Special Treat From Dublin

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The travelers rolled into Dublin after a horrendous day (okay, an exaggeration, but it wasn't good) at Heathrow. Dropped car at 13:15 (1:15 for US types), finally escaping security at 15:30. We boarded an hour late, and continuing our downward spiral, after arriving in line for take off, the captain elected to taxi around a bit to "cool off the brakes". Things took a decided upturn thereafter. A bit before arriving at our hotel we received a message from Baby Bird informing us seats awaited for dinner...beside them! Dinner good, but markedly superior was seeing BB and Walt three days before our 50th anniversary. Can life get any better? Well, yes it can as Doozer and Erin arrived the next day. The six of us spent four of the most wonderful days in Bird's or my life. How those two could have developed into such wonderful human beings is beyond either of us, and furthermore were able to attract such fabulous spouses.

We began the celebration for our 50th in the hotel with a rather good bottle of champagne. Then the presents began with the greatest one approximately twenty pictures of those four plus M-2, 3 & 4 moving us into the new house in Woodstock. This was intended as a surprise, but Doozer, being a bit like his father, has difficulty keeping entirely quiet about nice things. An annoyed Baby Bird attempted, with moderate success, to return the horse to the barn. On the couple of days that followed we engaged in begging, bartering or cajoling them into remaining more days. Very sad to see our children leave but sure look forward to seeing them again.

Okay more information now about Dublin. Although there is history and some nice architecture, Dublin isn't really a city meant to be photographed, at least that's our opinion. The pictures are a tad limited with more from other areas of Ireland than Dublin. Will note the roads and traffic flow in Ireland is superior to UK, more intuitive and similar to the Continent and the U.S. But still drive on the wrong side of the road.

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Photos

Ha' Penny Bridge Dublin
Everyone has arrived. This is 8 July after dinner and on the way, unbeknownst to anyone in the picture, to a rocking and rowdy pub. The Irish party a tad more than the British, really more than anywhere we have ever been. This is a party town in line with New Orleans.

Riverdance
We happened to be in Dublin when Riverdance celebrated their 25th Anniversary (yeah, a ways to go in order to catch up), and of course we went. The show was fabulous. But again pictures disallowed during the performance. May have been our best experience during the entire trip thus far, excepting of course, seeing the kids.

Kilmainham Gaol
Where British kept lawbreakers during their rule, including many political prisoners. Executions historically were carried out by hanging but really slow strangulation. The victim was hauled up on a rope and left until they expired, about twenty minutes. Political prisoners were later executed by firing squad.

Six of us in front of Trinity College
Snapped this upon BB's direction during our travels about the city.

Cahir Castle
Doozer and Erin ventured west on a castle search, while the remaining four took in Riverdance.

Blarney Castle
Doozer ascending spiral steps sporting a shinning smile.

Knowth
This place was constructed 5,200 years ago per carbon dating. These mounds appear just mounds but inside there are stone passageways that required enormous effort to construct.

Newgrange
This is a separate area, also of the same age. Able to venture inside but pictures disallowed. Ugg! This was constructed to permit a thin beam of sunlight to penetrate deep into the mound from 18-23 December. Folks surmise these dates were cheered as days then began to lengthen. The etching you see here was created by stone age folks (pre-metal) 5,200 years ago using one stone to etch another (very, very hard work). Knowing someone did this that long ago is the most impressive aspect of the entire site. BTW, these five ton stones were transported a bit over thirty miles before the wheel was invented. Yep, this description is long but here's something I sure did not know. The folks who constructed these massive burial mounds are long gone with not a trace of their DNA remaining in the modern Irish. Entirely replaced by people who migrated from eastern Europe. Yes, there were repeated massacres.

Trinity Old Library (The Long Room)
Initially, we must apologize as with all the data in the image the blog site would not permit upload, we cropped markedly. Contained here are over 200,000 very old books that can actually be checked out. Notice the ladders. Once "obtained" the recipient is escorted to to a room where supervision occurs while reading.

Comments

[carol a attaway]

OHHH!!!
Beautiful description of four of the best days of your life!!! Sounds like an amazing time and beautiful memory. I continue to be amazed by the architecture and the awesome work it took to build these buildings and these mounds. Sheila, did you check out a good book? \