Filed under: Dublin
The big girls went to school today. So the rest of us went with the Australian cousins into town. Patrick and the Australians went to the Georgian House. It’s nice – but I have been there twice so Aine and I decided to hang out in the neighboring park, Merrion Square.
We found a playground, a statue for the Defense Forces that seemed to include an internal flame and of course the famous statue of Oscar Wilde. The park is very lush so Aine found it a little scary but we had fun. Then we trekked over to the National Gallery. They have a great kids pack that you can pick up and use anytime. It include a scavenger hunt type thing and some crayons and paper. We found exactly one painting on the list – the Little Green Fields by Gerard Dillon. Aine drew a picture of the Earth as her scavenger task.
Eventually we met up with the others for a quick lunch.
Filed under: Dublin
After the girls got out of school we headed to Killiney. Killiney is a beautiful part of Dublin. It feel more like Wicklow, which is next door and more remote and hilly than Dublin.
We walked along the Vico Road. It boasts a view that people like to compare to Naples. In fact, lots of the roads have Italian sounding names. The homes in the area are amazing too.
We climbed up Killiney Hill. It’s not too strenuous but is a bit of a hike. The view from there is amazing. You can see the Sugar Loaf (mountain in Wicklow), you can see across the Dublin City Center, you can see across to Howth (where regular readers may remember we saw the seals last year). There are many WPA-like structures in the area where folks were employed to create monuments. Patrick has a story that if you walk around a specific monument 3 times that you’ll get your wish.
Aine wished to be back in Minnesota. That’s a Mama’s girl. Not that we aren’t enjoying Dublin – we are.
After the hill we climbed down to the beach. Aine was the only one who was prepared with her swimsuit under her clothes. Usually I have my swimsuit handy too but it just didn’t work out for me this time. We did wade through the water. Kate and I worked on our skipping skills. The rest of the crew dug a hole for Aine and then we buried Aidan up to his neck. It was pretty impressive!
Filed under: Dublin
I arrived n Dublin early morning on Tuesday. Patrick, Lily, Aine and Michael came to pick me up, which was very nice.
To celebrate the big arrival, we had a nice lunch at the Italian restaurant in Cabinteely. I know few readers will be eating there anytime soon – but they now have a great patio in the back. It was almost too hot and sunny to eat outside – not that we’d complain. After lunch we went to Cabinteely Park. It is a beautiful park.
They are starting to add some sculptures, as you can see.
After the park we went to the library – where I could get online. It had been nearly 24 hours since I had been online in NY, so I was starting to shake.
Filed under: Dublin
We spent our last day in Dublin packing and trying to tie up loose ends – not necessarily successfully. Patrick’s mom and I went to Dundram Shopping Center and had a fun and fancy lunch at Harvey Nichols. (I had to meet a client there anyways.) The girls went to school and all came back with nice cards and gifts from their friends. They were so sad. While we’re all looking forward going home it will be a little sad.
Despite the fact that we had about 200 things to do – we went to the Abbey to see Three Sisters. Originally by Anton Chekhov, this version was adapted by Brian Friel, who kind of ties into Patrick’s research. The play was long and OK. The big thrill was sitting by Colm Meaney; he was the dad on The Commitments and I like him!
Filed under: Dublin
Last night we saw Madness!!! We met up with our old friend John Newcombe. We had dinner at the Bleeding Horse pub. (The Bleeding Horse got its name because it’s a place where people from the country would stop with their overheating horses. To cool them off they bled them.)
Anyways – the show was great. I caught loads of it on video.
My dream concert would be Madness, The Who, Southern Culture on the Skids – and maybe El Vez. Of that group, I had never seen Madness so this was a big deal for me to go to the show.
Filed under: Dun Laoghaire
Monday the girls and I went to Dun Laoghaire. We had a nice walk down the other pier, we did some shopping and we had a tasty dinner at Café Mao.
We thought we might see some Bloomsday characters – but if there were any around Dun Laoghaire, I figure they were probably there in the morning as any remotely Dun Laoghaire scenes in Ulysses happen early on in the book. I took a couple of snaps…
Filed under: Wicklow
On Sunday we had out final outing with Fearghal. Patrick ditched us to see some archive of letters near Kilkenny. If he wants people to know more, he’ll have to start his own darned blog.
The rest of us went to lunch at Hunter’s Hotel in Rathnew, Wicklow. It is an old hotel. I think Lily put it best when she described it to Patrick “It’s old like Shakespeare – no more like Yeats.” Yeats was closer. I think it was built in the 1700s and has been run by the same family since 1820.
The gardens around the place were beautiful. The restaurant was very, very formal and old school. I felt like I was in school when the waitress came to take our order. I didn’t seem to do it quite right – but it was funny. The food was very good.
The best part of the dinner was when a bird flew into the restaurant. The staff was incredibly calm. One hostess calmly and quickly grabbed the bird with her bare hands but he got away. So then another staff member – the official bird catcher we assume – caught it and set it free outside.
After dinner we went to Avoca, the real life setting of Ballykissangel – a TV show that airs occasionally on PBS. What’s fun is that I’ve always wanted to visit Avoca. Fearghal has a knack for picking just the right place to visit. He’s good that way. We are going to miss Fearghal a lot when we go home. He’s been so generous to us while we’ve been here. In fact, the weekend we were in Dromahair, Aine asked her grandma if Fearghal missed us.
Filed under: Dublin
The girls were off from school 2 days last week. One day we went into town. I can’t even remember what the excuse was but I found a few pictures from the day. A couple of the pictures are taken in Stephen’s Green and the others are from Grafton Street with the pretend statue Elvis. (Pretend statues are kind of the rave in busking these days.)
Filed under: Dublin
On Wednesday we all went to Ailbhe’s house for dinner. Ailbhe is a friend of Lily. Her sister Cait is friends with Kate. They have 2 boys (Liam and Ciaran) around Aine’s age. The parents (Ann and Barney) were kind enough to invite us for dinner. It was a great night.
The kids ran around the house just like they would at home but haven’t been able to do for a while. One of the neighbors (Maria, a fellow library mom) stopped by and never left. I may have had my weight in wine. But it was a great night.
On Friday we had parties for the girls. From 3:30-5:00 we had 18 preschoolers. From 5:30-7:00 we had the 8-9 year olds. I won’t say it was fun for me but it was pretty painless.
You can get an idea of the activities with the pictures below.
Patrick was tired – from what I don’t know since I planned and prepared the whole thing; I was hungry so after the party we went for an Indian meal. I love Chicken Korma.
Filed under: Dublin
This week is arts week at Johnstown Girls School. SO the girls have had tons of art projects going all week – pottery, film, plays… The girls especially enjoyed the pottery – but really the whole week has been fun for them. (I love the idea of a whole week on the arts!) Below are 3 clips from Lily’s play:
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