Ireland 2022

  Extended Touring 03/22/2022 Posted on  March 23, 2022  by  Jerry We are tourists and we do tourist stuff. I am interested in the story behind the story. Europe has churches all over the place that were built in medieval times. Ireland has its share. Today we will visit two of those. Christ Church and Saint Patrick’s Church. Christ Church, located in the heart of medieval Dublin, was founded in 1028 by Sitric Silkenbeard, King of the Dublin Norsemen. Sitric’s father was a Viking and his mother was Irish. Christ Church is the eldest medieval church in Dublin, the second being Saint Patrick. This church has served its membership for over 1,000 years. Like anything else, its fortunes rose and fell through the years. After 800 years, there was a certain amount of restoration and renovations that needed to be done. A Dublin whiskey distiller, Henry Roe, became a benefactor for the church. Between 1871 and 1878 a tremendous fortune was spent on this work. There is a fable...

  Kilmainham Gaol 03/21/2022 Posted on  March 22, 2022  by  Jerry You could nor ask for better weather. The sun was shining, a light breeze, and not a cloud in the sky. A perfect day for walking around Dublin. We started the day off touring the Kilmainham Gaol (Jail). The jail was constructed in 1796. Initially there were 100 cells, with one inmate in each room. Later on, especially during the famine years, there were up to 5 people, or more, in each cell. There was no segregation of prisoners; men, women, and children were housed together. During the famine years, the jail population rose exponentially. There were millions of people in danger of starving to death. Getting into Kilmainham was a sure way to have something to eat. During the Famine years, only 85 people perished while they were incarcerated. They did not starve to death, they died for other reasons. During the 18th and early 19th century, in an effort to reduce its prison population, the United Kingdom...

  Sunday in Dublin 03/20/2022 Posted on  March 20, 2022  by  Jerry Not a cloud in the sky. Temperatures mid 40’s to low 50’s. Jacket weather. We had a very good Irish breakfast. Fried eggs, fried potato cakes, bacon and (I think) blood sausage. I had to try it. Linda had a waffle with ham. We had a couple of more hours to ride on the Hop On-Hop Off before our ticket expired. So we took advantage of it. We went around Trinity College, the Guinness Storehouse, and the Phoenix Gardens. I don’t know if you were aware of this, but the Duke of Wellington, the man who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, was from Dublin. They built a monument to the Duke in Phoenix Garden Speaking of Phoenix Park, it is the largest enclosed park in Europe. It has a big wall all the way around it. 700 Hectares or 1730 acres. It is very big. Beautiful park. It is also an inhabited park. The President of Ireland and the U.S. ambassador live within the park along with about 40 other families. This pa...

  Dublin Reset 03/20/2022 Posted on  March 20, 2022  by  Jerry After we came to terms that we were not going home on Saturday, we started making plans. Initially, it was to find accommodations to see us through this period of time between one test and another. There is a 7 day waiting period from testing positive until you can do a retake. Our plan is to see a little more of Ireland and be back at the airport next Friday for the retest and if things go our way head home on Saturday the 26th. We came back into Dublin and got a room at the Hilton Garden Inn, next to the Immigration Museum. (I talked about it last week). We walked back to the Spire and boarded a Hop On, Hop Off tour bus and road around Dublin for the next two hours. We saw a number of special interest locations we saw on our walking tours and quite a lot more we had missed. It was an interesting tour. We never hopped off. I think we were just tired of walking and somewhat down after the recent turn of e...

  Change of Plans 03/18/2022 Posted on  March 19, 2022  by  Jerry When we got up this morning in Belfast, this post was going to be the last post on this trip. That changed. Linda finished packing our suitcases, we checked out of our apartment, and headed to the Belfast train station. Our train departed at 10:35 for Dublin. We arrived back at 12:40. We had a taxi take us to the Dublin Airport Hilton. We checked in and then took another taxi to Terminal 2 at the airport to the Ran Doc office. This office administered the Covid tests to American citizens who wanted to return to the USA. A negative Covid test along with your passport was required to re enter the US. We had an appointment at 3:10. Went in and took the test. It took about 10 minutes. We went back to the hotel and waited on the test results, feeling confident that by the end of the next day we would find ourselves back in Alabama and home. At about 3:50, Ran Doc sent me an email letting me know my test was...

  Saint Patrick’s Day 03/17/2022 Posted on  March 18, 2022  by  Jerry Today is Saint Patrick’s Day. This day is celebrated by the Irish all over the world. Many people travel to Ireland to celebrate this day. If they only knew. Did you know that the first Saint Patrick Day parade was held March 17, 1601 in a Spanish colony that we know as Saint Augustine, Florida. A century later, March 17, 1772, homesick Irish soldiers, serving in the British Army marched in New York City. The enthusiasm grew from there. These parades were held annually until Covid 2020 and 2021 saw the parades canceled. 2022 saw a rebirth. The parade we saw today in Belfast was the first since 2019. A raucous affair, I might add. Saint Patrick’s Day started out as a religious celebration, but now it reminds me of Mardi Gras. Things to know about Saint Patrick. 1. He was from Britain, not Ireland. 2. There were no snakes in Ireland for him to run out. 3. a leprechaun was more than likely a product o...