Ireland day 1 - Sunday 5th June

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Sunday 5th June

Our first full day.

We arrived in Dublin Airport an hour late last night. That’s pretty impressive when the flight is only 40 minutes! Still, I’m sure Ryanair did their best.

After a stroll around the area of our B&B, were we found a sculpture of Luke Kelly who started The Dubliners in 1962, we had a burger for supper, followed by a pint of yummy Orchard Thief for me and Guinness for Susan at one of the 700 pubs in Dublin, we headed back and settled down for the night.

We woke this morning to grey skies and rain. Not to be thwarted, we headed out along the Liffey towards Dublin port. The path was built along the site of the old railway tracks, and the cobbles and concrete depicted the pattern which the rails may have taken. There were also some small blue glass circles in the path, with weeny replicas of fish and star fish visible underneath. They were cute!

We passed a few ships including Pelican of London, MV Cill Airne (a restaurant Ship) and Slipstream, a rather impressive-looking super yacht with a Cayman Island flag. As we arrived at the East Link toll Bridge, it lifted to allow St Bridget through; she’s the vessel belonging to Dublin Bay Cruises.

Once the bridge was back in place, we wandered in the rain over to the south side of the river and headed back towards the city centre. We met a couple of locals as we were crossing a lock gate, and they informed us the weather was a ‘dirty Dublin day’. The were out for a bike ride, and Susan asked about the bright yellow plastic shorts one had on over his trousers. They’re called Rain Legs, and are available from a large online store – by the end of the day we both wish we’d known about them before the trip!

The architecture along that end of the Liffey is very impressive. There are well designed modern structures mixing with aged red-brick facades. Occasionally there’s a whole long-established building still in use; the mixture is alluring and illustrates the new and developing dockland while celebrating the historical Dublin, even in the rain.

We carried on into the city centre passing the Ha’penny Bridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha%27penny_Bridge) before heading into the old part of the city to visit the statue of Molly Malone, known locally as the tart with the cart. I must say she certainly had an impressive decolletage! Next was Bewley’s in Grafton Street for the traditional coffee & cake. Yum! As we left Bewley’s it was raining.

There are numerous statues and sculptures in Dublin. We found another one to Luke Kelly, close by to Phil Lynott, as well as various random ones throughout the day.

I found us an Adventure Cache to do which took us first to St Stephens Green. This park was the centre of the Easter Rising in 1916, and plaques around the perimeter tell a harrowing story of the happenings. Today the park is beautiful, and full of gulls, pigeons, various ducks and a pair of romancing Coal Tits! It was however, raining.

We then visited a charming sculpture in Earlsforth Terrace called The Kiss. This took us along part of the route of today’s Women’s Mini Marathon, and we had to negotiate barriers, Garda cars and jobsworth marshalls along with the rain. Still, we got there in the end.

As we walked to the next part of the Adventure Cache we passed a window with a stuffed lion gazing out; very odd! We also saw what must be the biggest, oldest ivy plant I’ve ever seen. It was covering the front of several houses along a big terrace, and the trunk must have been at least 30cm diameter – massive! It was definitely getting a good watering today!

The Joker’s Chair in Merrion Square was our next stop. This bronze throne is a memorial to Dermot Morgan, aka Father Ted. Of course, I had to sit on it even though it was wet from the rain. At this point I was grateful the Mini Marathon was on because I was able to take advantage of the portaloos in the park! More sculptures in this park, including Oscar Wilde, his wife, Constance Lloyd, and Dionysus.

The shrine of St Valentine is in Whitefriar Street Church. I had never read the story of his life before, and it’s certainly worth a few minutes to find out why he’s celebrated as he is. There was also a display about recently canonised St Titus Brandsma, and he’s worth reading about too! As we left the church it was raining.

We next walked in the rain to St Patrick’s Cathedral to discover Evensong was in progress and we needed to kill 40 minutes before we could go in. Luckily there was a pub nearby, so Susan had a pint of Smithwicks and I had my first Irish gin. There were a couple of options; I chose Gunpowder, and enjoyed it very much.

We had to queue in the rain before we could enter the cathedral. It’s a beautiful building, with lovely stained-glass windows and the usual memorials to the great and the (arguably) good.

The last clue for our Adventure Cache was just up the road in the Peace Park, a lovely little area with a bronze Tree of Life sculpture by Leo Higgins. All done as far as the cache and our legs were concerned, we headed back to the city centre, found an Indian restaurant to shelter from the rain and eat supper in before visiting the Ferryman, pub number 3 of the 700 available, for a night-cap.

Our various digital implements tell us we’ve done around 30000 steps and 11 miles. In the rain. We’re hoping there’ll be less rain tomorrow!

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Comments

[Louise Parslow]

Wow!
I have finally sat down to read your blog! With the "exam" in mind, I am already beginning to take note of buildings, sculptures and alcohol intake? Lovely photos x