“It takes a great deal of courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it.” - Oscar Wilde We started the day sleeping in until 8:30 (!), followed by a delicious breakfast at the Bullitt Hotel restaurant. I has the veggie Irish (poached eggs, grilled halloumi cheese, mushrooms, potatoes, grilled peppers, tomato chutney, and sourdough toast), and Susan had the full Irish (poached eggs, mushrooms, sausages, bacon, black pudding, white pudding, and sourdough toast). Yumm. Well fortified for the day, we headed to the Ulster Museum, a nice smallish museum near Queen’s University. We visited the exhibit on the Troubles, which was well done, then explored the history floor, which encompassed Irish history from the Bronze Age to modern times, which was very informative. I enjoyed the small Egyptian exhibit, ... read more

“Sinking head down. Come soon as possible.” Titanic to Olympic, 1:10 am, April 15, 1912 We enjoyed our last breakfast at the Anchor House B&B in Dublin this morning. Both Susan and I had poached eggs on toast with beans. I’ve had more eggs and beans the last while than I’ve had for a long time ?. We left just before 9 am and walked about 10 minutes in the rain to Connolly train station, where we entered the code into the machines and got our tickets for the train to Belfast (we had booked the train tickets online). After a short while we boarded our train and found our seats. Most of the seating is laid out with four seats facing each other, with a table in between. A sweet older couple from Newry, Northern ... read more

”May your joys be as deep as the oceans, your troubles as light as its foam. And may you find sweet peace of mind, wherever you may roam.” - Irish proverb We started the day with a good breakfast at our B&B in Annascaul. Susan had the mini Irish and I had the vegetarian Irish (fried eggs, beans, and toast). We also had coffee, juice and yogurt. I was very happy because the rain had stopped, and there were even breaks of blue sky. We left Annascaul about 8:30 and began our drive in the beautiful Dingle peninsula. The scenery was really lovely, with green fields alongside the Atlantic Ocean, mostly with small herds of cows. We first stopped at the Torc waterfall, because it gets quite busy in the afternoon and Alex didn’t know if ... read more

“Whether the weather be hot, or whether the weather be not, we‘ll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not!” - Irish saying The weather is definitely not hot! It was fairly rainy today on the road, but no matter, we still had a great day. We had to leave O’Neills before they served breakfast, but we were still able to have some cereal, coffee, and soda bread (yumm) before we left just after 7:30. We walked to Paddy’s Palace hostel, where we were starting our Paddywagon 3 day tour of Southern Ireland. We set off just after 8 am, picked up a few more people at the other pick up location, and headed out of Dublin. Our driver/guide is Alex, who is a great driver and full of information and stories. ... read more

“However long the day, the evening will come.”- Irish Proverb Hello from Dublin! It has been a VERY long day, starting with heading to the Vancouver airport about 9ish yesterday morning. We enjoyed a nice breakfast at the airport, along with mimosas (our favourite way to start holidays, if we are flying in the morning). Our flight to Toronto would have been quite pleasant had it not been for the two small children sitting behind us, who either emitted ear spitting screams, or fairly continually kicked the back of our seats. Sigh. Luckily the flight wasn’t too long, at just over 4 hours. It was quite a new airplane, I think, with the windows that dim instead of the shades that pull down. The entertainment system was good and both of us watched a couple of ... read more