Wrapping Up in Ireland

So we weren’t overwhelmed by the Rock of Cashel, but we met some interesting people in the town of Cashel. The Italian man who is quite the entrepreneur. He owns one take-out pizza place, a sit-down pizza restaurant complete with a mini movie theater and the local sporting and hunting goods shop. The Irish owner of the B and B where we stayed (who also owned the hostel next door). Can’t say we were super impressed with our accommodations (the heat was on a timer and we were freezing, and the room faced the street, which was noisy), but the people were nice. There was a Malaysian woman in her sixties who served us breakfast and who travels the world by working where ever anyone needs her. This is her second time in Ireland and next she is planning to hit New Zealand and Australia (where she has a sister) before figuring out how to see Greece and Italy.

The drive from Cashel to Dublin was shorter than we thought. Yay! I am about driven out. It was a beautiful day and we breezed into a very expensive parking garage in Dublin and headed to Trinity University to view the Book of Kells. Maddie had read about how the monks used to spend lifetimes copying the pages of the Bible, so she thought it was cool to see some of the actual hand-written pages. Then we just did some exploring of the city, including Grafton Street and St. Stephen’s Green. Our strolling led us to the National Gallery of Ireland where Maddie got a special kids pack with a route to follow and questions to answer. We discovered my new favorite painting: Carvaggio’s The Taking of Christ. It is a picture of Jesus being taking by the soldiers in the garden at Gethsemane. But what makes the picture so cool is that the artist painted himself as a passive observer to this act of betrayal.

We are staying outside of the Dublin at this great Marriott resort that we traded in our Marriott points for. I love the Marriott points. We end up in the nicest places.

We attended Christ Church (Church of Ireland) in Dublin for Easter service and got to hear the Archbishop of Dublin preach. When he processed with the other clergy into the church, he had on his full regalia, complete with headwear. Maddie was disappointed to learn that he was not the Pope. Skip and I were drawn to the shepherd’s crook that he carried. I think I’m going to have to get me one of those. It was full-on high church. Smells, bells, organ music by Bach and Mozart. The whole deal. Maddie was bored, but we assured her she would survive.

After a little more strolling in the city, we came back to our hotel so Maddie could do some swimming. I think for our next vacation, we’re just going to find a hotel with a pool, between a candy/ice cream shop and a gift shop. All of Maddie’s favorite vacation activities. Just a quick Ireland fact: all hotels with indoor pools require swimmers to wear swim caps. We got some at our Dingle hotel, so we were all set here. We all look way cute in our matching red and white caps.

We have all, over the course of the vacation, picked up Ireland sweatshirts. Skip says that he and I can not wear ours on the same days—even though they are somewhat different. We’ve already got the matching hiking boot thing going on. Maybe he’s right. The sweatshirts might be over the top.

The news of the Irish economic crisis continues to get worse. Even though the new taxes increase with income, the people they call “the coping class” here are getting hit hard by the combination of increase of tax and the reduction of benefits and exemptions. It’s a big mess.

We are headed home tomorrow. We’ll catch a ferry out of Dublin and land in Holyhead, Wales and drive the four or five hours home to London. It’s been a good vacation—although a little more tiring that any of us would have liked. I spent way too much time planning (some of which turned out good, some not so good) and way too much time behind the wheel of the car. Next time, I’m booking a tour!