Dublin City Center, June 6

Wednesday, June 6

Jane is back at school today and I’m off to City Center again. I walked over the Ha’penny Bridge (officially the Liffy Bridge), built in 1816 and around Temple Bar. I’m getting pretty good at getting around the city with my map! 

 The Ha'penny bridge is so called because that was the toll amount to cross it at one point in time. The Liffy River divides Dublin between north and south.

Ha'penny Bridge

 Temple Bar is the area south of the Liffy River. Originally this area was outside the walls of the city of Dublin. This is the area for nightlife in Dublin.

 This building houses a store called The Pen Corner. As the name might suggest they sell pens and other writing supplies. I couldn't find out anything about the architecture of the building, which I really like.

The Pen Corner

After a rather circuitous route I found my way to the National Gallery. 

There was an exhibit of Harry Clarke stained glass. I was able to get very close to these windows.

 

His windows have a beautiful, jewel-like quality to them that I don't see in other stained glass. It's almost as if he made them out of jewels, instead of colored glass.I didn't even bump up the saturation on these photos. This is the actual saturation of color in these windows. Just beautiful!

Parquet floors, chandeliers and a massive painting at the end of the room. So impressive! I don't know how they get pictures that size into these rooms. Do they bring in the rolled up canvas and then stretch them on the frames once they're in the room? The painting is called The Marriage of Longbow and represents the Norman conquest of Ireland.

 

 I am always amazed at how sculptors can make marble looks like soft, flowing fabric.

There were some beautiful enameled copper pieces in the museum. The were quite small. Maybe a little larger than a silver dollar. Two of them were portraits of Victoria and Albert. 

Also in the portrait hall is a recent portrait of Graham Norton. A contest was conducted to see who would be chosen to paint it. It was done in 2017 and I think it's a great likeness of him.

All the walking I've been doing for the past week and a half is catching up with me. My feet started hurting so I headed back to Jane's to relax.

Later this evening Jane, Allison, Lucy and I went to see a play at Bewley's Cafe Theatre. The play was called Burdian's Ass by SR Plant. It's a two-man play set in a taxidermy shop that is falling on hard times. It was really well acted and quite absurd. We had a good time.

Inis Meain, Day Two- June 2

Saturday, June 2

Had breakfast at Ah Dun. They had a good variety of choices from cereal to a full Irish Breakfast. Then we went out for another walk. We walked back over to the west side of the island and went out farther than we did on the previous day. At one point you have to leave the road and climb through a break in the wall. The path beyond that isn’t difficult, but it's also not a nice, paved road and I’m sure it’s slippery in wet weather.

path to Cathaoir Synge

There’s a place you can get to called Cathaoir Synge (Synge's Chair) where famous author and playwright, John Milling Synge would sit and write. It's a breathtaking view and I can see why he spent his time here!

view from Cathaoir Synge

While we were walking back we came upon a man unloading sheep from a truck and turning them out into a pasture. His sheep dog was certainly checking us out-needed to make sure we weren’t going to bother his sheep! Jane made a comment about the dog looking after the sheep and the man said “not this one”.  Apparently this dog would prefer to chase the sheep than herd them. He said the dog he had previously was a much better sheep dog. The man was quite friendly and chatty.

east side of the island

We decided to try and find the pub again. On the way we stopped into Church of Mary Immaculate. 

Church of Mary Immaculate

 It’s was lovely and small and had beautiful stained glass windows. Jane told me they were made by renowned artist Harry Clarke. They were quite beautiful. They had a sparkly, jewel-like quality to them that I haven’t seen in stained glass before. I lit a candle for friends and family who have passed on. Even though I’m not Catholic, I’ve gotten the habit of doing that any time I visit a church where they light candles as a way to remember those who have come before me. 

Harry Clarke stained glass windows

in remembrance of those who have died

 We walked over to the old pier on the east side of the island. There are lovely beaches on this side!

east side of the island, north of the old pier

 They have a tiny airport on the island.

airport

We tried, unsuccessfully, to find the Knitting Company Factory so went back to the B&B and waited for the Taxi to bring us back to the dock for the ferry back to Rossaveel.


From there we drove to Galway and our next B&B, Galway Guesthouses. This is a lovely place, located just a short walk from Eyre Square Shopping Center. After we checked in we walked down here and had dinner at Maxwells. The food was delicious!

pork belly cooked 10 hours!

A young woman was setting up the table next to us and Jane started chatting with her. Turns out this woman was going to San Francisco soon. She had been born there but came to Ireland as a baby and this was her first trip back. She was really looking forward to it. She was so nice, she even brought us a little taste of the soup of the day in demitasse cups. I was facing the window which looked out onto a busy shopping street. At least 10 “hen parties” went walking past the window. Jane says Galway is a popular spot for hen parties. It was fun people watching.

one of the smaller side streets off the main shopping street

After dinner we walked around the shopping district. It was packed with people shopping, drinking, having a good time. It was getting dark so we headed back to the B&B. Not 20 minutes after we got back to our room it started POURING rain! I was in the shower, so at first I thought it was the sound of the shower. Then I realized it was raining. I pictured all those people down in the shopping district scurrying for cover and packing into the pubs and shops. It lasted about two hours.