So I have been in Dublin for a whole day and no rain! Lol. It was cloudy all day but the temps were perfect for walking/sight seeing. High of 65 (that beats the 95+ we’ve had in Charlotte!). I feel like I went back in time to early spring.
But first, a wee bit (love the Irish accent!) of history! Founded as a Viking trading settlement in the ninth century, Dublin grew to be a center of wealth and commerce, second only to London in the British Empire. As the seat of English rule in Ireland for 750 years, Dublin was the heart of a “civilized” Anglo-Irish area known as “the Pale”. Anything “beyond the pale” (west of Dublin) was considered uncultured and almost barbaric. So that’s where that phrase came from!
Today was a day of a lot of walking. I got to my place fairly early (9:30 AM) and the owner already had the room ready. I got settled in and headed off for the “Rick Steves walking tour” from his guide book. That mostly covered the northern side of town.
Then in the afternoon I took one of the “free” (pay what you feel it’s worth) Tours by the Sandemann Company. That lasted 3 hours but covered the southern part of town.
I then came back to my place and found this beautiful park just a block away. There were lots of young men playing what I think was hurling (no, not throwing up!). It’s a sport where they use wooden sticks that look like short hockey sticks and hit this ball while in the air. I guess you could call it airborne hockey!
So the pictures in order are as follows: Looking down the River Liffey, which splits the city in two. Next is this cool hand sculpture and building in the background. I’m not even sure what it is. The next two pics are the outside and inside of St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral (as in provisional). It’s not a full Cathedral since the Pope designated two other churches in town as Cathedrals.
Next is the outside of their City Hall. I’m always amazed at the grandeur of their city buildings.
The next four pics are all tied in with Dublin Castle. As far as European castles go, this one is pretty lame (compare it to Neuschwanstein castle in Germany from one of my last trips)… OK, that just made me sound like a castle snob! Lol. The one pic of the wooden doorway with two heads next to it has St Patrick on the right. He brought Christianity to Ireland and also drove out the snakes.
The next four are from what’s called the Temple Bar area. It’s name came from the Temple family and a “Bar” was a strip of land along the river. So it had nothing to do with an actual bar but there are many jammed into several blocks and they say it gets really rowdy at night. I was a little too tired tonight but am going to check it out tomorrow. I loved all the flowers around the bars.
And the one pic is a statue of a fictional character called Molly Malone. There’s an old Irish song that talks about her and they say it’s good luck if you rub her “upper chest”. As you can see from the pic that area is pretty shiny so I guess I’m getting a lot of luck! Lol.
The last pic is from the cool park I found near my AirBnB. I’m in this laid back suburban area east of town close to the water. There’s supposed to be a beach near me but I haven’t found it yet.
OK. That’s all for today. Happy Monday to all! Shout out to my son-in-law Josh, whose birthday is today! Happy Birthday Josh!
The Wandering Italian 