Written By: My Amazing Aunts
Ireland
We hear Bob came thru surgery just fine, and is resting comfortably, after Tina got him some coffee. We called them as we drove to Trim and woke them up. They planned to get up about 3:45 am, and it was about that time. Imagine getting your wake up call from Ireland.
From Diane:
To Tom, Pam, Shelley, and Walt.
Hello from Mom. I’m having a GREAT time. We went and saw so many different places. first we went to New Grange.
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| At Newgrange Monument |
This is a mound of rocks that are stacked up on each other, some are big and some are small, slanted to the outside so the water could run off. And grass planted on top. We went inside through a tunnel, about 15 ft long, in places very narrow, and with a low roof. I took pictures inside, that I can share when I get home. We saw a lot of castles that were just walls, because the roof was wood and it rotted away.
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| Trim Castle |
Most castles had cemeteries. Then we went to a cemetery with a tomb with cement images of a couple that were lying on top, “not touching each other” and with a sculpture of the family ceremonial sword between them.
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| Tomb of Sir Lucas Dillion and his wife Lady Jane Bathe |
The people believed that if they took a pin and poked their warts, and left the pin between the statues, that when the pin was rusted their warts would go away.
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| Pins left to rust |
We went out to lunch, and I had a really good hamburger and fries. Then we came home and took a nap. Tonight we are going into Dublin to the Temple Bar area, and we are going to pub crawl. I plan to have some “Guinness” beer, and maybe some others. Love Mom.
From Val:
Well, Diane stole my thunder. We drove to Trim Castle, which is in Trim, which is the place where Braveheart was filmed. By the way, this is the place where Edmund Mortimer, the 5th Earl of March, and the 7th Earl of Ulster, lived and he died of the plague at Trim Castle in 1425. He was the heir to Richard the II, but never made it to king. He was the last Earl of March. Edmund Mortimer was born at New Forest here in Ireland, in this very county where I am. (County Meath) New Forest is now a golf club.
We visited the ruins of St Peter and Pauls cathedral and cemetery. This is a huge area, with several ruined buildings.
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| Saint Peter and Paul Cathedral |
A chapel, that holds the tomb Diane talked about, a cathedral, and a small distance further, a hospital. We wondered around looking at the architecture, and a lot of headstones. Some burials were from the 1700’s and some were from very recently. Many gravestones were so old, that all the writing had been worn off. We left here to join a tour of Trim castle. It is not fully open at this time, only weekends, but we toured the armory, and had a demonstration of all the weapons they would have used. Starting with a Claymore. The guide talked about how they were used, and showed us, then passed each of the weapons around for us to feel and handle.
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| Val wielding a big sword. |
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| Another Braveheart Recruit |
There was a battle hammer, several small swords, a pike, a knife, chain mail and helmets. The guide had the reddist hair, and a strong brogue so I had to listen carefully. We then had a tour of the grounds and got a lot of stories about Braveheart. The Boyne River flows right beside this castle.
We drove to Slane to have lunch, and came home. I actually took a nap, too, and had to be waked up for dinner at 6:30. We had a wonderful baked Salmon dinner.
More later, we’re leaving for Dublin. Slainte!
‘Tis 1 am, and we have just returned from Dublin. The Temple Bar area is an area right beside the Liffey River, where there are many many bars. It’s about 2 blocks wide and goes for about 20 blocks along the river. We went first to the Oliver St. John Gogarty bar.
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| Beginning of the Pub Crawl |
It was so crowded that we could hardly squeeze in. I like this bar because it’s named after one of the authors I read about when I was here before, and have on a list of books I mean to read. However Oliver has been out of print about 100 years and I haven’t found any copies yet. Must start looking again.
We moved on to the Temple Bar, and were able to find a table.
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| The Temple Bar in the Temple Bar area. |
I asked for a1/4 pint of Guinness, but they said they couldn’t serve that small amount, so I had a half pint. I have never been a fan of beer, but this was at least interesting. I left about half a glass when we moved on to the Porterhouse bar. Here we got a “taster”, which is a small tray with three different kinds of beer. I kinda liked the red beer, Diane liked the spiced Guinness, and we both liked the light Guiness. We took turns sipping on the taster.
After this we headed home. I’m a really cheap date. I could feel the beer working behind my eyes. It’s about a 1/2 hour drive. The others are all asleep. And that’s where I’m going now.
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| Val in the Porterhouse Bar waiting for beer. Can you find her? |
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