Ireland days two and three

Part of the fun of a trip for me is planning. I love reading, researching, and studying maps and guidebooks. I never did get around to rereading any Joyce before this trip, but I did pick up some William Trevor, and I got through most of that stack of books from the library - a book of Irish Saints by Richard Reilly for children was a favorite and useful with all the ancient ruins we drove by. Another surprising useful book was the 1990 Fodor's guide. It was written in a much more entertaining and informatve style than the Eyewitness or Rick Steves' 2017 guides.  I took it along because it had a lot of history in it, but it ended up being useful when we were looking for a place to stay one night - almost all of the numbers for lodging listed in that 1990 book were still in service!  Helpful for the traveler with no immediate access to wifi...Back to the travelogue: Rested and refreshed after a good night of sleep, we awoke ready for more adventures. Since our son had a morning class, and we had covered so much of Dublin in our first day, we set aside my original plan and headed south to Dun Loaghaire (pronounced Dun Leary), a little seaside town our son had mentioned enjoying - as well as home to the Martello Tower where Joyce spent a week and set the beginning of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The tower is now a little Joyce museum, but it was still closed. Nonetheless we had a nice little morning stroll along the coast, where we observed the bathers who jump in the frigid Atlantic every morning for their health.  We watched them emerge, bodies reddened by the icy water, and huddle together in their parkas and gossip.  I'm sure there are some restorative properties to this action, but it won't be one of my health practices.On the drive back we missed the opportunity for coffee and breakfast because first we got just a tiny bit lost, and then we lost the hubcap. But no worries - nothing we could change after making the call-in order for a new one.  So we picked up our son and decided to explore a little more of the area south of Dublin.  As I said, our original plan was to stay in Dublin for the day, and after the stress of driving through the city the day before, I didn't think my husband would want to drive very much. But Joe also highly recommended Glendalough, and I had noticed a waterfall on the map about halfway there, so we loaded up.  The drive was lovely, through winding country roads past fields of grazing sheep and rocky meadows. We hardly saw any other cars. We found the falls, just off the Powerscourt Estate. They were stunning. We walked around on the rocks in the creek a bit, and I promptly slipped and fell in the water. I protected the good camera, but while trying to rise, dropped my phone. It didn't freeze up, but I had a good excuse to turn it off for 24 hours.  After a short stroll around the falls, we loaded up in the Micra for Glendalough. Our destination was the ruins of St. Kevin's monastic settlement, a site that dates back to the 6th century. One of Ireland's oldest stone crosses still stands here, 1200 years after it was erected. Most of the buildings are from the 10th - 12th centuries, although the round tower may be older. St. Kevin was a priest who led many people to Christ, but he wanted to live the life of a hermit. So he escaped to this valley between two lakes and found a cave to make his home. He lived on a hillside for some years, but was often visited by people seeking his wise counsel.  There is a legend that a blackbird laid an egg in his hand, and he sat still until the egg hatched.   

Our guest house, The Merrion Ballsbridge Townhouse

Forty Foot, where intrepid swimmers brave the icy water year round.

Joyce's Martello Tower

Powerscourt Falls.

Powerscourt Falls before I fell in

An unusual young pine - maybe a Norfolk Pine?

A hint of fall! Note the gorse bush in the foreground. Our son apparently earned cash from a bet he wouldn't jump in a shrub.

Sheep on a hill!

From the monastic city of St. Kevin

Millennial cross

People were shorter back then!

View from St. Kevin's Kitchen to the tower

After spending most of the day at Glendalough, we had to get Joe back to campus for a lab at 10. Again, we didn't leave ourselves time for eating anything but snacks from the convenience store. To be honest, this is one of my favorite ways to save money while traveling (and lose weight): Eat only one big meal a day at a restaurant, and eat snacks and coffee the rest of the day.

While Joe was taking his second class, Dan and I split ways so that I could see the Irish Writer's Museum and a couple libraries, and he could head to the Guinness Storehouse to meet Joe for the tour.  They had the glitzy, modern interactive experience, while I gazed at old texts in glass cases. Sometimes splitting up keeps everyone happy.  We didn't really have a good plan for meeting, and their tour took longer than expected, but it worked out. I had some quiet time to catch up on notes.  I After my rush across town, and my breathless visit to the Chester Beatty Library, I was happy to sit and reflect for an hour or so.

The Irish Writers Museum

Georgian ceiling

Pretty icons of muses for each month - Edwardian?

Portrait Gallery

Sinn Fein door

St. Peter

View of Dublin Castle from Chester Beatty Library - a surprisingly amazing library.

The Library is the collection of Chester Beatty, a guy who donated his collection ancient papyri and other old documents to the state. In the collection were parts of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, third century copies of the Letters of Paul, and, oldest of all, cuneiform blocks. It was another surprise I hadn't really planned.

Oscar Wilde statue at St. Stephen's Green

Underworked nag

In front of St. Patrick's Cathedral

Nearly Christmas season

We thought we might make Evensong at St. Patrick's but the Guinness tour lasted to long, so instead we went to hunt something to eat.  We were trying to find a pub that would have live traditional Irish music, but we kept popping into pubs that had loud rock music and were packed with young singles. We finally grabbed a burger at burger bar - not a pub, but a fancy toppings kind of thing. The burgers were absolutely fabulous. Reinvigorated after a hot meal, Joe led us across the river again to another pub he had been to before to watch a ND football game, and lo and behold, here was the crowd and the live music we had been looking for! We were some of the youngest there, but the music was fantastic. (Murray's was the name I think...) Another thing I learned to love: Irish waitstaff don't bug you. You can sit and drink one beer all night long, which is great.

After a few rounds of Irish ballads and drinking songs, we caught the bus back to our hotel, another day done.  When you only have five days in a far away land, each one is precious. So on our third day, we didn't sleep in, but got up to take a long walk into the city while Joe was at class. I wanted Dan to see the library and Dublin Castle, and we both wanted to peek inside St. Patrick's Cathedral, and perhaps see the well where St. Patrick baptized people. But we arrived before it opened to tourists, and the steep admission price deterred us from waiting around just to take a quick peek, so we never did go inside the church.  Instead, we quickly peeked into the Chester Beatty Library, enjoyed a stroll through a park, and got some exercise in before picking up Joe to head west to Galway.

There is always something more to see or do, even in our own town where we have the luxury of more time. Then again, sometimes a place in the imagination is more vivid and meaningful than the real physical locale.

Dean's library behind St. Patrick's

A little fairy garden

Marker for Jonathan Swift's address

St. Patrick's by day