Dublin feels long and narrow to me along the River Liffey. Lots of mass transit: buses including double-deckers, the Lues (streetcar), and many people walking and riding bicycles.
It’s artsy (Kinsale natives said they were the 2nd best art city in Ireland next to Dublin)
Youthful. Apparently companies like Google and LinkedIn employ thousands here. Lots of construction cranes, which reminded me of Denver. New buildings mixed in with the old.
Bob Rogers Travel rocks! Liam (left) and Adrian (right) are knocking themselves out to make sure we have a great time. Case in point; After our morning on the Rock of Cashel, they arranged for us to have a good lunch at a carvery (buffet) at a hotel on our way to Dublin.
You could get anything there from just a scone or a salad to a full hot lunch. I had steak and kidney pie and a delicious lemon tart and felt much better and ready to tour around Dublin on our bus until we were able to check into Samuel Hotel, just opened in April
First glimpses of Dublin and the River Liffey from the bus. Today we learned someone in the group tested positive for COVID via self test and was getting an official PCR test
I liked the Georgian architecture of Dublin, and details like these wrought iron street lamps
Liam took us through Phoenix Park, twice as large as Central Park in NYC. Hundreds of thousands of people came here to see Pope John Paul II (cross marks the place where he spoke)
The US Embassy moved into Phoenix Park, near where the President of the Republic of Ireland lives
Gates to the US Embassy
Presidents house (White House)
Wow, we’re climbing up there?
It was actually a pleasant and pretty walk up with sheep grazing and bleating below.
Liam gave us a terrific tour, as always. We could see Hore Abbey in the distance
“Put log holes” when the long poles of wood that were the scaffolding for building this rot away, the holes are left
You can feel all the history of this place resonate as you stand here. It started with this round tower and the rest kept getting added on
Lots of crows, rooks, ravens, magpies (I can’t tell the difference). “Sheep May safely graze” below; beautiful 360 degree view you can see for miles and miles
St Patrick converted Celts to Christianity using concepts and symbols familiar to them, like the circle. Thus these Celtic crosses that I like so much
You can see the passageways where monks once walked
Destroyed in the sixteenth century when Henry VIII had all the abbeys seized, looted, and burned. Yet here this still is today, telling its story
The window to the “secret room” where unclean (lepers) could join worship without contaminating the others
This was my first ever flash mob (impromptu performance) with a Linda Gartner group, something she’s done for years all over Europe. It was fun! The acoustics were amazing and I thought we sounded pretty good. Judge for yourself: a video is on the Rock Of Cashel Facebook Page!
The quartet Guys and Dolls who were supposed to lead off were sick. So the music director formed an Ad Hoc Quartet to perform in their place and I really enjoyed their songs which included Gospel, jazz, Mozart, and traditional Irish and Scottish music much like our repertoire does.
The acoustics were good, we had a fine audience, and they seemed to really enjoy our show (gave us a standing O!)
My first concert in Europe and I’ll never forget their faces after Linda introduced her husband the tenor and Neil sang Danny Boy - even some of the men had tears in their eyes and so did I. Another couple mouthed the words to The Parting Glass when we sang it. But I think Battle of Jericho was their favorite. One woman said if we’d had twice as many singers like we do at home, we would’ve blown the windows out.
I got to stand right next to Alex Thio as he accompanied us on his electric keyboard. Songs like Mark Hayes’ Grace and Mack Wilberg’s Shenandoah sounded as beautiful to me as they do when he plays the Steinway and I think the audience loved hearing him play. He does it so well I sometimes forget to sing!
The two buses with curtains drawn served as our dressing rooms: one for the gentlemen and the others for the ladies
We sure were glad to climb on the bus and have Adrian drive us home afterwards. He and our guide Liam are the absolute best and they are knocking themselves out to make sure we have a great trip. Wonderful first impression of Bob Rogers Group Travel. I already feel like I’ve gotten my $ worth and it’s only the 3rd of our 10 days!
Interesting spending D-Day here and imagining what it might have been like then. It’s a bank holiday so lots of families with children out enjoying the sunshine.
It was amazing how much the tide level changed between the time we arrived at 3p and when we left after our concert at 10p
Lots of art galleries here; I was told it’s the biggest art town in Ireland except Dublin. Many artists using bright saturated color like I do made me feel right at home.
We had to be back at the buses at 6p to change into our concert attire so after walking around the town we ducked into Jim Edwards for a drink and a bite to eat.
When Karyn asked our server what size the prawns were, he said it would depend on what the fishmonger would bring from that days catch! So that’s how fresh the seafood was here.
I drank mead for the first time in a delicious cocktail and ate homemade chicken liver pate. Yum!
Our hotel (Clayton) in Cork was very comfortable and it was good to get out of the cold and rain. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to lay prone, completely horizontal, in bed and I feel asleep in minutes and slept soundly for 10 hours!
So I didn’t really see Cork until we took a short walk after breakfast.
It was a bank holiday so the streets were pretty quiet at 9a until we had to board our bus for Blarney Castle.
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