October 15, 2022 Dublin and home

 Saturday, October 15

David meets us this morning wearing a shirt with the Irish flag colors - Orange for King William, green for the 50 shades of Ireland, and White for peace. It is meant to symbolize the aspiration for unity between people of different traditions on this island.

Kay is our step-on guide this morning.  We first stop at Merrion Square where there is an interesting statue of Oscar Wilde.  We arrange ourselves for a group picture, which Tommy, our driver snaps for us.

There is a great deal of Georgian architecture, typically 5 story high buildings, in the old part of Dublin.  It has a small city center and people are not allowed to change the exterior of their homes here.  The city is divided by the river Liffey and features 19 bridges. 

 90% of the population is Catholic here and they love their writers - James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, William Butler Yeats, Jonathan Swift, Maeve Binchy and others.  Author Brendan Behan described himself as a drinker with a writing problem and said he only drank two times, once when he was thirsty and the other time when he wasn't.  He died young.

Dubliners are also the greatest tea drinkers in the world.  I must admit that tea and scones yesterday afternoon really were a nice pick-me-up!

At one point Kay quips that the city has wonderful politicians - "the best money can buy".  Another comment about the Irish performer Bono - the difference between Bono and God is that God knows he is not Bono. 

We go by St. Stephen's Green,  a lovely park that began as a public land for grazing sheep.  Lots of greenery and statues.

Above is a statue of founder of the Guiness Brewery, begun in 1759. It produces 4 million pints a day. They employ many (each employee gets 2 free pints a day!)and also support many cultural and civic organizations. We also pass Christ Church, Trinity College and an 800 year old pub.  We make a brief stop at Phoenix Park, a 752 acre park with fields for Rugby, Cricket and Football.  

The American Embassy is located here as well.  A walk through some gardens is abbreviated by rain.

 We end with a tour of St. Patrick's Cathedral, National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland. St Patrick himself baptized people on this site.  The first reference to it is from 890AD. Beautiful!

Below is a covering of an ancient well, located next to the Cathedral.  It may be the well where St. Patrick performed baptisms.

There is not a lot of crime in Dublin, but there are homeless and people are warned about pickpockets in busy areas.   The police are called "Guardians of the Peace" but we don't see any.

There is free time to explore after the tour, but Beth is not feeling great so we chill back at the hotel till the evening Farewell Dinner, enjoying tea in the lobby and a brief walk to a Tesco (convenience store) for tea.

Nice dinner, with each person offering what they liked best about the tour.  David got many well deserved kudos.  Greg mentions the Giant's Causeway and I mention Edinbugh, though after thinking about it more I'd have to say Slea Head was pretty awesome.  We traded email/addresses with some folks and made it an early night since our ride to airport will arrive at 3:30AM.  Clayton and Kathy will share the cab as they begin the trek back to Montana.   

Sunday, October 16

David meets us in the morning with a "to go" breakfast bag.  Our taxi driver has a heavy accent and although he is being quite a pleasant tour guide, we only understand a fraction of what he is saying.

Although our reservations said Delta, we are actually flying KLM so it takes a minute to find our check-in.  We've plenty of time, though, and arrive at the gate in good time.  Security here is quite stringent and Greg gets a pretty thorough pat-down as they locate each of his joint replacements.  We also are randomly selected  to have our hands swabbed for gun powder (?).  But at least we then get to board first.

The sunrise over Amsterdam is beautiful and we have no problem connecting to our flight to Houston.  Smooth sailing as Beth watches several movies - Elvis, Father of the Bride and Minions.  We and our bags arrive in good time and friends Danny and Donna pick us up at about 2:00.

Good to be home!  I'll end up at the clinic near home in a day or two with a nasty sinus infection, but don't test positive for COVID as our new friends Kathy in Montana and Paul in Maine did!  Maybe those vaccinations helped!