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From Glasgow (see previous post) I flew to Dublin, arriving early Sunday morning, April 23.  I dropped my bags at the hotel – on the River Liffey, in the heart of the old city – crossed the O’Connell Bridge, and joined the throngs of people walking the Temple Bar (very Irish, but crowded) and the commercial streets that spread south and west from Trinity College.  Irish kitsch achieves its gaudiest art form here, but the place is still fascinating to walk.

A most pleasant surprise – and escape from the crowds – was a tour of the Irish Whiskey Museum.  Though in the middle of rows of tacky tourist stores, the museum is surprisingly authentic and blessedly free of kitsch.  The tour was historically interesting, finishing with a leisurely lesson in the finer points of appreciating the many forms of Irish whiskey.  Though a Scotch whisky man myself, I gained an appreciation for the varieties of ‘uisce beatha,’ the Irish water of life.  An odd way for a Texas Methodist boy to spend a Sunday morning, but the stuff was perfected by monks…

I wandered on as far as St. Stephen’s Green before turning west to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and park.  Tour buses were pouring people into the cathedral, so I soon walked on to the lovely, very old and quieter Christ Church Cathedral and Dublin Castle.  In the late afternoon I returned to St. Patrick’s to attend evensong service (I’ve made a tradition of attending these on every visit to the UK).  I finished the day with a hearty meal of Irish stew and locally-brewed stout at a pub in Temple Bar, enjoying the live Irish music far into the evening.

The next morning I made the long walk along the river to Phoenix Park and the Dublin Zoo, detouring through side streets here and there.  I was eager to see the Amur (Asian) tigers (the largest cat in the world) and the snow leopard, my favorite cat and, in my opinion, the most strikingly beautiful.  The park was quiet and pretty, but the zoo disappointed: the leopard never showed itself, and the tiger pair were in a space which, though realistic enough, confined them too much.  I don’t care for zoos any more, though I know many of them do good work.

I walked back into the old city to view the Book of Kells at Trinity College.  The manuscript is astonishingly beautiful (cats were a popular illustration!).  That was worth the 30-minute wait to get in.  I finished the afternoon by visiting the Irish Rebellion museum at the General Post Office.

I left early the next morning, taking a train across the island to Galway.  I would return to Dublin on the 27^th, walking a few favorite spots before boarding a plane home.

In late April I was called for meetings with my clients in England, near Whitehaven in the far northwest of the country, bordering the famous and beautiful Lake District.  (Interesting historical note: during the American Revolutionary War, John Paul Jones sailed to Whitehaven, shelled the town and attempted to invade it; though unsuccessful, his raid was the only American attempt to attack England during the war.  On my first visit there, many years ago, my clients were tickled to treat me to dinner and drinks at the popular John Paul Jones Pub in town, which thrives to this day.)

My time there was happy, especially my reunion with dear friend John Riley and his wonderful companion Jennie Bailie.  Not only did they host me in their lovely Cockermouth home for my last night in England, but they drove me (and their two sweet dogs) through the fells of the Lake District and treated me to a lovely dinner in the delightful town of Keswick.

Early on my first morning free, John drove me to Carlisle from where I took a train to Glasgow.  I spent two wonderful days there, after which I flew to Dublin (more later on that and Galway).  With my hotel near the main train station as my base, I walked many miles, covering all of the old central city.  The video below includes a montage of photos of my excursions.  It leaves out many of the lesser but happy places I visited, people I met, and things I did (especially a memorable concert by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra) but captures something of the spirit of the city.

Though it didn’t displace Edinburgh and the highlands in my heart, I was glad to meet Glasgow.

Testing for posting fix.