Book of Kells & Dublin (Day 10)

On Sunday, we spent some more time exploring Dublin before getting on the train to head back to Limerick.

Alex with a statue of Molly Malone.

Alex's daddy had been teasing Alex about finding a leprachaun while in Ireland.

Well, we found one! He's pretty big, though.

We split into 2 groups for part of the day with my father-in-law and I heading to Trinity College for a tour of the college and do view the Book of Kells and a museum about illuminated manuscripts. The others went shopping and exploring Dublin. We got to go in the college's library... the largest single room library in the world! It was amazing. The books are almost all in Latin! And, students at the college can check them out for free, but they rarely do. Partly because they're in Latin, but also because it is hard to find the book you want - they are only arranged by SIZE!!! (The architecture was amazing, too.)

I was so sad that photos weren't allowed in either the museum or the library!!! The museum about the manuscripts was so interesting. There were even videos showing how they wrote in the books and how they bound them.

I actually saw this "statue" getting in position. Yes, it is actually a man! He would tap people with their umbrellas and startle them. He looked so real!

I really enjoyed listening to this group. The man on the left is playing a tin whistle or pennywhistle, in the middle is a hammered dulcimer, and on the right is a fiddle. (I think I identified these correctly.) I almost bought their CD and wish I would have!

Dublin Zoo & Kilmainham Gaol (Day 9)

Saturday was our only full day in Dublin. We spent most of the day at the zoo (in the rain) and touring the Kilmainham Gaol (jail) which is now a musuem.

Here is a beautiful wild heron that was walking around the zoo. I was able to find a bird book at a store and identified this heron, but I don't remember it's name!

We enjoyed watching this sea lion and her nursing pup. The Daddy came by and started "barking" at the mom and she dutifully left her baby and followed theDdaddy. Well, a juvenile sea lion jumped up on this platform and was being pretty rough with the baby. The Mommy swam back and chased off this young sea lion and laid down again with her baby... until Daddy came back and barked again so she left again. But, this time the baby was left in peace.

We were amazed at these HUGE leaves! I grabbed one to look at the underside of the leaf and was poked by some pretty big thorns!

Alex playing at the zoo.

This is the Kilmainham Gaol. The tour was WONDERFUL and we learned a lot about the history of Ireland. The gaol is now closed, but it was in use during the Irish Potato Famine of the mid-1800's. Over a million Irish people died during the famine. Many were homeless and, of course, starving. People, including children, would purposely steal to be put INTO this gaol... at least that way they'd have a roof over their head and food to eat. They were packed into the gaol and even slept in the hallways... with no beds and horrible conditions.

This is a large room in the gaol. It has been used in several movies. Back to the history... Ireland has had many uprisings as different groups tried to gain freedom from England. One of the most famous uprisings was the Easter Rising or Easter Uprising. 16 of the leaders of the rebellion were housed at this gaol and later executed.

In the "big room", they had doors open to many of the cells and we were free to walk in and shut the doors to see what it was like. Alex and I went in this cell. No, we didn't want to spend the night!

This cross is in the enclosed yard and marks were some of the Easter Rising leaders were executed.

1st Day in Dublin, Ireland (Day 8)

The day after returning to Ireland, we got on a bus to go north from Limerick to the capital, Dublin.

The train ride took about 2.5 hours and we really enjoyed it. We got to sit at a table and a snack cart came through with some delicious treats. (Have I mentioned how INCREDIBLE the chocolate was on this entire trip!!!)

The train made several stops and here is one of the workers showing a green flag to tell the conductor it is safe to continue our journey.


In Dublin, we stayed across the street from Christ Church.

We toured the cathedral that first night. The architecture was, again, amazing. I loved this pipe organ. You have to climb a spiral staircase to get up to the keyboard to play it!

This is a photo of Dublin Castle. We didn't go into it -we just walked by.

Above is one of the images from outside of Dublin Castle.

I thought it was funny seeing this cat lying next to this "no dogs" sign. I stopped to pet him and he seemed friendly. I told Alex it was OK to pet him and, yikes!, the cat hissed and scratched her! I felt so bad. I think I've learned my lesson about petting stray animals!

This is what Dublin looked like. I was surprised it was so different from Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. We stayed and watched this street performer for awhile.

And, this guy was playing a neat percussion instrument. I'm not sure what it is, but I enjoyed listening to his music.

I was surprised at how graphic this sign was! And, you could be fined 150 to 3,000 euros for not cleaning up after your dog!

And this adorable video is of my nephew learning to walk... in a pub! When we started the trip, he could take a few steps at a time, but preferred to crawl. While we were in Scotland, he started taking a few more steps. But, this night, he just decided he was ready to walk! (And, in Scotland & Irelan, pubs are much more kid-friendly. We had a wonderful meal here!)

Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh (Day 7)

For our last morning in Scotland, we hiked up Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano. We enjoyed both the view and the nature on this hike!


There are 3 lakes (or lochs) on this hill. We spent quite a bit of time watching the birds in this loch. There were a family of swans - the parents and 3 fairly large gray babies. As you can see in this photo, Alex is taking off (or putting on?) her pullover. We all had jackets or pullovers and we took them on and off multiple times every day. It would get cooler or hotter, depending on if it had clouded up for another rain or was sunny.

At first, we thought something was wrong with this baby swan's leg... but then saw the mommy doing the same thing. Our guess is that they rest their legs this way.

An unidentified butterfly on some thistle.

This is a view of the castle from Arthur's Seat. You can see it was built at a high point - it is on top of what is called Castle Rock. In fact, the street from the castle to the palace is called High Street. (It is also called the Royal Mile and is approximately one Scotish mile.) They did build their castles on "high" places and they also named their streets for the obvious, thus "High Street." Most "main streets" in the UK are called High Street.

A cute little red-breasted bird.

We saw LOTS of these caterpillars. I really wish I'd bought a book to help me identify some of these creatures!

A pair of beautiful little butterflies... or moths...

The "hike" was more of a walke up this easy path. But, it did go very close to the edge which was a steep drop off at times! These "cliffs" are called Salisbury Crags - Wikipedia defines a crag as "a steep rugged mass of rock projecting upward or outward, especially a cliff or vertical rock exposure in the north of England or in Scotland."

We saw LOTS of these large black slugs. This one has "squished" itself up as Alex put her finger near it to show how big it was. So, actually, it was quite a bit longer. I loved how "velvety" they look!

And, we saw LOTS of these snails along the side of the path.

I wondered what all of these white tents were and later found out they were setting up for the Scotish games... the next weekend!!! Oh, how I wish we could have seen those!

And, a photo of Alex in front of Edinburgh, Scotland. After this, we hopped back on a plane to Ireland. I LOVED Scotland and would love to go back. It was just beautiful, friendly, there was great food and so much to see and do. How I miss it!

Hop On, Hop Off Bus Tour of Edinburgh (Day 6)

On our 2nd full day in Edinburgh, Scotland, we decided to do a hop on, hop off bus tour. Along with the bus tour, we had tickets to 3 main attractions - Brittania (the queen's retired yacht), Holyrood Palace (where the queen lives when she visits), and the Edinburgh Castle.

Here's a man playing the bagpipes. We saw many people playing instruments for money... and we gave them money. It was really a pleasure to listen to them. We saw this man's shift end and a younger guy took his place.

Here's Alex & I on the top of the double decker bus. Alex was thrilled to be riding these double deckers! And, this is a good time to point out that I didn't have mousse or hair spray during most of our trip. AND, we usually got caught in the rain several times a day! This is early in the day, so I'm not looking too bad yet.

This is a photo I took from the top of the bus. All of the cars were so small! (These are mainly taxis.) Even the "minivan" we rented was itty bitty like these. (I drive an SUV, so these seem really small!)

A photo of Holyrood Palace from the bus.

This is on The Royal Yacht Britannia. Many famous people besides the Queen have stayed aboard this yacht. It was first launched in1953 and retired after 44 years.

The formal dining room on the yacht.

The Holyrood Palace. This is the official royal palace in Scotland and the Queen spends one week here at the beginning of every summer. My favorite part was seeing the rooms that were lived in by Mary, Queen of Scots.

Attached to Holyrood Palace are the ruins of Holyrood Abbey, an Augustine Abbey. The architecture was amazing!

Another photo of Holyrood Abbey.

From the bus, we had to walk several blocks to Edinburgh Castle... in a downpour. We got soaked, but I eventually stopped and bought a couple of umbrellas. (Yes, it took us awhile to learn to ALWAYS have an umbrella or hood available!) That's the corner of one of our Scotish umbrellas.

Alex in front of part of the castle. This castle was HUGE with many buildings.

After the castle, we went into this kilt making store. It had a museum in it showing how they made the tartans. We were so tired, I just barely looked at it. But, they also had an area where you could put on real Scotish clothing and have your photo taken! I was so excited! I thought this might be our favorite memory from Scotland. I went to sign up, though, and we were 5 minutes too late! They'd stopped taking reservations for the day and we would be leaving in the morning. Too bad!

As we walked around looking for dinner, we saw this DOUBLE rainbow! I hadn't realized how many rainbows there would be in Ireland (thus all of the tales about leprechauns and rainbows!) and Scotland!And, for our last evening meal in Edinburgh, we went back to this restaurant we LOVED so much! As you can see, it is called Filling Station. I guess it is more an American restaurant - they played American music and had American memorabilia on the walls. Alex and I had incredible pizza and garlic "bread" (like pizza) both nights. We also had incredible desserts the first night! (We were too full this night.) Alex loved a Scotish "kid's drink" they call a juice (but it's a soda) called Irn Bru. It tastes kind of like Cream Soda.