Dublin Green and The Rock of Cashel
Oh-my-gosh! Every where I look it’s green!
Only…it’s not what you think.
It’s green jerseys! There are crowds on the street on Sunday night that rival New York, Times Square! A game must have gotten out and we showed up right at party time! There’s a street/area called Temple Bar that has many pubs on it. All of them are loaded…the people as well as the pubs. Live music fills the night from many doors. We even saw a guy dancing while balancing a full glass of beer on his head. He didn’t spill a drop even when he somewhat ran at people and stopped before he and they had a beer bath. Our hostel was in the Temple Bar area and our ear plugs and blindfolds for sleeping are the best buy we made.
After that night, things were more normal if still highly crowded. What a city. St. Patricks Cathedral is huge and old. Its’ inside looks like an ancient, heavy keep…no bright colors anywhere. We got to hear evensong service here. It is beautiful. Christ Church Cathedral (how many Archbishops do they need here?) isn’t as big but has a huge crypt. I briefly got lost in it (more disoriented than lost I guess). Kilmainham Gaol (jail) was very picturesque and forbidding. It has been used as a set for some movies. “In the Name of the Father” with Daniel Day Lewis was one of them.
What can I say, After that visit, we had to go to the Guiness Storehouse. It is a museum as well as a beer hall. That is misleading. there is a round sky-room at the top floor which looks out over the city. We both had a beer here. The floor below had more of a big beer tasting place than a beer hall. It had many types of guiness to try. Some of these types we had never seen before and I don’t think are sold in the USA. I could be wrong. We didn’t try any others, we had more Dublin to explore. As a side note, we were told by Robert Dunn at the Scotland farm (Ardna Mushrooms) we worked at to try Guiness for sure in Dublin since it is “unpasteurized” here. It tasted thick and great as Guiness always does but since I am not a brew connoiseur, tasted the same to me.
Later, after we had went to Kilkenny and were on the way to Wexford, we had a brief layover between trains. During this time we went to the Ireland National Museum. It was a smallish museum and we went through everything we wanted to see in an hour. Yes, a museum in an hour. It was fun to see and we did take time to read things but compared to London Museums and even Minnesota Museums, it was small.
That’s it for Dublin. On to Kilkenny. (“They killed Kenny…”–Southpark Quote just for fun)
What a fun little town.
It has a castle in it.
Of course we went to it. It was recently refurbished and is very Victorian in its design even if originally way-back-when it wasn’t. The Butler family owned it for hundreds of years and changed it over time to fit their tastes. It is now government owned. I loved the library, drawing room, and the huge west wing art hall. The ceilings were tall and ornate and although there was a lot of Victorian furniture and “foof” Victorian stuff on the tables and walls and such, it didn’t seem heavy with decoration or claustrophobic with furniture. It seemed spacious and clean.
You’d still have to pay me 3 million dollars to dust it all but what-the-hey.
The next day we spent at “The Rock of Cashel”.
WOW!
A ruined Cathedral with small castle with a chapel and possible upper floor scriptorum with a house of Vicars with a very old graveyard covered in giant Celtic crosses! All this on a huge hill overlooking the town of Cashel. The day was blustery and sometimes rainy.
IT WAS PERFECT!!
This could be a moody, movie set. Near it was the ruins of Hore Abbey.
Did I get your attention?
It is named after the grey robes the monks wore there. The grey was supposedly the same color as hoarfrost.
Whew! Sigh of relief that I’m not getting naughty on this blog.
We didn’t pay to get into the Abbey. It was an open ruin we crossed a field to get to. It was once a Cathedral-like church with attached monk buildings. Now, it is a high-walled ruin; open to the sky.
After we explored Cashel a bit, we went back to Kilkenny.
Sidenote; even though the Rock of Cashel is only 30 miles from Kilkenny, the bus ride, because of side stops to different towns and round about roads, takes about 3-4 hours one way.
Alright, so we make it back to Kilkenny. That night, we go to a local pub and listen to some fantastic Irish folk music while drinking a locally brewed beer called Smithwicks.
Couldn’t ask for a better day!
Write later,
Dan
Tags: Dublin, Europe
timdan2
Sounds like a magnificent time, guys! Looking forward to more pics. Autumn is full-on here; we had our first frost last night and covered many flowers. We head for Lake Itasca tomorrow for a weekend of hiking. Kenny reportedly wants to piddle in the headwaters and chase it down streem. Mad I say! Is Jake at your folks? Kina passed away on Monday. That’s all!
hey guys! sounds amazing. i’ve been lax keeping up with your entries, but better late than never, i suppose. did you find out if they have loons in the UK? 🙂
things are about the same here in MN. fall and all. check out my blog to see photos of the work shawn and i did on a retaining wall up at the sleeping fawn – you won’t believe the difference!!