2014.02.21--24. Galway.Parts-1-and-3.

The first and last day in Galway (we were there only 3 days) were very light, so I'm grouping them together.  I don't think it changes the narrative too much.


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Friday: Dublin to Galway, walking around Galway.

We were up early enough to catch the 09:15 AM GoBus to Galway. There's at least one more bus that runs only between Galway and Dublin (citylink, I think), in addition to the (slower and more expensive Bus Eirann). Got in around noon, dropped our stuff at the B-n-B and headed back in to walk around. 

The Lighthouse B-n-B, Galway, Lough Atalia Road

Dublin is the biggest city in Ireland -- Galway might be second-biggest.
[Edit from Andrew: "The city has a population of about 70,000 and is either the third or fourth largest city in Ireland, depending on who's counting: Cork is about 2.5 times as big, and Limerick used to be bigger, but has fallen back in relative terms. "]

It's much more cozy, has a feel somewhere between preserved-and-quaint and college-town-ish. They have around 70 pubs, many quite interesting and with live music daily.

It's kind of hard to show with a picture, but the combination of lots-of-rain (causing floods in a good chunk of the country) and that this is (supposedly) the fastest flowing river in Europe made for some epic noise and roiling water:

behold, the river Corrib!

What looks to be a crossing bridge thing, completely under water:
[Edit, from Andrew: ``[R]elated to the fisheries service offices nearby. Possibly eel fishing facilities, or something to do with salmon - I'm afraid I don't know the details. It's not always submerged, but while there's a walkway part way, it's not a bridge.''] 

flooded thing in the Corrib

Here's someone else's recent video of said river.  Kind of "meh" quality, but it conveys the point.

There's also a body of water running parallel to it that seems like a kind of lock or runoff. Much calmer:

A nice house along this side-stream:

Random pictures of the town: 

random blue building

Clippy thinks you need -- a coffee, lunch, or cake.

turquoise door frames

We stopped for some snacks at a small store.  Outside, I was excited to see peat for sale: 

PEAT!

During the walk around town, we also went by the Galway Cathedral. Formerly a jail (Gaol), it supposedly still has the underground part of the cells (which is kind of creepy) and the rest was rebuilt into the church as it stands:

Galway Cathedral

bloody stained glass window

It had some lovely stained glass windows. I like how the first one  is in the shape of a flower:

turns out, it's hard to take pictures of stained glass

I am reasonably certain that most/all of the red in this second one is supposed to be blood.

JFK visited while it was under construction. Apparently he was pretty well loved in Ireland, and people felt like he did a lot to improve the reputation of Irish people worldwide. So, here's a mosaic of him in a side chapel of the cathedral:

JFK picture

We also walked through a mall which was built around a re-built old tower from, I think, the city's defenses. Kind of odd, tower completely enclosed in a mall. Here's the plaque:

part of the tower can be seen behind the plaque

Here's a bit on the history of the wall, from the mall website:

The walls built by the de Burgos in the 13th century to secure the town and its trade dominated the story of Galway for the next 500 years...The story of Galway city begins when Turlough O’Conor, king of Connacht, built a fort overlooking the ford at the mouth of the river Corrib at the beginning of the twelfth century. This fort was probably a timber structure, as there are repeated reports of it burning down. The O’Hallorans and O’Flahertys were allied to the O’Conor king and together they fought off Richard de Burgo and his army when the Norman knight first came to claim his grant of the lands of Connacht in 1230. De Burgo was back a few years later with a larger army and took control of the river crossing, building a castle to protect it. A town grew up around the castle and, despite continued aggression from the native Irish families and periodic burnings, the de Burgos continued to control the castle and the burgeoning town. A plaque supposedly erected over the west gate into the town bore the inscription ‘From the Ferocious O Flahertys O Lord deliver us’.

And here is someone else's attempt to take a picture of the thing.

We had dinner at the Quay ("key") Street kitchen. We walked through Tigh Neachtains, a pub that still has the traditional "snugs" -- little niches where women sat when they came to drink, with doors hiding them from the men in the pub.  Here's someone's review of the place. It was super duper packed, so we kept walking, and ducked into the Quays bar.

Our B-n-B hostess had described it like a church (crammed inside a bar), with people playing live music at the altar-area. I'd actually describe the location of the stage as being really more choir-loft (as you can see in this picture (due to someone else)). The altar-esque-area would be the location of one of the bar counters.  Here's another good picture, which shows where that main bar is.

As we walked in, it smelled heavenly, like someone had spilled a bottle of Scotch. It took me a minute to realize that this smell was coming from the cheery peat fire to the left of the entrance, in a cozy little fireplace. We walked down the stairs, by carved wooden arches and stained glass, then back up more stairs and behind the stage-area, into a sort of nook. We sat down and had some cider (Bulmers). Eventually, they started playing a Rugby game on the screen nearby, part of the 6 Nations games, Wales vs. France. I'd never seen Rugby before,  so it was interesting and also kind of hilarious. I enjoyed the move where everyone rushes to grab one teammate by their legs and through him up in the air to catch the ball. The scrum is weird.  I expect fewer injuries than American Football, as people have to be trained how to tackle "properly" for rugby, and there's also some sort of protective things people do once someone's down to guard them, forming kind of a human bridge or something around them.

Live music was the "Converse All Stars" after the Wales-France (Wales won)  game.  The sound system was awful, so we left early (it's not the kind of space where you need an amp, so it was terribly loud and distorted). 

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[Interlude:  Day 2 (Saturday) we went on a tour of Connemara and Cong. See next post.]
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Day 3 in Galway:  we walked to the Salthill Promenade.

I'd been motion sick during the tour on Saturday and wasn't really ready to sign up for another tour, especially in combination with general "meh" weather. So we opted to not do a tour Sunday and instead slept half the day. When we got up, we walked over to Salthill, along the ocean, touching on Claddagh and a park (Celia Griffin park) made in memory of the children who died of starvation during the famine. 

Spanish Arch, in Galway (I am unsure of the story here)

[Edit from Andrew (thanks for providing the background): ``The wall near the Spanish Arch is one of the few remnants of the city walls still out in the open and visible in a public space - the city museum beside where you were is quite new (under a decade) and the house attached to the wall is where it used to be housed. ...If you follow a straight line, jogging a little, you will reach that section inside the Eyre Square centre [the mall]....Spanish Arch and Spanish Parade are named after the fact that this was the main port area in town in the 1400s-1600s, when a lot of Spanish merchant vessels would stop in (including, it is said, one with Christopher Columbus, back when he was a mere sailor - you may have seen the memorial to him on the Spanish parade, donated by Genoa to mark the 500th anniversary of his transatlantic trip - though it's been moved from it's original location, so the arrows and directions are off)."] 

view of Galway, by Claddagh

I really liked the clouds and ocean in the next pic. It belied the smell--- the causeway on the left leads out to an island (well, I suppose, pseudo-island) on which is a sewage processing plant. 

view of ocean and clouds and causeway. 

The following is one of the famine memorials in the park: 

memorial

The following is also in the park. It's titled "starvation inquest"

The text of most of it is as follows (from the wikipedia page on Celia Griffin):

" An inquest was held on Thursday last, before Michael Perrin, Esq., D.C., at the Presentation Convent, on view of the body of Celia Griffin, a girl about six years of age, from the village of Corindulla, near Ross, in this county. It appeared in evidence that the poor creature had been reduced to extreme poverty and that the family to whom she belonged, eight in number, were in the same pitiful condition. She had been recommended to the Ladies of the Presentation, by Rev. George Usher, as a fit object for relief, and accordingly she and her two sisters received a daily breakfast at that excellent Institute. They met Mr Usher on the Rahoon road about a fortnight ago, but famine had so preyed upon her feeble constitution, that, on the morning of Wednesday, she was unable to taste food of any description – so that on the post mortem examination made by Doctor Staunton, there was not a particle found in her stomach."

"She with her father, mother, brothers, and sisters, came to Galway about six weeks ago, in the hope of obtaining some charitable relief, and during that period have been begging in the streets, and about the country. The parents of the deceased formerly resided on the estate ofThomas Martin, Esq, MP. When Doctor Staunton was called on he found deceased is a state of inanition, except an occasional convulsive action of the muscles, and her body might be said to be literally skin and bone – with all the appearance of starvation. She was so exhausted, as not to be able to use the food supplied to her. The Jury found that her death was caused for want of the common necessaries of life, before she received relief at the Presentation Convent."

view of Salthill, past the shore

Upper Salthill Street was a mixture of empty buildings and bustling businesses, although clustered -- successful places closer to the water. I'd read this, which made me want to go to O'Connor's famous pub. It had a sign saying it wasn't open again until 19:30, so we went looking for food.

We settled on the Galleon. They claimed to be "family-style", but the food was absolutely delicious, so that does not mean what it means in the States.  It was 16.50 for a starter/dessert and main. Ended up with duck spring rolls, stuffed chicken breast (still on the bone), mashed potatoes, mashed carrots, some broccoli, and banoffee pie. Yum.

fuck yeah, Banoffee pie.

With time afterwards to kill, went to "Oslo", home of Galway Bay Brewery. Had a half-pint of their chocolate milk stout, which was delicious. Was also pleased with their general vast selection. I was pretty tempted to try their alcoholic ginger beer.  Negatives -- The interior lacks character, is very open. It probably gets quite loud. 

Having killed enough time, we wandered over to "O'Connor's famous pub", which was quirky, as described, and sat right next to the (wood) fire and split a cider.  Eventually headed back, looking for music. Decided the Quays were too loud. Ended up at Taafe's, also next to a fireplace, listening to a live band. The bouncer could totally have been a former Rugby player. I was of the opinion that most of the bouncers were former Rugby players. :)

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 Next post -- tour of Connemara and Cong! (beautiful scenery, and a castle-turned-abbey). 

2014.02.20 Ireland-Dublin-area--Bog Bodies and Howth

Day 4 (20 Feb): Archaeological Museum & Howth

We had a rainy morning, good day to check out a museum.  I was most interested in bog bodies and vikings, so we went with the Archaeological museum, near-ish to Trinity college and Temple Bar.

Note: there's a lot of stuff to do in Dublin. E.g. see the Book of Kells, which is on Trinity College campus. I was much more into beautiful-Irish-scenery than museums this trip, so, lots of scenery pictures.

It was a good size. Maybe a bit small, but perfect for a half-day visit (which is really all I can normally stand with a museum, anyway. 

There were 3 or so bog bodies.  What are bog bodies, you say? 

To the internet! (aka Wikipedia): 

``A bog body (Moorleiche in German) is a human cadaver that has been naturally mummified within a peat bog. [They] are both geographically and chronologically widespread, having been dated to between 9000 BCE and the Second World War. The unifying factor of the bog bodies is that they have been found in peat and are partially preserved...
Unlike most ancient human remains, bog bodies have retained their skin and internal organs due to the unusual conditions of the surrounding area. These conditions include highly acidic water, low temperature, and a lack of oxygen, and combine to preserve but severely tan their skin. While the skin is well-preserved, the bones are generally not, due to the acid in the peat having dissolved the calcium phosphate of bone."

One body had been decapitated and cut in half and also had his nipples cut off -- apparently one thing defeated people did was suck the king's nipples as a sign of acquiescence, so this kept him from being in line to be a king. His hands were soft, so no manual labor. 

I assume that the oral histories, which'd been transcribed sometime between 800 and 1600 by some monks, were  how they know some things like why the nipples would be cut off. Also, thanks to old maps, they know territorial boundaries (which hadn't changed much for a while before the maps were made), and offerings (including people thrown in the bog) occurred often on those boundaries. They figure it had something to do with inauguration rites of a new tribal/area leader. It was also assumed that if you were a "bad" leader, that you'd then cause the area to have terrible crops and weather. 

The bodies, sadly,  are drying out (post removal from bog) and degrading.   

Here's someone else's picture of one of the bodies. It wasn't super clear to me if I could take pictures, so I didn't. 

They also found a Psalter from the 8th century in the bog, which is pretty neat. 

There was a fair bit of history of Viking settlements of the area, and the transition to Norman raids and Anglo-Norman rule.  Vikings founded Dublin (Dubh = black/dark, Lin = pool, in Irish-Gaelic). It sounds like they were a bit thin on the ground and didn't mix much with the people they ruled (sounds a bit like post-Norman conquest of England). 

It's not clear to me (from poking the internet and reading a bit) why the Vikings stopped raiding.  What did become clear is that the Normans (who I learned descend from Vikings) replaced them effectively, being Vikings-with-eloquence: 

``Anna Komnene, the daughter of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, described the Norman prince Bohemond I of Antioch:`[H]e was so tall in stature that he overtopped the tallest by nearly one cubit, narrow in the waist and loins, with broad shoulders and a deep chest and powerful arms...His skin all over his body was very white...His hair was yellowish... His blue eyes indicated both a high spirit and dignity...A certain charm hung about this man but was partly marred by a general air of the horrible... He was so made in mind and body that both courage and passion reared their crests within him and both inclined to war...In conversation he was well informed, and the answers he gave were quite irrefutable...' '' (from wikipedia)

Sounds like a Viking to me.  

After the museum, we had lunch at Thai Orchid, corner of Fleet st. Opted for one of the ``hous Specials", which was a fusion dish -- Thai style spare ribs. Delicious. 

Dublin is clearly an "international" city, as they have proper Thai/Japanese/etc restaurants, none of this silly pan-asian business you see in Hamburg.

It had been raining that morning and cleared up. As we'd resolved to be outside whenever it was sunny, we hopped on the DART to Howth.  But first...

[My one "run-in" in Ireland:]

Walking to the station, one guy tried to step in my way, saying he was 1 euro short of a fiver for something. I brushed him off. Immediately after, another guy stepped in my way to try to stop me and said "give me all your money!", while holding a lollipop stick as if he were pretending to were a knife concealed in his fist. I stepped to the side and kept walking. It was odd.

 Context -- sunny afternoon, around 14:30, lots of people around, short distance to the commuter rail. 

I was glad to be heading out of the city. 

Howth (here is a totally ridiculous and unhelpful map):
This is the map one can get from the tourist office

Tip: there are a *lot* more roads on that peninsula that what are shown here

The Dublin Tourism site made much to-do about their free walking tours one can access on MP3-player or phone.

I'd loaded the one for Howth (link to the PDF that accompanies it), which suggested starting at the Suffolk DART station (upper lefthand corner of the picture), which is what we did…but we didn't realize the walk was supposed to take 3-4 hours until we were already out and walking for a half hour by a very loud and busy road. Also, the directions between each "sight"/stop weren't great, and we gave up not long in, deciding to walk along the sea in the direction of Martello Tower and re-evaluate from there.

Start of the walk: beautiful, sunny day.

Howth, by Strand Road

Walking along the shore, there were lots and lots of crows, snatching mussels (& cockels? A-live, a-live ho....), opening their wings to rise up into the air --- the wind was super duper strong that day --- and dropping them over and over again, to crack them open.  Possibly also a bit for fun.  They didn't seem to keen on us, so I didn't end up with any pictures of them (they flew off pretty fast as we approached, or went down behind a dune).

Of the 3 hills on the silly map, I think this is the northernmost.

After some time, it became clear that a storm was coming (that direction is Dublin) :

I took a picture of the following house due mainly to the door. I don't know why, but apparently this whole very-loudly-colored doors is a Dublin thing. 

a Dublin (yellow) door

We'd made it to the Dingy club mentioned in the guide, and were debating whether to weather out the weather there or go further.

the storm, looking even more ominous

The rain sprinkled a bit and stopped, and we decided to go to Martello tower and re-evaluate then. 

I like this next picture in part because the righthand side of the picture shows the storm and the left is all sunshine and blue skies:

When we made it to the Martello tower, there was a rather damp and partially blocked-off seaside path, and then what looked simply like car-tracks heading up towards this mountain. Theoretically, a path. I didn't feel like testing it out: The next picture really shows how everything looked peaceful and sunny and nice, when you weren't actually looking at the storm:

Martello Tower

Impending cloud-of-doom coming from the direction of Dublin:  We opted to head towards Howth proper (the west pier), using a version of Google maps downloaded onto the phone. Of course, the rain hit mid-walk, the one time I'm out on a long walk without my rain pants. I couldn't do much against the semi-horizontal rain and brief hail spell (hail being preferable because it bounces off and melts later). There are seals at the West Pier of Howth. We saw a few, playing around a boat that was unloading, but they were too fast and far for me to get a picture in. You used to be allowed to feed them, but that led to them becoming really picky eaters and leaving a lot of un-eaten fish around, which then caused a rat problem...and now you're not allowed to feed the seals. Very sad.  Here's someone else's video of feeding seals in Howth.  Here's the island off of Howth, at dusk, from the edge of the West Pier:  After the sun was fully down, we looked around the West Pier for dinner. 

We ate at Deep -- 26 euros for a 2 person fish plate, full of smoked salmon, lightly-fried shrimp, calamari, mussels (in white wine sauce).  Yum.

Next: Galway!

2014.02.19 Ireland-Dublin-CIty-and-Dalkey

Day 3: Dublin/Dublin Castle and Dalkey.

It's hard to justify a museum or tour inside of something (e.g. a castle) when the weather is beautiful.

Dublin is, as we were told, a very walkable city (assuming you stay rather central).  So, on this very sunny morning/early afternoon we did a lot of walking around Dublin proper,

Here's a nice breakdown of the different neighborhoods/villages of Dublin. We did a lot of walking in the Liberties :

``The Liberties is an area in central Dublin,Ireland. The name derives from manorial jurisdictions dating from the arrival of the Anglo-Normans in the 12th century. They were town lands united to the city, but still preserving their own jurisdiction (hence "liberties")...The modern Liberties area lies...between the river Liffey to the north, St. Patrick's Cathedral to the east, Warrenmount to the south and St. James's Hospital to the west....In return for the support of the ruler of the liberty...privileges were granted to the rulers of the liberties at various times and by various kings of England. For example, these allowed the liberty of St. Sepulchre to have its own courts of justice...(where it was allowed to try all crimes except "forestalling, rape, treasure-trove and arson"), free customs, freedom from certain taxes and services, impose their own fines, have their own coroners, rights of salvage, maintain their own fairs and markets, regulate weights and measures, etc...These rights and privileges ended in 1840."(source: wikipedia page on the Liberties)

and also in  the area of the Dublin Castle.



The castle itself has seen a lot of phases of use -- there are remnants of Norman-era fortifications and such on the other side (I read a little plaque).


The tower to the right is the only Norman-era (~1230) chunk left.  All the way to the left would've been something, but it burned down, I think.

Dublin Castle, from the back! 

What you can't tell from that angle is that the lines in the grass are actually a brick-laid celtic knot.  A few tours came through while we were walking around, and I overheard bits and pieces.

Apparently the "driving the snakes out of Ireland" part of the St. Patrick myth is supposed to symbolize getting rid of paganism/pagans.  Also, St. Patrick was probably Welsh originally.

 Here's a map of Norma-era Dublin Castle (thanks wikimedia commons). The black dashed lines are where the garden is now -- it was underwater then:

There were a list of pubs I was interest in trying out, particularly "Ireland's Oldest Pub", the Brazen Head, former haunt of Vikings.  They are very proud that James Joyce mentioned them (in Ulysses):

"Corley, at the first go-off, was inclined to suspect it was something to do with Stephen being fired out of his digs for bringing a bloody tart off the street. There was a dosshouse in Marlborough street, Mrs Maloney's, but it was only a tanner touch and full of undesirables but M'Conachie told him you got a decent enough do in the Brazen Head over in Winetavern street..."

My own thoughts on the place: very very small inside, stocky wooden tables, solid food and beer.

Sadly full of a large group of Americans. One had this accent where everything she says sounds snide. Another could've been from the suburbs of Chicago (that terrible nasal "a"). Based on the pink water bottle with a uni logo on it, I think that all went to U Arizona.

Oldest pub in Ireland! Consequently, old Viking haunt

With a few more hours of afternoon left, we decided to hop a DART train (commuter rail, round trip ticket for about 6 euros) for Dalkey, as Damien (driver on Co. Wicklow tour) had said that he thought all of us could find something we'd like in Dalkey.

I had an overly-artistic map of Dalkey from the Tourist office (the one on Suffolk street, in the Church), which was enough to get us moving towards a hike. We headed from the DART station towards Killiney (Dalkey?) hill (ish).

Dalkey: view along coast:



While walking, we were a little concerned about rain, but more concerned about dark (being late afternoon). So, we opted for the closer hill (``Telegraph Hill") rather than go all the way to the Obelisk. It was a rocky, cliff-like area.


The island/peninsula in the distance in this next picture is Howth. The view is from Telegraph Hill:



View back towards the Obelisk:



There was one main reasonable way down, by stairs along the "cliff-face"




We got back to the DART station before it was dark, and headed back in to Dublin proper.

When we got back, we went to O'Neill's for dinner and beer.  Damien (tour guide from Co. Wicklow tour) had pointed out all of the awards outside --- good food, best carvery, etc -- outside and said they got those awards every year, must be doing things right.  Between that and my friend Andrew's endorsement, it was definitely on the list of pubs to visit. 

the booth next to where we sat

I was resolved to try out some local beers (hard to do a lot of places, where your choices are Guinness, cider, or maybe Smithwicks).

Good way to make your barkeep smile -- ask for advice, and if he gives you two beers to try, try  them and then ask for a pint of each (O'Hara's red and Crean's Lager, both local(ish)).  

The food was delicious -- ``carvery", which is what it sounds like. That is, they have various slabs of meat, gravies, sides, and you order by weight (for the meat) and by portion for the sides. We got turkey and a bit of everything and split it. 

Stairwell at O'Neill's

There was live ``traditional irish music", but upstairs, amongst the smokers. It was, however, piped through the rest of the place, which was nice. I decided I was getting tired of the song "Galway Girl" -- it was at least the third or fourth time I'd heard it (on our tour, in Farringtons, blasting from the doorways of kitschy tourist shops...).  In case you'd like an earworm, this is the song I mean.
(Note: the "Salthill Prom" == the Salthill (town near Galway) Promenade, which is ~ a boardwalk by the ocean).

Next: Howth & the Archaeological Museum! 

2014.02.17 -- 2014.02.18 Ireland-Dublin-Co.Wicklow (part 1 of Dublin)

I was invited to Belfast, Northern Ireland, for research and decided to slap on some vacation beforehand. Made sense to see Ireland, and the easiest thing sans-car seemed to be to see Dublin(area) and Galway. Especially given that lately there's been a lot of storms along the southern coast (and some serious flooding).


Part 1: Dublin.

Day 1
We flew Aer Lingus, which has direct flights (2 hrs) to Hamburg and is a discount airline, just a smidge above Ryanair.

We got into Dublin in the early evening, and decided to find somewhere to eat, take a walk around and stop into a pub. We stayed at the Townhouse, near the corner of Lower Gardiner and Talbot.  We stopped at O'Shea's for dinner, which was catty corner from the hotel. I had Irish stew, and realized that what people seem to call Irish stew in the states is somewhere between Irish stew and beef-and-Guinness stew.

Afterwards, we walked around Temple Bar area and stopped into Farrington's to grab a beer (I think I had something of O'Hara's, wouldn't swear to it) and a piece of dessert, which was Banoffee  pie("Ban" from "banana" and "offee" from "toffee"). Layer of "biscuit" (not-so-sweet plain cookie-esque) crust, layer of toffee, layer of banana slices, mound of cream on the side. Delish. Topped off by a very drunk barister striking up a conversation based on the fact that I have glasses, and he has (new) glasses, obtained recently on vacation to Florida, and he claimed he owned the place (the internet believes it's owned by some random company, so, probably not?).

Farrington's during the day

Day 2 - Co. Wicklow and Glendalough (Glen-da-lock) Tour
We resolved to get out of town when it's beautiful out and the next day (after a "full irish breakfast" (beans, black & white "pudding", eggs and some very dense bread) we rushed out of the hotel to n to take a Dublin Unplugged half-day tour to Co. Wicklow and Glendalough. Our driver (Damien) gave us sort of a mini Dublin tour/intro as we headed out of town, and various points of advice.

Example:

Damien: You're all entrepreneurs, right? Well, in 12 months time, all the taxis in Dublin have to be wheelchair accessible and not Diesel ([t's not clear if they have to then be electric, or just not diesel).  There are some 40,000 cabs in the Dublin area.  There's a real opportunity there. 

Important point which we were told there are exactly two official tourist info places. The rest of the things that say tourist info are actually private companies. One of the official ones is inside a former church on Suffolk street, which is where we were later dropped off on to go find some food and whatnot. 

While driving along by the river Liffey, he pointed out a stone pillar nearby, off the side of the road (on dry land) and said that that was where the vikings had tied up their ships , that the land we were on used to be under water.  When I get to the archaeological museum part of this trip, I can say some more (about Dublin being founded by vikings etc). 

For the best seafood in the area, he recommended the restaurants in Howth (where all the fresh fish was brought in) [see Thursday post] and he said that everyone would find something they'd like in Dalkey (which has several "castles", one of which Enya lives in) [see Wednesday post]. 

He said the weather in Ireland has changed completely, even in the last five years. Now they get snow (and have still no snow plows). So, this is the first year in the last 3 where they've been able to take tours down to Glendalough -- the last few were all snowed out. 

We stopped at a lookout on the way to Glendalough, on the edge of the Guinness family estate.  The lake and attached land and house was a bridal gift to one of the women marrying into the Guinness family. 

Valley by Lough Tay

The TV-series Vikings (2?) was partially filmed down there, complete replica of a viking village had been set up. It'd been taken apart the week before we got there.

He was apparently around Glendalough on the day when the Obamas came to visit. It'd been dry and sunny for too long, and this bred a batch of mosquitos/bugs, making their visit uncomfortable. No one asked for bug spray, and none was offered.

Glendalough was settled in the 5th century by "Saint Kevin" as a monastic settlement. Here's a map of his route around the area.



Our tour-guide Damien, under one of the two arches at the entrance to the former monastic settlement:



Apparently this cross is famous as the "Glendalough cross":

We learned that churches open from the west and spread eastwards. Not sure why. Inside of the former chapel:

View back out to the cemetary from inside the church

One of the tombstones was for someone aged 102 in 1759:

Walking out of the cathedral was this nice view -- hills, gravestones, bit of sun:



There's a tower there, with a door starting some 2m off the ground -- to keep the rain out, as the tower was for storing documents/scriptures.

Glendalough = Valley of two lakes. We had time to walk along to the further one and back.

Republic of Ireland never got food and mouth disease. They "cancelled tourism" for 29 weeks (not sure what that means) and shot any animals that tried to wander south. and tested all of their own animals twice over. 

There are signs about people shooting dogs. They are serious -- the dogs tend to worry at the sheep, which can cause them to miscarry :/. 

Back in Dublin, lunch at Avoca.


I really enjoyed the name of this little mexican food place (only makes sense if you know a small amount of Spanish):



Walked around, through Trinity college grounds. 
Overheard people speaking. Sounds strange hearing "like" thrown into the other somewhat musical-sounding English (that is, I was sort of sad that at least the college kids seem to have picked up this American-ism).

Saw these cute posters everywhere advertising an exhibit at "the Ark":


Stopped in at the Science Gallery and their "Fail better" exhibit. 
It was an interesting idea.:

FREE EXHIBITION OF BEAUTIFUL, HEROIC AND INSTRUCTIVE FAILURES AT SCIENCE GALLERY, TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

Everything from a centrifugal-force birth-aid (never built & used, just patented) to the story of how Dyson disassembled and rebuilt vacuums until he came up with his "cyclone", bag-less thing.


Tune in next time for Dublin Castle/Dublin City and Dalkey. Later, Howth. Then, the story of our time in Galway!