Dublin and Bray

Saturday was our day to go to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College. Wendy had been before but it was my first visit. We reserved tickets the night before to try and avoid the lineups. We could go anytime from 10 to 10:30am; we still had to line up with all the others with tickets but still shorter than the non-ticket line up. We spent an hour and a half learning all about the illuminated medieval manuscripts from early in the 9th century, considered one of the greatest treasures of medieval Europe.  There were explanations about the parchments used, the inks, pens, brushes, and the derivation of the icons used in the artwork surrounding the Latin texts. 

Main entrance to Trinity College. 

After seeing a few pages of the actual Book of Kells, we visited the Old Library, a very long vaulted gallery room, lined with 200,000 old books; many must be reached by tall narrow wooden ladders or by one of two spiral staircases. 

We spent the afternoon wandering around Dublin, checking out shops and having lunch at Avoca clothing and woolen department store where they make delicious sandwiches in their food court. 

We were concerned about where to have dinner as it has been less than stellar the last couple of nights and then remembered a French restaurant, Chez Max, right by Dublin Castle where we had lunch in April.  Wendy phoned to make a reservation. Absolutely essential here we found. We had a delicious dinner so we're pleased we had thought of it.

Chicken supreme (with a lemon sauce, mashed potatoes and green beans (delicious) for me.

Sea bass with rice and roasted tomatoes with a herb coating, Wendy says - also delicious.

Dessert: Creme brûlée for me and a chocolate mousse for W

On Sunday we had arranged to meet our Camino buddy from the Irish Camino Society, Jim McNicholas at his home town of Bray, which is just 20 km south of Dublin. Jim had come over to stay with us last February for the Cdn. Camino AGM as the keynote speaker. We met him again in April when Wendy and I attended the Celtic Camino conference in Westport, Ireland that Jim was organizing. 

We took the DART Train from Dublin - a local commuter train. 

 

Jim met us and we started along the Bray promenade to the end of town then were met by Joe Maguire whom we had also met at the conference last April. The 4 of us walked up the first hill of the Bray Head hike and met up with Jim's wife Ann, Joe's wife Aline and youngest daughter Clare. All haved walked various caminos. We hiked towards the town of Greystones along the coastal cliff path which is a very popular path for hiking, especially on the weekends. It was a great hike - about 10km round trip. We walked as far as the EIRE sign on the hill, white painted rocks that were a sign to the German pilots during WW2 that S. Ireland (EIRE) was neutral and so no bombing. The rocks are still there but just recently uncovered after a brush fire in July of this year.  Although the Irish Republic was neutral during the war, a small ferry going between the mainland and an island just off Bray had been torpedoed by the Germans with over 700 civilians loosing their lives. 

Jim and Wendy walking along promenade.  Bray Head in the distance. 

It's a rugged path but fairly flat with only a few hills.

 

The town of Bray from the trail.

Jim & Ann McNicholas, Wendy, Marion, Aline & Joe McGuire in front of Dockside No. 8 where we had lunch together.

Eggs Benedict Bray style with shredded ham hock on ciabatta.

After lunch we headed back to Dublin in time to get ourselves organized for our flight back to Canada tomorrow.

Portrush to Dublin

 We had a good day in Portrush - strange weather from sunny blue sky to rain (Irish Mist) to so windy that we could not have our umbrellas up and then right back to sunny; it cycled like that all day. We were determined to walk both beaches - the West Strand and the East Strand. If you look at a map of Portrush it comes to a point that is the downtown area with a long beach on either side. Gorgeous wide sandy beaches. No pebbles, shells or seaweed - just beautiful sand to walk on. We saw a few surfers too. Brrrrrrrr!!

East Strand Beach

East Strand looking back towards town

West Strand beach - close to where our apartment was

West Strand looking back at town; harbour is where the crane is in the distance.

We went for coffee at Cafe 55 Bistro which is situated looking down the beach, and ran into the young couple we had met doing the bus rambler yesterday. From Manchester and travelling around N. Ireland (a 10 minute flight from Belfast) for a week on the bus. He forgot to bring a coat which she thought very funny. Had a good chat with them about travelling. 

The next morning we headed back to Dublin on the train. Difficulty buying tickets ahead of time as the the Portrush train station is closed for the winter!!!! Could not book online as their system kept telling us we needed to update our browser - since we both have new phones we guessed this was a tactic to get us to pay the higher rate charged at the station or on the train. It is up to half price if you book online ahead of time. We did discuss this with the conductor we bought our ticket from on the train, and he totally agreed with us and said he hoped they would improve the system next year! 

We arrived at Dublin Connolly station at 2:45 and walked over to Blooms Hotel where we had stayed last April. I had arranged to meet Jim O'Dea who is an old friend of my sister Barb. Jim worked as a teacher in Fort St. John for 3 years back in the day Barb worked in Rose Prairie during her first year of teaching. I had met Jim then so it's not surprising that I was worried about recognizing him since it was only 42 years ago!

Jim now works as an independent tour guide, history buff and genealogist - but I didn't know that. After a cup of tea he said  "Let's go, I want to show you a few things". Well - he gave us an amazing amount of information and a great tour of St. Patrick's Cathedral which neither of us had been in before, and then for another 2+ hours we walked quickly around a number of neighbourhoods and through St. Stephen's Green. Did you know that in Dublin a red light for pedestrians only means look first, then walk - most Dubliners don't wait for the green light. Only the tourists are left standing on the curb!  Who knew?? 

Irish Family Tree in St. Patrick's, grandparents at top, parents in middle, siblings either side, favorite kid in the middle underneath, other kids beside (probably his sisters) !!!

Wendy and I with an amazing stature of Oscar Wilde in Merrion Square across from house he lived in.

Jim, Wendy and I

We finished at 6:45 at The Palace Pub which was jammed but Jim showed us how a true Irishman negotiates the crowded pub. He also demonstrated how to make the Guinness a little less bitter - he added a little swirl of black current syrup from the bar. Quite a different taste, and we both wanted to try it.

Jim has organized a reunion for the O'Dea Clan every other year since 1998, holding it in their ancestral castle in County Clare. They have up to 250 come from far and wide, including Papua New Guinea. The schedule included a costumed reenactment by locals of a historic battle their family had been involved in.  And a banquet for 250. Yikes - makes our Harris reunion every 2 years sound like a little dinner party - anyone can do that!!!!

We left Jim after our Guinness and went back to our hotel in Temple Bar area. Anyone who has been to Dublin will know that this area is party central for young folks from all over Europe. It was very hard to get a booking for this weekend so we took this room but when they hand out earplugs at the front counter - take note!  Hmmmmmm . . .

Two more days to explore before we get on that plane. 

The Causeway Ramblers

We just had THE Best day in Northern Ireland! We bought rambler passes on the local bus that goes between Portrush and Ballycastle. It's a full day pass for £8 each so we could get on and off as often as we wanted. We boarded the bus at 10am in Portrush, our first stop only 10 min. along the road. It's a coastal road right along the top of the cliff and barely wide enough for a small car to pass in the opposite direction of the bus. It's incredibly beautiful. I asked the bus driver if he really got to drive this road every day and he grinned from ear to ear and gave me a thumbs up!

First stop Dunluce Castle: built in the 1500s by warring clan chiefs from Scotland: it's now run by the Department for Communities, Historic Environment Division and is an active archeological dig site as they recover the village of Dunluce that was just outside the castle. It's quite fascinating to see such a large ruin with diagrams and recreation pictures so you can see what was where hundreds of years ago.

Portrush can be seen behind in the distance on far cliff.

Second stop The Giant's Causeway: N. Ireland's first Unesco World Heritage site and one of its main tourist attractions with a big fancy tourist centre that we chose not to visit because of the cost. It's free to walk down to the site if you came by bus and are not parking a car. They make it easy for those who can't walk far by providing shuttle buses. But you get a much better view of the area if you walk the kilometer down.

We had lunch of tomato and basil soup with scones in this very cute old school house now a pub/restaurant called The Nook.

Third stop Carrick-a-Rede: which means 'rock in the road' from Scottish Gaelic. It has been a rope bridge for over 350 years used by fishermen to access and catch migrating salmon on a little island. It's now run by the National Trust. I had heard about it quite awhile ago so it was a on my to-do list. I had to do a bit of talking to get Wendy to come but she ended up thinking it was great fun too.

There were lots of rocks and slippery spots once over on the island so you need to be careful and watch your feet placement. Loved it! 

Our selfie on the island after which we walked back to the road to catch the bus. It was getting pretty cool and windy by then. Caught last bus of the day at 4:45, into Ballycastle, the end of the line, and then came back all the way to Portrush with that bus, about an hour. It was a great day, only stop we didn't make was Bushmills distillery. Huge crowds there and we didn't really care one way or the other. 

We were so lucky with the weather all day today - made for a great day out!!

 

Belfast to Portrush

A very pleasant train ride north to Portrush. First train to Coleraine then transfer onto another train to Portrush which is right on the coast. Less than 2 hours all together. Portrush is a small summer tourist spot. Lots of holiday trailers in big areas right near the ocean and gorgeous beaches. At this time of the year many things are closed down and tourists have gone home except for those hardened types who don't like being anywhere the crowds are and don't mind it cooler. 

Definitely the case in Portrush yesterday and today. We decided it's certainly the shoulder season: windy, cloudy and a bit rainy off and on with temperatures around 12C. We are in a AirB&B apartment for 4 days. It's very nice, and lovely and quiet, about a block from one of the two big beaches here.

We have been asked where the heck is Portrush a number of times so I will just put up some pics of the place. It's right up north of Belfast on the coast. It's called the Antrim Coast and from here there are a number of sites we can go off to visit. 

Old dance hall on right, now coffee shop and art gallery

 

And then after a long chilly walk, into a great coffee shop called "Grounds" for:

fresh scones with a latte for me and an americano for Wendy.

It's lovely having a place to go home to where we can make our own meals for a few days. We do get tired of eating out all the time.

Belfast - Sunday

We got ourselves going a little earlier so we could walk over to Titanic Belfast. This world class museum opened 6 years ago, on the grounds of the shipyard where the Titanic and its sister ship the Olympic were built.

It's a gorgeous building and the different parts of the museum follow along one after the other, so you don't have to worry about missing anything. One of the most interesting parts of the museum is a "Disney like ride" that takes you in a little 6 person "car" up and down a number of floors as if you were going through the inside of the ship's hull as it was being built. Think of the space mountain ride at Disney but not totally dark and no roller coaster like dips and falls. I found the whole exhibition quite fascinating and we took a couple of hours to go through it. There is even a section at the end about the movies and books that have been written about the disaster. And real life video interviews with some survivors. 

The Titanic was built along this strip of ground as seen from the museum building.

Downtown Belfast from up in the museum building. There is a water moat all around the outside walls which makes it quite a dramatic sight to see.

Belfast sites

View from our 8th floor hotel room towards the Belfast Hills. Note wall mural of William of Orange (King Billy). 

We are heading north on the train tomorrow morning to the seaside town of Portrush. If you follow golf, their world famous golf course will be the site of the British open next year. 

What did I think of Belfast? I think it's trying hard to regain what it lost during the Troubles when many folks moved away. Tourism has started back again and they are very grateful for that. The people whom we met were lovely and have such a wonderful sense of fun. Even the guy at the train station when we were inquiring about tickets to Portrush and about the train times. I said  - can we go out and sit to wait for the train. He said you can go out but there are no chairs so there is nowhere to sit. I said ok we'll stand and watch for the train,' except a watched train never arrives. His reply was  "Nope, it's a bus that never arrives!"  Just a lovely sense of humor even for small exchanges!