STILL GREEN

 Dublin Part II
   
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The Sanctuary of Christ Church Cathedral

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The High Altar of St. Patrick's Cathedral



 PJ had told us he is "RC..we all are", he told us. However, the two great buildings of Dublin are without doubt the Anglican Cathedrals, grabbed by Henry VIII and his successors.
 The Church of Ireland therfore, does have a profile and a wonderful heritage, the National Cathedral is probably more "low" church and Christ Church tends to the other end of the Anglican spectrum. At dinner at the College we sat with a priest who is called Fr. Andrew, his parish is Anglo-Catholic with vestments, incense every week, etc. He tells us there are some others on the island.
We continued to enjoy lots of friendly conversations with the cabbies, the locals and even a lady from Donegal who we helped negotiate her fare on the Luas light rail, talk about the blind leading the blind!

Luckily the golf  that was a remote possibility whilst in Ireland was never locked in, with the drizzling constant rain it would not have been an enjoyable experience. However, we did see some lovely courses on our journey and in good weather it would be great fun to play them.

The hop on bus takes the tourist through Dublin's Phoenix Park, it is a massive estate (the biggest walled park in Europe) many hundreds of acres and still home to 500 fallow deer. It is the front garden for the residence of the President of the Republic. We were aware that on the edge of the Park is the home and the pub belonging to our good old/new friend PJ.

There are numerous memorials around Dublin honouring the leaders of the rebellion from 1916 to 1923. This lead to Independence from Britain. The currency in the Republic is the Euro and it takes the tourist a bit of juggling to get used to the change both in money and being in another country. Thankfully the locals are friendly and ready to help with both da money and da politics.So after an early buzz on the trusty i-phone alarm we are off to visit Stena line again and make the crossing back to the "old country". We have paid for the "lounge upgrade" an excellent move and we are able to blog and send and receive emails as we make the smooth passage (on fairly rough seas). We will arrive at Holyhead in Wales just before lunch and begin the last leg of our tour of the UK.

 

Ray blogging on the ferry


 

Glenys a little green around the
 gills on the ferry

 

So we leave Ireland  and have been delighted with our experience of the emerald isle although, as predicted it was mostly a very grey and drizzly experience. However that was just the weather the people we met from one end of the country to the other in B&Bs, in taxis, in pubs, on rail system, in the College, driving buses at tourist attractions.. and we could go on.. were a delight. Also the colours of autumn were pretty special. 







                                         

                                                      The Irish Sea!!