2024Ireland

  Day 8 – Sandymount and return travel Our last day.   We took a bus to Sandymount, a nearby village from our hotel. It is charming and wealthy.   We walked to the beach. Then walked back to hotel.   We took a taxi to the airport.   There is a large area for flights to USA.   When entering you go through US immigration and customs so there is no need to do it upon arrival at US.   There is a small lounge there (free to business class, pay 45 euro pp for economy) and it is sparse. The 11-hour flight was good.   After landing at LAX it took 15 minutes before they opened the door.   Then the hike from the remote part of terminal B to the street was 20 minutes.   It did not save us any time from normal US immigration/customs at LAX. Getting a taxi was another hike. They moved the taxi rank into a parking area and it was not easy to find. When we got there, there were no taxis a a few people ahead of us. Luckily, it only took about 10 min...

  Day 7 – Dun Laoghaire Another day of no rain.   We took a train to Dun Leary (correctly spelled Dun Laoghaire), a very nice city south of Dublin. It is a fishing port and a ferry depot.   We walked on the east pier (there are two – east and west – of approximately the same length, and each has a lighthouse at the end) to the lighthouse. It is one of the longest piers in Ireland – about 1.5 km and it has two levels. There were a lot of people walking, many with dogs even though it was cloudy and windy. The views of the Dublin Bay were great. We then went to the National Maritime Museum of Ireland. It is housed in a 180-year old Mariner’s Church, which is quite beautiful in its own right.   The museum was fascinating and we could have spent hours there.   We were accompanied by a docent, a very knowledgeable and chatty lady, who told us countless stories from Irish maritime history. One of the exhibitions was about RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) ...

  Day 6 - Dublin We started the day with a bus tour of Dublin.   There was an all women’s marathon scheduled for today so many streets were closed.   The bus tour was not great.   After that we went to the National Gallery.   Impressive. We mostly looked at Irish art because we knew very little about it. A few pieces stood out – a 1951 painting called A Family by    Louis le Brocquy, some paintings by John Yeats, brother of William Butler Yeats, and most of all the exquisite stain glass works by Harry Clarke from the early 1900s.   Then we walked along St. Stephen’s Green to the Museum of Irish Literature.   It is a very interesting place, and the way the “displayed” literature is beautiful. It’s both visual – with large panels with information and quotations and also auditory – pieces of literature in both English and Irish are being read.   In one room, there is a large display of lines from Joyce’s Ulysses, and in front of it, in...

  Day 5   - Glendalough and Kilkenny   Today was an all day tour to Wicklow mountains, Glendalough and Kilkenny. We took a taxi from the hotel to the tour meeting place in O’ Connell Street. We got there at about 8:20 am and the bus was already half full. The tour started at 8:45 am and it was completely full. Our guide Martin was very friendly and chatty and very knowledgeable about Irish history. We were surprised at the end of the tour when he told us that this was only his fourth tour. Before he retired, he was a high ranking guarda (police) official. Our driver Mike was just as friendly and knowledgeable. The first stop was Glendalough, one of the most important monastic sites in Ireland. It was founded by St. Kevin in the 6 th century. It has the ruins of a church and a couple of other buildings, a standing 30 meter high Round Tower and a very picturesque cemetery. All this is set in a valley among gorgeous green hills/mountains. It’s a very beautiful and pea...

  Day 4 -- Howth We originally planned to take a Hop on-Hop off tour around Dublin, but we got off at the wrong bus stop, right in front of the train station so we changed the plan and took the train to Howth, a fishing village north of Dublin. It was a good day to go there because it was a rare sunny day. Howth is a very picturesque village and a real, working fishing port. A woman in the Tourist Information gave us a map and directed us to some sights. The biggest attraction of Howth (other than the seafood) is the cliffs walk between the village and the Summit. It’s about 6 km and traverses the hills around Howth, providing b eautiful views. She advised us to take the bus to the Summit and then take the walk downhill, much easier than in the opposite direction.   We started the exploration from the abbey, which we found with some difficulty after inquiring at the garda (police) station. The abbey is a relic/ruins from the 11 th century, in the middle of a cemetery on a...

  Day 3 – Coastal villages to the south This morning we decided to visit four costal villages to the south of Dublin: Dun Laoghaire, Dalkey, Killiney and Bray. We debated about the order, but decided to do it from the farthest to the closest. We took the DART train to Bray first. Years ago it was a fashionable resort town, but now it’s gone downhill. We didn’t quite know where to go so we walked to the center of the village, which was not very impressive. Then we walked back to the ocean and the beach, and our impression improved. There are beautiful old Georgian buildings along the beach, a green belt and a lovely pebbly beach. To the south there is a big hill with a cross on top, from where supposedly there is a magnificent view. We didn’t climb the hill, though. We asked a local for restaurant recommendation for lunch, but when we went there, they were not serving lunch until noon (it was 11:30) so we decided to take the train to the next village – Killiney hoping to grab lu...

  Day 1/2 Dublin 5/28,29/2024 Easy ride to LAX, no traffic.   Airport lounge food was surprisingly good.   Great flight on Aer Lingus. A taxi ride from airport to Hotel (Intercontinental) took about 30 minutes. We chatted with the very friendly cab driver (native of north Dublin) the whole time. He gave us a lot og good information about the city an places to eat. The hotel is very good, and although it’s not in the city center, the location is very convenient – in a lovely area,   a 5-minute walk from a bus stop and train station.   We found out that in order to use public transportation without having to worry about exact change, we need to buy a “leap card” that can be use on all busses, trains and trams. So after checking into the hotel, we walked to a Spar store (sort of like 7/11)   and bought one. You can “load” as many euros on it as you want.   One-way bus or train ticket from the hotel area to city center is 1.3 euro.   Then, we to...