We managed to have everyone ready and out of the house by 7:00 AM! Thankfully, we arrived at the airport a little over two hours before our flight because we were greeted by the longest security line I have EVER seen! We made the best of it, and I was a little more thankful than the others as it gave me time to finish my Starbucks drink which I purchased before thinking clearly that they would make me dump it out at security!
After a smooth and uneventful flight, we arrived in Dublin around 11:00 am. We could not have been welcomed into Dublin with a more beautiful day - crystal clear blue skies and mild temps.
We quickly hopped in the cab and headed to our downtown hotel. The cab had us entertained from the beginning as he talked about his "real work" as an undertaker, then his discourse on women's fashion and how silly ladies are for walking around the city in high heals. Finally, what put it over the top was after he had been coughing for a few minnutes and he said, "Jason (yes, he kept calling Jason by his first name), can you open that glove box and hand me that bottle of medicine?" So, Jason proceeds to open the box, hand him a bottle of "medicine", which the driver took a quick swig and literally threw the bottle back in the box. Let's just say, we were all four wide eyed and desperately trying to hold in our laughter as it was pretty obvious that this "medicine" did not come from any pharmacy!
After dropping our bags at the hotel, we lost no time in setting out to explore the city. We started our walk through the city on Grafton Street, grabbed a take away sandwich and drink and headed straight for Trinity College.
We strolled around the courtyard that traces it's beginnings back over 400 years. We were also able to view the Book of Kells. It is an illuminated manuscript of the 4 gospels of the Bible. It was created by monks ~800 AD. It is incomprehensible to think we were looking at pages that were written over 1,200 years ago!
Near Dublin Castle, we were able to visit Chester Beaty Library which houses an extensive collection of ancient manuscripts. Among these manuscripts are the Chester Beaty Papyri, which are a collection of 11 Biblical fragments dating back to the 4th century AD. Late in the afternoon, we made a bit of a hike to the western part of the city to tour the Guiness Storehouse. One of the original production buildings for Guiness has now been turned into a museum of sorts. You are about to tour the building, along the way learning about the beer-making process and gain a full understanding why Guiness is the best beer around - from a non-biased perspecitve, of course!
They left much of the original steel structure and added a lot of modern elements. Finally, after taking the journey up 6 floors, you are rewarded with your complimentary pint of Guiness and...
a bird's eye view of Dublin from their 360 degree bar.
Seeing that we missed St. Patrick's Day in Dublin by only a week, I thought this sign in the storehouse was appropriate.I think we were all showing our age a bit after touring the Guiness Factory, as we unanimously agreed to head back to the hotel for a quick one hour power nap to recharge for our evening in the Temple Bar area!
Feeling refreshed and ready to experience all things Celtic, we headed out to find a place for dinner, preferably with live music and great atmosphere!We landed in a place that seemed ideal. Although, the service left quite a bit to be desired, the food was good and we caught some live music in the bar area after we finished dinner.
Saturday we booked a tour of the Irish country side. Jason and I are not usually "tour bus people", but given our short time in Ireland and the fact that neither of us were jumping at the chance to drive on the "wrong" side of the road, we thought a coach bus would be the easiest and most relaxing way to see some of the scenery.
Our drive took us through the Wicklow Mountains, which reminded me quite a bit of North Carolina with the tree covered slow rolling hills.
Once in the mountains, the tour stopped at the Glendalough Monastic site which was founded in the 6th century and remained active until 1398 when it was destroyed by British troops.
This is a view of the remains of the main building in the monestary where only the monks would have been allowed.
These photos show the surrounding grave sites.
I was able to catch this quick video on our tour. If you turn the volume up, you can faintly hear bagpipes that played a few times while we were at the monestary.
After Glendelough, we made a lunch stop in the small town of Kilkenny.
It was a quaint Irish town with lots of character, plenty of folk lore shared by our tour guide and even it's own castle.
One benefit of taking a tour bus, is that we were all able to take a quick nap on the way back to Dublin and charge up for our last night of city life without all 7 children combined between our two families!
We had been so pleased with our dinner the night before, that we were just looking for a place to grab a quick bite and talk for a while. However, we managed to snag a table at the PERFECT restaurant with reasonably priced food, great atmosphere and live music that started relatively early. Jason was able to take a short recording if you'd like to hear a taste of the live entertainment.
As we had daylight savings time greeting us at 2:00 am on Sunday morning, we tried to pull ourselves away from downtown at a decent hour. The Winn's were headed back to the North Carolina at noon on Sunday from Dublin's airport, and Jason and I were headed back to Brussels.
I cannot begin to express how grateful we are to have shared a small piece of our new lives with such dear friends. It is a rare thing to find two families where both husbands and wives get along easily. We spent a little over 10 days with our friends without a moment of tension between us. Quite the opposite, Jason and I were refreshed, encouraged and so sad to see them leave!
On that note, I will finish this post with an Irish Blessing sent out to our dear friends, Andy and Elisa, and all others who frequent this blog:
May the friendships you make,
Be those which endure,
And all of your grey clouds
Be small ones for sure.
And trusting in Him
To Whom we all pray,
May a song fill your heart,
Every step of the way.
3 comments:
Awwwwwwwww! That was a great post and we both loved it! We miss you, too and had such a wonderful time there....can't wait to see you all in July! That Irish blessing was so neat. We're blessed to have friends like the Burgins!
Wow! Great pics!!! What a great trip!!!
I love traveling & touring "with you"!!! Just makes me feel like I'm there & getting to see all these wonderful places + learning about the people and places.
Sounds like you had a wonderful time with your friends, & how special it is to have friends with whom you all get along.
Great memories!
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