“We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when…”

When Steven Colbert and his guests sang that song on his last show in December, Laurel said it was so sweet she felt like crying.  Then she heard it playing in Cardiff Castle when she toured it in Feburary.  The castle acted as a bomb shelter during WWII when “We’ll Meet Again” was a popular, British song.…

Galway, Aran Islands, and the Cliffs of Moher

We took a 2-hour and 20-minute train ride from Dublin to Galway Tuesday morning.  After checking in early to our hotel, we walked a mile and a half up a city hill lined with gas stations and industrial-looking buildings to a restaurant.  After we ate a filling lunch, we walked out to the parking lot where…

St. Patrick’s Day

One of our neighbors started BLARING horrible techno-pop and talking and laughing loudly at 4:30 this morning.  This went on for about 40 minutes, and then we didn’t hear another peep.  I don’t know what that was about.  In the late morning the bells of St. Patrick’s Cathedral pealed for maybe an hour.  Then we…

Wicklow

Friday morning we went on another group tour, this time in a large van to Wicklow, south of Dublin.  I have a hard time staying awake as a passenger on a road trip and slept through about half of yesterday’s travels.  I’m 42 going on 2, I guess.  Our 70-year-old driver, John, spoke into a microphone,…

Belfast, Giants Causeway, rope bridge

We left our apartment at 6:40 am today and walked to a Starbucks near Trinity College where we and at least a dozen others got on a tour bus at 7 am bound for Belfast.  In Belfast our group split up into taxis to tour the city while a few others in the group chose…

Irish Whiskey Museum, St. Stephen’s Green, Kilmainham Gaol

We toured the Irish Whiskey Museum Friday, and I got to taste three varieties at the end.  It’s smooth!  (Unlike scotch which we learned is smoky tasting.  I’m not a spirits conneissur, so all the info was new to me.)  We learned: 1. The term “wake” for an Irish funeral comes (supposedly) from a time when…

Dublin

We flew from London City Airport, one of five London airports, to Dublin Sunday night and enjoyed our taxi driver’s lilting brogue and commentary on the ride from the Dublin airport to our apartment.  The tiny apartment requires planning and coordination of movements in order to dry the laundry on the drying rack and move the second…