A Full Day

It’s Tuesday today, at least I think it is. It all runs together a little. The alarm went off at 7:30 and we got up and moved furniture a little to make space for us to go through the modified day 2 of BodyFit, even though both of us wanted to go back to sleep. Afterwards we got cleaned up and went down for the extensive included breakfast buffet. I didn’t find out you could get oatmeal until too late, but we both got filled up. I like the yogurt here and in Ireland better than home.

We had so much fun with the hopper bus in Ireland that we decided to do it here (tickets conveniently available at the concierge desk), but I’m not sure that was the best thing. The city is much bigger and more congested, so we spent an hour on the bus and didn’t really see too many sights – mostly expensive houses and places to shop. By the time we got to St Paul’s my zephyrhillis had flared up, so we got off the bus and toured the cathedral.

The best part was the climb to the top of the dome, which is over 1,000 steps and has the most amazing view. It starts with a wide, shallow spiral staircase with wooden treads, then moves to stone treads, and finally a series of spiral staircases made of iron. One you get to the top, the walkway is narrow and the railing is old, so we both alternated between being blown away by the view and having panic attacks about the height. We’ll return to those feelings later today. Both of us preferred the climb up to the climb down. The former is just tiring, the latter adds in the fear of falling. But we made it safely to the bottom with no mishaps. We visited the toilets there several times, because the ladies’ room won the Loo of the Year award. I kid you not – there is such an award, and it won it. I didn’t find it all that spectacular, although it is the only place we’ve found that has paper towels for drying your hands as well as the ubiquitous blowers.

By the time we got down I was starving. We’d come up Fleet Street on the bus and the tour guide had said there were good pubs on it, so we headed back that way. I wanted pie, and the first pub we came to didn’t have any, so we continued on. The second one we came to was called Punch, and it advertised a large gin selection as well as “award winning pies”. So we went in and it was perfect. For one thing, we were the only non-locals as far as I could tell. For another thing they had DoomBar beer on draft, which is named after Dave (his nickname is Doom) and which I really liked. Also the food was good, it was quiet, and the peas were tasty. It was a nice break in the day. One odd thing was they had a TV turned to BBC news (that’s not odd), and in the corner of the screen was someone repeating everything in sign language. It’s like closed-captioning, only not as useful to the general population.

Our plan was to get back on the bus and head to Westminster Abbey, but after we’d waited for the bus a while we realized we needed to get there in less than an hour, so we popped back on to the tube. We got off Bank, which shows on the map as connecting to Monument. It does, but it’s a 5 or 10 minute walk underground, up and down stairs and escalators and along moving walkways. It’s really an experience of its own. Also during the journey there were some places where this signs said “keep left”, and others where they said “keep right”, and others where you could walk on either side, so you needed to stay alert. We eventually got there, and then got off at Westminster, which has 6 separate exits, covering most of a city block. Fortunately the signage was excellent – as it has been everywhere in London – and we made our way to exit 6, navigated the street crossings, and made our way to the Abbey.

One of our favorite movies is called Holy Matrimony, and it has a scene where Monty Woolley, playing our hero, climbs into the organ loft and begins crying. He is dragged ignominiously out of the Abbey, and when he is rescued from the clutches of the police by Alice (played by Gracie Fields), the police tell her that he was ‘owlin’ like an ‘ound in the Abbey. So Dave and I had agreed not to howl. At the entrance they convinced us to take the audio tour devices, where you punch in the number of what you are standing in front of and they talk to you about it. It is very time consuming and more information than we wanted, and after 9 or 10 stops we had both had enough. We continued the tour in blissful ignorance of the burial dates. Many famous people are buried there, but our favorite is the stone for John Harrison, inventor of the Harrison clock, which is marked with the longitude of the stone. This made us laugh. Dave stood on Sir Isaac Newton, and we both walked over several composers, who, one assumes, have now decomposed. They also have signs for toilets which do not exist and therefore will never win loo of the year.

Interestingly, exit 1 of the Westminster tube stop is for the London Eye, which was our next stop. The other concierge, whose name escapes me, had told us he didn’t recommend it, but we were determined. We payed a little extra to get the fast track tickets, which work the same way they do in Disneyland – you basically just walk on to the ride.And quite a ride it is! It’s like a huge Ferris wheel with pods attached. The engineering of it is astonishing. Each of the pods holds 20 or so people, and they have two tracks around them that rotate so that the pods stay in the same position as wheel goes around. The views are spectacular (it’s higher than the dome of St Paul’s by quite a bit) and the weather couldn’t have been nicer – about 70 and mostly sunny. It moves very slowly and smoothly, so there’s no swooping feeling in the belly, but it is very high up, so we did have that conflict of emotions again. For me, more on the way up than the way down, which makes no logical sense – it’s just as far down no matter which way you’re travelling. It moves so slowly that they generally don’t stop it to let people on and off – it’s less jarring than stepping off an escalator. Especially an escalator in a tube station with billions of people behind you.

By this time it was almost 5, and we were ready to head home. We found the Waterloo station and tubed back to Victoria, our home station, where once again my Oyster card didn’t work at the exit. But this time I just ignored it, and we went back to the hotel. I did some writing and Dave did some researching, which is how it goes. The pub lunch at Punch was huge, so we didn’t want an elaborate dinner, and we needed to leave by 6:45 for Covent Garden, so we just ate at the bar in the hotel – it’s not great food, but it is good enough.

Here’s what about Covent Garden Station: the platform is 15 stories (almost 200 steps) below the street. There are signs everywhere telling you that the elevators are faster, and to only use the stairs in emergencies. It’s possible that if we hadn’t already done 2,000 steps (counting all the tube transfers) Dave would have wanted to see if it was true, but as it was we were happy to queue up for the elevator, which holds quite a lot of people so we didn’t wait long at all.

Once we got to the top, we had a short, slightly tense time of not being able to figure out how to get where we were going. We had gotten started a little later than we’d planned, and Dave’s iPhone was sensing the stress and refusing to cooperate. Eventually I asked one of the pedicab drivers, who tried to intimidate me into taking a ride instead of just telling me where to go. I gave him my best “don’t sass your mother” stare, and he caved.

We got to the Lyceum in plenty of time and our seats were pretty good. The show was Lion King, and we loved it. The audience was about 1/3 kids, 1/3 parents, and 1/3 adults who just wanted to see the show. The set and costumes were amazing, and unlike the Coaster Theater in Cannon Beach (which we love, don’t get me wrong!) everybody in the production could sing and act. My favorite was the rhinoceros, although there was also a zebra (say zebra, not zeebra) who could really move. Also the cheetah – “never mind the head growing out of my hind end, I’m a cheetah”. They’d put in a couple topical moments – they even had “Let it Go” from Frozen – and it was just a super enjoyable evening.

Getting home we knew Covent Garden would be closed (it is exit only until November), but I’d seen the signs for the Leicester Square station while we were looking for the Lyceum, so it was an easy trip there. We got to the platform and a train had just pulled up so we walked right on, same thing at Green Park for the second train, so we were back before we knew it, and my card even worked at the exit.  Up to our room, more writing for me, more researching for Dave, and that’s the end of our first (very) full day in London. If you’ve read this far, congratulations! I’m hoping to do and write less tomorrow.

This one's for you, Tim.

Another day, another country

Up early this morning to pack, eat breakfast, and head out to the airport on the Aircoach, whose stop is 3 doors up from our hotel. We each have two bags – a suitcase and a garment bag – and when we’re in the hotel that gives us a nice choice of clothing, but it’s a pain when we’re in transit – especially with no lift in our hotel. Fortunately we are both in good shape, thanks to various exercise programs so we were able to sling our bags along with no problems.

I had an unusual amount of trouble getting through security. First I somehow dropped my ticket, and we had to scramble around looking for it. Then I forgot I had my camera in my back pocket. So there was a pat down for that. Then I went back through the scanner, and was chosen for a random pat down. I asked the patter-downer if she’d give me a little shoulder massage as well, but she declined. Once we were through security the rest of the trip went very smoothly. We did meet another couple from Oregon on the jetway. They surprised us by asking, “are you from Oregon?” We wondered how they knew, but they had recognized the outline of the state on the OSAA pins I have on my backpack.

We landed in England and walked off the plane – no customs, no passport, no hassle. Dave had arranged for a car & driver to pick us up and take us to the hotel, and the driver was a little late which made him a little tense. But he got there not too long after we did and took us right to our hotel, which is near Buckingham Palace and very service oriented. It took a long time to get checked in and up to our room because both the woman who checked us in and Bogdan the assistant concierge who took us up to our room (very small, no view, intense flowered wallpaper that matches the bedspread, blue lights in the bathroom and the showerhead in the ceiling like a light fixture) wanted to talk and talk, and about all we were hearing was “blah, blah, blah, Ginger.” We went down to the bar and had the tea sandwich assortment – 5 tiny sandwiches with the crusts cut off - to see us through until dinner. Then we went upstairs to unpack, and headed out to brave the Tube.

When I was a student at the University of Sussex I’d come up to London most weekends and take the tube to get around, so I felt pretty confident. We bought two Oysters, the refillable fare cards, and then started off. We’d originally planned to go to Covent Garden, but decided to go to St Paul’s instead, which meant 3 different tube lines. The signage is so good that we just moved along with everyone else (it was rush hour) as if we knew what we were doing.

I love St Paul’s, and when we go there it was raining slightly and also in the middle of the evening service, which meant we got to hear both singing and organ playing. It was one of my favorite places to come when I was here, and it still is. I don’t know what it is about it, but I love it. Dave says it’s not old enough. We’ll be back.

We sat and listened for a while, then left. We walked over the Millenium Bridge, and then along the Thames to the London Bridge tube stop. We rode the tube back to Victoria Station, and we were home. Dave had been a little nervous about using it, but now he’s a pro and we’re going underground whenever we can. Here’s what, though. In all the places where there is two way walking traffic, you keep to the right. But when you’re driving, you keep to the left. Where’s the sense in that, I’d like to know? Also, you should be reading this in a London accent. Those of you who are using a Cockney accent in your heads need to switch it up. And if you’re still using your best Irish accent, you’ll need to move along from that.

Bogdan had recommended the restaurant right next to the hotel (and associated with the hotel, since you can charge food to your room). Yelp also recommended it, so we decided to give it a try. Also you don’t need a booking, so that let us be flexible. It’s called bbar, and it features South African food. We had a delightful South African Pinot Noir and 4 small plates – vegetable tagine, orange scented carrots, a SA version of lumpia, and chicken livers in peri-peri (piri-piri in America) sauce. It was a wonderful meal of unusual and delicious flavor and texture combinations. Totally enjoyable. We also had dessert – cheese plate for Dave, sticky toffee pudding (which is actually more like a cake, by the way) for me. While Dave’s boar belly at Farm remains the top single item, this meal took first place overall. We had our happy faces on for sure.

The other great thing about bbar is that it is right next door to our hotel, so we just walked in, went up the two flights of stairs, and we were done. Here’s what we’re trying to do: to appreciate each moment as if we were remembering it later. It’s a hard thing to do, since my tendency is to focus on the negative. But this is an amazing trip we’re on, and we need to be celebrating it all the time.

You thought I was joking about the blue light, didn't you?

Alive, Alive-O

A short digression about our hotel. We’re on the third floor, and it has no lift, so we are getting plenty of exercise. It has a restaurant downstairs, which has a bar which plays music that goes like this – thumpa, thumpa, thumpa, thumpa – until 3 am. On the other hand, our room is big enough that we can do a whole Nia class together without feeling like we’re going to run into the furniture, and it is perfectly located. But our windows have no view, and the staff don’t seem to be terribly service oriented, and the tub is disappointing. It bills itself as a luxury hotel, so we’re trying to figure out if it’s just that our American view of luxury is different from theirs, or if it’s not really a luxury hotel. I think for me it’s all about the tub. Also a word about Dublin, which is much more cosmopolitan than I expected, and full to the brim with tourists. I have to wonder how many tourists stay in Dublin, or if most of them use it as a jumping off point for Irish touring. Later on in the day we would be crossing the river on the O’Connell bridge in a huge crowd and only hear 2 people with Irish accents.

As I mentioned, though, our room is big enough to hold a two person Nia class, so that’s what we did when we got up this morning. We did “Feeling”, the routine I’m going to be teaching on the ship, and as always it was super helpful to have Dave as a Nia-phyte to help me improve my cueing, and he also had some helpful suggestions for words I can use to make my directions more clear. After the Nia we showered and headed down to breakfast, where we had the same as we had yesterday. Dave says he’ll have the “full Irish” tomorrow. Stay tuned. 

Notice arches and escalator, I mean stairs.

We were done with breakfast and on our way to the green bus by 10 (I have to stop here and tell you that while I’m typing I always hear the words in my head, and oddly they are now about 75% with an Irish accent. Too much Guinness for sure). Our first stop today was the Kilmainham Gaol, whose history is closely tied to the history of Irish rebellions between 1798 and 1916. It was an hour long tour of great intensity and fascination; I could have gone another hour easily. It made me think of Acts 5:33-39, where Gamaliel advices against harming Peter and the other apostles, because it would just stir things up – the same argument was made unsuccessfully in 1916, and led to much trouble. Also the man who lead the tour compared the physical layout of the newest part of the jail to both a cathedral and a mall in a way that will never let me look at either the same way. The jail was completely restored by volunteers between 1960 and 1989, and the visit there will stay with me a long time.

When we got to Kilmainham the wait for a tour was about 10 minutes; when we left it was an hour. It would have been worth the wait but we were glad not to have done it. Back on the bus and off to the old Jameson distillery – they moved their operations to County Cork in 1971, but like Guinness they still offer a tour and a drink at the old place. We’ll talk more about that after a quick and enjoyable lunch at the 3^rd Still Restaurant, upstairs in the old distillery building. Most enjoyable thing: Dave’s mashed peas with mint. Anyway, we did the tour, and it was interesting but completely unsatisfying, kind of like a Disneyland version, with half-size replicas of everything and soap bubbles standing in for fermenting wort. Also, at the beginning they choose 8 people in the group to try the 12 year old whiskey; everybody else just gets the 5 year old. And even though the Guinness tour probably processes two or even three times more people every day, this tour felt completely impersonal. I don’t think we’d recommend it.

Back on the bus, and off to Grafton Street for some shopping. First stop was the Superdry Japan store, which is HUGE here. Every 4^th person has a superdry shirt or jacket. We liked their stuff, but not enough to buy any. But I was on a mission. Faithful readers will recall that I forgot to bring a bathing suit, so I figured we’d try Marks & Spenser as they seemed most likely to have something. I had shopped at their stores in England when I was there for school and had high hopes that they’d come through. The store now goes by “M+S”, presumably to sound more hip, but I now call it “Miracles and Swimsuits” because they had only 1 swimsuit left and it was my size and on sale for about $18. Uh Huh. Cue music for dance of joy.

We did a little more wandering in the shopping district but our hearts weren’t really in it. We decided to head back to Dawson Street, because we wanted to check out the bookstore & whiskey store (voted best in the known universe). The book store was terrific, but we didn’t get to spend as much time there as we wanted because we were afraid the whiskey store would close. So we went to it, and it was certainly impressive, but also completely overwhelming as we know very little about whiskey. So we left. Our plan was to go back to the hotel, but my cathedral mania was kicking in, so we decided to walk to St Patrick’s, which is just outside the old city wall.

Hmm, arches again. 

It is a beautiful cathedral whose restoration was paid for by Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, grandson of the Arthur who started the brewery. Under Benjamin’s hand the brewery became the largest in the world, and he decided to use his personal money from that to restore the Cathedral. Strong work, Ben! While we were there they were singing in the small chapel at the East end. It was a small group, but the acoustics made it sound amazing. I want to build a chapel to sing in. The rest of the trappings – the ornate place for the reader to stand, the special seats for people with power and money – I could do without. But I want a place with acoustics like that.

What I’ve not mentioned is that the hop on, hop off bus makes a big loop, and that loop only goes in one direction. So while it took about 15 minutes to walk from our hotel to St Patricks (I wish you could hear the broad ‘A’ that the Dublin accent puts in Paatrick), it takes about 45 minutes to get back riding the bus. But we decided to ride it anyway, and by the time we got back to South Inner City (our area of Dublin) is was almost 7:00 and time for dinner. We’d decided to go back to Gogarty’s, the place where we started the pub crawl last night, and eat at their 3^rd floor restaurant (they’d call it the second floor) which won the award for gastropub of the year in 2013.

We knew right away that we’d made the right choice, because the napkins were folded in my

Also Gogarty's had Nia speak

trademark peacock shape, and as soon as we sat down the song about non-producing chickens started playing (we had some chiiiickens, no eggs would they lay. We had some chiiiiiickens, etc. Confidential to JRK – it was the lyrics I sent you, not our variation, but still…). We shared a nice bottle of Bordeaux and enjoyed the meal tremendously, although we did have to talk loudly to drown out the people at the next table talking about their doctors and health issues. Seriously, people: if you’d discuss it with your doctor, it is not restaurant conversation. They eventually moved on to talking about fuel efficiency in various cars. Not worth eavesdropping on at all.

After dinner we went down to what we in America would call the 2^nd floor where they had a guitar player with 2 fiddle players playing mostly traditional Irish music. They were good and fun. Dave had some Guinness and we enjoyed keeping the beat during the jigs (rashers and sausages, rashers and sausages), reels, slides, and other songs. When we were leaving the guitar player, who was the only one with a microphone, had said they were going to play a traditional German song, but then all the Germans started singing and he couldn’t get them to stop. It was very funny.

But by then we were ready to head back to the hotel, so we walked through the streets broad and narrow, not calling cockles and mussels alive, alive-o as we went, even though they’d had to play it at Gogarty’s. One thing about Temple Bar is that I can’t fit it correctly into the map in my head of Dublin, so I’m always surprised when we are suddenly back in the other parts of Dublin. It makes Dave laugh a lot.

And that’s pretty much it for Dublin; we’re off to London tomorrow morning. Slainte!

End note: Dave’s boar belly at Farm is the best food we had in Dublin, followed (for me) by my sticky toffee pudding at the same place.

We See Dead People

A waterfall of Guinness! Actually, just water.

We set the alarm for 8, and although both of us woke up several times before then we were both asleep when it went off. It took a bit for me to get moving – the amount of sleep was good, but the timing was still off. Our plan was to eat a fairly late breakfast and a late lunch. Our room comes with access to a local gym, so I was going to head over there but the front desk was very busy dealing with someone who was trying to check out with a credit card that didn’t work. It was ok, though, because before I left I’d worked with my physical therapist to modify the BodyFit exercises to be done with Therabands, so Dave and I worked out together. Then we went down for some breakfast. Oatmeal for me, granola for Dave.

Today was a sightseeing day, so we got tickets for the green hop on/hop off bus. First stop was Christ Church Cathedral, which was Dave’s favorite of the day. It was a pretty standard cathedral, as far as those things go. The crypt was open and it was interesting to see the arches underneath and think about how it was built. And, as always, I was struck by the contrast between the Church and the message of Christ. Also I liked that there was a café in the crypt, and also they had an organ player upstairs playing the organ which was a nice touch. At breakfast Dave had been wondering about 110 vs. 240 volts and which came first, and in the cathedral we say an outlet on the wall, so 240 clearly came first. Also we saw the bishop’s special chair, called a cathedra, which is where the word cathedral came from. Who knew?

Next stop was Dublinia, a museum of Viking and Medieval Dublin. It was mostly just ok – it was supposed to be family friendly, but they’d sort of just overlaid some things to touch on top of a traditional museum. Although it did have an animatronic Viking sitting in an outhouse, farting and then saying “ahhh”, which was the most memorable part of the museum, at least for me. Especially since you could hear him even in the next room.  They also had an interesting section on the black plague, with the etymology of the word “coroner”. The best thing about the museum is that it’s connected to the cathedral by a walkway that goes over the road, which I’d really wanted to walk through but figured it was not open to the public, but it was, and we did.

She made a shamrock in my foam! 

Back on the bus, and off to Dublin’s most popular tourist attraction (and did you know, by the way, that today is international tourist day?) – The Guinness Storehouse. Until 1988, this building was where they actually made the stuff, but it doesn’t have room for the 3 million pints they make each day, some of which makes its way to the US. It’s a great place, very well designed to move huge numbers of people through, and also very interesting even if you’re not a big fan of beer. You get a free pint with your paid admission and we drank ours in the bar on the 7^th floor, which is easily the highest point in Dublin and completely walled in glass for great views in ever direction. Actually I had half of mine and Dave had his and mine, because I still prefer Murphy’s. But drinking Murphy’s in Dublin would be like drinking Pepsi in Atlanta – you can’t find it, and if you ask for it things get ugly in a hurry.

Back on the bus. We were able to get seats on the top level, which is open air. It’s been partly to mostly sunny since we got here, with temps in the mid 60s, but somehow it’s seemed warmer. We’d planned on riding the bus to the archeology museum, but the traffic was absolutely terrible – the all-Ireland hurling championship was here today (Kilkenny vs. Tiperrary) and there are even more people in Dublin than usual. This meant the bus ride took much longer than usual, so after a short nap I suggested that we might want to get off the bus and walk – Dublin is just not that big. So we did, and it was good to get moving.

It was a 10 minute or so walk to the museum, which I enjoyed much more than I thought I would – we were there for an hour and I only got a little sleepy. Lots of Viking and medieval era stuff, plus people who had been preserved in peat bogs, which seems to dissolve the bones and leave the skin intact but very prettily colored. Also they have a room full of Egyptian mummies, which seems sort of odd, given that the rest of the museum is all about Ireland. I would have read about it but at that point the museum was closing and they were very intent on chasing us out as fast as they possibly could.

At that point we were starving, because our late lunch had turned into an early dinner. We decided to eat at Carluccio’s, an Italian restaurant fairly close to our hotel which is always busy. It has the most wonderful looking meringues, and also many other wonderful looking desserts and cheeses. The food was pretty good, and it was fun watching the waitstaff bustle around. For some reason they all wear these black caps, and many of them looked a lot alike. We did not have anything that came even close to Dave’s boar belly at Farm Restaurant – that is clearly the dish to beat.

After dinner we had a short time back in the hotel before it was time for the next event. Since we have very limited data plans on our phones, we’ve both turned off mobile data, so we have to come back to the hotel or be somewhere (like the Guinness storehouse) that has wifi if we want to use our phones as boxes of information. It’s hard to get used to. For example, today on the bus when the driver was telling us about the hurling match, our first impulse was to google it, but then we couldn’t. So it is always nice to get back to the hotel to see what’s going on in the rest of the world. But then again because of the time difference what’s usually going on is that everyone we know is asleep. But I digress.

The next adventure was the musical pub crawl, where two guys with a guitar and a fiddle escort a large group of foreigners from pub to pub and play traditional Irish music for them when they get there. Don’t worry, though, it was actually really fun. Mostly because they took us to pubs that tourists don’t usually go to, and played music that tourists don’t usually get to hear. And they got the Swedes and the Ukrainians in the group to sing traditional songs from their countries. And they told a story about the folks from Cork, where Murphy’s is made, and how they say that “If you’re not with us, you’re a Guinness”, a joke that you need to say out loud in your best Irish accent. Or maybe it’s only funny if you’ve been drinking Guinness all day.

We walked back down O’Connell Street, the widest street in Ireland, a little after 10:00 and the good times were in full swing. But as we’re still somewhat jet-lagged and I had some writing to do, it was time for us to head back to the Aphrodite Suite and call it a night – even though the bass line from the music in the bar downstairs will continue for several more hours. Perhaps we’ll get a second wind.

Jet Lagged in Dublin

Once we got checked in to our hotel, we immediately took a two hour nap. I took a quick shower in the tub, which you do by pulling the shower curtains around you so you shower in a little column. It’s kind of strange, but there’s so much water coming out of the shower head that it’s fabulous.

Our hotel is right by Trinity College, and Dave wanted to go see the Book of Kells exhibit in the library there, so that was our initial destination. When we got there, there was a huge line to get in, just as Rick Steeves said there would be at that time of day. So we decided to come back later, and went and walked around the Temple Bar area. Some things we noticed: all the official signs are in English and Irish. But almost nobody speaks Irish, so natives and foreigners are reading the same part. It makes all the signs much larger, but helps you remember that you are in a foreign country. Another thing is that within 10 blocks of our hotel you can get pretty much find any kind of food you can think of. We ended up eating at Gallagher’s Boxty House, where we had lamb stew and a corned beef boxty. A Boxty looks like Ethiopian injera breadbut tastes like mashed potatoes (which is what it is). You can buy a box of the mix which has this wonderful slogan: Fry boxty on the griddle/boil boxty in the pan/if you don’t eat boxty/you’ll never get a man.

One of the sites we saw.

As it turns out I had been able to get a man before I ever ate any boxty, so he and I left the restaurant and did more walking around. (It is interesting to speculate on the nature of time and predestination, and wonder if I was able to get the excellent man I did because of the boxty eating that would take place subsequent to that event.) It turned out it was good we ate where we did, because the next street was so filled with so many different kinds of restaurants I think we would have had the paralysis that sets in when there are too many options. Also Gallagher’s was serving traditional Irish food without having a dark interior and authentic people playing and singing traditional Irish songs, which we’re saving for our musical pub tour.

More walking around, including to Dublin Castle and the Ha’penny Bridge, and then back to Trinity for the book of Kells, where there was now no line whatsoever. By this time, unfortunately, lack of sleep was catching up with me, so I did a lot of leaning on things. The exhibit was actually very interesting, and I was fascinated by how the writing in the books looks to me like a combination of the Latin and Arabic alphabets. But my favorite part was the long room, upstairs, which is part of the original library and has very, very high ceilings and books along the walls in alcoves with windows. It looks like the library from a movie and smells perfect. Dave was suddenly struck with an attack of zephyrillis, though, and I was almost asleep, so we left the exhibit and went back to the hotel where I took a nap and Dave did research, and then I worked on the blog.  

We ended up leaving the hotel about 6 to look for dinner, which was a little late given that it’s Friday night in Dublin. I’d found a place on Yelp called The Pig’s Ear which sounded good, but when we got there they didn’t have an openings until 9. So we walked back to a place we’d seen called Farm, that advertised using fresh, local ingredients. (We stopped on the way to solve a small adapter problem – the one we bought to use on my computer didn’t accept a 3 prong plug – should have checked before we left!) They didn’t have anything until 7:15, but as they are only a short distance from our hotel we decided to wait. Instead we walked up to St Stephen’s Green to find the bus stop for tomorrow, and then we heard drumming, so we had to go find it. It was 4 punk looking guys in black tank tops and black kilts, entertaining a crowd. We stopped & got entertained too, then back to the hotel & off to dinner.

Farm Restaurant could be in Portland – it even had the list of providers on the menu. Dave had the best boar belly ever, on top of colcannon. My entrée was good, and both our desserts were totally excellent. Then a short walk back to our hotel, and now it’s bedtime, to try to get on Ireland time.

The Longest Short Day

There isn’t much to say about this day. We left our house at 7:30 AM, and we landed in Dublin at 7:30 AM the next day. It’s only 16 hours, because of the time change, but I like how it looks like one exact day. Josh drove us to the airport, which was very nice of him. When we got there the lines at security were really, really long – but we have KTNs, which means we get to go through the TSA pre-check line. Except there was no line. Just walk up, show your ticket and ID, keep everything on your feet and in your carry on, through the old-style metal detector and boom, you’re through.  I was very excited on the first flight (Alaska Airlines) because the seats had 110 volt and USB outlets. Also enjoyed their boarding process, which had very early preboarding for people who were wearing Timbers gear (they are a major sponsor) and also for people who weren’t putting things in the overhead bin. Do you have any idea how fast you can load a plane when people just get in and sit down? On the plane we watched The 39 Steps, which had bemused us at the Coaster Theatre inn Cannon Beach this summer. It turned out that the play had been a very faithful adaptation of the movie. I wasn’t crazy about either.

In Chicago we had pizza at the Wolfgang Puck café, which was very, very tasty and would have been even better if our server had brought it to us right away. I mention the pizza because in addition to sausage and bell peppers, it had pepperoncini on it which both Dave and I really liked. So that’s something to try at home. The flight to Dublin never showed up on the departures board, which was weird. It was an older 767 that hadn’t been upgraded, so no power in the seats. Dave dozed for much of the flight; I ended up watching a couple movies and TV shows, none of which were memorable enough to mention.

We arrived in Dublin and so did our bags, which was a big relief. We were supposed to take the AirCoach bus (#700) but we ended up taking the AirLink bus (#747, an excellent number for an airport bus) so we had to walk a few blocks further, which wasn’t a big deal. Traffic was terrible, though! We got to our hotel and checked in. It is the Dawson Hotel on Dawson Street, and we’re in room 402, the Aphrodite Suite. It is enormous and has a clawfooted bathtub, one of my favorite things. You could easily fit two of our NYC hotel rooms in it, but oddly it has fewer places to put clothes. But it does have free wi-fi which is how you, faithful readers, are able be kept informed.

Even though Dave reminded me to pack my bathing suit, I forgot. Now I can’t decide if I should try to find one here or see if I can get someone to mail me one from home. Other than that, things are very good.

Then it turned out there was a lot to say. Don’t worry, the 25^th is a short day as well.