Month: May 2018

Our hotel in Dublin was near the American Embassy. It also had a Bentley out front when we arrived – a classic version that would have belonged to a collector. We went for a short walk in the area before dinner to get acclimated and gave the car the once-over when we returned while trying not to get so close that the owner would get upset.

The next day we visited St Patrick’s Cathedral first thing in the morning. It was founded in 1191. Jonathan Swift, author of “Gulliver’s Travels” was its Dean in the 1700s. The guided morning tour included Phoenix Park, which has the residence of the President of Ireland, the official residence of the US Ambassador to Ireland, a zoo, and a huge cross erected to commemorate when Pope John Paul II visited. There is also a small castle and a fort. After the park, we took a tour of the Guinness Brewery. I downed Mom’s sample as well as my own.

We were dropped off by Trinity College for lunch (those of us who wanted to stay in the main part of Dublin instead of returning to our hotel). Mom and I wanted to see the Book of Kells. The most widely accepted origination story is that it was the monks on Iona in Scotland who began the book and then carted it off to Kells when Iona was being raided by the Vikings. It is a gorgeously illustrated version of the first four gospels of the New Testament of the Bible that is thought to have been created around the late 6^th century through the early 9^th century AD. We weren’t exactly the only people who wanted to see the Book of Kells. The line snaked its way for quite some time before we were able to get a quick glimpse.

On the way back to the hotel, we went through Merrion Square (which used to be residential) and found a statue of Oscar Wilde in the garden of the square. Apparently he once lived in one of the houses there. The houses were all offices by the time we visited in 2005.

The following day we started off at the Irish National Stud. Despite all of the interesting things that could come to mind, it is where thoroughbred race horses are bred and trained in County Kildare. It had once been the private property of a wealthy Scot who gave it to the Nation of Ireland when he left for the US.

The Rock of Cashel is in County Tipperary and is considered to be the site where St Patrick explained Christianity to King Cormac of Munster in the 5^th century and performed a couple of miracles while he was at it. He used the shamrock to explain the Trinity. This was also the location from which it is said that Patrick drove the snakes from Ireland. The Druids, which were the main religious group in Ireland at the time, wore arm bracelets in the form of snakes. So when the Druids were driven from Ireland, it was said that the snakes were driven from Ireland. The buildings on top of the Rock of Cashel were built in the 12^th and 13^th centuries. The legend is that the rock was a part of a mountain about 20 miles away from which St Patrick cast out Satan. This piece flew off and landed where it stands now.

Blarney Castle is a partial ruin of a medieval castle. Tourists like to hang upside down and backwards over a very steep and lethal drop (trusting whoever has them by their waist or ankles not to accidently let go) and kiss the “Blarney Stone” which is supposed to give them eloquence. Not this sister. The combination of being both quite short (which means that I would be held by my ankles) and afraid of heights meant that there was no way I was going to give it a go. Mom wasn’t interested either. So we bided our time by wandering around the castle grounds, the gift shop and a place where we could sit and have some ice cream until everyone on our tour who wanted to kiss what I’m certain is a very germy stone got the opportunity to do so after paying £7. There was an interesting little garden that contained such plants as ricin, opium, wolfsbane and mandrake – poisons all.

After Blarney we were ready for the Ring of Kerry. First we spent the night in Killarney. It was a beautiful night and our hotel was near a park, so we went for a very nice walk before dinner. It seemed that this particular trip tended to alternate between sunny and rainy nearly every day. So we grabbed those sunny days when we could get them – especially since so much of our activities were outdoors.

We followed the Ring of Kerry counterclockwise (or anticlockwise). It seemed to me that the most spectacular scenery came near the end of the trip around the ring but it is all very scenic. En route to Limerick, we stopped off at Adare, which had some cute, thatched cottages.

We were spending the night in Limerick in a new hotel that rose up 25 stories and straddled a portion of the River Shannon. Our room for the night was a suite on the 14^th floor. But we didn’t spend much time in the room as we were going to a medieval banquet at Bunratty Castle that evening.

If you have never done a medieval dinner in the UK or Europe and have the chance to attend one, I highly recommend it. The food is good, but not spectacular. The main reason for going is for the comradery with the others on the tour and the fun involved with the entertainment. I have been to one that was as authentically medieval as possible, involving both the food (and the utensils used and means of serving it) and the entertainment (including jugglers, acrobats, and minstrels). This particular one was more of a medieval themed dinner with medieval themed entertainment, but was in the actual banqueting room of a real medieval castle.

Before leaving town the next morning, we visited St Mary’s Cathedral – founded in 1168, with the tower added in the 14^th century. Just a short distance from the cathedral is the 13^th century King John’s Castle. It was built by King John of England over the remains of a 10^th century Viking’s settlement which was discovered during excavations in 1900. Both are located on an island where the River Shannon and Abbey River meet.  This is where the historic core of the city (founded in 812 from a settlement that stretches back as far as 150AD) is located.

The entire time we were in Limerick, it was dark and rainy. We had hoped to get out of the bad weather when we left Limerick, but it actually got worse the closer we got to the Cliffs of Moher. We had some very thick fog at the cliffs which dissipated enough during the hike from the tour coach to the actual cliffs to allow for a somewhat decent photo.

I really liked the town of Galway, in which we arrived by lunchtime. It was still raining, but people weren’t letting that stop them from exploring this very colorful town. It is located in the west of the country, near the coast, in the province of Connacht . We were told that McDonaghs had the best fish and chips in Western Ireland, so that was where we went for lunch. I do have to say that their fish and chips were quite tasty.

We stopped in at a pet shop on the way back along the street and bought a dog toy that said “Crufts Best in Show” on it. Crufts is the British equivalent of the US’ Westminster. It didn’t take long for my dog (who was about a year old at the time) to chew a pretty good chunk out of it, so it went to the top of the fridge where it remains today.

In the afternoon, we went to Knock in County Mayo. Along with Lourdes and Fatima, Knock is one of the major shrines in Europe. In the late 1800s apparitions of the Virgin Mary, Joseph and John the Evangelist appeared in front of several townspeople at the location where the shrine now exists.

Back in Connacht was a town called Sligo, which has a large number of prehistoric sites (including several burial mounds) in the vicinity. The harbor in Sligo was known by the Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans who came to trade there. Much of the current town is medieval. Our hotel was close enough to the coast that we could see it from the hotel. The rain had stopped by the time we got there, so we could take a walk before dinner.

The next day on our way to Northern Ireland, we stopped off at Drumcliff to see the grave of poet W. B. Yeats.

From Edinburgh, we traveled nearly straight south across the Scottish Lowlands to the border town of Gretna Green. This was where English couples who wanted to marry, but were underage, could get hitched at the blacksmith shop. This was because England had laws regarding age and parental permission while, in Scotland, a boy could marry at 14 and a girl at 12, with or without parental permission. Since Gretna Green was the most easily accessed town directly across the border, it became a popular place for elopement from the 1700s on. It’s still a popular place for weddings because of the romantic idea of the place.

From Gretna Green, we crossed into England, skirted Carlisle, and headed for the Lake District. Our destination was Lake Windermere for lunch and a boat ride. It was a beautiful day, so we had a great time tooling around the lake (which is the largest natural lake in England) and then having some lunch at a café on its shore. Then we were off to Chester, taking the M6 down in between Liverpool and Manchester. My maternal grandmother’s father’s family came from Oldham, which is now a suburb of Manchester. But we were heading for where my maternal grandmother’s mother was from – Caernarfon, Wales.

Before we got there, we spent some time in Chester, which was founded as a Roman fort in roughly 79AD. With a wealth of medieval buildings, Chester is one of the best preserved walled cities in Britain. After the Romans left, it became a Saxon city and the walls were strengthened. A walk along the walls shows the medieval parts of town as well as some of the Roman ruins. It takes quite some time to get around the entire walled in part of the city, so we only walked along a portion of the walls. Another thing about Chester is that the main medieval shopping area of the city has galleries up one level from the street that people can use to travel from shop to shop without ever going back down to street level. A forerunner of the skyway system we have in Minneapolis called “The Rows”. We spent the night across the Welsh border in Wrexham.

The next day, our Tour Director let Mom (whose name was a very Welsh “Gwendolyn”) and I sit up front in the tour coach so we could see everything as we entered Caernarfon. The town was originally Roman and became part of the Kingdom of Gwynedd in 382 after the Romans left. In the 13^th century, King Edward I conquered Wales and built Caernarfon Castle.

Our Tour Director told us that the Welsh dragon was originally the standard of one of the Roman Legions. But when the Welsh defeated that particular legion, they took the standard and incorporated the dragon as their own. Of course when King Edward I conquered Wales, he liberally used the image of St George (patron saint of England) slaying the dragon.

Mom and I toured the castle before getting lunch at a café not too far from the castle. Although the castle is a ruin and parts of it were never completed, the walls are pretty much intact and the entire place is quite large. There are parts of the walls that can still be explored, including a couple of the towers. We explored every part of it we could.

In 1969, the Investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales took place at Caernarfon Castle. The large, black disc upon which this ceremony took place is still there and can be seen not too far from where Mom and I are posing for a photo together.

After our lunch, we still had some time, so we explored the town a little more and found a shop where we could buy a large Welsh flag (which currently hangs in my enclosed porch, along with a Scottish flag and a Union Jack). We were tickled to hear several people speaking in Welsh. Had no clue what they were saying, but loved the musicality of the language. My grandmother had said that she used to hear one phrase a lot as a girl. This was “cau eich ceg” which means “shut your mouth”. She also knew “Siarad Cymraeg?” which means “Speak Welsh?” But I wasn’t going to use either one while we were there. The one would be insulting and the other I wouldn’t be able to respond if someone answered in the affirmative. So I kept that tiny bit of Welsh language to myself.

After rejoining our tour, we traveled onto the Isle of Anglesey where we stopped off in a town called   Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch. I cannot even begin to try to pronounce that one – far too many consonants and nowhere near enough vowels. It involves a lot of clearing of the throat and a certain amount of spitting. What it means, though, is “St Mary’s Church in the Hollow of the White Hazel Near to the Rapid Whirlpool of Llantysilio of the Red Cave”. Got that? Good. There will be a quiz later.

We traveled across the Isle of Anglesey, took a bridge to the Holy Island to Holyhead and there took a very large ferry, called the Jonathan Swift to Dublin. That is where the story continues the next time.

Coming from the north, we entered Edinburgh by crossing the Firth (estuary) of Forth. The road bridge at the time (2005) wasn’t anything special (a gorgeous new bridge opened in 2017), but the rail bridge is a bright red, cantilevered bridge opened in 1890. At the time it was built, it was the longest cantilevered bridge in the world. The bridges span from North Queensferry to South Queensferry. The queen was Margaret, wife of Malcolm Canmore (son of the Duncan that MacBeth murders in Shakespeare’s play). The two Queensferrys were originally small villages, between which the ferry ran, that have been swallowed up by Edinburgh.

This time, we stayed at the George Hotel on George Street in the New Town, across the street from the Hard Rock Cafe. The hotel was created in the 1880s from five 18^th century town homes (it has been added onto over the years, so it has an old part and a new part). Its style at this visit was Victorian (they have since updated the hotel to a more modern style). The room Mom and I had was in the old part of the hotel overlooking George Street. A full Scottish breakfast was included. One of the things that I really like about the full Scottish breakfast is that it includes porridge (oatmeal). It helps keep me plenty full until whatever time lunch comes along.

The included morning tour took us to Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace. Then we had the rest of the day free. Since Mom and I didn’t plan to join in with the Scottish Night (since we partook on another tour), we had the evening and night free as well. After having lunch in the undercroft of a church near the hotel (some churches throughout the UK have small cafes with home-cooked food at a very reasonable price), we walked over to the Waverly Bridge (right by the train station and in the shadow of the Scott Memorial) and caught a Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour. There are several of them. I like the ones with live commentary and always at least figure out which one I want, and possibly even book it, in advance.

Our first stop was Charlotte Square in New Town. There is a Georgian Townhouse at No. 7 that is furnished as it would have been back when the house was new. It was designed by Robert Adam and is open to the public.  The kitchen and wine cellar (as well as the gift shop) are in the basement. On the ground floor are the dining room in front and the master bedroom at the back. The first floor has the withdrawing room and the parlor. The second and third floors haven’t been restored and aren’t open to the public, but they would have contained bedrooms.

The residence of the First Minister of Scotland (aka Butte House) is right next door at No. 6. The First Minister is the leader of the Scottish government. This house, which is much larger than the Georgian Townhouse, was also designed by Robert Adam in the late 18^th century. Much like No.10 Downing Street in London is used by the Prime Minister as both a residence and place of business this house is used in the same way. It is not open for public tours. We thought it was really interesting that we could walk right by it and visit the house next door to it as the entirety of Downing Street is cordoned off and heavily guarded.

Once we got back onto the Hop-On Hop-Off bus, we stayed on until we reached Greyfriars Bobby Pub in the Old Town. Out in front of the pub is a statue of the Skye Terrier who sat faithfully by the grave of his master in Greyfriars Kirk Yard (church yard) until his own death nearly 14 years later. People in the pub used to feed him. When he died, he was buried just inside the entrance to the kirk yard. Sticks and dog toys are frequently left at the grave, though there were none there the day Mom and I visited – just some flowers.

At the Scottish Parliament, Mom realized she had some small scissors in her bag just before we would have needed to send our bags through the x-ray.  It was about that time that I remembered I had a Swiss Army knife – one with several knives, a couple screwdrivers, scissors, some small pliers, a bottle opener and a corkscrew. Since we would have had to surrender these items forever in order to enter the building and tour the inside of it, we chose to forego that idea and go over to Holyrood Palace to spend some time in the gift shop and café. After that we hopped back onto the tour bus and rode it all the way back to Waverly Bridge.

Since we had a nice cream tea at Holyrood and our hotel room had a fridge, we decided not to go out to dinner later and picked up some items at the Sainsbury’s on the way back to the hotel. We got some bread, cheese, pate, fruit, milk for me, iced tea for her, and some ice cream for dessert. Then we relaxed and watched some TV back in the room after getting everything set to depart Scotland for the Lake District of England, the town of Chester, and Northern Wales the following day.