………………. And, in the end

   Our trip was just about over and we landed back in Dublin on a Friday night layover for our morning flight back home. Mary's cousin Kathleen, who lives in Dublin came to visit at the hotel but couldn't stay for dinner. So after a Guinness, tea and glass of water Kathleen left, and we decided to try to make it into Dublin for some pub food and a walk-about.

   The taxi ride cost around 40 Euros each way but Mary found a shuttle bus at the nearby airport that only cost 6 Euros, and it ran all night. It was quick and easy and we were really glad we found it. We got off the bus in the Trinity College area and looked for a pub on Grafton Street. It was no surprise that we found a few, but it was Friday night on a three day Bank Holiday weekend and everyone was drinking instead of eating.

   We finally found Sheehan’s that was serving food but the upstairs was empty because everyone was drinking outdoors on the first clear and warm evening in a while. We had the room to ourselves for a bit and ordered fish & chips and a beef & Guinness pie before the crowd started to filter in. It was perfect kind of pub food I was hoping for on our last night in Ireland.

   Afterward we walked through the Temple Bar area and then back to the college. There was music playing in my head all night and we stumbled onto a corner pub (Blarney’s) with Irish Flute music coming through the door, and it drew us right inside. Over desert the two musicians were great to listen to and there were Irish dancers due to appear later. But it was already getting late and we were starting to run low on energy. It also might have been the couple of pints I had to drink.

  We bussed back to the hotel and were in bed by 11:00 with the wake up set for 6:00 next morning. Our fun was just about over, but happily there was just a little something more.





…………… Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl,
                    but she doesn't have a lot to say



Goodbye Paris

   We started off Wednesday with a subway ride to the Musee D'Orsay, it's the home to rooms full of Impressionist paintings as well as other late 19th century art. The building was converted from a train station and has great natural lighting through a huge glass roof.  The weather couldn't have been better this week and afterward we decided to take the open air bus for a tour of the city high lights.

   Later in the day we hopped off the bus near the Notre Dame cathedral and walked to the Sainte Chapelle, built for King Louis IX with all the wall space made of 50 ft high panels of stained glass. It was an amazing place to stand inside of, but I couldn't help but wonder how walls of leaded glass could support the weight of a church roof. I guess the designers had it all figured out since the building has been standing since 1248.

   On Thursday we took the Metro to the Trocadero stop and went to the large Maritime Museum. There's a great collection of ships' models and memorabilia from the middle ages up to modern days. Afterward we had lunch at a cafe in the square outside and hopped back on the open air bus for a ride near the Place De La Concorde where we did a little window shopping  and enjoyed the cool breeze and warm afternoon sun on our last day in Paris.

   Mary & I had a great trip and tomorrow we start toward home, with an overnight stop in Dublin; Saturday morning we catch the return leg on our round trip flight across the Atlantic. We both enjoyed Ireland as much as our trip a couple of years ago. Barcelona and Paris are both delightful cities with much to see. We found them both to be comfortable, clean, surprisingly green and great places to walk day or night. People in both cities were friendly and polite to English only speaking tourists like us; public facilities were easy to use and comfortable. We were especially impressed with the subway in Paris; the coffee also tasted really good, much better than my memories from the early 1970's.

   It's happily back at home next week, where I'm anxious to get back to summertime projects. Thanks to all who followed along with our trip and it was nice to hear your comments from home; the travel blog was fun for me to do.

   John

     

Day and Night

   After breakfast at the hotel, we took the Metro up to the Montmartre section in the north side of the city. At the highest point is the Sacre Coeur Cathedral and the views looking down on the city rooftops. Afterward we wandered downhill through the small streets where the early 20th century artists used to hang out.

   I wanted to get a good look at the city at night so we went back in the evening. We were in the Louvre courtyard just as the lights came on (at 10:15 pm) and then the whole city seemed to light up around us. We walked until after midnight and could have stayed for hours if our legs could have have taken it. We'll look for a night-time riding city tour on another night, there's so much more here to appreciate.

   We'll look into museums on Wednesday; we've done a lot of walking during the last couple of weeks so hopefully the legs hold out for another day of walking.