5,7,8, which are junction numbers, and road numbers that come after that. We reflected with the cabbies that Dublin was difficult to drive in, which he enthusiastically agreed with, and pointed out that the taxi and bus lanes were only for some of the day and police like to book unwary drivers who use the lanes.

Most of our time was in the Old City today, dating back to the Middle Ages. All in one section and easily walkable. We went to St Patrick’s Cathedral, of that era. There were priests to assist in the church, and after we had looked around a (the?) Canon chatted away and said we must visit the Marsh library and the crypt of Christ Church. The Marsh library was a true highlight: a library set up by a Bishop Marsh, who 300 years ago bought books from all over the world, then bequeathed them as a lending library. The library is a mini-Trinity library, but very quiet and we were able to get much closer to the books – and smell them. Readers in the early years were locked into cages while they read and worked, as (our host wryly remarked) some “didn’t fully understand the concept of a library”. There was a themed display of medical books which, amongst other things, described a mastectomy (no anaesthetic) in the 1700s and eye surgery (using magnet to remove iron shavings) in the C17th, as well as directions on how to chop off a sixth finger and toe! It brought back memories of my HPS studies many years ago, always something I really enjoyed.

Off then to the Viking exhibition, which was a great one, especially for school groups – very interactive. Lastly, walking to the Temple Bar area, once a very divey place and now a young person’s domain – including some very touristy restaurants, all with Irish music. Last dinner in Dublin was at Bloom’s Brasserie, which belied its slightly cheesy name with (again) great food.

- Helen

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