Escape to Eire - the beginning

Other posts in this series:

Escape to Eire - the beginning (this post)

Escape to Eire - Monday

Escape to Eire - Tuesday

Escape to Eire - Wednesday

Escape to Eire - Thursday

Escape to Eire - Friday

Escape to Eire - Saturday

For our fall vacation we mulled over a trip to Central America but couldn't seem to get the flight times & lodging to work for us.  And then it turned out that one of my usual travel companions, D,  would need some outpatient surgery so that left my friend C and me available for the fall getaway.

The whole reason C, D and I ever met is that we all enjoyed the TV show Remington Steele back in the 1980s.  Mr. Steele's Irish accent was music to our young ears and while D had visited the Emerald Isle, C and I never had.  We thought it was well past time to remedy this situation.

With help from a trusted travel agent we were able to select a package that provided us with airfare, first & last night's lodging at hotels in/near Dublin and then vouchers for 4 nights' lodging at any of the B&Bs in their network, anywhere in Ireland.  Sounded like a perfect adventure for us!

We left October 13, 2012 from Chicago on Aer Lingus bound for Dublin.  The flight crew was quite friendly and we appreciated the recliner seats in business class.  Even if they weren't lie-flat, it was still better than economy!

While we hadn't really thought about it while planning the trip, arriving in Dublin on a Sunday morning was perfect.  Our hotel was downtown and, since it was Sunday, it was very quiet traffic-wise.  This was terrific since we were groggy and driving from the opposite side of the car on the opposite side of the street.

We successfully made it to our hotel.  We unloaded the luggage and put it in storage since our room wasn't ready yet - no shock since it was about 10 AM.  The front desk staff pointed us to a garage that was caddy-corner from the hotel and told us we could park there.  Great!  Except that due to one-way streets and missing a turn we ended up having to turn the GPS on just to navigate our way back.  Not an auspicious beginning!

We stopped in a cafeteria for the first Irish Breakfast of the week and to recharge our batteries and our drooping eyelids.  Thus refreshed we headed to the first attraction of the day - Kilmainham Gaol.  We started walking but soon realized that taking the streetcar would be a much better choice, especially as it had started to drizzle.  Wow, imagine that. Rain. In Ireland.

After alighting from the streetcar, we were surprised at the lack of signs pointing the way.  We kept consulting our map, checking where others were going and we figured that a massive late-18th century structure couldn't be that hard to hide.  And, with detective skills that would make Remington Steele proud, we found our way to it.

Interior of Kilmainham Gaol

Massive stone walls on every side and even in the interior, coupled with with the gray skies overhead gave one a feel of how helpless the residents of the gaol must have felt.  At time men, women and children - some as young as 5 years old - were all held here together.  A single 300 sq. ft. cell could house as many as five prisoners.  Hangings occurred up until the early 1820s.  There are still marks on the wall outside the main entrance where the gallows attached to the building.  These hangings were public events where a crowd could gather outside the gates to watch.

This is also the gaol where the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were held and later executed by firing squad.  One leader could not stand as his ankle had been shattered, so he was tied to a chair and shot!

It turned out to be a great first stop as the tour guide gave us a bit of Irish history along with our tour of the building.  What we learned here proved useful in putting historical items we saw later into proper context.

We returned to the hotel and were able to check in and get settled in our (very small) room.  It did have the requisite twin beds but really no place except the floor to open up our suitcases.  We constantly had to step around them.  But for one night it was a great location.

Bell Tower at Trinity College

Our next stop was Trinity College where we took a tour from a recent graduate.  He had finished his coursework in May but in keeping with tradition, wouldn't receive his diploma until November.  It was interesting to hear how campus life was different from the US.  The on-campus housing is highly sought after and is reserved for seniors.  Even then there's not enough housing for all of them!

The college's library was the main attraction for us.  It's a legal deposit library for the UK, meaning it gets a copy of each book published in Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Wales or Scotland.  There are over 4.5 million volumes!  The main gallery is called the Long Room and has shelves that are over 20 feet high.  Finding books can be a challenge as they're shelved by physical size, not by the Dewey Decimal system!

In a special room of the library, the Book of Kells is displayed.  These are the four gospels from the Bible copied by monks around 800 AD. They're called illuminated texts, meaning they are highly decorated with illustrations of the text.  Sadly, photos were not allowed anywhere in the library.
At that point we were getting tired again and started our way back to the hotel.  We decided that we must have dinner in a traditional Irish pub, so we found one along the way.  As you may expect, it was run by a Chinese family.  Why not!

Though it was early, we fell into bed as soon as we got back to the room and got a great night's sleep.