Ireland: the last day
Oct. 9th, 2004 02:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
julival2I’m finally getting around to writing up the last day of our Ireland trip (aka freakout ’04, the Irish Wedding) – only two months later. Heh. Better late than never, right? Let’s see how much I can remember. One good thing that may come from this delay is more brevity.
The last day of the Miller family’s stay in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was the Wednesday after the wedding. Recall that we’d had a very fun and activity filled last few days and were all ready to just sort of chill out for a while. We Millers were going to be heading down to Dublin in the afternoon and spending the night there one more time so that we would be close to the airport the next morning for our flight back to the States.
We spent the morning having our last little breakfast at Tony’s. It was really sad because when we got downstairs to eat, he had taken our big community table out of the center of the room and set us up at a tiny table for six at the back of the room. There were new people at a smaller table where our table used to be. I asked for a bit more of the yummy raspberry jam to have with my toast, but Tony said he was all out and mum had just dropped off a batch of strawberry that week. The strawberry was every bit as good.
Jeff and the boys and I had to get all our stuff packed back up (including the camera, so no photos for this day – because I’m a moron) and tidy up the room. We settled up with Tony after breakfast, but he let us leave our bags in the room a while longer so that we could go off and do one last shopping trip into town for souvenirs. I really wanted to find a nice little pair of earrings that symbolized Ireland for me. I always buy earrings as souvenirs when I visit new places – they last indefinitely, they’re small and pack well, and I can wear them over and over again and think about my travels. *g*
We found a perfect little jewelry shop just a short walk from the guesthouse. Alle found herself some earrings, too! The lady who ran the shop was very sweet and helpful. She pulled out several trays of earrings for us to examine and then gave us a discount on top of the sale prices she had on the pieces. I got a sweet little pair of tiny gold cladaghs that dangle.
We also wandered around a few other shops just to see what sorts of gifts we might find, but didn’t have a lot of luck. So then it was back to the guesthouse for our bags and dragging them down the hill and ‘round the corner to the car.
The plan for that day was to drive on over to Louis’ family’s house and visit a bit and see about getting some lunch before leaving for the Republic. But first we had to extract the cars from the alley. Heh.
Tony only has a couple of small parking spots in front of his establishment. We were allowed to use them on the weekend, but he re-parked the cars for us on the weekdays. The cars are very small, of course, and can be squeezed into some interesting little spaces. Tony is quite adept at squeezing them into very small spaces. Fortunately, Jeff didn’t have too much trouble getting our little car out of its nook and down the alley toward the main road. Alle, however, was not so lucky.
Alle doesn’t like to do 3 point turns. I’m not sure she even likes to back. And the thing is, the little nooks had not very even pavement, a wall on each side, a little archway into a smaller nook that had very Large Hole in the pavement, AND other cars to worry about. Now the boys and I were in our little car with jeff, around the corner from the alley, waiting for Alle and Jana to pull out behind us so we could all head off to see Uli and Louis. We waited a while. Then we waited a while longer. Then I got worried and got out of the car and walked back to see what was going on.
Akk.
I’m not really sure HOW she did it, but somehow, Alle had maneuvered the car back into the little archway area and was stuck between the very Large Hole and some parked cars. Jana and I tried for a few minutes to act like airport runway directors and help her navigate out of the situation, but it was becoming more and more obvious that she was extremely frustrated and probably within about 30 seconds of just driving the car through a wall. So I asked if I could give it a try. I must say that it was a very delicate process that took probably 7 or 8 more points of the turn and a lot of assistance from the runway spotters to keep me out of the very Large Hole and off the bumper of the car next to us - but the team effort and the less frayed nerves of a fresh driver paid off in the end. *l*
Alle and Jana now back on the road, we headed off to get the newlyweds. It was much calmer at the house than on previous visits. *g* I got to have the grand tour and see all the nice work Louis and his dad did adding a wing onto the house and re-furbishing a bathroom. I also got to see Louis’ siblings’ bedrooms. His little sister’s is quite pink *chuckle*
The kids spent a little more time on the game cube while the rest of us sat around and gabbed. Louis was still trying to get various things sorted out regarding his employment and was on the phone for a while. For some reason he was very antsy about the fact that I went off and had a private conversation with his mom to thank her for all her hospitality. I think he didn’t want us comparing notes. *weg* She arrived home from work while we were discussing what to do about lunch and suggested a nice little bistro near her work.
We also got to see lots of the wedding gifts and cards. They really got a nice bunch of things to start their new married life in Scotland. I hope they’ve managed to get most if not all of it transported to their new home by now.
Lunch was a big group – Uli, Louis, his brothers, his sister, a cousin (I think), and our little party of six. We got a bunch of tables pushed together at the back of the restaurant and drove the poor waitress crazy with our water order (sort of like in Dublin! Only there was no language confusion that I can recall.) We had some yummy sandwiches (and chips, of course!) and sat and talked as long as we could without irritating the staff. I hated to leave.
Poor Alec – he had been having some problems with his allergies all week, so we had let him take a benadryl that morning before we left the hotel. Then at lunch, not remembering we’d already dosed him with a med that causes drowsiness, we gave both boys their Dramamine to keep them from being car sick on the trip back south. By the end of the meal, Alec was nearly asleep in his plate. I was worried he might be getting sick until I remembered the allergy meds. Then I nearly had a heart attack. It’s one of a mom’s worst nightmares that she might overdose her child on medication.
I was really grateful to have my own personal pharmacist right there at the table to reassure me that everything would be ok. *g* and it was. Alec was drowsy a while, but he was fine by the time we got to our first stop in The Republic of Ireland.
We said our goodbyes to the group with lots of hugs and a few sniffles and then it was a little convoy of minicars to lead us back to the highway we needed to take out of town. We waved a final farewell as the rest of them turned around to head back into town. The drive back down was subdued. Jeff had gotten pretty adept at driving on the left by then.
Our plan was to stop off at Drogheda again so that we could make one more attempt to see the Head. I told you we’d get back to eventually! Never fear – the Head was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Now – remember how on the way up to Drogheda from Dublin we ended up coming in to town on a different road than we thought we were on and it lead to all kinds of confusion for both cars? Heh. Well the same thing happened on the way down. It worked out in my favor, because it meant we totally by-passed the big scary suspension bridge we’d had to cross on the way up, but it also meant we ended up in a big construction zone traffic jam that nearly had us all cursing by the time we got through it.
But we found our way back to our nice little public car park and walked back up to the main drag to find the church with the Head. This time there wasn’t a wedding going on. There were a few people in there praying, but they seemed to be used to having tourists trooping through to view their morbid attraction. We weren’t the only folks there just to see St. Oliver’s remains. And there wasn’t just a head! They have one reliquary full of various bones, too. Shoulder blades, part of his pelvis, iirc, and some other bits were on display. They also have a bunch of big photographs of documents and drawings to explain the whole business of how St. Oliver’s parts ended up there. AND there was a place to leave donations.
The Head itself is icky. I mean really icky. I could only look at if for a moment and then I had to walk away. It was too disturbing for me. The boys seemed to find it fascinating, however, and neither has said anything about nightmares since, so I guess it wasn’t traumatizing to them.
Our curiosity satisfied, we departed the church and wandered back out to the street to look at some shops on the way back to the car. I was still in search of various souvenirs for friends and family. We checked out one little shop that was pure schlock, targeted directly at tourists – lots of cheesy mugs and shot glasses and all sorts of knick knacks and odds and ends made just for visitors (and most of them not made in Ireland *l*). It was a long narrow shop and we ended up sort of strung out in a meandering line as we surveyed the contents.
When I got back to the front of the shop, Jeff and the boys were still a ways back. I stepped out and looked next door to see a little local clothing and jewelry store that looked like it would have more along the lines of what I wanted. After confirming quickly that they had things in my price range, I ducked back into the other shop to find the boys and tell them where I was. They followed me into the shop next door and I _assumed_ Jeff did, too. Well, you know what they say about assuming. Heh.
I was happily working my way through a case of earrings, finding just the right pairs for all my sisters, not realizing the confusion and distress that I had caused my spouse. At some point, I realized he was taking a long time to wander over, so I sent the boys over the shop next door to see what he was doing.
He wasn’t there. I quickly paid and joined the boys on the sidewalk out front to look for him. We looked left and right and didn’t see him. We backtracked a short way toward the church of the Head and didn’t see him. We went back to the shops and thought about trying to call him on the cell phone, but couldn’t figure out how to do it. (And I’m not even sure he had his turned on). We waited and waited. We wondered where on earth he could have gone! I was starting to get very concerned, and was sure he was freaking out about us being lost.
Eventually, I saw his silhouette bouncing purposefully down the sidewalk from the direction of the car park. He thought we’d left him and gone back to the car! But we did what every mom instructs her child to do in just such a situation. We stayed put til he found us. *l* There was much explaining and apologizing and comforting and then we walked back to the car and resumed our trip south.
We had some confusion over where exactly the hotel for the last night was located. I was convinced I’d seen it on the road between the airport and Dublin during our drive from the airport to Dublin on the previous Thursday. But the name of the hotel seemed to imply that it was located at the airport. Jeff was skeptical and I didn’t want to have us drive way out of our way if I was wrong, so we took the airport exit and drove around and around the roundabouts checking the various hotels. Ours wasn’t there. It wasn’t a wasted tour, though, because it allowed us to see how to get back to the rental car place.
The hotel did turn out to be the one I’d seen the week before. It was a very old building that had been bought out by a chain and restored somewhat. It still had that sort of neglected old decadent building look in the lounges and lobbies, though. We were pretty tired and hungry by the time we arrived and were not at all pleased to be greeted with problems with our reservations. We were supposed to have had adjoining rooms, but they actually tried to put us on separate floors! As it was, we ended up getting rooms next to each other on the first floor, but not adjoining. Alec and I bunked together and Rob and Jeff shared – fortunately there were two small double beds in each room. Dinner was a bit of a disappointment, as well (particularly when you consider that most of our other meals during the trip had been quite nice). The restaurant was reserved for some sort of party and not for hotel guests. The attached restaurant was ridiculously overpriced and had a long wait. So that left the bar. We were told at the desk that we could get sandwiches and dessert at the bar, so we opted for that. But then when we tried to sit down at a table, we were told that we couldn’t have our children in there with us. There was another family at the next table with a child who couldn’t have been older than twelve!
We ended up being directed to sit at a little coffee table in some big leather lounge chairs in a large businessmen’s lounge just off of the bar. It was a bit damp and musty, but the waitress was nice and we ended up having a little ice cream afterward to perk everyone up before we went back to the rooms.
One long night later we woke up to pouring down rain, had our last big Irish buffet breakfast, and drove back to the airport to fly home. The end.
I want to go back!
The last day of the Miller family’s stay in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was the Wednesday after the wedding. Recall that we’d had a very fun and activity filled last few days and were all ready to just sort of chill out for a while. We Millers were going to be heading down to Dublin in the afternoon and spending the night there one more time so that we would be close to the airport the next morning for our flight back to the States.
We spent the morning having our last little breakfast at Tony’s. It was really sad because when we got downstairs to eat, he had taken our big community table out of the center of the room and set us up at a tiny table for six at the back of the room. There were new people at a smaller table where our table used to be. I asked for a bit more of the yummy raspberry jam to have with my toast, but Tony said he was all out and mum had just dropped off a batch of strawberry that week. The strawberry was every bit as good.
Jeff and the boys and I had to get all our stuff packed back up (including the camera, so no photos for this day – because I’m a moron) and tidy up the room. We settled up with Tony after breakfast, but he let us leave our bags in the room a while longer so that we could go off and do one last shopping trip into town for souvenirs. I really wanted to find a nice little pair of earrings that symbolized Ireland for me. I always buy earrings as souvenirs when I visit new places – they last indefinitely, they’re small and pack well, and I can wear them over and over again and think about my travels. *g*
We found a perfect little jewelry shop just a short walk from the guesthouse. Alle found herself some earrings, too! The lady who ran the shop was very sweet and helpful. She pulled out several trays of earrings for us to examine and then gave us a discount on top of the sale prices she had on the pieces. I got a sweet little pair of tiny gold cladaghs that dangle.
We also wandered around a few other shops just to see what sorts of gifts we might find, but didn’t have a lot of luck. So then it was back to the guesthouse for our bags and dragging them down the hill and ‘round the corner to the car.
The plan for that day was to drive on over to Louis’ family’s house and visit a bit and see about getting some lunch before leaving for the Republic. But first we had to extract the cars from the alley. Heh.
Tony only has a couple of small parking spots in front of his establishment. We were allowed to use them on the weekend, but he re-parked the cars for us on the weekdays. The cars are very small, of course, and can be squeezed into some interesting little spaces. Tony is quite adept at squeezing them into very small spaces. Fortunately, Jeff didn’t have too much trouble getting our little car out of its nook and down the alley toward the main road. Alle, however, was not so lucky.
Alle doesn’t like to do 3 point turns. I’m not sure she even likes to back. And the thing is, the little nooks had not very even pavement, a wall on each side, a little archway into a smaller nook that had very Large Hole in the pavement, AND other cars to worry about. Now the boys and I were in our little car with jeff, around the corner from the alley, waiting for Alle and Jana to pull out behind us so we could all head off to see Uli and Louis. We waited a while. Then we waited a while longer. Then I got worried and got out of the car and walked back to see what was going on.
Akk.
I’m not really sure HOW she did it, but somehow, Alle had maneuvered the car back into the little archway area and was stuck between the very Large Hole and some parked cars. Jana and I tried for a few minutes to act like airport runway directors and help her navigate out of the situation, but it was becoming more and more obvious that she was extremely frustrated and probably within about 30 seconds of just driving the car through a wall. So I asked if I could give it a try. I must say that it was a very delicate process that took probably 7 or 8 more points of the turn and a lot of assistance from the runway spotters to keep me out of the very Large Hole and off the bumper of the car next to us - but the team effort and the less frayed nerves of a fresh driver paid off in the end. *l*
Alle and Jana now back on the road, we headed off to get the newlyweds. It was much calmer at the house than on previous visits. *g* I got to have the grand tour and see all the nice work Louis and his dad did adding a wing onto the house and re-furbishing a bathroom. I also got to see Louis’ siblings’ bedrooms. His little sister’s is quite pink *chuckle*
The kids spent a little more time on the game cube while the rest of us sat around and gabbed. Louis was still trying to get various things sorted out regarding his employment and was on the phone for a while. For some reason he was very antsy about the fact that I went off and had a private conversation with his mom to thank her for all her hospitality. I think he didn’t want us comparing notes. *weg* She arrived home from work while we were discussing what to do about lunch and suggested a nice little bistro near her work.
We also got to see lots of the wedding gifts and cards. They really got a nice bunch of things to start their new married life in Scotland. I hope they’ve managed to get most if not all of it transported to their new home by now.
Lunch was a big group – Uli, Louis, his brothers, his sister, a cousin (I think), and our little party of six. We got a bunch of tables pushed together at the back of the restaurant and drove the poor waitress crazy with our water order (sort of like in Dublin! Only there was no language confusion that I can recall.) We had some yummy sandwiches (and chips, of course!) and sat and talked as long as we could without irritating the staff. I hated to leave.
Poor Alec – he had been having some problems with his allergies all week, so we had let him take a benadryl that morning before we left the hotel. Then at lunch, not remembering we’d already dosed him with a med that causes drowsiness, we gave both boys their Dramamine to keep them from being car sick on the trip back south. By the end of the meal, Alec was nearly asleep in his plate. I was worried he might be getting sick until I remembered the allergy meds. Then I nearly had a heart attack. It’s one of a mom’s worst nightmares that she might overdose her child on medication.
I was really grateful to have my own personal pharmacist right there at the table to reassure me that everything would be ok. *g* and it was. Alec was drowsy a while, but he was fine by the time we got to our first stop in The Republic of Ireland.
We said our goodbyes to the group with lots of hugs and a few sniffles and then it was a little convoy of minicars to lead us back to the highway we needed to take out of town. We waved a final farewell as the rest of them turned around to head back into town. The drive back down was subdued. Jeff had gotten pretty adept at driving on the left by then.
Our plan was to stop off at Drogheda again so that we could make one more attempt to see the Head. I told you we’d get back to eventually! Never fear – the Head was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Now – remember how on the way up to Drogheda from Dublin we ended up coming in to town on a different road than we thought we were on and it lead to all kinds of confusion for both cars? Heh. Well the same thing happened on the way down. It worked out in my favor, because it meant we totally by-passed the big scary suspension bridge we’d had to cross on the way up, but it also meant we ended up in a big construction zone traffic jam that nearly had us all cursing by the time we got through it.
But we found our way back to our nice little public car park and walked back up to the main drag to find the church with the Head. This time there wasn’t a wedding going on. There were a few people in there praying, but they seemed to be used to having tourists trooping through to view their morbid attraction. We weren’t the only folks there just to see St. Oliver’s remains. And there wasn’t just a head! They have one reliquary full of various bones, too. Shoulder blades, part of his pelvis, iirc, and some other bits were on display. They also have a bunch of big photographs of documents and drawings to explain the whole business of how St. Oliver’s parts ended up there. AND there was a place to leave donations.
The Head itself is icky. I mean really icky. I could only look at if for a moment and then I had to walk away. It was too disturbing for me. The boys seemed to find it fascinating, however, and neither has said anything about nightmares since, so I guess it wasn’t traumatizing to them.
Our curiosity satisfied, we departed the church and wandered back out to the street to look at some shops on the way back to the car. I was still in search of various souvenirs for friends and family. We checked out one little shop that was pure schlock, targeted directly at tourists – lots of cheesy mugs and shot glasses and all sorts of knick knacks and odds and ends made just for visitors (and most of them not made in Ireland *l*). It was a long narrow shop and we ended up sort of strung out in a meandering line as we surveyed the contents.
When I got back to the front of the shop, Jeff and the boys were still a ways back. I stepped out and looked next door to see a little local clothing and jewelry store that looked like it would have more along the lines of what I wanted. After confirming quickly that they had things in my price range, I ducked back into the other shop to find the boys and tell them where I was. They followed me into the shop next door and I _assumed_ Jeff did, too. Well, you know what they say about assuming. Heh.
I was happily working my way through a case of earrings, finding just the right pairs for all my sisters, not realizing the confusion and distress that I had caused my spouse. At some point, I realized he was taking a long time to wander over, so I sent the boys over the shop next door to see what he was doing.
He wasn’t there. I quickly paid and joined the boys on the sidewalk out front to look for him. We looked left and right and didn’t see him. We backtracked a short way toward the church of the Head and didn’t see him. We went back to the shops and thought about trying to call him on the cell phone, but couldn’t figure out how to do it. (And I’m not even sure he had his turned on). We waited and waited. We wondered where on earth he could have gone! I was starting to get very concerned, and was sure he was freaking out about us being lost.
Eventually, I saw his silhouette bouncing purposefully down the sidewalk from the direction of the car park. He thought we’d left him and gone back to the car! But we did what every mom instructs her child to do in just such a situation. We stayed put til he found us. *l* There was much explaining and apologizing and comforting and then we walked back to the car and resumed our trip south.
We had some confusion over where exactly the hotel for the last night was located. I was convinced I’d seen it on the road between the airport and Dublin during our drive from the airport to Dublin on the previous Thursday. But the name of the hotel seemed to imply that it was located at the airport. Jeff was skeptical and I didn’t want to have us drive way out of our way if I was wrong, so we took the airport exit and drove around and around the roundabouts checking the various hotels. Ours wasn’t there. It wasn’t a wasted tour, though, because it allowed us to see how to get back to the rental car place.
The hotel did turn out to be the one I’d seen the week before. It was a very old building that had been bought out by a chain and restored somewhat. It still had that sort of neglected old decadent building look in the lounges and lobbies, though. We were pretty tired and hungry by the time we arrived and were not at all pleased to be greeted with problems with our reservations. We were supposed to have had adjoining rooms, but they actually tried to put us on separate floors! As it was, we ended up getting rooms next to each other on the first floor, but not adjoining. Alec and I bunked together and Rob and Jeff shared – fortunately there were two small double beds in each room. Dinner was a bit of a disappointment, as well (particularly when you consider that most of our other meals during the trip had been quite nice). The restaurant was reserved for some sort of party and not for hotel guests. The attached restaurant was ridiculously overpriced and had a long wait. So that left the bar. We were told at the desk that we could get sandwiches and dessert at the bar, so we opted for that. But then when we tried to sit down at a table, we were told that we couldn’t have our children in there with us. There was another family at the next table with a child who couldn’t have been older than twelve!
We ended up being directed to sit at a little coffee table in some big leather lounge chairs in a large businessmen’s lounge just off of the bar. It was a bit damp and musty, but the waitress was nice and we ended up having a little ice cream afterward to perk everyone up before we went back to the rooms.
One long night later we woke up to pouring down rain, had our last big Irish buffet breakfast, and drove back to the airport to fly home. The end.
I want to go back!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-10-10 01:40 pm (UTC)