Aha, someone is still reading this, excellent!!! ( I will post a short-and-sweet version in a bit, and link the two).

Yes, Dublin's one-way street system gave us many headaches!

The room directly across from ours was in the process of being painted, as we saw a guy doing so several days, on his ladder. Never saw us, as far as I know.

Here's the next part:

Thursday, July 6th: In Dublin’s Fair City…

K and I didn’t get any great sleep, though T slept fine (she’s the one that likes sleeping with city noises). Breakfast was OK, though the service was a little curt. The white pudding was a strange hybrid of sausage and pudding – I only had one bite.

We found a parking lot near a bus stop, and we went to the nearest Hop-on/Hop-off Bus Tour (the beige/yellow bus has live commentary, not the red one which has tapes). The guy selling tickets for the bus was very nice, chatty and helpful, with a bit of a stutter. The first tour guide was great, and as several elderly ladies were disembarking, he proposed to one of them as she giggled.

We took the tour around, seeing Christchurch, Guinness, Phoenix Park, all the usual suspects. We took one whole run around, noting the places we wanted to take more time at. Our first stop was Christchurch and Dublinia. I know Dublinia has a cheesy reputation, but I’m very interested in historical re-enactments, so this was fascinating to me. The realism in the dioramas and the examples of medieval and Viking life were well done, in my opinion. Dublinia and the Church were E5 and E2 respectively, and were not covered by OPW. Christchurch was beautiful, and the newly renovated crypt area fascinating. The church carvings and decorations were particularly breathtaking. However, I didn’t get the same reverence we had seen in St. Mary’s Cathedral in Kilkenny – it was much more commercial and crowded. Perhaps the gift shop INSIDE the church helped with that impression, you think?

We went to lunch across the street at the Bull & Castle Pub. Getting there we passed a lovely man who fumbled with his fly for a bit, then peed on the church fence as we passed. Delightful! A native performing his traditional acts.

T had the deep fried Mars bar for lunch, while K had the bacon & leek quiche, and I had the chicken and camembert panini. It wasn’t nearly as good as the one I had at Marble City, but it wasn’t terrible either. K had some Kopparberg Cider, which turned out to be almost white and incredibly delicious!

We went off to the Dublin Zoo, but discovered it was already 4pm and it closed at 5pm. We decided that T, who wanted to attend it particularly (she loves animals) would come tomorrow while K and I went to the National Stud and Japanese Gardens. Instead, tonight we headed for the Jameson Distillery, something else T really wanted to see.

When we got to the Distillery, it looked like we were one of the last (if not the last) tours to go through. Our tour guide, a nice redhead lad named Christopher (with a pentacle on his belt-buckle) was very funny, and gave a great tour. T volunteered to be one of the taste-testers at the beginning of the tour (there can be only four). The tour was through some very warm rooms, but it was rather fascinating. IMHO, it was more informative than the self-tour you get through Guinness, which I had gone through in 2002.

The taste testing was at the end, where each participant was asked to taste four drinks – two types of Jameson, Johnny Walker and Jack Daniels. Of course, as long as you say Jameson was your favorite, you get a certificate as an official taste-tester for the Distillery. Everyone got a shot of whiskey, but I’m really not a fan of the hard stuff unless mixed with hopelessly sweet things (like punch). They did offer some mixers, such as coke or juice.

We got back to the bus stop, and got off near O’Connell Street for some shopping. We actually went off the street to LUSH, which K had never encountered before, and I told her she would love it. I think she spent an hour in there, and emerged with far too much – as did I. T discovered that it was a great spot for people watching, as the perfumes in the place were much too strong for her (I sympathize, as I had to leave a couple times myself). It was very busy and crowded, sort of like being in Disneyworld on Labor Day weekend.

We wandered through a book store, as K was looking for a gift for her nephew – a primer in Irish. We noticed a very poorly stocked scifi/fantasy section, and then finally wandered back across the bridge. We found our car park with some help from T’s sense of direction, paid our daily fee (E25!) and took a scenic route back to our B&B (via St. Patrick’s Cathedral). We parked and went up to our room to regroup and get ready for dinner. We tried next door at Trinity Pub, but they were not serving food, despite the chalk board full of menu (that was for lunch). So we hustled back to O’Neill’s in time for getting our orders in before that kitchen closed. C had the pepper steak, K had the pepper burger, while T had a regular burger. The steak was great, as it didn’t have to be burned to a hockey puck. The burgers were, well, charred at well done as they are evidently required to be by law.

We went up to our room for a relatively early night, as I was exhausted from last night’s lack of sleep. We read a little, it was much cooler out, and I slept much better than the night before. Yay!

Friday, July 7th: Ancient Burials and Tourists everywhere!

We got off on an early start this morning, as we were headed towards the north and ancient burial sites. Many of the places we were planning on visiting I had been to before, but 10 years before. I was especially interested on the differences to the Hill of Tara, which I know will shortly undergo a change as the surrounding roads are widened.

We found the N1 with only a few errors, and took the M50 to the N3, north to our first stop, the Hill of Tara. We made it there around 10am, and went up to the hill before anyone else was there. It is, and always has been, an incredible view from the hill. You feel as if you can see the entire island from your vantage point, laid out in front of you like a patchwork quilt of fields and sheep.

I climbed up the Mound of Hostages, and managed to recapture some of the thrill of my first visit. The place was still quiet and powerful, though somewhat less urgent than the last time I had visited. My solitude was short lived, however, because several German tourists arrived in a bus, and started climbing the hills.

We explored the various hillworks, the mounds, the stones, the sheep, and the stunning view. We wandered the steep paths and steeper hillsides. Finally, the OPW clerk came out to let us know the English AV presentation was about to start, so we fell in and followed her back to the little church which housed it.

The AV presentations we saw throughout our trip were very informative, and had very lush photography, interesting commentary, and relevant data. Everything from computer graphics to archeological dig photos was shown. T inquired in several places whether the set of them were for sale, and was told the request had been made several times – in vain.

We saw a sign as we were leaving for a Holy Well, just down the road from Tara, so took a detour to explore it. It was a small enclosure, fenced away from the cows but with an area where they could drink from the troughed stream. There was a small pitcher, evidently for filling bottles with from the water. It was set up very simple, and very quiet. I believe the well was dedicated to St. Patrick.

We went on to Navan, and around the city to Newgrange. When I was here 10 years ago, there was no visitor’s centre, and visitors parked right up near the path to the tomb. Now you enter the centre, which is extensive, and take a bus to the tomb. The centre has some wonderful displays on pre-historic life, and a nice little AV presentation.

You get your time of visit when you arrive, and it gives lots of time to wander the centre and gift shop before you have to walk along a path (and over a bridge) to the bus stop. Then the bus takes about 10 minutes to the site itself. You go within the tomb still on the tour, though it’s rather claustrophobic. I am a fat person, but still managed to squeeze inside some of the smaller sections of the passage, but just barely!

We were allowed about 15 minutes after the passage tour to wander around, which in my opinion wasn’t nearly enough time to walk all the way around, examining the stones and decorations. However, our tour inside was delayed by the last group being late, so I suppose we would normally have had more time afterwards.

Getting back on the bus, we were second to last in line. The guy behind us (dragging his wife with him) was so concerned about getting on first that he pushed ahead of us and several other people – only to be turned away on the first bus. He was first on the second bus, though, and I gave him a dirty look for queue-jumping, as it got him very little in terms of saving time. We all got back at the same time, after all!

Back at the centre, we started towards Malahide house, after several wrong turns and R roads. Malahide is a wonderful 18th Century manor house, restored with beautiful carved wood panels and lush tapestries, wallpaper, and furnishings. The grounds were fantastic, and I wish we had more time to explore them, but we were rushing to get into the house before closing. There was a wedding we passed on the way here, and as we left, we saw the bride and groom having photos taken on the grounds. That’s when the Italian school children came again! Photography wasn’t permitted inside, more’s the pity.

We asked for a recommendation on dinner from the gift shop clerk, who mentioned Smyth’s in Malahide itself. We found Smyth’s parked around the corner, saw the bridal party again (in a car this time), and ordered dinner. Smyth’s is decorated like a retro American bar, which was really odd. T and I ordered the garlic butter steak, while K tried the cajun steak. Mistake! I tried to warn her never to trust the European idea of cajun, but she didn’t listen. It was awful. The steak itself was full of gristle and the seasonings terrible. She asked for, and received, a garlic butter steak instead. Those were great.

We headed south to Howth, but were waylaid by a nice set of stairs going down to a rocky beach. There was a sandy portion, but lots of limestone rocks around, filled with seashells and seaweed. We collected some, watched a mother and her son swimming, watched the mother change on the beach (she wrapped a towel around her as she changed, but wasn’t too concerned when it slipped). It was a very peaceful spot, despite the cars driving by on the road above. It was around 7pm and the sea was restful, gently lapping waves against the rocks in a soothing rhythm.

We kept driving along the seashore route, out to Howth. There were some beautiful houses, though few with much land, as I’m sure it’s at an incredible premium here. There were a couple more nice beaches, and we stopped at a marina to have some ice cream. Our first choice was closing as we approached, so we went on to Maud’s. T had berry ice cream, I tried the truffles and cream, while K had something colorful that I don’t remember. It was all rather good, and we had a window seat looking out at the boats and children playing. We met a young lady and her sister (they were perhaps 6 and 4 years old) dining with their grandparents, on holiday up from Dublin.

As we came back into town, the road we were on became Amiens road, which became Moss road, which stops just at the corner our B&B was on. How convenient was that? We slept well after such a full day.

GreenDragon...GREAT trip report! Glad to know about the noise at O'Neills. I will ask for a courtyard facing room per your suggestion.

Your report gets me excited, we are off to UK on Thursday, then will be in Dublin in 3 short weeks. Can't wait!

I am so enjoying your report as Ireland is at the top of my "Must Visit" list. I hope to be able to go next year and will definitely use your post as a reference.

Thanks.

Glad I could be of help re: O'Neill's! They were very helpful, and the food at breakfast was fine. The room was huge, including cathedral height ceilings

OOh, I've inspired someone! Even better!!!!

Here's the last bit:

Saturday, July 8th: Hi, Ho, Silver!

We woke up early for an early start, but discovered that breakfast wasn¡¦t served until 9am this morning. Oh well, we went back to the room to pack for the morning. It¡¦s not like the time was wasted!

We got into breakfast, and Hughey (one of the owners, evidently) asked how things were. We arranged to meet with him that evening to settle up, as we would be leaving much too early for humans the next day (4:30am for our 7:30am flight).

After some fun with more one way streets and crossing back and forth across the Liffey, we dropped T off at the Dublin Zoo for the day, and arranged to meet her at around 5pm in the same spot. Then K and I headed off to Kildare to the National Stud and the Japanese Gardens, as well as St. Fiachra¡¦s Garden, all of which are in the same complex. On the way in we saw a sign for St. Brigid¡¦s Well, which we resolved to visit on the way out.

The admission into the complex was E9, not included on the OPW, but well worth it, IMHO. The gardens were stunning, each area representing a different stage in life. There was the Easy Path vs. the Path of Life, there were sections marked Disappointment, (after Marriage, of course) and the Chair of Old Age, etc. The paths went in and out, around and through the gardens. I met Tim the Gardener, and we chatted of weather, Florida versus Ireland, house prices, and career paths. We both agreed that you have to find something you enjoy doing, and you won¡¦t mind the hours you put into your career. Otherwise you are just imprisoned by your job.

We traveled on to the Stud area, where there was a small tour. We managed to get through the Japanese gardens before the horde of, you guessed it, Italian school children came through. Were they following us???

The horses were interesting to me, but K is a horse nut so she was much more fascinated. When there was a choice of going out and greeting the horses in the fields or walking around St. Fiachra¡¦s Gardens, we split ways. St. Fiachra is the patron saint of Gardeners, and this area was set out as a natural garden, emphasizing random natural beauty. The place had a waterfall, swans and ducks, weeping willows, and some manufactured monastic huts in honor of the 7th century saint. Inside one of these huts was a rather disappointing ¡¥crystal garden¡¦.

When I read about the underground crystal garden, I imagined something grand, crystal all around, lit from underneath, in natural formations and shapes. Instead, there was a small 4¡¦X4¡¦ box set in the ground, covered with glass, with some cut crystal from Waterford in it. Lit from below, yes, but thoroughly unimpressive.

Despite that, the gardens themselves were wonderful. A family was exploring near me, and I could hear the father trying to teach the 6-year-old daughter how to quack like a duck. I hooked back up with K near the end of the gardens, when it began to rain. This was only our second day of heavy rain on the trip, of which we were very glad!

We headed towards the restaurant for a late lunch, but it was crawling with those Italian school children. Most were done eating, but their bus was not yet there, so they took most of the tables. We ate inside, since most of them were outside. (most, not all!).

K and I both had the steak & Guinness pie. I tried a delicious salad with feta cheese and broccoli, while K had a cucumber salad. We made up for this relatively healthy side by sharing a slice of some meringue/fruit/cream dessert that was sweet and fluffy.

We shopped a bit, realizing that it was our last day in Ireland, and I got the last of my required gifts. The we went onto St. Brigid¡¦s Well. This is by far the most impressive holy well we saw, complete with a statue of St. Brigid holding up a flame, a wishing tree, and several alcoves for blessings and wishes along the area. The water tasted clear and sweet, and while we were there, a chatty man from Dublin and a Franciscan Friar greeted us. The Friar was very nice; though dressed in plain clothes he had a wooden pendant that evidently identified him as such. I asked him about his opinion on the bits of paganism still showing strong in Celtic Christianity, and he said that it was pretty much accepted as part of the belief system.

K and I both gave some gifts to the wishing tree, and as we were leaving, some of the Friar¡¦s friends were pouring some of the Holy Water into small labeled bottles. They gave us a couple, as well as directions to another Holy Well nearby to visit, called Father Moore¡¦s Well.

We got to this well by driving through the city of Kildare, and it was very different from St. Brigid¡¦s well. Hers was very solemn, but light and full of, well, presence. It was very reverent. Father Thomas¡¦ well felt much more¡K plastic, I guess. It certainly had a much more Catholic feel than pagan/Catholic (like Brigit¡¦s). There were offerings, shrines, tombstones, remembrances, and a dirty, muddy pit that must have been the well. We didn¡¦t like the place much at all, and left rather quickly. The fact that it was raining harder may have helped our decision!

We drove back through Naas, on a sudden urge to find a shopping area, but we searched in vain, finding nothing worth stopping for. We made it back into Dublin in short order, and picked up a soggy T from the zoo. We went in search of shopping in Dublin, convinced that we would find some. Indeed we did, on Grafton Street, a short walk from the Car Park we found (Setanta). We stopped in a couple of shops, but they were all starting to close as it was past 6pm. We were really frustrated with this early close thing! We knew about it, but that didn¡¦t make it easier to deal with. We had money to spend, darn it!

We smelled some really good cooking, and decided it came from Bocca Italian off Grafton Street. We had to wait about 10 minutes for a table, but once we were sat it was cozy. For starters we ordered the antipasti. The description said it had meats, cheeses, olives and artichoke hearts. They lied! There was one slice of one artichoke heart on the top. Since I can eat a whole jar of the things, I was quite disappointed! The olives were normal green and black ones, but the meats and cheeses were delicious.

I had the spaghetti mare, K had the pollo vesuvio and T had the pasta carbonara, despite her earlier encounter with this dish. Everything was delicious, and the service (once we were sat) was great. K had the amaretti ice cream for dessert and loved it. We were blown away by seeing the first real pepper mill of the trip!

We got back to the B&B at 8:45pm, which was, IMHO, plenty of time to walk down the block to meet a fellow Flyertalker and his family also traveling in Ireland. Alas, I looked at the sheet of paper that had the hotel name, and it was 8pm we were supposed to meet, not 9pm! I felt like such an idiot. That for all my planning!

We were exhausted after a long day, and had an early traveling day tomorrow, so we packed and went to sleep.

Sunday, July 9th: Travel heaven and hell


Up before light? Not in Ireland in the summer! 4am and it was already false dawn out. It was light by the time we were in the car and on our way to the airport. We got there at 5:30am, expecting it to be rather deserted. HA! There were crowds of people everywhere! The kiosk to drop our car keys in the car park was closed as it was too early, and we couldn¡¦t find the in-airport desk in time. We waited in the line to check our luggage (Aer Lingus to the UK) and waited for about an hour. We started getting worried about checking in on time, but we were fine. The gentleman working ¡¥triage¡¦ at the check in line was fantastic, efficient, and had a great attitude. I wish I could remember his name, but he had a feeling of the military about him, like a drill sargaent. The flight from DUB to LHR left on time with no problems, and arrived on time in London.

Our trip into the Virgin terminal was less hectic than last time, but still hampered by two working elevators (out of 4) and a huge amount of people trying to use them. We got to the VA check in kiosks, checked in, got our luggage tagged and our boarding passes. No gate was assigned yet (it was 10:15 for an 11:30 flight) but the boarding pass said boarding started at 10:15???

We went to the gate section, and finally saw our gate assigned at 10:30, and started booking it down the terminal to gate 88. And booking, and booking, and booking! We made it with plenty of time, and they started boarding. Down the jetway, onto¡K the tarmac. Onto¡K a bus??? This is the first time that ever happened to me! We were standing room only on a bus to our plane. Very odd!

A hectic ride under the runway, through tunnels, through airport traffic, dodging larger busses and we made it to our plane. It was rather tough as we were packed together like sardines, and I can¡¦t stand for long periods of time. Walking is fine, but standing is agony. I was ready to drop after that ride!

We walked over to our plane and up the stairs, found our seats, and sighed. Then we crossed our fingers! We had three of the four seats in the center section, and were hoping that fourth seat remained empty. We waited while several busloads of folks got on. And waited. And waited. We were due to take off at 11:30, finally leaving at 12:45. They were good about making announcements about our delay, but we soon realized that they were not very helpful in terms of information.

The flight itself was fine, though the little girl behind us kept asking for Stuart? Stuart? Stuart? Stuart? In a loud voice. Halfway through the flight both K and I felt kicking on the back of our seat, and I very politely turned around and asked the mother if she could ask her daughter to stop. She said the daughter did nothing wrong, just put the tray table up, but there was no more kicking after that. I doubt that the tray table going up would be felt in the bottom of my seat. ļ

The pilot kept making announcements throughout the flight, including the World Cup half time and full time scores, this being the finals. I could have done without them, but understand than many cared. They also listed them on the IFE units.

We arrived at 5:05, about 45 minutes late ¡V and too late, evidently, to catch my connecting flight from MIA to MCO. I tried to push through, leaving K to collect my checked luggage, but was much too late. I ended up waiting in a line to re-assign me for about 45 minutes, my luggage long gone home with K. An Office Palomba? was very helpful and kind. Finally I just asked to use the phone, as I found out all the flights were gone to MCO for the night, and they couldn¡¦t help me until tomorrow. I waited 20 minutes just to use the phone! (mine had SIM card problems and wouldn¡¦t work). I called my DH, told him to meet me in Palm Beach, and went out to rent a car (at $120 for two hours!!!!) and drove up to meet him.

The ride home was long and I got home at 2am. I had to be up in the morning at 7am to go to work, so I collapsed. I¡¦d been up for 26 hours, and was exhausted!

My luggage was Fedexed to me the next day, and arrived Tuesday, all intact except a missing pair of scissors. Even the chocolate wasn¡¦t melted!

All in all, despite the problems in logistics and travel, I had a wonderful time. I will return to the magical isle some day!

Now I have to sort through my 3000 pictures!

Thanks for your entertaining report. I notice you mentioned "best selling" in relation to a photo you'd taken. Maybe I missed something. Do you sell photos for a living? I'm assuming so, because few folks would take 3000 photos.

Your account of Newgrange reminds me of a book I'm reading now, "Ireland", which I picked up in an airport bookstore. The author's name is Delany. There's a very interesting account of the building of Newgrange, mostly folklore to be sure, as well as oral history of quite a few other prominent Irish characters and places. Definitely fun reading for the Ireland buff.

Anyway, it all makes me look forward to next Ireland journey, whenever it may be. Thanks again.

Yes, I do sell my photos, as a side business. I'm a CPA (Accountant) as a day job, but have a digital art/photography/beaded jewelry business on the side (as well as a tax prep business on the side).

Shameless plug time: www.greendragonartist.com is my website.

Greendragon, your posts have been a delight! I have learned many things and have taken noted for our upcoming family adventure (leaving in 13 days!) Thanks for all your wonderful insight!

Glad I could help in some pointers! I'm off to post a separate thread, with the 'quick and dirty' version in a moment...

This report of your trip to Ireland with your friends has been such fun to read! It sounds like you all had a fabulous time. I am new here on the board, but I can tell I am going to have many pleasant reading hours ahead now that I've discovered it. I read Tracy's Paris account earlier, and I got hooked.

Belinda

mexicobeachbum - finally went through all my photos, and have a total of 3021 from this trip. That was a pretty close estimate on my part

I've finished picking out the best ones and posted them on my website version of this trip report, available for viewing here:

http://www.greendragonartist.com/BItripreports2006.htm

I would love any comments or critiques on my writing or my photos, as I am trying to get to a more professional/salable level. Not that I'll ever be good enough to make a living at it, but defraying the cost of the next trip to Europe is certainly a possibility!

Last summer I went to England, and the sales from those photos paid for about 1/6 of my trip to Ireland this summer. If I can get each trip to pay for the next, I'll be a happy camper!!!

Fabulous report! I'm a single gal traveling to Ireland for the first time in a few weeks and loved reading about your trip! I especially liked your friend's idea about leaving postcards behind. I might have to get some of Chicago and leave as thank-yous. What a great idea; I hope your friend doesn't mind if I use it!

Hi GreenDragon,

From one accountant to another, FABULOUS trip report!! Little do folks know how exciting our lives can be, eh? ;-)

Loved your photos as well, absolutely beautiful. You are very talented

~jill

thank you, Jill! I appreciate the compliments immensely

And I'm sure Theresa will have no problem with you 'stealing' her idea, chemgirl!!!

Hello...Great, detailed report and photos! You have a distinct way of writing that takes one along to Ireland with you. We have been there 6 times and are going again next May, June for three weeks. Can't seem to get enough of this wonderful country! Thanks for the memories!...Helen

Just as an aside, how do you pronounce your name? There is a character in my favorite book (Outlander by Diana Gabaldon) with the name Laoghaire. The books-on-tape pronounce it 'la-HEER', so I was wondering if that is correct?

The author doesn't know, she picked it out from a map, probably from Dun Laoghaire. Which would be 'la-REE', right?

I very much enjoyed your photos. They compliment your entertaining narrative nicely. Thanks a lot for the effort that went into sharing your experiences with all of us.

Hi GreenDragon.. I pronounce it the modern way, Leary, as in Dun Laoghaire. It is my maiden name--Leary, so quite apropos, eh?...Helen