Clontarf Castle
I spent a week of my travels in Ireland. The focal point and main reason for the trip to Ireland was a friends wedding on Saturday 12th July. The service was held at Mount Angus Church and then I took the bus with others to the reception venue, Clontarf Castle, which was a really stunning venue. The service and wedding were really great (I’m not going to post pics etc. of that publicly for their privacy). I gather the party went on until about 4am but I didn’t last that long and called it a night quite a bit earlier than that as didn’t want to be too tired for the next day. I stayed over close to the venue at the Ferryview House B&B in Clontarf which was OK, nothing that great.
Clontarf Castle
I have had a grand (as the Irish would say) time here in Ireland, I was staying in Robertstown which is a small village outside of Sallins/Naas (not pronounced like Naas Botha, but as good as I can explain it is pronounced as Nay S). Veronica and family were SO SO good to me here, they made me feel part of the family and I can’t even begin to express how much I appreciated the hospitality. They were naughty and didn’t let me pay for things when we went out. I managed to have a few really nice sleeps and get some of my energy back. I knew Veronica from when she came over for a work experience thing and worked at CMC in 2001 when I was also based there. It was Veronica’s birthday the one day I was here so that was cool as well. She loved the mobile, ear rings and SA music I brought over for her. I met a lot of Veronica’s family while I was here. The boys love their computer games which I watched for a while, they are big time into Minecraft I must admit I’m still not quite sure what you have to do in the game.
Grand Canal in Robertstown
Grand Canal in Robertstow
Grand Canal in Robertstown
Grand Canal Hotel (no longer in business) in Robertstown
Grand Canal in Robertstown at Sunset
Grand Canal in Robertstown at Sunset
I generally took it a lot easier while over here. While out in the countryside I was able to see the green rolling hills of Ireland which are really nice. We took day trips out to various really nice places that were all within a short drive from here (you will have seen my previous post about Glendalough). One of the highlights to see was the really cool The Irish National Stud’s Japanese Gardens which was some nice gardens and then we saw a lot of famous racehorses and other things there.
Deer made of wood – how cool !!!
Horse & foal made of wood – how cool !!!
At the stud we had a really nice sausage roll and potato wedges (and I had a ginger beer) for lunch while there – was that was tasty. We even had the children’s portions as was late and didn’t want to spoil dinner, and it was still very big.
Sausage roll and potato wedges
The Leap Inn (closed pub/petrol station)
I had decided to do my sightseeing in Dublin on Sunday after the wedding. After breakfast at the B&B I headed for the shop (as I needed exact change for the bus) chatted to an old gentleman at the bus stop who told me the shop was a bit further than the B&B had told me (grrrr), he said he had some change and let me have that, that was very nice of him, so I was able to get on the bus that came a few minutes later, not sure if I had enough change but driver said it was fine. Once I arrived in Dublin I picked up a map and started wandering the city. Found the landmarks easily enough. Trinity College was nice, I could pick up eduroam wifi there but seeing as there was data center maintenance back home I couldn’t auth to that. Spend the next 5 or so hours wandering and taking in the sights. I covered most of what I wanted to see. I must honestly say that Dublin didn’t impress me too much. There isn’t much to see except a few old buildings/churches scattered around and then loads of pubs and hotels. I was thinking if I hadn’t seen all the sights I’d go back in on Monday, but by 2pm I was already “all Dublin’ed out” so headed back home on the train where Veronica picked me up from the station.
Dublin Castle
Christ Church Cathedral
St Patricks Cathedral
Statue
The Spire
Ha’Penny Bridge
Trinity College
Trinity College Sphere in Sphere
Temple Bar
Dublin Free Wifi (not that I managed to find/connect to it though)
Heuston Station
Guinness Storehouse
Old Jameson Distillery
Old Jameson Distillery
Old Jameson Distillery
Sunday evening we went out to a pub close by called Roches, which is also known as the Sinking Pub … “Kildare’s famous sinking pub, which has punters feeling tipsy after a bottle of Fanta, has been sold. The iconic pub Roches of Derry has lopsided floors and a fiendishly tilting bar. In fact, there is hardly a level surface in the entire pub. It means even non-drinkers feel slightly woozy as they make their way back to their table.”
We sat outside where a group called Bunoscionn were playing, one of the members of the band was Veronica’s niece (on far left in the pics/videos). It was really nice in the lush garden and the sun came out as well so was a fantastic evening, definitely a highlight of my trip here to experience that. The videos I recorded of them are only instrumental but there were loads more tracks that had vocals as well.
Bunoscionn playing at Roches
Bunoscionn playing at Roches
I had 3 Guinness “for dinner” (joking) which were really nice.
A young boy who sang a few songs, WOW - was he good, he even performed 1 entirely in Irish which was impressive.
I leave Ireland later today, has been a great visit, onward to Germany, where I am staying for almost 2 weeks !!