Ireland

River Liffy-Dublin

Temple Bar District-Dublin

August 23, 2007-Friendly Folks

Poor David saw a laughable sight and couldn't share it. We'd all fallen asleep in the car on the way to the airport. We were on the expressway and had forty miles before we had to look for exit signs so we all nodded off. What he saw was a line of cows crossing the highway on a pedestrian bridge over our road.

If you know David you know he likes to leave plenty of time when going to an airport. We left our hotel at 6:30 AM for what the directions said was a two hour drive. We had four hours to make it and return the car. It took us three hours and we didn't get lost. It took us a half hour to return the car. We did get lost within the airport complex. We got chummy with a man we asked directions of several times and he wished us.  "All the best," each time. Even the guys in the security compound who came out (unarmed) before I could enter and violate all the signs on the door that I didn't notice called me "love" but couldn't help.

I was impressed that they had baby food for sale and baby menus available at the Manchester airport. David had seen them at lots of restaurants too. We flew Lux Air (based in Luxembourg) to Dublin. It was only a half hour flying time. Things were easier once we could find our gate. It wasn't posted until they announced that the flight was boarding. The flight attendants had their heads sticking out of the plane door wondering where everyone was.

Where’s the Green?

Ah, the wearing of the green! It was green when we hit landfall after flying over the mountains of Wales and the Irish Sea. We taxied along green runways. Then we hit Dublin. It's a city. It doesn't look polished and the buildings aren't charming so far but we're in an area that's being gentrified. I guess it hasn't arrived yet. We were used to pastoral charms and have to re-orient to citification. What more can I say? Our hotel, the Park Inn, is well located near the River Liffey and within walking distance of the Temple Bar district where there are scads of restaurants. The hotel is modern and funky. Kind of cute in an off-beat way if you like salmon red walls. We do. The disinterested desk clerk told us he knows little about the city or its services and didn't seem interested in learning. He's only in Ireland for a few months then goes home to Eastern Europe. The Ciminis didn't have a reservation when we got here despite having correct vouchers. On the other hand they had our booking correct but also had us returning on Oct. 1 for another three nights. Whoops! We got that all straightened out and David went off to buy a phone card so we could call the tour company in the States. They called back with the number of their local contact. We'll touch base with them tomorrow.

One thing that threw us was the traffic light system. Red traffic lights on either side of the road mean no turns. There's a small green arrow showing that through traffic may proceed. It took a couple of beeps behind us to figure that out.

We ate at La Med, an Irish/Italian restaurant in the Temple Bar district. We had authentic Irish stew. It had to be authentic. We were in its homeland. We would have slurped up the soupy parts but didn't want to embarrass ourselves. We used bread to mop up all the juices.

Tomorrow we'll do a hop-on hop-off bus tour and hope to hit the Guinness Distillery. I imagine our hopping may be impaired after that.

Toby