Ireland

It's a long way to Tipperary....or at least it seemed that way as we made our way through Heathrow Airport to catch our Aer Lingus flight. It's a very long way indeed from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 at Heathrow. 

Finally, 17 hours after we left our home in Alexandria, we were in Dublin on a beautiful warm, sunny day.  It does rain in Ireland, nearly every day, we were told, but it took almost 48 hours for us to see any.

Dublin is a vibrant, bustling mix of old and new.  Our hotel, north of the historic city, was new, next to a new stadium, Croke Park, where they play Gaelic football and hurling. Little known in the US, and certainly not known to us, these sports are huge in Ireland. Occasionally, the British import, soccer (as we call it) is played there. A cab driver told us that it was a proud moment when the British played soccer at Croke Park, and there were no jeers when God Save the Queen was played.

Even though we'd walked enough at Heathrow, We walked from the hotel down to the bustling shopping district near the river to have a pub dinner and do a little people-watching.  No, we did not eat at The Pieman Cafe, above.  

We were intrigued to see a polite single-file queue for the bus.  I'm not sure we've seen that anywhere.  I can assure you that, in Spain, you will NOT get on the bus ahead of any of the little old ladies dressed in black, no matter how close you are to the bus when the doors open.

The signs are in both Gaelic and English.  References to Irish history and famous Irish writers are everywhere, especially to Dublin's native son, James Joyce and to the heroes of Irish independence.  Here's one of the many memorials to James Joyce, in St. Stephen's Green.

Tomorrow, our tour of historic Dublin.  Mind you, at this point in our travels, we don't try to see everything...but what we did see was grand!