Having finished off the blogs for our time in Dublin, I am taking a break for a while. We have been doing normal things at home in the past week. Cutting the hedge, picking and cooking the many tomatoes that were ripe on our return and clearing debris from the yard. We have taken numerous trips to the dump with the trailer filled to overflowing and had a general cleanout. The temperature is cooler, thankfully, and we are enjoying being outside while the weather is cooler and the light is still good up until about 9pm.
We have much to do in the coming weeks that is boring and ordinary. I wont be documenting it. It is coming up on September and is officially Autumn. We welcome the change and look forward to the grape harvest.
So, I bid you adieu, and you will no doubt hear from me when I feel I have the time to spend on the blog.
Take care, be well, and A bientot.
Monday, 27 August 2018
7 Days in Dublin : Day 7/8
Friday 17th August.
It's 14C this morning, so it's cool.
We dressed in long sleeves and trousers, and off I went downstairs first thing, for our morning yoghurt, as I have done these previous mornings, and this time I had to buy a banana. We leave for home tomorrow, so we haven't bought any more fruit at the supermarket.
It was drizzling when I went outside, and of course we would need our raincoats and brollies today. With my head in the clouds, I was almost run over by a cyclist turning the corner into the small side road I was crossing, on the return journey. Of course I had forgotten in that moment that they drive on the NZ side of the road in Ireland...the left! I was lucky it was a cycle and not a truck!
What to do today? Not wanting to walk around the Botanical Gardens in the rain and under cover of a brolly, we decided to go out to Dalkey, the next point south from Dun Laoghaire. No buses would take us directly there but we could catch the DART. So, we caught the bus to Dun Laoghaire, getting off in the middle of town per usual. We do like this town.
Directly below where we alighted there is a large book shop with a Costa Coffee shop on the first floor. Perfect. We had time to kill, as it were, so went upstairs for this purpose. It was 10am.
We could sit at the window and watch the goings on below.
We sat down beside some folks with funny accents...oops! They must be Kiwis!! Yes, but they had jumped ship, most of them and were living in Aussie. They were 'doing' Ireland in a rental car. One bloke and three women, all related. How does that work, lol. We chatted for a while, then they left do travel across the Island to the west coast. We were jealous, but hadn't budgeted for a vehicle this time around.
The café was in receipt of a new under counter fridge for their milk. We watched as they took the old one out sideways because of the small space. The new fridge was installed, after tipping it on it's side, and immediately plugged in and turned on. WRONG! The man installing it was around our age or older. Strictly speaking, he should have known better. He did eventually read the instructions, and we understand they needed the fridge for the milk, BUT...A compressor is a motor. It contains a certain number of moving parts requiring oil as a lubricant. There is a reservoir of oil in the compressor and it is 'normal' when the fridge is turned any other way than upright (which is why you see the signs all over the boxes they come packaged in...THIS WAY UP), it is imperative to give the fridge 24-48 hrs for the oil to drain back into the reservoir. Oil is not compressable and if the oil is in places where it shouldn't be when the motor starts, it will try to compress the oil which isn't compressable and damage the compressor as a result. This information is actually in the instruction book.
Waz alerted the staff to this point beause if the fridge then has any problems in the short term, the warranty may be void. We hope this information was relayed to the owners.
A quick squizz in the book shop after finishing our lattes, and I found a couple of excellent school texts for French Language. It isnt like we dont already have a dozen (or more) texts on the subject, but I really liked these and I have to say they helped me out immediately on our return to France.
Onwards to the DART train station. Purchased our tickets from the man after trying in vain to use the machine, and descended to the platform, waiting only about 4 mins until the train turned up.
We laughed about the advertising that said it was a pleasant ride around the coast with lovely views. IF you could see over the walls on both sides of the track it might be, lol.
We hopped off at the 3rd stop and exited the station which looked like it was in the middle of a residential suburb. Well, it was. No indication of where the village itself is, but we thought it was probably downhill towards the sea. Correct!
Quaint town with lovely items in windows, but most of the stores were closed. Apparently they open at noon and close around 7pm. Good enough. It was 11.30am.
We stopped off along the main street to enter a Castle. Just a small one, but they had a lovely craft shop at the entry, and it was pouring down outside, right now. I found a lovely waxed fabric rain hat with wide brim and a cute velvet rose on the crown. Loved it and bought it! It reminded me of the Oil Skin jackets we had as kids.
Yes, it was now noon.
The main street of Dalkey.
The second castle just down the road from the first
Goodness this photo makes me look short, lol. It's the hat you are supposed to be admiring!
We didnt pay for a tour of the castle and we spied another just down the road some way. Apparently these were used as storage for ill gotten goods. Because Dalkey has a nice deep harbor, this was the place in Viking times for the offloading of Slaves and the parking of 'stores' before they were either shipped out or sold locally .
Downwards now..
Pretty homes with gardens and nice lawns line the streets. We walked through the town/shops and out the other side, determined to find the ocean. Gated communities along the way with 6-8 lovely and large homes, probably with a view, which we couldn't see yet. Some modern or contemporary architecture, which was nice to see.
We stopped when we came to Bulloch Castle. Yet another one, this time with a lovely view of Bulloch Bay, the little walled bay at the bottom of the road, and where we were headed.
The sky was pregnant with dark grey clouds, but the rain held off for the most part.
Bulloch Castle was on private property, but...
We walked down to the sea wall, enjoying the smell of the salt laden air, and of course the boats in the small harbor.
Enough of that, and it was lunch time! A slightly shorter walk uphill all the way, admiring the lovely stone houses, the gorgeous large ones with their stunning views in enclosed gardens with lovely plants and trees. We imagined it was lovely on a fine day.
Finally back on the main road with all it's cafes. We returned to one we had seen on the way downhill. Their selection of food was wonderful. We lined up with the others in the small space and were promptly served. I chose a selection of salads...joy! and Waz chose the cream of mushroom soup with some of that wonderful grainy bread we were so enjoying, taking our food upstairs with us inside what was once a row house.We have generally enjoyed the choices of food here in France, which are more akin to the kinds of food you would find in NZ, perhaps with a bit more imagination in some places.
Country Bake. Check it out if you are in this neck of the woods!
Over lunch I think we just hit the wall. Truly more than time to return home.
We relaxed in the café read a newspaper and then slowly made our way back up the rest of the hill to the DART station. We had to get off in Dun Laoghaire again, and catch the bus home from there. We did think to see what movies were playing, so took off in the direction of the cinema. Nothing took our fancy so we walked further down the hill, deciding to catch the bus when we had had enough walking. This is a good time to shop at the sales, some of which are 70% off. Mothers with kids shopping for back to school clothes, everywhere.
Finally, and by now it was 4pm, we needed a drink and sit down. Finding a bread bakery type place with a voluminous seating area we ducked in there and ordered the necessary tea for two and a small pick-me-up. The breads on display were the kind you would want to pick the middle out of on the way home, leaving a hollowed out crust...we were never allowed to do that as kids, but it sure was tempting. The fluffy bit at the end where the two halves of the loaf were separated...know the kind?
We picked our way through another newspaper, enjoying just sitting quietly with our tea before heading back to the Hotel.
Waz needed a nap. I needed to hit the French Language books.
We couldn't even think about dinner we are so bored with eating out.
Home tomorrow morning.
On our return to the Hotel we walked down the road to the next gas station, not the next door one. This place had a large seating area and their yoghurt was half the price of our neighors! crikey! We were having a look-see for our last morning in Dublin. We decided this place would be good for breakfast, and indeed, having packed ourselves up, done a last minute check of our surroundings and handed our keys into reception, this is where we parked ourselves for our breakfast. Yoghurt and a banana and the last of the muesli I had brought with us, and we enjoyed 45 mins of rest before heading back to the bus stop outside the hotel.
Waz had done his homework online last night, and found that the Airport Bus runs every hour, on a Saturday and from this area. However, we were only at the bus stop for 5 mins before the airporter arrived 15 mins ahead of what we thought was our schedule. Good thing we walked back early!
We travelled light with carry-on luggage which was a blessing. Security did their usual thing and wanded me, and we almost had to strip everything off as we went though their procedure.
The bus trip through the Docks of Dublin was interesting and we saw one of the cruise ships in dock and a large square rigger up the river. Interesting bridges, lots of flowers still in full bloom and plenty of people out running, biking et al on this Saturday morning.
We arrived home in Bordeaux 1 hr and 40 mins after taking off from Dublin airport. 3pm, and we found our car in the long term parking, exited, were grateful for being back on the right side of the road and made our way out into the city traffic. IF ONLY WE HAD KNOWN!!!!
It took us an hour to negotiate the horrendous traffic on the ring road around the city of Bordeaux. We would normally have been home by now. Then it took us another hour of creeping along at no more than 20kphto get to Barbezieux where we needed to get some basic groceries to last us the rest of the weekend.
We arrived at the supermarket with half an hour to do our shopping before they closed at 7pm.
Exhausted when we arrived home, we ate a very basic meal before retiring early, having opened mail et al.
Lovely to be home, blue skies and no noise, crowds or trash everywhere.
Next time we will hire a car and visit the rest of Ireland. Yes, we will return. We will seek the wild coast line and the small villages in the off-season, however.
It's 14C this morning, so it's cool.
We dressed in long sleeves and trousers, and off I went downstairs first thing, for our morning yoghurt, as I have done these previous mornings, and this time I had to buy a banana. We leave for home tomorrow, so we haven't bought any more fruit at the supermarket.
It was drizzling when I went outside, and of course we would need our raincoats and brollies today. With my head in the clouds, I was almost run over by a cyclist turning the corner into the small side road I was crossing, on the return journey. Of course I had forgotten in that moment that they drive on the NZ side of the road in Ireland...the left! I was lucky it was a cycle and not a truck!
What to do today? Not wanting to walk around the Botanical Gardens in the rain and under cover of a brolly, we decided to go out to Dalkey, the next point south from Dun Laoghaire. No buses would take us directly there but we could catch the DART. So, we caught the bus to Dun Laoghaire, getting off in the middle of town per usual. We do like this town.
Directly below where we alighted there is a large book shop with a Costa Coffee shop on the first floor. Perfect. We had time to kill, as it were, so went upstairs for this purpose. It was 10am.
We could sit at the window and watch the goings on below.
We sat down beside some folks with funny accents...oops! They must be Kiwis!! Yes, but they had jumped ship, most of them and were living in Aussie. They were 'doing' Ireland in a rental car. One bloke and three women, all related. How does that work, lol. We chatted for a while, then they left do travel across the Island to the west coast. We were jealous, but hadn't budgeted for a vehicle this time around.
The café was in receipt of a new under counter fridge for their milk. We watched as they took the old one out sideways because of the small space. The new fridge was installed, after tipping it on it's side, and immediately plugged in and turned on. WRONG! The man installing it was around our age or older. Strictly speaking, he should have known better. He did eventually read the instructions, and we understand they needed the fridge for the milk, BUT...A compressor is a motor. It contains a certain number of moving parts requiring oil as a lubricant. There is a reservoir of oil in the compressor and it is 'normal' when the fridge is turned any other way than upright (which is why you see the signs all over the boxes they come packaged in...THIS WAY UP), it is imperative to give the fridge 24-48 hrs for the oil to drain back into the reservoir. Oil is not compressable and if the oil is in places where it shouldn't be when the motor starts, it will try to compress the oil which isn't compressable and damage the compressor as a result. This information is actually in the instruction book.
Waz alerted the staff to this point beause if the fridge then has any problems in the short term, the warranty may be void. We hope this information was relayed to the owners.
A quick squizz in the book shop after finishing our lattes, and I found a couple of excellent school texts for French Language. It isnt like we dont already have a dozen (or more) texts on the subject, but I really liked these and I have to say they helped me out immediately on our return to France.
Onwards to the DART train station. Purchased our tickets from the man after trying in vain to use the machine, and descended to the platform, waiting only about 4 mins until the train turned up.
We laughed about the advertising that said it was a pleasant ride around the coast with lovely views. IF you could see over the walls on both sides of the track it might be, lol.
We hopped off at the 3rd stop and exited the station which looked like it was in the middle of a residential suburb. Well, it was. No indication of where the village itself is, but we thought it was probably downhill towards the sea. Correct!
We stopped off along the main street to enter a Castle. Just a small one, but they had a lovely craft shop at the entry, and it was pouring down outside, right now. I found a lovely waxed fabric rain hat with wide brim and a cute velvet rose on the crown. Loved it and bought it! It reminded me of the Oil Skin jackets we had as kids.
Goodness this photo makes me look short, lol. It's the hat you are supposed to be admiring!
We didnt pay for a tour of the castle and we spied another just down the road some way. Apparently these were used as storage for ill gotten goods. Because Dalkey has a nice deep harbor, this was the place in Viking times for the offloading of Slaves and the parking of 'stores' before they were either shipped out or sold locally .
Downwards now..
Pretty homes with gardens and nice lawns line the streets. We walked through the town/shops and out the other side, determined to find the ocean. Gated communities along the way with 6-8 lovely and large homes, probably with a view, which we couldn't see yet. Some modern or contemporary architecture, which was nice to see.
We stopped when we came to Bulloch Castle. Yet another one, this time with a lovely view of Bulloch Bay, the little walled bay at the bottom of the road, and where we were headed.
The sky was pregnant with dark grey clouds, but the rain held off for the most part.
We walked down to the sea wall, enjoying the smell of the salt laden air, and of course the boats in the small harbor.
Enough of that, and it was lunch time! A slightly shorter walk uphill all the way, admiring the lovely stone houses, the gorgeous large ones with their stunning views in enclosed gardens with lovely plants and trees. We imagined it was lovely on a fine day.
Finally back on the main road with all it's cafes. We returned to one we had seen on the way downhill. Their selection of food was wonderful. We lined up with the others in the small space and were promptly served. I chose a selection of salads...joy! and Waz chose the cream of mushroom soup with some of that wonderful grainy bread we were so enjoying, taking our food upstairs with us inside what was once a row house.We have generally enjoyed the choices of food here in France, which are more akin to the kinds of food you would find in NZ, perhaps with a bit more imagination in some places.
Country Bake. Check it out if you are in this neck of the woods!
Over lunch I think we just hit the wall. Truly more than time to return home.
We relaxed in the café read a newspaper and then slowly made our way back up the rest of the hill to the DART station. We had to get off in Dun Laoghaire again, and catch the bus home from there. We did think to see what movies were playing, so took off in the direction of the cinema. Nothing took our fancy so we walked further down the hill, deciding to catch the bus when we had had enough walking. This is a good time to shop at the sales, some of which are 70% off. Mothers with kids shopping for back to school clothes, everywhere.
Finally, and by now it was 4pm, we needed a drink and sit down. Finding a bread bakery type place with a voluminous seating area we ducked in there and ordered the necessary tea for two and a small pick-me-up. The breads on display were the kind you would want to pick the middle out of on the way home, leaving a hollowed out crust...we were never allowed to do that as kids, but it sure was tempting. The fluffy bit at the end where the two halves of the loaf were separated...know the kind?
We picked our way through another newspaper, enjoying just sitting quietly with our tea before heading back to the Hotel.
Waz needed a nap. I needed to hit the French Language books.
We couldn't even think about dinner we are so bored with eating out.
Home tomorrow morning.
On our return to the Hotel we walked down the road to the next gas station, not the next door one. This place had a large seating area and their yoghurt was half the price of our neighors! crikey! We were having a look-see for our last morning in Dublin. We decided this place would be good for breakfast, and indeed, having packed ourselves up, done a last minute check of our surroundings and handed our keys into reception, this is where we parked ourselves for our breakfast. Yoghurt and a banana and the last of the muesli I had brought with us, and we enjoyed 45 mins of rest before heading back to the bus stop outside the hotel.
Waz had done his homework online last night, and found that the Airport Bus runs every hour, on a Saturday and from this area. However, we were only at the bus stop for 5 mins before the airporter arrived 15 mins ahead of what we thought was our schedule. Good thing we walked back early!
We travelled light with carry-on luggage which was a blessing. Security did their usual thing and wanded me, and we almost had to strip everything off as we went though their procedure.
The bus trip through the Docks of Dublin was interesting and we saw one of the cruise ships in dock and a large square rigger up the river. Interesting bridges, lots of flowers still in full bloom and plenty of people out running, biking et al on this Saturday morning.
We arrived home in Bordeaux 1 hr and 40 mins after taking off from Dublin airport. 3pm, and we found our car in the long term parking, exited, were grateful for being back on the right side of the road and made our way out into the city traffic. IF ONLY WE HAD KNOWN!!!!
It took us an hour to negotiate the horrendous traffic on the ring road around the city of Bordeaux. We would normally have been home by now. Then it took us another hour of creeping along at no more than 20kphto get to Barbezieux where we needed to get some basic groceries to last us the rest of the weekend.
We arrived at the supermarket with half an hour to do our shopping before they closed at 7pm.
Exhausted when we arrived home, we ate a very basic meal before retiring early, having opened mail et al.
Lovely to be home, blue skies and no noise, crowds or trash everywhere.
Next time we will hire a car and visit the rest of Ireland. Yes, we will return. We will seek the wild coast line and the small villages in the off-season, however.
Sunday, 26 August 2018
7 Days in Dublin: Day 6
Thursday 16th August.
Did we sleep better in the new room? Slightly. It was still warm and we still only slept with or without the sheet, but being able to open the window more and also being out of the direct sun helped.
A trip to the gas station next door for the cold yoghurt for breakfast, and this time we were able to relax in the comfy chairs and eat at the little table. Excellent.
It was warmish outside, and it is nice to have some blue sky for a change. My creative juices have been charged, after the trip to the Art Gallery. I just want to go home, clear out my 'space' and make stuff! Cool your heals girl! You have two days to go.
We got off the bus at Merrion Square again and headed back a few doors to FUDI cafe...again. They do nice coffee, after all. It was busy and there was nowhere to sit, so we took our coffee with us as we walked through the St Georges Park again. There were food trucks setting up for the World Food Affair, and some of the smells coming from them was divine. It was 11am by now, so that made sense. I had hands full so there are no photos. We hadn't seen Hari Krishna since the 70's in Auckland, so we were somewhat amused to see their caravan selling Vegan and vegetarian foods...with the orange clad persons inside. No disrespect.
We stopped off at the War Memorial opposite the Art Gallery 'old' entry.
Inside. This is quite exceptional.
The perpetual flame is enclosed in this pyramid.
These chimney pot rows caught my eye, over the top of the Art Gallery.
The 'old' entry to the National Gallery of Ireland, opposite the park. It is an imposing building.
The 'new' entry to the National Gallery of Art. This is the way we entered last time.
Back into the Gallery to see the Italian and French Painters from the 16th century. Some fabulous portraits, and instantly recognizable in the portrait section was a Vermeer...obviously there were many Dutch masters on display too. The details of the clothing in some of the Italian paintings was truly remarkable, and one in particular took my interest. The artist was a woman. Fancy that. You could have reached out and touched the cloth, it was so real and delicate and the lace was truly out of this world. Thanks to some wealthy Irish residents for their gifts of these stunners to the National Gallery.
Our quest today was to find the Science Gallery. We had seen it on the map and on street signs. Dublin is VERY well signposted, thankfully.
It was a bit of an issue and nobody seemed to know which direction to point us in once the signposts ran out. But we had some chuckles on the way, looking into shop windows.
My favorite! Ummm…???
LOVE this tea cosy.
We walked in circles for a bit, but in the end saw a sign for the gallery, going down past Kennedy's Pub. How pretty!
Voila! As it turns out, it is part of Trinity College.
It was also next door to the Gymnasium, so it was not obvious at first what it was. There was also a large café there. The Science Gallery didnt open until 11am, we were told. Really? So why was one of the students already in there with a group?
There is a book shop at the bottom of the stairs to the gallery and so we browsed. It was indeed fortunate, in may respects, that the book I chose was one of photography, a fabulous thought provoking view of real people and how we see them...sounds a bit trite to say that, but the artist had posed soldiers in uniform, both men and women, is poses that were not upright and at attention. They were soft and sensitive, and though the subjects wore their uniforms, you were forced to see the PERSON. There were portraits of women who had been sold into sex slavery, and these photos of them were several years after their release. You had to draw your own conclusions of course, but they were stark and raw and emotional.
There were photos of Auschwitz: Signs next to the camp advertising Hot Dogs and other fast foods. The question was posed...Are we making everything into a Movie Set? Where is the dignity? Why do people visit these reminders of horrors past? What do they hope to find there? What do they want to see? Why are we 'normalizing' atrocities both past and present?
The Gallery opened at 11am. We all traipsed up the stairs to the first level. It is not a large space. Each display was attended by a young student (college) who explained what the experiments are all about. One that took my attention was of polystyrene cups with holes all over them in a covered wooden and glass container. Quite large. The student explained that Meal Worms were eating and digesting the polystuff and therefore recycling it. I asked how long it had taken for the worms to do the damage to the cups...about 6 weeks, came the answer. Therefore, one can assume they would need a gazillion meal worms to eat all the polystuff we humans trash every day! He supposed so!
Another exihibit was a video of an artist on the active lava fields of Hawaii, making moulds of Babies bottles and other every day things with the HOT Lava. Eh? His wife was the videographer.
Not only was it extremely dangerous, what he was doing, it was also completely pointless IMO. The actual Lava sculptures were in the glass case in front of us. What were we suppose to do with this information? He wasnt actually contributing anything to the world dialogue, if that was his purpose, of what to do with our recycling, which the entire thing seemed to indicate.
We were a bit pissed off by all this. There were another couple of exhibits but we passed on them. That was it folks! You mean we spent an hour trying to find the Gallery for this?
Outside in the parking lot was this fantastic Mosaic...definitely wasted in this location.
We decided to return to the National Art Gallery for lunch. You knew I was going to say that, right? :) We wanted to make it our main meal of the day.
Aretha Franklin died today. Everywhere, on TV and newsfeed, was her music. A legend!
Walk, walk, walk. Not sure where we were, but our feet were getting sore. Inside places were too hot so we chose to stay outside and in the shade where possible. Not complaining about the glorious weather mind you. A couple of brief showers, which we were told was normal for this time of year and this place (being Dublin).
We needed a pit stop and found one...the only one we had to pay for, so far, in a huge glass mall. WOW!
A walk around both ground and first floors, and we were happy to get outside in the fresh air again. It was getting hot in there!
We needed to get back to Merrion Square to catch our bus home, but we were a long way from it. More walking and we chose to walk through a lovely park. Where were the ducks? Mostly seagulls.
We love seeing so much NZ Flax everywhere.
Waz had to drag me away from the idiot people feeding all the wildlife bread...If you are going to feed the wildlife, do so NOT with human food, esp. food that isnt good for humans, like bread! ok...short rant over.
This man was stroking the swan which was happily in heaven or some other place that swans go when they are getting stroked by a human.
We finally found our bus stop and were most grateful to hop on the bus and go home. We did stop at the little park further up the road from the Hotel and have a feed of blackberries first though.
We enjoyed the red brick buildings, unusual architecture, had lots of surprises...and I almost for got...How could I???
We had been in search of a Butlers Café. Lots of small Butlers coffee and chocolate shops everywhere, but we wanted to sit and drink and eat. Wouldn't you know it, there was a Butlers directly opposite the Laduree shop (La dure aye). Well now, what a choice!!! Merde...to Butlers or Laduree?
We chose the latter. Laduree are the French brand known for their Macarons. If you have never been, shout yourself a trip to the Laduree store on the Champs Elysee. C'est superbe!
We wanted to sit somewhere civilized and have 'coffee and cake'. To do this, we were shown into the tea-room. There we ordered a long Black, or Allongee (al long zhay) to cut the sweet of whatever cake we chose. He chose his favorite, a hazelnut flavored Mille Feuille, and I chose a Saint Honoree.
We enjoyed the atmosphere and were joined by a single mother with 7 yr old son. Son ate three macarons in quick succession...blink and you would have missed it! lol. He was a sweetie, having time out with mother. He is obviously used to the high life. Mom is a Bridal wear designer and off to France for the new season's bridal wear photo shoot in Moissac, this weekend.
I was a bit peeved that the Laduree logo was made of cardboard...yes, I tried to bite it! Everywhere else they are made of chocolate. Yes, it was AS GOOD as it looks. Deevine in fact.
We sat in the atrium at the hotel for dinner, this evening. I ordered a small pizza and Waz had some more of those loaded fries with Bolognese sauce.
To walk off the meal, we went blackberry hunting again. It has become something of a habit now. Dessert never tastes better than when picked wild.
Did we sleep better in the new room? Slightly. It was still warm and we still only slept with or without the sheet, but being able to open the window more and also being out of the direct sun helped.
A trip to the gas station next door for the cold yoghurt for breakfast, and this time we were able to relax in the comfy chairs and eat at the little table. Excellent.
It was warmish outside, and it is nice to have some blue sky for a change. My creative juices have been charged, after the trip to the Art Gallery. I just want to go home, clear out my 'space' and make stuff! Cool your heals girl! You have two days to go.
We got off the bus at Merrion Square again and headed back a few doors to FUDI cafe...again. They do nice coffee, after all. It was busy and there was nowhere to sit, so we took our coffee with us as we walked through the St Georges Park again. There were food trucks setting up for the World Food Affair, and some of the smells coming from them was divine. It was 11am by now, so that made sense. I had hands full so there are no photos. We hadn't seen Hari Krishna since the 70's in Auckland, so we were somewhat amused to see their caravan selling Vegan and vegetarian foods...with the orange clad persons inside. No disrespect.
We stopped off at the War Memorial opposite the Art Gallery 'old' entry.
The 'old' entry to the National Gallery of Ireland, opposite the park. It is an imposing building.
Back into the Gallery to see the Italian and French Painters from the 16th century. Some fabulous portraits, and instantly recognizable in the portrait section was a Vermeer...obviously there were many Dutch masters on display too. The details of the clothing in some of the Italian paintings was truly remarkable, and one in particular took my interest. The artist was a woman. Fancy that. You could have reached out and touched the cloth, it was so real and delicate and the lace was truly out of this world. Thanks to some wealthy Irish residents for their gifts of these stunners to the National Gallery.
Our quest today was to find the Science Gallery. We had seen it on the map and on street signs. Dublin is VERY well signposted, thankfully.
It was a bit of an issue and nobody seemed to know which direction to point us in once the signposts ran out. But we had some chuckles on the way, looking into shop windows.
We ventured into a 'nicer' tourist shop. By nicer, I mean higher priced, but also beautiful crafts/art/china/pottery and woolen goods. Waz doesnt have a decent winter scarf to wear, so we found him a beautiful soft woolen one of those, and a woolen cheese cutter hat to match. He looked very dashing in them. Blue of course. Again, no photos because, well...we would have looked a bit tacky...this was a NICE shop, after all!
The Pope is due to visit Ireland, and he is there this weekend (a week after we arrived home), and Popemania was everywhere.
LOVE this tea cosy.
It was also next door to the Gymnasium, so it was not obvious at first what it was. There was also a large café there. The Science Gallery didnt open until 11am, we were told. Really? So why was one of the students already in there with a group?
There is a book shop at the bottom of the stairs to the gallery and so we browsed. It was indeed fortunate, in may respects, that the book I chose was one of photography, a fabulous thought provoking view of real people and how we see them...sounds a bit trite to say that, but the artist had posed soldiers in uniform, both men and women, is poses that were not upright and at attention. They were soft and sensitive, and though the subjects wore their uniforms, you were forced to see the PERSON. There were portraits of women who had been sold into sex slavery, and these photos of them were several years after their release. You had to draw your own conclusions of course, but they were stark and raw and emotional.
There were photos of Auschwitz: Signs next to the camp advertising Hot Dogs and other fast foods. The question was posed...Are we making everything into a Movie Set? Where is the dignity? Why do people visit these reminders of horrors past? What do they hope to find there? What do they want to see? Why are we 'normalizing' atrocities both past and present?
The Gallery opened at 11am. We all traipsed up the stairs to the first level. It is not a large space. Each display was attended by a young student (college) who explained what the experiments are all about. One that took my attention was of polystyrene cups with holes all over them in a covered wooden and glass container. Quite large. The student explained that Meal Worms were eating and digesting the polystuff and therefore recycling it. I asked how long it had taken for the worms to do the damage to the cups...about 6 weeks, came the answer. Therefore, one can assume they would need a gazillion meal worms to eat all the polystuff we humans trash every day! He supposed so!
Another exihibit was a video of an artist on the active lava fields of Hawaii, making moulds of Babies bottles and other every day things with the HOT Lava. Eh? His wife was the videographer.
Not only was it extremely dangerous, what he was doing, it was also completely pointless IMO. The actual Lava sculptures were in the glass case in front of us. What were we suppose to do with this information? He wasnt actually contributing anything to the world dialogue, if that was his purpose, of what to do with our recycling, which the entire thing seemed to indicate.
We were a bit pissed off by all this. There were another couple of exhibits but we passed on them. That was it folks! You mean we spent an hour trying to find the Gallery for this?
Outside in the parking lot was this fantastic Mosaic...definitely wasted in this location.
We decided to return to the National Art Gallery for lunch. You knew I was going to say that, right? :) We wanted to make it our main meal of the day.
Aretha Franklin died today. Everywhere, on TV and newsfeed, was her music. A legend!
Walk, walk, walk. Not sure where we were, but our feet were getting sore. Inside places were too hot so we chose to stay outside and in the shade where possible. Not complaining about the glorious weather mind you. A couple of brief showers, which we were told was normal for this time of year and this place (being Dublin).
We needed a pit stop and found one...the only one we had to pay for, so far, in a huge glass mall. WOW!
A walk around both ground and first floors, and we were happy to get outside in the fresh air again. It was getting hot in there!
We needed to get back to Merrion Square to catch our bus home, but we were a long way from it. More walking and we chose to walk through a lovely park. Where were the ducks? Mostly seagulls.
Waz had to drag me away from the idiot people feeding all the wildlife bread...If you are going to feed the wildlife, do so NOT with human food, esp. food that isnt good for humans, like bread! ok...short rant over.
This man was stroking the swan which was happily in heaven or some other place that swans go when they are getting stroked by a human.
We finally found our bus stop and were most grateful to hop on the bus and go home. We did stop at the little park further up the road from the Hotel and have a feed of blackberries first though.
We enjoyed the red brick buildings, unusual architecture, had lots of surprises...and I almost for got...How could I???
We had been in search of a Butlers Café. Lots of small Butlers coffee and chocolate shops everywhere, but we wanted to sit and drink and eat. Wouldn't you know it, there was a Butlers directly opposite the Laduree shop (La dure aye). Well now, what a choice!!! Merde...to Butlers or Laduree?
We chose the latter. Laduree are the French brand known for their Macarons. If you have never been, shout yourself a trip to the Laduree store on the Champs Elysee. C'est superbe!
We wanted to sit somewhere civilized and have 'coffee and cake'. To do this, we were shown into the tea-room. There we ordered a long Black, or Allongee (al long zhay) to cut the sweet of whatever cake we chose. He chose his favorite, a hazelnut flavored Mille Feuille, and I chose a Saint Honoree.
We enjoyed the atmosphere and were joined by a single mother with 7 yr old son. Son ate three macarons in quick succession...blink and you would have missed it! lol. He was a sweetie, having time out with mother. He is obviously used to the high life. Mom is a Bridal wear designer and off to France for the new season's bridal wear photo shoot in Moissac, this weekend.
We sat in the atrium at the hotel for dinner, this evening. I ordered a small pizza and Waz had some more of those loaded fries with Bolognese sauce.
To walk off the meal, we went blackberry hunting again. It has become something of a habit now. Dessert never tastes better than when picked wild.
Saturday, 25 August 2018
7 Days in Dublin: Day 5
We are now just wanting to go home to France. I know...crazy, but we really have so much we want to do at home, and we dont like vacations anyway. This is why for so many years we have house and animal sat. At least we get to enjoy some place different, have time with animals we dont have of our own and explore new places while living in one place for an extended period. It works best for us we have discovered. We HATE hotels and really try to avoid Airbnb except if we have no other option. This hotel was the ONLY option available to us when we booked and for the purpose of our stay.... It is complicated!
We have been rising late, these past few morning, and having decided, now that we had muesli, that eating our 'normal for us' breakfast in our room gave us stress free time we needed before setting out for a day in the city, we weren't about to change that. What we were about to change was....
After rising, I dressed quickly and went downstairs to the gas station next door, where we had discovered they had yoghurt in their cooler...Dont ask me why we hadn't discovered this before, but we hadn't! duh! is all we can say. Cold yoghurt with our fruit and muesli this morning was rather nice:) It would be repeated for breakfasts for the rest of our stay!
On my way past the front desk this morning, I enquired if there was another room available that was cooler, not on the road or in full sun. The receptionist took a look and found another room. We were advised to pack everything up and leave it in our room, and all our belongings would be moved to the new room after it had been serviced. We were to drop our keys off on the way out, and pick up new ones when we got home. WOW! I guess you just have to ask! And...why didnt I ask earlier? Wont go there!
Fed, dressed for the return journey into Dublin for a Museum and Gallery day, and thankful that we would return to a cooler room...we hoped.
We had seen the FUDI Café (that's a U with two dots over it, btw) on the way into town yesterday, just before the park at Merrion square. We decided to alight there for a Latte to take with us as we walked through the park. Good idea...however, we decided to just sit for a while and enjoy the lovely hot drink. The barista was very accommodating and made Waz's coffee much hotter than mine. Their choices of food looked fabulous and all the staff were engaged in cleaning when there were no customers. Impressed, I went to the bathroom. If the bathroom was clean, they would have received 10/10 from me.
Too bad it let them down. I was appalled, actually. I called one of the male staff over after I exited the room, and told him nicely that he might want to clean the bathroom. He immediately pulled on his gloves and spend a good amount of time cleaning. Waz went in afterwards and said the job was excellent! Well done. They were written up favorably on TripAdvisor as a result.
The garden/park at Merrion Square was just what we needed. A bit sore from walking all day yesterday, we strolled and enjoyed the flowers and the coolness of the morning.
The red of the large flowered begonias coupled with the deep maroon of the Castor Bean plants was interested. I wouldn't have chosen the latter, but it worked.
Bright marigolds coupled with dark maroon Coleus plants were well suited. No large flower beds, but they were all neat and tidy.
Writer, comic,actor and Satirist, Dermot Morgan was a bright light in Dublin. 1952 - 1993. He died a young man still. He lives on in this quirky chair. Thanks for the seat Dermot!
Silver Birches are a particular favorite of mine, and there are huge forests of them in France. There were plenty in this park.
There was a Giant's Playground (for kids, unfortunately) at the far end, and of course a sculpture of Oscar Wilde, who used to live just across the street from the park.
Next, and by far the standout of our entire week in Dublin...The National Gallery of Ireland. What a fabulous structure, first and foremost. We entered from the new part, and if you entered from opposite the park, you would miss this glorious entrance which had me snapping happily away. One of the volunteers at the front desk remarked that I was more interested in the architecture than the art on display, lol. She might be right, except that we were here today to look at the Irish Art. We were not disappointed!
A fabulous soaring space that blew us away.
The new building incorporates the old building that was/is on this site and you can see it in glimpses everywhere, like the bottom cutaway in this photo. That is an old brick wall behind there.
and this façade of the previous building (though it is still serving it's function) jutting into the Café on the ground floor.
This atrium is one of several in the building. The light fixture that looks like a mobile is in fact an installation by an artist. Hmm...
There was a bank of elevators for those who didnt and couldn't climb these stairs...but...
The Restaurant is houses in this back corner.
We were also not disappointed (perhaps there could have been more of them) by the exhibition of Women artists from the archives. 'Invisible' says it all and tells a much larger story. Some of the women artists were so much more and better than their male contemporaries, but as so often happened and happens, they WERE invisible, not being able to get gallery space unless they were able to assume a male identity.
their work was often multi-media incorporating the handcrafts such as embroidery, that they learned as children. Though they produced wonderful works of art, they were seen as being 'hobbyists'. Most of the women who took up art, as it were, were those from the upper classes...every other woman had to work or bring up a family or both. They didnt have time for such frivolity, and yet a male artist was seen to be an ' aesthete, sensitive'.
Beautiful and well lit galleries throughout.
We were glad we had gone to the Museum of History and Decorative Arts yesterday. It truly was a pre-amble of today's viewing. Without that knowledge of the background for some of the art, it would have been meaningless.
I guess the Gallery would have been pleased to have so many people viewing the artwork, but it was a bit stifling, to be honest. It was hard to stand and view a large work without some other person pushing their body in front of you and your view being ruined, as well as the appreciation of the art.
The rooms themselves were highly decorative and the details were beautiful and well cared for. The exhibitions were so well presented, lit and displayed in the case of sculptures.
Even the window latches were beautiful.
More about this later...
Talk about 'bowl you over with a feather', Gloria!!! WOW! What an incredible space, and what an incredible sculpture.
Everything begged to be photographed from every angle.
Looking back the way we had come into the space.
The Sculptor of the Magnus Modus.
The base. So simple and so beautiful.
The quite movement, like a static ballet, if such thing exists.
and of course the two together was just magic to my eyes....I should say the three, because the black balcony was so integral to the whole.
Back inside looking at more historic works from around the world, and eventually portraits by famous artists, but we didnt linger there as we had specifically come to view the Irish Artists and were not disappointed.
What a stunning room! and the symmetry, quite lighting, calm ambience....
Incredible interior decoration...
Of course one of the first things you see upon entry, is the café. Leading from the café and the seating area is the restaurant. We did a quick tour of the glass cabinets and decided we would come back here for a meal. It looked great!
The remoulade in the foreground was lovely...such color! and then the sandwiches to the right...hmm...choices!
WOW! How many languages can you say LEMON MERINGUE PIE in?
We were delighted to find these Victoria Sponges everywhere. They are straight out of our childhoods and we were sorely tempted...but...
After the hard work of viewing art, we stopped for our lunch as we had promised ourselves. The soup (mushroom for me and Veg for him) served with door stopper sized slabs of fabulous grain bread, was delicious. We were so glad to sit for a while. This looked to be a favorite place for many business people too.
Wait until you see the inside!
Details...the front door invited us in and to look more carefully around us.
This is just the reception area!
into the interior gallery where the GOLD was.
Also many other artifacts, many of which have been found in or near Bogs.
yes, this wheel was made some time in 400BC...that's BC!
The musical instruments were well fashioned and with excellent ornamentation that you would think were made some time in the 1500ADs.WRONG!
Stunning mosaic floors!
The gold! Gosh, where to start on this subject. Starting with the simple twist, these became more sophisticated over time, of course. However, the tools required to make the twisted (some tightly twisted) gold hoops would have required much thought and skill to make.
To hammer the sheets of gold as thin as paper in some cases, took great skill. They were hammered over metal and wooden dollies.
The intricacy of this former wrist band blows the mind. They were all made some time in 700-800 BC.
Late Bronze Age. That gold must have been cumbersome to wear.
This unfinished Dugout canoe was built around 2500BC. Apparently it was the preferred method of transport in Ireland in the old days...old, old, days!
And now we come to the Bog Mummies.
Rather than being pure curiosities, they were ...let me think about this some more while I cook dinner...
To be honest, Im having a hard time describing how I feel about these being on display. They aren't simply skeletons with leather-like skin attached where you can still see the finger prints and hair on their heads. These were live people. These were ritually sacrificed people. They show all the signs of having been deliberately killed, and this is well documented in the blubs on display.
These bodies were someone's child, their parent perhaps? They were of different ages, we know that, but they were not dead of natural causes. These facts are without a doubt, according to the Museum.
Someone was digging up the Peat in the Bogs for fires and came across the skeletons in different places. When they were found, the bodies were intact. Their features were still there and they looked like normal people other than the tanins in the water had stained their skins brown.
The lighting is low, hence the poor quality photos, and no flash allowed, of course. The mood is somber, but most people pass quickly by. Some sit on the provided seats and contemplate at a deeper level, (I hope) the spectacle before our eyes.
Should they be shown thus? Unadorned saved for a quick explanation? I guess some folks dont want to read huge amounts of information when they pass through these exhibits, but some of us do.
Bogs are amazing places ecologically. They cover 17% of the landmass of Ireland. Think about that! 17%. No small number, that. Only Finland and Canada boast more. And, did you know that Florida has bogs? Yes, they do, but they dont preserve things the way the colder climes do.
So, when we think of peat bogs, we inevitably think of Ireland, dont we? Bogs are majorly made up of sphagnum moss, but they also include other plant matter. In order to preserve the bodies, there had to be anaerobic conditions. No Oxygen. It also had to be an acidic environment. Think normal pickling ingredients! It also had to be cold. Warmth (like Florida) would speed up the decay of the victims.
Of the 4,000 yr old bodies found, the most famous are known as Cashel Man, who was discovered near Portlaoise in 2011, and he is said to be the oldest European Bog Body ever found with skin intact. Old Groghan Man was from County Offaly, and Clonycavan Man was from Country Meath.
The exhibition also features Gallagh Man from Country Galway, and Baronstown west Man from Country Kildare.
The stark nature of the presentation is somewhat appropriate given that they were victims of sacrifice. Any kind of adornment might have been at odds with this fact.
The upper torso looks relatively relaxed, down to the posture of the fingers and hands.
How incredible that this 'mummy' could be 4 thousand years old. the leather-like skin looks more than a shell, which it probably is. We know from the explanations, that the bodies dehydrated rapidly upon seeing the light of day again, all this time later.
This is what they think the person looked like, after a careful study of his bone structure and skull, and the hair that he was found with, as described above.
A map showing where each of the bodies was found.
In a somber mood we left the Museum. It was getting on for closing time and we wanted to share a piece of lemon Meringue Pie from the Art Gallery, if there was any left. Waz had a theory about it... The pie had not been broken into. Nobody else had ordered a piece and we would be the first. We were hoping it would be a good size, considering it was 5, 50 euros for the piece. He said that once people could see what the inside looked like, they would buy a slice. I think he is right, because when we returned the next day, another couple of slices had been sold and we could clearly see the inside:)
On our way back to the Art gallery for afternoon tea (coffee, in this case) we passed the Royal College of Physicians. As you can see, it was founded in 1654. I was curious to see what the inside of the building looked like, so I went and poked my nose in! Lovely!
I wasnt brave enough to go any further and I was being summoned!
I did take the time to notice these little scenes at the bottom of the pillars out front. A bit of fun, dont you think?
a couple of monkeys playing pool or billiards.
Our peep of the sea. Plenty to see there, thanks.
Waz had a lager and I enjoyed a Shandy with our meal. He ordered the slow cooked pork belly with veg which was delicious and easily fell apart, and I ordered the scampy and salad and another starter of duck spring rolls with a salad. Delicious!
We chatted for ages with a young Indian South African couple from Johannesburg who had literally just flown in to Dublin. What a delight they were. They were in town for one more day, taking an 8 hr bus tour, then off to Paris, Amsterdam and Switzerland and some other place for a total of 12 days of their vacation.
We strolled home with nicely full bellies and enjoyed an ice cream from the gas station before heading back to our rooms. I finished reading my Anthony Bourdain book, Kitchen Confidential.
It was warm in the room and despite our best efforts to cool it off, we again slept outside the sheets.
We have been rising late, these past few morning, and having decided, now that we had muesli, that eating our 'normal for us' breakfast in our room gave us stress free time we needed before setting out for a day in the city, we weren't about to change that. What we were about to change was....
After rising, I dressed quickly and went downstairs to the gas station next door, where we had discovered they had yoghurt in their cooler...Dont ask me why we hadn't discovered this before, but we hadn't! duh! is all we can say. Cold yoghurt with our fruit and muesli this morning was rather nice:) It would be repeated for breakfasts for the rest of our stay!
On my way past the front desk this morning, I enquired if there was another room available that was cooler, not on the road or in full sun. The receptionist took a look and found another room. We were advised to pack everything up and leave it in our room, and all our belongings would be moved to the new room after it had been serviced. We were to drop our keys off on the way out, and pick up new ones when we got home. WOW! I guess you just have to ask! And...why didnt I ask earlier? Wont go there!
Fed, dressed for the return journey into Dublin for a Museum and Gallery day, and thankful that we would return to a cooler room...we hoped.
We had seen the FUDI Café (that's a U with two dots over it, btw) on the way into town yesterday, just before the park at Merrion square. We decided to alight there for a Latte to take with us as we walked through the park. Good idea...however, we decided to just sit for a while and enjoy the lovely hot drink. The barista was very accommodating and made Waz's coffee much hotter than mine. Their choices of food looked fabulous and all the staff were engaged in cleaning when there were no customers. Impressed, I went to the bathroom. If the bathroom was clean, they would have received 10/10 from me.
Too bad it let them down. I was appalled, actually. I called one of the male staff over after I exited the room, and told him nicely that he might want to clean the bathroom. He immediately pulled on his gloves and spend a good amount of time cleaning. Waz went in afterwards and said the job was excellent! Well done. They were written up favorably on TripAdvisor as a result.
The garden/park at Merrion Square was just what we needed. A bit sore from walking all day yesterday, we strolled and enjoyed the flowers and the coolness of the morning.
The red of the large flowered begonias coupled with the deep maroon of the Castor Bean plants was interested. I wouldn't have chosen the latter, but it worked.
Next, and by far the standout of our entire week in Dublin...The National Gallery of Ireland. What a fabulous structure, first and foremost. We entered from the new part, and if you entered from opposite the park, you would miss this glorious entrance which had me snapping happily away. One of the volunteers at the front desk remarked that I was more interested in the architecture than the art on display, lol. She might be right, except that we were here today to look at the Irish Art. We were not disappointed!
We were also not disappointed (perhaps there could have been more of them) by the exhibition of Women artists from the archives. 'Invisible' says it all and tells a much larger story. Some of the women artists were so much more and better than their male contemporaries, but as so often happened and happens, they WERE invisible, not being able to get gallery space unless they were able to assume a male identity.
We were glad we had gone to the Museum of History and Decorative Arts yesterday. It truly was a pre-amble of today's viewing. Without that knowledge of the background for some of the art, it would have been meaningless.
I guess the Gallery would have been pleased to have so many people viewing the artwork, but it was a bit stifling, to be honest. It was hard to stand and view a large work without some other person pushing their body in front of you and your view being ruined, as well as the appreciation of the art.
The rooms themselves were highly decorative and the details were beautiful and well cared for. The exhibitions were so well presented, lit and displayed in the case of sculptures.
What a stunning room! and the symmetry, quite lighting, calm ambience....
Of course one of the first things you see upon entry, is the café. Leading from the café and the seating area is the restaurant. We did a quick tour of the glass cabinets and decided we would come back here for a meal. It looked great!
The remoulade in the foreground was lovely...such color! and then the sandwiches to the right...hmm...choices!
After the hard work of viewing art, we stopped for our lunch as we had promised ourselves. The soup (mushroom for me and Veg for him) served with door stopper sized slabs of fabulous grain bread, was delicious. We were so glad to sit for a while. This looked to be a favorite place for many business people too.
Next up was the National Museum of Archeology. We wanted to see the ancient gold and the Bog Mummies. Neither disappointed, though the galleries there were really busy and full of people. It was difficult (again) to stand and look for any length of time without feeling pushed aside and rushed.
When we view the jewelry and other artifacts from centuries ago, we wonder why we think we are so darned fancy and sophisticated. The skilled work is breathtaking in so many respects.
yes, this wheel was made some time in 400BC...that's BC!
The entry portal into the Kingship and Sacrifice was these ceramic cherubs with the Coat of Arms of Ireland between them.
This unfinished Dugout canoe was built around 2500BC. Apparently it was the preferred method of transport in Ireland in the old days...old, old, days!
Rather than being pure curiosities, they were ...let me think about this some more while I cook dinner...
To be honest, Im having a hard time describing how I feel about these being on display. They aren't simply skeletons with leather-like skin attached where you can still see the finger prints and hair on their heads. These were live people. These were ritually sacrificed people. They show all the signs of having been deliberately killed, and this is well documented in the blubs on display.
These bodies were someone's child, their parent perhaps? They were of different ages, we know that, but they were not dead of natural causes. These facts are without a doubt, according to the Museum.
Someone was digging up the Peat in the Bogs for fires and came across the skeletons in different places. When they were found, the bodies were intact. Their features were still there and they looked like normal people other than the tanins in the water had stained their skins brown.
The lighting is low, hence the poor quality photos, and no flash allowed, of course. The mood is somber, but most people pass quickly by. Some sit on the provided seats and contemplate at a deeper level, (I hope) the spectacle before our eyes.
Should they be shown thus? Unadorned saved for a quick explanation? I guess some folks dont want to read huge amounts of information when they pass through these exhibits, but some of us do.
Bogs are amazing places ecologically. They cover 17% of the landmass of Ireland. Think about that! 17%. No small number, that. Only Finland and Canada boast more. And, did you know that Florida has bogs? Yes, they do, but they dont preserve things the way the colder climes do.
So, when we think of peat bogs, we inevitably think of Ireland, dont we? Bogs are majorly made up of sphagnum moss, but they also include other plant matter. In order to preserve the bodies, there had to be anaerobic conditions. No Oxygen. It also had to be an acidic environment. Think normal pickling ingredients! It also had to be cold. Warmth (like Florida) would speed up the decay of the victims.
Of the 4,000 yr old bodies found, the most famous are known as Cashel Man, who was discovered near Portlaoise in 2011, and he is said to be the oldest European Bog Body ever found with skin intact. Old Groghan Man was from County Offaly, and Clonycavan Man was from Country Meath.
The exhibition also features Gallagh Man from Country Galway, and Baronstown west Man from Country Kildare.
In a somber mood we left the Museum. It was getting on for closing time and we wanted to share a piece of lemon Meringue Pie from the Art Gallery, if there was any left. Waz had a theory about it... The pie had not been broken into. Nobody else had ordered a piece and we would be the first. We were hoping it would be a good size, considering it was 5, 50 euros for the piece. He said that once people could see what the inside looked like, they would buy a slice. I think he is right, because when we returned the next day, another couple of slices had been sold and we could clearly see the inside:)
On our way back to the Art gallery for afternoon tea (coffee, in this case) we passed the Royal College of Physicians. As you can see, it was founded in 1654. I was curious to see what the inside of the building looked like, so I went and poked my nose in! Lovely!
I did take the time to notice these little scenes at the bottom of the pillars out front. A bit of fun, dont you think?
We were happy to rest our sore feet and to take our heavy cross-body bags off. Our shoulders ached, and Waz's back was sore from his bed being less than admirable.
We sat and looked at each other and agreed that it was time to return to the hotel and find out what our new room looked like.
Merde! It was raining when we exited the gallery, and we crossed the road when there was a lull and only drizzle, to the bus stop 100 yards on the opposite side of the road. We wouldn't melt but we were tired and trying to dry clothes in an hotel room is never fun.
On the journey home on the bus we discussed how most of the staff we find everywhere are of EU nationalities, but rare to hear an Irish accent amongst them. So many students in this city.
On our return we were gifted the keys to the new room, quite a hike down a long passage. We were hopeful that things would be different. They were and they weren't.
First up, it was a much larger room with a real sitting area, for which we were enormously grateful. The bathroom was larger too, but the shower rose came from mid-back and we were unable to raise it any higher. Still shaking our heads over that one, lol.
We had a lovely green outlook and while it wasnt as hot, it was still warmer than we would have liked. The window in this room opened a good deal wider than the previous which was nice, and we still had a small view of the sea without the sun and the traffic noise. There is an ancient cemetery just below us across from the parking lot...speaking of which...single paned windows really let the sound in and tall buildings carry voices! Those in the parking lot late at night need to pipe down!
We walked down the road to the Old Punchbowl Pub, (the yellow pub I showed you a couple of days ago) for dinner. The sky had somewhat cleared, but we took our umbrellas and rain coats just in case.
What joy it was to receive our food on plates so hot that we couldn't touch them. They had come from the kitchen downstairs via a dumb waiter too!Waz had a lager and I enjoyed a Shandy with our meal. He ordered the slow cooked pork belly with veg which was delicious and easily fell apart, and I ordered the scampy and salad and another starter of duck spring rolls with a salad. Delicious!
We chatted for ages with a young Indian South African couple from Johannesburg who had literally just flown in to Dublin. What a delight they were. They were in town for one more day, taking an 8 hr bus tour, then off to Paris, Amsterdam and Switzerland and some other place for a total of 12 days of their vacation.
We strolled home with nicely full bellies and enjoyed an ice cream from the gas station before heading back to our rooms. I finished reading my Anthony Bourdain book, Kitchen Confidential.
It was warm in the room and despite our best efforts to cool it off, we again slept outside the sheets.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)