A Month in the UK - Week 3 (Ireland)



 
Day 18
We arrived in Dublin, Ireland on Sunday, October 2, 2011, it's  capital city is home to 1.8 million people in that city alone.  My goodness.... And the gas price is enuff to make you want to turn in the 4 wheels and adapt to the public transportation which is how we got around in & out of the city.  It was a cinch but can you say $1.47 per liter, not gallon?  that's apprx over $5 bucks a gallon in the U.S.  Fact, drivers pay over 70 buckaroos to fill up a "SMALL" car.  Mrs. A. it costs her over $100 usd to fill up her Sebring.   Anyway, Dubliners sure know how to have a good time.  The weather was marvelous and the people were warm & friendly, as I stated in last blog.

As promised, here are pics from my time in Dublin.  I will try to narrate & keep it simple if possible :)





After we flew in, we wasted no time & hit what's called the "City Centre" of Dublin.   But before I show you those pics you have gotta see the view from my hotel window at the Radisson Blu, it was absolutely plush.

This is the back view from my hotel window.







This hotel is popular for its landscaping & is the setting most used in weddings.







And this is me in the front view of hotel.






Full front view of Radisson Blue, Dublin, Ireland.






Hold that thought, time out, gonna go eat dinner....pizza!!!

Okay.  Here we're heading down to the City Center on the local bus.  It kinda looks like I'm still in Dallas, but look closer at the sign.  I look a bit tired, we literally came from hotel, checked in & headed back out.  Didn't want to waste anytime gettin out.  And we rode the double decker bus wherever we needed to go ( €1.85 euro each way, which is $2.35 usd).






Headed into downtown City Centre







At the River Liffey which flows thru the centre of Dublin & supplies most of it's water.

The sun was going down, but we weren't finished yet.

Made our way over to the Hard Rock Cafe. Surprise! they have one here too.  And guess what game they had on the big screen uptop? The Dallas Cowboys & Detroit Lions...how bout that!

The guy workin the door didn't know the score but I now know the Cowboys lost.

Well, I leave you with this pic of me enjoying a nice soft ice cream mix. It's on the lines of marble slab, if you've heard of it before.  It kinda pricey but well worth it.  Be sure to stop back by, this is just the tip of the iceburg of what I plan to share.  Dublin is kewler than I thought.  I almost thought I was in Dallas, if it weren't for some of the historical buildings but they got it goin on in Dublin, fun...fun...fun.

This is Traventure Woman, cheerio for now :)  gotta get some sleep I'm pooped.  It's just about 11pm here and almost 5pm there.  G'nite.

Day 19

Monday, October 3, 2011 & we have left the hotel & headed to City Centre.  This is pic of Church at the corner of the bus stop pick up.   Love the message.

Dublin Castle was until 1922 the fortified seat of British rule in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland. The Castle served as the seat of English, then later British government of Ireland under the  Lordship of Ireland (1171–1541), the Kingdom of Ireland (1541–1800), and the United Kingdom of Great Britain (1800–1922). And and established as the Irish Free State in 1922.

Me in front of a portion of the castle that still remains.  Yes I did tour inside.

I met these ladies while touring the castle.  Both are from Amsterdam, Holland the lady in the middle is portugean & the other is Dutch.  We had a fab time.

Touring one of the rooms in the castle.  There's a lot of history dating back centuries which for us is usually found in school history books or library books back in the States.  That's the tour guide.

This is the room where Britain's Queen Elizabeth II delivered her historic state address in Dublin May 18, 2011.   According to the tour guide it was the 1st visit of a queen to visit Ireland.  The last visit from a monarchy was 100 yrs ago in 1911 by King George V.

This is the ceiling of the room where Queen's address was made.  It was a sight to see up close.  Tour guide said it took 3 yrs for the painter to complete it.

Now in the lower portion of the castle where it was excavated & 100s of thousands of pieces of treasures, jewels, skeletal remains, furniture, all kinds of stuff was found & is now located in the National Museum in Dublin.

Well cheerio for now, gotta get some things done.  But please stop back by there's much more to share about Ireland.

Radisson Hotel - Dublin (rear view)

A better pic of the rear view of hotel.

Headed to Dublin City Centre.

Irish Times Newspaper Building.

Saw this Church ministry on my way to the Library.

Pic take of college students most were coming from nearby hostel.  Can't recall what the bldg is in the pic. 

Sorry, I don't remember the name of this bldg either

Obviously the gospel is being preached around the world :)

 An old historical ship docked.

Dublin has some intersting architectual buildings but very cosmopolitan.

See what I mean?  And this city is packed with tourist...such as myself every single day of the week.

Isn't it lovely.  I could have spent the whole night down here, which sorry I don't have any pictures of.  They had folks in the streets showing off their talent w/dance, with playing instruments. 

They had a dart train that ran throughout the city.

See the trains?  I told you this place was packed with people & this is a weekday.

Christ Church Cathedral

Standing in front of Christ Church Cathedral, it is massive.

Like I said this Church is massive.  It conects to the other side of the street.

Well on that note, I will tune out right here & prepare my dinner.  It's lunch time there in Dallas, right about 11:30a.m. there & 5:30pm here.  The weather is 16 celsius which is 60.8 deg farenheit. So just a tad nippy & windy but comfortable.  To the dublins that's pretty warm to them.   I believe Dallas has been in the 80s this week, much nicer than the 100+ weather we were having when I left last month.

This is Traventure Woman signing off til tomorrow, tune in again.  I still have pics to share of the Natural History Museum, you know with the stuffed prehistoric animals :) St. Patrick's Cathedral & the Irish Sea which seperates Ireland from Great Britain.  There are 4 countries that make up Great Britain (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales & England) & it's present monarch is Queen Elizabeth II.

Tootles for now :)

Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin

Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, also known as The National Cathedral and Collegiate Church of Saint Patrick or in the Irish language as Árd Eaglais Naomh Pádraig, founded in 1191, is the larger of Dublin's two Church of Ireland cathedrals and the largest church in Ireland.

Inside St. Patrick's cathedral.  Facing the front of sanctuary.

Facing rear of sanctuary.

Elisabeth did not wait for me to get in position to take the pic & is why you have the awkward shot of me walking.

Now, you can tell who was taking the picture, yes, me :)

Beautiful stained glass was amazing to see.

Day 20

These are pics were taken at the Dublin National History Museum.

Nope, it's not what I was expecting.  You'll see in the next few pics.

This winged beauty (bat) was found in the good ole USA....lol!

See what I mean.  Most of the animals were not prehistoric at all but regular animals we see at the zoo.

Needless to say I was just a tad disappointed.  I guess compared to back home, I'm talkin bout my original home...home...as in L.A., Calif. home, at the History Museum, you'll see all the dinosaurs in their makeshift habitat & so on.  Anyway, it was entertaining if nothing else. 

However, they did have some interesting skeletal remains of certain animals like this one was an elephant, they had some ancient prehistoric mammals as well.

Well, that's it for the day.  Sorry, I ran out of time to upload pics by the sea, so that'll have to be on tomorrow.  It's dinner time....woohoo!

This is Traventure Woman saying good-night for now!  One week to go & I will be heading back to the states.  Will leave Dublin & spend my last week in London, before flyin back home.  I'm kinda lookin forward to gettin back to some type of normalcy, in otherwords, the comfortability of being in my own country :)

Day 21

Okay, it's been a minute since I last blogged but my schedule got a little busy, well actually a lot busy.   Am finally able to get the last pics of Ireland uploaded, so here you go.

 

 The Irish Sea is right behind me but you can't hardly tell bcuz the tide was out. And I'm actually standing on the shore of the sea bed.

Just me again :)

A town called Black Rock in front of some Irish hills, they don't have mountains.

Was walking along collecting seashells & clams.  I had to throw some clams back, the clam was still it em...ewww!

I had walked quite a ways out & took this pic of the town I was stayin in.

Just a pretty sight for a pic.

I did make my way out far enuff to actuall touch the water.  Can't possibly come all this way to the Atlantic Ocean & not dip my finger in the Irish Sea.

Gonna wrap things up, fly back to London for one more week.  Stay tuned....