Ireland 2019
June 30 — Dublin

June 30th 2019 Dublin, Ireland

We flew all night and haven’t slept in almost 36 hours, save roughly 2 hours that Nancy napped on the plane. We watched Black Panther and Nancy made friends with the older man sitting next to her. Dad rode first class...not jealous. :)

Our taxi driver from the airport took us through Phoenix park, it’s bigger than Central Park: enormous, gorgeous, and cool. The running tracks were just grass areas people ran through, with no real path.

Got to our hotel and stowed our luggage until the rooms were ready. Then we roamed around fairly aimless.

Though we did see the Castle of Dublin. There as a great deal of unexpected modern art. It also had a throne room with really beautiful family shields. As a designer, I wanted to take a lot of time to study them.

Then we walked and walked and walked until we found a place open for lunch (Dublin restaurants don’t typically open until 12:30pm on Sunday). I had a delicious Caesar Salad. At 3 p.m. we went to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College. And it was so crowded that it was almost unenjoyable. However, the Library was kickass. The scale of the library and the details in the typography of the letterforms that help organize the library were so beautiful. The details in the woodwork of the building and the furniture within the Library were so fantastic. In the gift shop, Nancy bought her first Irish keychain!!!! Dad mentioned that his grandfather studied at Trinity College in Texas and once lectured at Trinity College, Dublin. I wondered when he had come over and how long it took him, as in his day he would have likely come by boat.

Then we wandered the shopping district for a couple hours of looking for a Peterson’s so that dad could buy Mark Fain a pipe. I wasn’t surprised that Dad ended up buying one for himself. The district was interesting but most of the stores where similar to those we could find in the US. We wandered around a bit more and made back the hotel (The Ashling Hotel) for a delicious dinner. I had the Roulad of Glin Valley Chicken. It was delicious. Here is the description: roasted mushroom and thyme duxelles, creamy gratin potato, buttered heritage carrots with a smoked bacon and pearl onion gravy.

Then, early to bed because — 36 hours.