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Paul Simon or bust… Our Dublin getaway! Part ten

Monday morning, we woke up bright and early for our trip back to Germany.  Bill had scheduled a wake up call for 7:00am, but we were already wide awake by the time the phone rang.  He’d also ordered a cab for 8:00am, but we were ready to go at about 7:30am.  In retrospect, I wish we’d had one last breakfast at the marvelous Merrion Hotel, even though it would have added another 60 euros to our bill.  I had forgotten that the lounges at the Dublin Airport are all purpose and kind of suck.  Our last visit to Dublin was in November 2016 and I had forgotten about the lounge, which is kind of grubby and crowded.

I had prepaid for the room with the plane tickets.  I booked the trip through Expedia and I think it came to about $3,000, including four nights in a five star hotel, business class flights on Lufthansa, and trip insurance in case we couldn’t go for some reason.  When we checked out, we paid another 438 euros for food and bar.  That was actually less than I was expecting.  Could we have done it cheaper?  Of course!  But I wanted this to be a really nice experience, and it was.  The Merrion Hotel certainly deserves all of the accolades it gets.  I’d stay again… if I can afford it, that is!  Seriously, if you’re going to Dublin and want to splurge, the Merrion Hotel is a great bet for that.

We had yet another entertaining ride to the airport with cab driver who told us he was one of eleven children.  He said back in the 60s, there was no TV, so what else were you gonna do with your time?  He was a very nice fellow who bid us a sincere farewell.  I think Ireland is one of those places where you have many friends you haven’t yet met.  It’s got to be one of the friendliest countries I’ve ever visited… and at times, I felt like I was back in the USA.  Lots of Americans were in Dublin, too.

Obviously, other people wondered if that all purpose lounge was seriously the only one…  Oh well.  It had free WiFi, fruits, cheeses, drinks, and limited seating space.  In the morning, there’s no beer to be had, but they do stock it later.  Don’t ask me how I know.

 

Our flight to Munich was populated with a lot of Italian teenagers.  I guess they were in Ireland for the same reason the Spanish teens were there– to learn English.  This, even though English is Ireland’s second language.  It’s easy to forget that Irish is a language, too.  The flight was trouble free and pleasant, complete with food…

The flight attendant seemed nervous about giving me this tray of food.  It wasn’t bad.  The cookies were extras from coach because she was afraid I wouldn’t like it.  There was burrata, a shrimp with asparagus slices, wurst with pickles, and some kind of vanilla mousse that was pretty tasty.  I also got hot bread and white wine.

 

We had a two hour layover at Munich’s fabulous airport.  Given a choice, I think I’d take Munich over Frankfurt.  It’s just a nicer place to spend time.  The guy who checked our passports at passport control seemed confused by the concept of the Status of Forces Agreement.  But, to his credit, he figured things out quickly and sent us on our way.  We hung out in the Lufthansa Business lounge for an hour, then got our rinky dink flight back to Stuttgart.  It took about twenty minutes and yes, they fed us.  Actually, it was a nice snack consisting of part of a wrap, a brownie with nuts, caramel, and cherry filling, and grapes.  Seems crazy to wait two hours for a twenty minute flight, but it is what it is.

A couple of sky shots I took.  I think I got these on the first flight from Dublin.

When we got to Stuttgart, our bags were the first ones off the plane.  We grabbed them, got to our car, and drove to Max’s just in time to hit Stuttgart rush hour traffic.  Zane and Arran were delighted to see us and Max gave us the lowdown on what we need to discuss with their vet.  He really does take excellent care of the boys and they love going to see him, although sometimes I leave his place feeling like a negligent dog mom.  But I’d rather it be like that than worry that my dogs aren’t being taken care of and I know he does take great care of them.

I don’t know when our next trip will be.  I’m hoping to visit Armenia in the fall, if we can get enough time off and Max has availability for the dogs.  But we’ll have to see if we can pull it off.  For now, I’ll get back to blogging about restaurants and local fun stuff.  Stay tuned!

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Paul Simon or bust… Our Dublin getaway! Part nine

We decided to clean up for our afternoon tea.  I put on a dress, some jewelry, makeup, and a silk shawl.  Below is a reversed photo of my face, which didn’t look as good as the unreversed picture looked.

Someday, I’ll retire my black modal dress from Novica.  Not anytime soon, though.

 

Initially, we went to the Garden Room, which is not where tea is served.  Art Tea at the Merrion Hotel is served in the Drawing Rooms.

This was how our table looked when we sat down.

Bill checks out the literature.

Forks turned into stands showing the art pieces the pastries are modeled after.  These pieces are on display in the hotel.

 We opted for Champagne at fourteen euros a glass.  Champagne is totally optional and I noticed the server’s eyes danced when we ordered a second round.  Yes, sometimes we get carried away…  

Four kinds of sandwiches: Shanagarry Smoked Salmon with Lemon Glenilen Butter on Brown Bread, O’Donovan’s loin of Ham with Tarragon and Dalkey Mustard on White Bread, Cornfed Chicken with Truffle Mayonnaise on Sunflower Bread, Organic Cucumber, Smoked Paprika, Mint with Glenilen Yogurt on White bread, Duck Egg Mayonnaise in a Brioche Bun.  We skipped the truffle mayonnaise because I don’t eat truffles.  We also had plain and fruit scones, lemon bread, Portercake, Battenberg Cake, modeled after paintings in the hotel, and lemon curd, clotted cream, and raspberry jam.

Teas!  I had Irish Malt and Moroccan Mint.  You’re allowed to try as many as you want.  Bill had Pu Erh and Red Chilli Chai.

Very civilized!

These pastries are modeled after the paintings depicted on the cards below.

My favorite part!  We did have another glass of Champagne each, which bumped up the bill a bit.  All told, this set us back 170 euros, but we didn’t have dinner on Friday night, so we figured it evened out.  

You don’t have to dress up for tea, but I felt it was appropriate given how nice the drawing rooms are.

 

We figured we’d be really full after tea, and we did feel pretty full at first.  We even had leftover scones, which our server kindly packed up for us.  However, I did get a little hungry later, probably because a lot of what we had at tea was liquid.  So we went searching for dinner.  On my main blog, I wrote about an incident that occurred before we found dinner at F.X. Buckley’s.

F.X. Buckley is apparently a chain restaurant.  We stopped in because they were offering a Sunday roast, although we both ended up having steaks.  We didn’t have reservations, but they were able to accommodate us.

Interesting sign from days past.

Bill had a ten ounce sirloin with pepper sauce and fries.

I had a fourteen ounce rib eye with bearnaise and a side of mashed potatoes with spring onions.  We paired it with a dry red from Portugal.  I needed Bill’s help with the steak.  My eyes were bigger than my stomach, which seems pretty hard to believe…  

It was a great dinner!  I’d go back!

 

And… just so I could say I’d done it, I suggested a trip to Bar No. 23 at the Merrion Hotel for a nightcap.  It’s a beautiful bar.

The Chocolate Martini is an expensive winner…  

Bill had a Japanese whiskey.

 

And for me, he ordered a Chocolate Martini, which was as delicious as it looks.

 

Lots of nice art on the walls.

This bird was hanging out in the garden.  I think we caught her sleeping.

We turned in fairly early for our trip back to Germany on Monday.  I was sorry to be leaving Dublin, though I was looking forward to seeing our dogs.  And now I have reasons to come back, since there are still things we haven’t done or seen.  I would count our trip to Dublin as one of our best!

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Paul Simon or bust… Our Dublin getaway! Part eight

Easy like Sunday morning…  we slept until about 8:00am, which is almost unheard of these days, even on the weekends.  Sunday morning was our last breakfast at the Merrion Hotel, although as it turned out, we totally could have had breakfast on Monday if we’d wanted to.  In fact, I wish we had done that, since the all purpose lounge at the Dublin airport kind of sucks.  For some reason, the breakfast menu on Sunday was abbreviated.  Maybe it was because we came down a little later.  Maybe it’s because it was Sunday.  I don’t know.

It rained on Sunday morning, which was significant because Ireland had gone 40 days without any significant rain.  The drought has scorched the grass pretty badly and, in fact, it was bad enough that a major archaeological find was discovered about thirty miles north of Dublin.

Bill had pancakes with blueberry compote and I had scrambled eggs with smoked salmon.

Oops… I guess I didn’t pay close enough attention to Bill’s face when I took this…  

The eggs were very good.

 

We had big plans for the afternoon.  I booked afternoon “art tea” for us at the Merrion Hotel.  It was easy to make the booking through Open Table.  Since it wasn’t due to start until 1:30pm, we needed to find something to do in the morning.  I proposed a visit to the Jameson Distillery Tour on Bow Street in Dublin.  We had yet another entertaining cab driver and we were his last fare of the day, so he was quite animated as we discussed topics ranging from Scientology to Donald Trump.  Then he let us off in front of a very high speed looking hostel, where he got out himself because he needed to pee.

We had to do a little searching to find the visitor’s center for Jameson’s, which now only serves as a visitor’s center and not a distillery.  Until 1970, this was where Jameson’s Whiskey was made.  It is now made in County Cork in southern Ireland.  However, although the facility was renovated in 2017, some original features from the original structure built in 1780 remain.  And instead of making whiskey, the place serves as a big commercial for Jameson’s Irish Whiskey, which I will admit is quite nice.

The entrance.

Below are some photos from our tour.  Although we usually go for the more involved experiences, we didn’t have time for anything beyond the basic guided tour, which ran for about about 40 minutes. Also, we had forgotten that on Sundays, one cannot purchase alcohol before 12:30pm.  We were at the distillery in time for the 10:45 tour and were allowed to taste whiskey, but not buy any.  It made perfect sense why the more detailed tours were offered after 1:00pm.  They probably figure that after learning how to make cocktails or blending whiskey, people will be more inclined to buy whiskey in their shop.  We wanted to buy whiskey, but didn’t want to wait until 12:30 pm.

Nice bar area, complete with chandeliers made with Jameson’s bottles.

Sine Metu– without fear.

And the variety of tours one can take.  We did the Bow St. Experience, led by a winsome lad named Adam.

The Bow Street Experience basically consists of hearing about the history of the Jameson brand in one room, then moving to another room, where the process is described.  Actually, having been to way too many scotch whisky distilleries and, by now, knowing the whisky/whiskey making process by heart, I must commend Jameson for their presentation.  It’s interactive and Adam was a good speaker– funny and entertaining.

You can actually see and smell for yourself as the tour guide uses a very nice backlit display to explain the process of making whiskey.

I was imagining Adam would make a good teacher.  His presentation skills and wit were impeccable.

We were given a sample of Scotland’s leading blended whisky, Johnnie Walker Black, a sample of Jameson’s Whiskey, and a sample of Jack Daniels Black Label, which I hadn’t had since my college days.  It was interesting to taste the differences.

Ahh… we get to taste it!

I like how they help out with the logistics of bringing the booze back in luggage…

At the end of the tour, you get your choice of whiskey neat, on the rocks, or in a cocktail with lime juice and ginger ale.  I had the cocktail, which was nice.  Bill drank his neat.

The “Daily Grog”, which employees were given at the start and end of every shift.  Now they only give it at the end of the day.

A glimpse of the aging room below the main level.

The area around the distillery is pretty nice.  There are restaurants, places to shop, and on the day of our visit, it looked like they were setting up for a concert, complete with food trucks.

Bill used a handy app to summon a taxi.  It was remarkably effective and we could even watch the taxi’s progress as it made its way to us.  It took just three minutes.  The taxi driver got us back to the hotel at about 12:30 pm and we got dressed up for our afternoon “art tea”, scheduled for 1:30pm.  More on that in the next post.

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Paul Simon or bust… Our Dublin getaway! Part six

Saturday morning, we woke up feeling pretty free, since the thing we’d come to Dublin for was finished.  Paul Simon’s concert was truly amazing and wonderful, even if being in such a large crowd and sitting in cramped seats wasn’t as comfortable as it could have been.  Still, Ireland was a great place to see Paul Simon perform, if only because a lot of the people in the crowd could actually sing. I don’t know what it’s like for other people, but I am unusually sensitive to bad singing.  I don’t know if it’s because I have perfect pitch or I’m just a perfect bitch…  It’s probably a regrettable combination of both conditions.  Anyway, I was glad that a lot of the people who were at Friday night’s show were decent singers.  If I have to listen to people singing along, I prefer them to be on key and most of the people in Friday’s crowd were.

We had no plans for Saturday, so we got up and went to breakfast.  I went with Irish buttermilk pancakes and a side of sausage.  Bill had French toast made with cinnamon brioche.

We also tried tea, which I probably ought to have more of.  

The pancakes were also offered with blueberry compote or apples, I think.  One of my British friends said I was going to gain “stones” if I kept eating like this.  My response?  “Who cares.”

But I did make sure to have some fruit, too.

My back was hurting a bit, even though we had a pretty good bed.  I think it’s because I’m used to having a feather bed.  Because my back was aching, we decided to try out the Merrion Hotel’s pool.  We found it empty and very inviting.  I appreciated that it was nice and deep, too.  We also tried the steam room.  I usually can’t stay in them for very long, but I managed to do a couple of cycles in there lasting a few minutes each.

The hotel has nicely appointed changing rooms with lockers, showers, and even a machine that wrings all the excess water out of your bathing suit.  Supposedly, they even sell bathing suits if you need one.  

An oasis of calm!  Felt great on my sore back.  The mural was painted by a Brady… Simon Brady, to be exact.

Lots of weights and machines for those who insist on truly working out.  There’s also a fully operational spa, which I probably should have made time to try.

After our swim, we went back to the room and got changed.  The weather was lovely, so we decided to take a walk.  As we were passing Merrion Square, we noticed a military regiment and an Irish piper.  We stood by to watch.  Apparently, during the summer on Saturdays, a different Irish regiment does a memorial service for fallen members of the Irish Army.  Family members are on hand to lay wreaths as their loved ones are honored.

A sign explaining… they were also passing out brochures.  Bill was interested, so we watched the whole thing, which took about 45 minutes.

Officers prepare for the start of the program.

 

Family members stand by.

The guards were giving orders in Irish.

I was more interested in the musicians.

The piper played several pieces, including “Highland Cathedral”, which was what I marched down the aisle to on my wedding day.

More than once, I caught Bill standing at attention.

The memorial after the wreaths were laid.  Behind it are several flags, including Ireland’s flag, which was lowered to half mast, then raised again.

Across the street from parliament.

And there were also dancers nearby, though they had nothing to do with the military ceremony.  They were also attracting attention.

A playground nearby.  I liked that there was a sign posted that read the area was only for adults accompanying children.  No creepers allowed.

 

Oscar Wilde again.  You can’t miss him in Dublin.

 

By the time the military ceremony was over, it was time for lunch.  We ended up at what appeared to be a nice looking restaurant but turned out to be a hotel restaurant with little character.  They also played some very annoying dance music that kind of spoiled the ambiance.  Oh well….

We were told the fryer wasn’t working, so there was no chance for fish and chips.

My burger came with a salad, which was probably better for me anyway.

 

Bill had a club sandwich.  Not bad…  and this was also the only place we had Guinness during the whole trip.  Guinness is really a winter drink, as every Irish person instinctively knows.  But you can’t come to Dublin and not have a Guinness, right?  It makes you drunk, as noted by Ireland’s greatest drinker with a writing problem, Brendan Behan.

The rest of the restaurant.  Lots of cutesy stuff written on the walls.

 

After lunch, we went across the street, where I proceeded to buy three cheap t-shirts with obnoxious sayings on them.  I’ll probably only wear them at home, although they pretty much express my sentiments perfectly.

 

After we bought the t-shirts, we passed this all purpose walk in clinic.  Apparently, they have something for everyone…  Reminds me of an old George Carlin routine–  Bud’s!  Where all the sick people go!

They have you covered!

Just around the corner is the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.  I had to take a picture of the sign because about thirty years ago, I read a book called The Intern Blues by Robert Marion, MD.   Dr. Marion didn’t get into an US medical schools at first, so he spent a year in Ireland studying medicine before he was able to come back to the States and finish his training.  His book was about first year interns circa 1985. 

And we also found where Bram Stoker lived.

At this point, we decided we wanted to find a pub with good music and character, so we went in search of one… but not before we stopped into a couple of grocery stores to see if we could find some Irish chocolate treats to bring back to Germany with us.  We were successful at a Tesco, just around the corner from our hotel.

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Paul Simon or bust… Our Dublin getaway! Part five

After lunch at Chambers, we went back to the hotel for a rest.  Our room came with a daily paper, so Bill took the opportunity to read up about what was expected at our concert.  The same information was also available online, but it was a nice touch to have the information on an actual piece of paper.  The next day, the show (just Paul Simon’s part) was given a glowing review.  I saved the paper, although I didn’t entirely agree with the reviewer’s comments.

Paul Simon on stage with his excellent band!

Anyway, the show was at RDS (Royal Dublin Society) Arena, which I understand is typically used for equine and other sporting events.  We were instructed to use the “red route” as opposed to the “yellow route” to enter the arena, even though we actually sat on the yellow route side.  They were enforcing this rule, too, which was a bit of a pain, since the cab dropped us off on the yellow route.  I chose to leave my big purse at the hotel, which was a good idea.  I did bring a sweater, though, which was also a good idea.  It got surprisingly chilly Friday night, after the sun went down.

We booked pitch seating, which isn’t necessarily the best idea for Bill and me, since we’re both kind of short.  We were in row UU in seats 93 and 94– not super close, like we were at the Stones’ concert, but pretty close.  We were able to see the stage fairly well, especially with the use of the monitors, which weren’t as big as the ones at the Stones’ concert.  Many people who were standing in the back complained about the view.  I will admit, it was probably pretty hard for them to see much of anything from where they were.  The stands on either side of the arena appeared to offer a good vantage point.  In retrospect, I might have preferred sitting there.  Pitch seating felt a lot like riding in the middle seat in coach on an airplane.

Unlike at the Stones’ concert, we sat near friendly people.  Two Irish ladies sat next to Bill and they were very chatty.  The people on my side were not chatty, but they were very friendly.  The crowd mostly consisted of older people… people even older than Bill and I are.  We saw older folks at the Stones’ concert, too, though most of them seemed a bit more ambulatory than some of the people at Paul Simon’s show.

Bonnie Raitt took the stage at a little after 5:00pm.  I’d read that she recently had surgery.  She did look a little tired, but she and her band sounded great and played a lot of their best known hits like “Angel From Montgomery” and “No Business”.  She even brought guest player Paul Brady on stage; he co-wrote “Not the Only One” with Bonnie for her 1991 album, Luck of the Draw, and played “Something to Talk About” for a guy in the audience who was celebrating his 70th birthday.  She mentioned that it wouldn’t be long before she herself celebrates 70 years on the planet.  I kind of expected political commentary from Bonnie Raitt, and she did quip that she was happy to be on the other side of the pond.  Everyone cheered.  The ladies who were sitting with us had a whole lot to say about Donald Trump.  We agreed with their negative impressions of him and assured them that we didn’t vote for Trump.

Bonnie played for about an hour, said goodbye, and then we had about a half an hour before James Taylor took the stage.  That’s when a lot more people showed up.  I was surprised that Bonnie didn’t get more of a turnout; but then, Friday was a workday and the show started at around five o’clock.  It could be that a lot of people couldn’t get off work.  I enjoyed her part of the show and was kind of surprised to see her opening for anyone.  In my book, she’s a legendary performer herself.

The place filled up in time for James Taylor’s entrance.  I’ve been to two other concerts featuring JT– once in 1990 and once in 2003.  I’m always struck by how much he enjoys playing music.  Once again, he was sounding great and injected some humor into his set.  At one point, he was talking about how much he was enjoying his tour as he casually flipped over his guitar.  There, he’d put the words “Help me.”, which got a big laugh from the crowd.

James had his long time backup singers Andrea Zonn, Kate Markowitz, and Arnold McCuller with him.  I didn’t see David Lasley, who has always been with him in other shows I’ve attended.  Hope he’s doing alright, although Lasley is 70 now.  Maybe he’s retiring, too.  Michael Landau, who’s been playing with James since at least the early 90s, was also playing in Dublin.  I got a kick out of watching drummer Steve Gadd, who was really into the music.  He looked like he was about to take a dump on stage a couple of times, but it all sounded (and smelled) great.

I’ve been a James Taylor fan for many years and feel like I know him, although we’ve never met.  I did attend his brother Livingston’s concert at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia.  Livingston once sent me guitar strings when I was trying to learn to play (on a really crappy used Armenian guitar I bought at the vernissage).  I loved Liv’s show.  He was very accessible and the venue was intimate.  Unfortunately, he mostly plays in the United States, so I’ll have a wait before I can see him again.  Anyway, the Taylor clan is immensely talented and very near and dear to my heart.  Though they’re from Boston originally, they all grew up near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which is where my sister lives and not far from where Bill and I lived for a time.  I grew up in southern Virginia, which isn’t all that far, either.  Their music takes me home.

Finally, after Taylor’s ninety minute show and a short break for the roadies to set the stage, Paul Simon came out.  This was my first time seeing Mr. Simon in concert.  It’ll probably be the only time I’ll see him, since he says he won’t be touring anymore.  Let me just say that I’m delighted that I pulled the trigger on this concert.  It was absolutely awesome.  Simon was backed by a marvelous group called yMusic.  They played Simon’s best known solo hits and most his older Simon & Garfunkel hits expertly.  The crowd was enchanted by them.  I was equally enchanted… at least until I got a charley horse and had to walk around a bit.

The crowd mostly stayed seated for Simon’s show, although a few people couldn’t help dancing.  Toward the end of the concert, people got to their feet and Simon plowed through twenty-six songs.  He looked pretty tired by the end, but was such a gracious and humble performer.  It was a real treat to see and hear him play.  At the end of the show, he even left us with hope.  Just before he played
“American Tune”, he said “Strange times we live in, huh?  Don’t give up.”  The crowd roared.  Ireland clearly loves him, too.  Here’s a link to the review that was in the Irish Times on Saturday.

At the end of the night, we headed out of the arena and some American guy was complaining about not having a ticket stub.  Apparently, he printed his tickets or something.  They were being very strict about showing your tickets when you went for food or to the restroom, so he must have had something proving he was there.  Anyway, he asked the crowd if anyone wanted to donate their ticket stub to him.  Some guy obliged and the American guy started cracking jokes.  He said, “Hey, this says Bruno Mars on it!” (Bruno Mars had also played recently in Dublin)  Then he said, “Does anyone want this guy’s credit card number?”

The mood coming out of the arena was jubilant.  People really had a good time!  Bill and I were amazed that we spent six hours listening to three legends play.  We were exhausted at the end of it, but so glad we made the trip.  Ireland was a great place to see Paul Simon perform his last tour.  Better yet, no one smoked cigarettes next to me all night while wearing a tank top!

This is a picture of the hideous American Embassy in Dublin.  

I was impressed by all of the choices of things to eat.  At the Stones concert, you could eat wurst and drink beer.  Paul Simon’s show had a bunch of food trucks.  Bill and I stuck to beer, mainly because we didn’t want to wait in line.

Lots of people hung out on the green before the show started.

My view before the crowds arrived.

Bonnie Raitt on stage.  She was the only performer to get a formal announcement.

Thank God for zooming.

James Taylor sneaked on stage with no introduction!  

Andrea Zonn plays fiddle… she is a contemporary of Alison Krauss’s and also sings beautifully.  Check her out.

Paul Simon is only 5’3″ (still taller than me), so it helped that he was on the monitor.

This is the view off screen, although I zoomed for this shot.

Unzoomed!

I posted this picture on Facebook with the quip “This time, it wasn’t me.”  Between us, Bill and I had four beers, only two of which were in bottles.  The two guys in front of us drank at least fourteen ciders between them.  Drinking is not a joke in Ireland!

This guy on keyboards was insanely good.  He played a genius solo toward the end of the concert.  I was very impressed by all of the musicians who played with Paul Simon.  They were all very talented players.

Final bows.  I loved the guy in the red shirt playing lead guitar.  He had a lot of charisma and was as much fun to watch as he was to listen to.

Many folks were headed here after the show was finished.  Not Bill and I… we needed rest.

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Luxury

Paul Simon or bust… Our Dublin getaway! Part three

The first time we visited Dublin, Bill and I stayed at the Marker Hotel, which is a very nice business class accommodation located near Ireland’s Facebook offices.  The Marker Hotel was, at that time, Trip Advisor’s number one pick for hotels in Dublin.  I don’t think that’s why I booked it, though.  I think it’s because the Merrion Hotel was full during the time we wanted to visit.  When I travel without the dogs, I like to stay in nice hotels.

Super nice digs!

Bill and I liked the Marker Hotel fine, but the location wasn’t ideal for us.  It’s very close to the Liffey River, kind of away from all the pubs and sights.  The Merrion Hotel, by contrast, is right in the thick of things, off Merrion Square and close to St. Stephen’s Green.  It’s directly next to a street lined with restaurants and it’s also not far from the RDS Arena, which is where Paul Simon would be performing.  The Marker Hotel’s location is a bit more residential and not as convenient to non business related activities.

The Merrion Hotel is also just plain more to my liking.  It’s more of a traditional hotel, with more of a classic feel than the Marker Hotel’s ultra sleek modern vibe.  Both hotels are expensive.  Both hotels are very nice and offer excellent service and good food.  But my preference is for the Merrion, which our cab driver assured us is the best hotel in Dublin.  I believe him.  For readers who are wondering which one they’d like better– if you’re going to splurge, that is– I’d say choose the Marker Hotel if you like modern decor and want to be close to the river and/or Facebook.  Choose the Merrion Hotel if you like a more traditional decor with character and lavish service.  Either way, you really can’t go wrong.  They are both beautiful hotels.

If your preference is more for “interesting”, I’d recommend checking out the Charleville Lodge, which is run by a hilarious guy who is very active on Facebook.  I have not stayed at the Charleville Lodge myself, but I have a feeling I would enjoy it… if only I weren’t so posh.  The guy who runs the Charleville Lodge also runs the White Moose Cafe, which was all over the news a few months ago after the owner exposed a blogger.  Hmmm…  I guess that’s another reason I decided not to book there.  Seriously, if you like cheeky humor and don’t mind some ribbing, you might want to check it out.  Maybe we’ll stay there next time we go to Dublin, but only if I’ve given up writing by that time.

So, anyway, back to the Merrion Hotel.  I had prepaid for the room, but they took an imprint of Bill’s credit card for “incidentals”.  We knew there would be incidentals, too.  The Merrion Hotel has two restaurants, a pub, and a cocktail bar, as well as a beautifully equipped spa.  I never made it to a spa treatment, but I did try out the beautiful pool and took note of the well-maintained exercise room, which, of course, I didn’t use.

We were assigned room 333, which was a standard room on the “garden” wings.  The garden wings are relatively newly built wings to the original hotel, which originally consisted of four Victorian era townhouses.  While the newer rooms lack the character of the original rooms, they are still extremely well appointed and comfortable and even come with free chocolate and water.  Below are some pictures.

They gave us free Fuji water, which we never got around to drinking, and three chocolate bars, which we brought home with us.  Chocolate is definitely a plus.

The bed.  Not sure what that stripe down the picture is.  Maybe my iPhone malfunctioned.

A tray of amenities.  If you need dry cleaning or laundry done, they have you covered.  

A huge marble bathroom with a nice shower and tub.  It also had a scale in it, which I carefully avoided.  The shower was nice, although I preferred the one at Wald Hotel in Stuttgart!

Water by Oscar Wilde!  He’s everywhere in Dublin!

 

Our room also had a French balcony, free Internet, a mini bar, and a TV with lots of channels on it.  Every night, a housekeeper brought us ice and kept us stocked with water.  We only got turn down service on the night of Paul Simon’s concert because the other nights, we were already in for the evening when it was time for turn down service.

We were pretty tired on our first night in Dublin, so we decided to eat at the hotel.  They have a pub in the basement called The Cellar Bar (which I had originally misunderstood as “Salad Bar”).  It’s a really cool place, with lots of brick rooms.  Thursday nights, they have live entertainment.  Although we didn’t see the musicians who played for a short while, we did hear them.  It was a nice treat and, unfortunately, the closest I got to live pub music during our visit.  Maybe next time we’ll have better luck and want to stay up later.

Bill peruses the menu.

He had an open faced steak sandwich with mild cheese.

I went with half a chicken smothered with barbecue sauce.  This was a real treat!  While we certainly get chicken in Germany, it’s not usually prepared in this style.  It came with a salad.

A Hop House Lager, made by Guinness.

 

Service at The Cellar Bar was cordial and professional and the food was very good.  I would have liked to have gone there a second time, but we didn’t get the chance.  However, we did have three breakfasts in The Garden Room, which is one of the hotel’s restaurants.  Breakfast is 24 euros if you just want the continental stuff and 29 euros if you opt for a cooked to order breakfast.  If you want steak and eggs, it’s another fourteen euros.  I was a little tempted by steak and eggs, but that seemed too extreme.

On our first morning, we had a nice view of the courtyard garden.

And here’s a view of the continental island, which has the usual fruits, cheeses, breads, juices, and pastries.

Bill had scrambled eggs with smoked salmon.

I went with Eggs Benedict.

The garden is very pretty.

It even has a fountain!

When the maid is cleaning your room, they hang these handy signs.

I liked the uniforms the staff in the Garden Room wore.  They had very nice tailored slacks and vests that appeared to be good quality.  Actually, everyone in the hotel wears very nice uniforms and they vary depending on what part of the hotel the person is working in.  We noticed at least one American working in the Garden Room. She was the chattiest of all the wait staff.  I think I overheard her saying that she was in studying in Dublin.  As a former English major, I couldn’t help but note that Ireland is kind of a paradise for former English majors…  or even well read geeks like my husband.

After breakfast, we learned more about Dublin’s rich musical and literary history.  More on that in my next post!
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Paul Simon or bust… Our Dublin getaway! Part two

We left Stuttgart on the morning of Thursday, July 12th.  I was pretty ready to go, since it had been awhile since our last foray out of Germany on an airplane.  It’s not that I like air travel.  It’s more that I’ve kind of been itching to go somewhere besides France or Switzerland.  The last time we went outside of France or Germany was in February, when we hit the Czech Republic for a long weekend.  Because we often travel with the dogs, we are kind of hindered in where we can go.  Also, it’s taken Bill some time to build up enough off time to go somewhere beyond the immediate border countries.

We got up early on the morning of our departure, loaded up the dogs and all of their junk, packed up our suitcases, and headed off to Leinfelden, where the dogs would spent the long weekend with Max at Dog Holiday and we would board our first plane to the Emerald Isle.  I don’t usually accompany Bill when he takes the dogs to Max’s, but in the interest of not looking like a negligent dog mom, I went in with him this time.  Max and his wife, Chris, always take great care of our dogs and they love going to see them.  It’s comforting to see my dogs greet Chris with much affection.

After the dogs were dropped off, we headed for the airport.  Bill dropped me off with the bags, parked the car, and joined me as we found our way to Lufthansa’s check in desk.  There was a family of Germans doing some business with the business class agent, holding up the line.  Several people were ahead of us and finally got so exasperated, they went to the line for economy.  Bill and I weren’t particularly in a hurry, so we waited and another agent came along and checked us in.  The German family with their many, many bags were still being helped when we finished checking in.  I don’t know what the issue was, but clearly it was a big and time consuming problem.

With our bags dropped, we headed for Lufthansa’s lounge, which like all the other lounges is on the second floor of the airport.  I didn’t bother to take pictures of it this time, mainly because I’ve taken pictures in previous posts and nothing has really changed.  It’s just a big room with comfortable chairs, free WiFi, televisions, and snacks.  I have become accustomed to using lounges when I fly and I’ve found that they do make the experience somewhat less stressful on a multi-leg journey.  The lounges are usually quieter and less obnoxious than the main airport and “free” beer is always a good thing.

Our first flight took us to Frankfurt, which is a huge and kind of old airport.  The flight to Frankfurt from Stuttgart is super short– maybe twenty minutes or so.  Nevertheless, they still fed us.  We had maybe ten minutes to scarf down a snack of bread, fruit, and cheese, which came with a side of chocolate.  I saved the chocolate for later.  Business class on Lufthansa is kind of boring, but you do get a few perks, like an empty seat next to you.  The seats are otherwise just like the ones in economy class.  You get a snack or a meal and free booze, and supposedly “priority” handling of your luggage and a quicker security check, as well as the right to check two bags without having to pay extra.  If I can afford it, I try to go business class.  I find it makes the trip more pleasant for everyone.

“Freiraum” is always welcome on airplanes… especially when you have wide hips.

“Special” accommodations in business class.

In Frankfurt, we had a four hour layover.  It’s good that we had so much time, since besides having a long walk to our gate, we also had to go through passport control.  Ireland is not part of the Schengen Zone, which is an important thing to remember when you’re planning your flights and don’t come from a European country.  If you go to the United Kingdom or Ireland or anywhere not in the Schengen Zone, you will have to wait in line.  Sometimes the lines are pretty obnoxious, which was the case on Thursday, when it backed up all the way past the food court.

We were standing behind a nice looking Mexican family, who appeared to be grandparents with their grandson.  They were very well-dressed and civilized, even when the abuelo reminded a veiled Muslim lady that she needed to wait in line like everyone else.  I couldn’t help but feel a little sad about the current state of affairs between the United States and Mexico right now.  To be honest, the current state of affairs in the United States was a constant topic of conversation on this trip, although no one was overtly unkind to us because we’re from the United States.  Still, Trump’s policies did have an affect on our travels if only because people we met were asking “WTF?” a lot.  Believe me, I ask the same thing on a daily basis.

We got to the window at passport control.  The guy who checked our passports looked all of about 18 years old and had no sense of urgency.  He paged through our passports, looking for evidence that we’ve been in Germany legally for the past four years.  He finally found our SOFA cards at the back of the passports, smiled, and sent us on our way.  I was kind of relieved that he knew about the Status of Forces Agreement.  It’s been my experience that some folks at passport control have never seen the cards and we have to explain.  That was kind of what happened to us yesterday in Munich, but I’ll get into that story later.

Anyway, once we got through passport control, we spent our lengthy layover in one of Frankfurt Airport’s many Lufthansa lounges.  It was a pretty boring afternoon until I started singing Monty Python songs to Bill.  That never fails to crack him up.  And again, there’s free wine and beer, of which we took full advantage.

A common sight in Lufthansa lounges.

Our flight to Dublin was trouble free and by 5:30pm local time, we were picking up our bags.  Although we flew business class and our bags were supposed to be offloaded first, we happened to be on the plane with a large group of Spanish kids.  The hilarious cab driver who took us into the city explained that Spain and Italy send a lot of young people to Ireland so they can learn English.  It appeared that a fresh group from Spain arrived with us last Thursday.  They were kind of fun to watch.  It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was that young and awkward.  Now, I’m just awkward.

I enjoyed the helpful signs in baggage claim.  I don’t know how many people this sign has helped… are you ever thinking of driving when you’re picking up your bags?

Our bags were probably the last to make it off of the plane.  Consequently, we ended up in the cab line behind another American couple who had been on our flight.  I knew they were American simply by looking at them, but there was another big clue hanging off of their luggage.  The male half of the couple was a consular officer in Milan, Italy.  The tag on his wife’s luggage gave his name, address, phone number, and job title.  I noticed that he had positioned his tag so that it faced down, but hers was face up, revealing a lot of information about them.  Bill noticed it, too.  My good deed of the day is to remind all of you out in Internetland to be careful about what you reveal to people when you travel.  I suppose I could have been really obnoxiously outspoken and said, “Hi Patrick!” to the guy in front of us, leaving him to wonder how I know him.  But despite popular belief, I’m not really that brash.

I liked this sign, too.  I think we should post a few of them in the United States.

 

The cab driver who took us to Dublin was hilarious.  He started out kind of quiet, but was soon warmly welcoming us to Ireland, complete with dropping the f-bomb several times.  We got caught in rush hour traffic, you see.  Every other word was “fookin'”, which I thought was pretty funny.  The cab driver was telling us about how Ireland has been experiencing a drought and all of the grass is scorched, which is a rare thing in the country known for being the most green.  Like other chatty Irish cabbies, he also told us about how safe Dublin is and how much he loves the city, even as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s recent visit caused significant backups downtown.

Before too long, our driver had delivered us safely to the Merrion Hotel, where a man in a top hat was quick to rush over and grab our bags.  He offered his hand to take my backpack and I shook it, which caused a moment of awkwardness for us both…  I guess that’s a sign that I’m not used to posh living!

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Paul Simon or bust… Our Dublin getaway! Part one

Going back to Ireland for a stop on our year of concerts…

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how Bill and I have dubbed 2018 as our year of concerts.  Bill and I aren’t usually concertgoers, but we’ll definitely drop some cash on tickets for certain shows.  On June 30th, we both saw The Rolling Stones for the first time and were absolutely blown away by the experience, obnoxious as it was.  Although the Stones was the first show we’ve seen so far, it was not the first concert I bought tickets to.  I think that honor probably belongs to Elton John, who announced his farewell tour.  Bill and I haven’t seen him either, but he’s coming to Stuttgart next year.  I bought tickets to his show, then got on a roll buying other tickets.

And then James Taylor announced on Facebook that he and Bonnie Raitt would be joining Paul Simon for a few dates on his Homeward Bound tour.  Now… as a child of the 70s and 80s, of course I like Paul Simon’s music.  I couldn’t get through my childhood without hearing his greatest hits with former musical partner Art Garfunkel.  My dad was a big fan of theirs.  I have always liked Paul Simon, although at least prior to Friday night’s show in Dublin, not quite as much as I did James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt.  Of the three on the bill, I was the most excited about seeing James play again.  This was my third time seeing him play live.

The idea of seeing James, Bonnie, and Paul appealed, as did going to Dublin in the summer.  Last time we were there was my first time– back in November 2016.  The weather wasn’t exactly stellar.  We spent three nights there before we moved on to the west coast of Ireland.  The hotel I chose that first time was nice, but not in the part of the city most conducive to seeing Dublin.  Plus, our time there was eaten by trips to Kilkenny to see the Smithwick’s Visitor’s Center and doing the Guinness tour.  Bill had also never been to Dublin during the summer, although he has been to Ireland once more than I have.  With his blessing, I ordered us tickets in February… and promptly lost them by June.

We don’t usually lose things at our house because Bill and I are both hoarders.  But we’re also getting old and forgetful.  Somehow, the tickets to the show I was most looking forward to got misplaced.  I had to call Ticketmaster Ireland to get new ones issued.  Fortunately, that wasn’t as onerous a task as online reviewers had led me to believe.  We just called them on a Saturday morning and a young woman with a charming Irish lilt verified my payment details and sent duplicates.  I’m so glad we went to the trouble.  The show was absolutely incredible– as good or probably even better than the Stones’ show was.  It’s too bad Paul Simon says he won’t be doing any more big tours.

I decided I wanted this particular trip to be as comfortable as possible.  I used Expedia to book us a room at Dublin’s Merrion Hotel, which is reputed to be the best in the city.  I also got us business class tickets on Lufthansa with flights laying over in Frankfurt on the way to Dublin and Munich on the way back.  We booked the dogs for four nights with Uncle Max and Bill arranged for the time off, so we could leave last Thursday morning and come back today.  Four nights made for a nice break, and gave us the chance to see a few places we missed the first time we visited Dublin.

As usual, this will be a series.  That means there will be several posts, along with lots of pictures.  I hope those who read this first post will follow along as I write up the whole weekend, although I know not everyone will be interested.  My travel tends to be very adult oriented and full of stories about people we meet and things we see, rather than stuff we do.  However, if you’re interested in reading about the hotel, restaurants we tried, and our activities, I highly recommend staying the course.

This is a concert I will never… ever… forget.  It was just awesome.  As amazed as I was by The Rolling Stones, I was even more blown away by this show, for which tickets cost me significantly less money.

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Celebrating 14 years in Ireland! Part twelve

We spent Saturday driving from Sligo to Dublin, eventually stopping in Mullingar for lunch.  As luck would have it, the weather happened to be beautiful on Saturday.  It would have been a great day to explore Sligo and the surrounding areas.  Ah well.  Now we have an excuse to go back to western Ireland.

We stumbled across the Newbury Hotel in Mullingar after a quick search.  The hotel was old fashioned and kind of cute.  I wished we could stay there a night instead of in Dublin.  It was a nice place to have lunch, though.  It appeared to be very popular with the locals, who were sitting around two televisions.  One was tuned to a rugby game and the other, which was closest to where Bill and I were sitting, was set to a steeplechase.

Oops!

Obligatory shot of Bill.

I grew up around horses, so I’m always attracted to equestrian sports.  I don’t remember seeing a lot of steeplechase in the United States, but it appeared to be a very popular sport in Ireland.  There were several guys watching the races.  Bill noticed that some of the horses had full body clips, which I had to explain to him.  Sometimes, horses involved in serious competitive sports have all of their body hair clipped off.  It makes for easier grooming as well as allows them to keep cool if they grow a heavy winter coat.

Steeplechase!

Anyway, the steeplechase kept us occupied while we waited for lunch.  A handsome but somewhat inept young fellow brought us a couple of overflowing Guinnesses.  I had a bacon panini and Bill had a chicken and cheese “whoppie”, which was basically like a panini made with tomato bread.  The sandwiches were served with excellent chips (french fries).

Nice hotel!

Mullingar looked like a pleasant town.

After lunch, we finished our drive to Dublin.  I had booked us a room at the Clayton Hotel Dublin Airport.  We had a real problem getting to the hotel because it was located in a strange area.  Bill made several wrong turns before he finally managed to get there… just in time to run into a huge influx of people.  It turned out someone was having their wedding reception at the hotel and we happened to arrive just as they did.  The lobby was teeming with people in their Sunday best, swilling Budweiser and obstructing things.

I was pretty tired from the drive and really just wanted to go take a nap.  After a speedy check in, we went to our eighth floor “suite”, which was really just a big room.  I took a shower and climbed into bed.  We spent the evening watching TV over a meal provided by room service.  I’m happy to report that the food quality at the Clayton Hotel Dublin Airport was much better than at the Clayton Hotel in downtown Dublin.

Unfortunately, the wedding party then proceeded to have a very loud reception, complete with blasting music that we could hear in our room.  The noise made me very grumpy because I just wanted to rest up for yesterday’s journey back to Germany.  Advil PM came to the rescue once again!

Yesterday morning, we got up and went to breakfast, which I had pre-booked.  Unfortunately, the guy running breakfast couldn’t seem to find where I had pre-booked.  It took a couple of minutes for him to tell us to just go eat and he’d sort it out with the reception.  The breakfast at the hotel wasn’t all that good in terms of food quality.  Fortunately, there were plenty of things to choose from, from fresh fruits to cereals, that couldn’t be screwed up by someone cooking.

This was the meal we had on our Dublin to Zurich flight.  They also had lasagne.  I might have had that, but I was too worried about fungus.

After breakfast, we checked out, paying the nine euros to park our rental car in the hotel’s enormous garage.  Then we made our way to the airport, where we dropped off the car and checked in at Swiss Air.  This was my first time flying Swiss Air.  It was great to try it for the first time in business class.  In fact, I’d say I liked Swiss Air better than Lufthansa.  The food was better and the service was impeccable.  Aside from that, the business class lounge at the Zurich Airport is fabulous.

My only complaint was that Bill ended up sitting behind me instead of next to me.  The lady sitting next to me had a daughter who sat across the aisle from her, so we weren’t the only ones a little put out by the seating arrangement.  But the flight was only one hour and forty minutes, so it was no big deal.  I noticed the flight attendants made a point of being nice to the lady’s little girl and even invited her to go see the cockpit.

We had a long layover in Zurich, which we spent in the Swiss Air Business lounge after we got through passport control.  Once again, I had to explain SOFA to the lady who looked at my passport.  I guess next time, I’ll give her my military ID, too.

Our flight to Stuttgart was super short– maybe 30 minutes in all.  In fact, the pilot turned off the seatbelt sign, only to turn it right back on seconds later.  Even though it was a short flight, we were still given a snack and a drink in business class and it was actually edible.  Our Stuttgart flight was on Austrian Airlines.  It was a turbo prop aircraft.  Everyone in business class got an empty seat next to them, so Bill sat behind me again.

Edible snack on Austrian/Swiss Air.

Once we picked up our bags in Stuttgart, we were in a hurry to get to Dog Holiday to pick up Zane and Arran.  I had been fretting about Zane all week, worried because he had a mast cell tumor removed.  As it turned out, Zane was a little out of sorts while we were gone.  I’m taking him to the vet on Wednesday, so I’ll have her take a look at him.  I did have him on Benadryl, though, so that could have been why he was so listless.  Despite that, both dogs were very happy to see us.  Arran kept his head on my shoulder the whole way home.  Both dogs gave us kisses and were very excited about getting back to their people.

I’m glad to be back, too… although now the heat seems to be off in the house.  It’s always something, isn’t it?

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Celebrating 14 years in Ireland! Part seven

We were literally lodged next to Europe’s Facebook Headquarters!

After our Guinness Storehouse experience, we found a cab right outside.  The driver had “Bullet In The Blue Sky” playing on the stereo.

“U2!” I said.  “How appropriate!”

“What is this song called?” Bill asked.

“Bullet In The Blue Sky.” I said.  “I think it came out around 1987.”

“It’s not from 1984?” Bill asked.

“No, U2’s 1984 album was The Unforgettable Fire.  I feel pretty certain this song wasn’t on that album.” I answered.

“The song was recorded in 1986.” the cab driver said.  “And it was released in 1987.”

“Ha!  I was right!” I cheered.  “I can’t ever forget The Joshua Tree because I was 15 years old and taking a journalism class when it was released.  One of the girls in my class was a big U2 fan and went to Hampton, Virginia to see them perform while they were on tour that year.  She ended up meeting Bono and he signed her white turtleneck.  And she also ‘locked’ her class ring.  She wrote a big article about the experience in our school newspaper.”

“I was in Germany the first time.” Bill said.  “23 years old.”

“Holy shit, you’re old, mate!” the cab driver said.  It turned out he was 46 years old and hailed from Liverpool, England.  He’d come to Ireland to golf and fell in love with a local.  They are now married and have several kids, the youngest of which is six years old.  The driver then told us a story about how the six year old had woken him up that morning by climbing on his face.

The driver went on to tell us about how much Dublin has changed since Bill first visited, back in 1984.  He pointed out an old bar that used to be full of guys who worked in the Docklands area of the city.  He took an old friend to the area, trying to find the bar.  They walked into it and asked where the bar was located.  No one confirmed that they had reached the right place.  I seem to remember there was some talk of the IRA, too.

We left the cabbie and then decided to look for dinner.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t a great selection of restaurants near The Marker Hotel.  We ended up going into the restaurant at the nearby Clayton Hotel– it was called Vertigo.  From the very start, that was an annoying experience.  They were playing horrible generic dance music in the dining room.  Also, we weren’t aware that in order to be served, you had to go up to the bar.  There was no sign alerting us to that fact.  So we sat for awhile before another customer clued us in to what we needed to do.  Bill was starting to have flashbacks to our very bad experience at the Esquire Bar in San Antonio.

Carlsberg is a thirst quencher, but not that inspiring.

Bill ordered a chicken and avocado burger.  I had a cheeseburger.  It took a very long time for the sandwiches to get to us, plus we were drinking Carlsberg beers, which aren’t all that interesting.  Add in the terrible music and the fact that all we really wanted to do was eat and hit the sack, and you have a couple of crotchety middle aged folks.  First world problems, right?

Disappointing burger…

 

Mr. Bill’s chicken sandwich.  It could have been better.

Neither of the burgers were particularly good, either.  Bill said his was okay, although it had little avocado on it.  My burger was overcooked and not very hot.  I finished less than half before we decided to cash in our chips for the evening.  We have a reservation at a Clayton Hotel the night before we fly back to Germany.  Hopefully, it will leave a better impression than the one in downtown Dublin.

On the way back to the hotel, I noticed the European Facebook headquarters, located directly next to our hotel.  I had to take a few photos.  It looks like an interesting place to work, based on the big posters with provocative slogans on them in the foyer.

Several of the signs I noticed from outside Facebook’s headquarters in Ireland.

Monday morning, we got up and had our breakfast.  After that, we checked out of the hotel and got a cab to the car rental office where Bill had arranged to pick up a vehicle for our three hour trip to Sligo.  After a few tense early moments, Bill got the hang of driving on the left again, having done it for the first time back in March of this year when we were in Scotland and England.  Aside from drifting too far off the side of the narrow roads and some momentary confusion, he’s done a great job driving.

I tried to snag a couple more Dublin shots from the car.

We stopped at a grocery store in Ballysadare and picked up some essentials for our five nights at the beach cottage.  We were going to have lunch, but it looked like everything in the little village, except for the cafe in the grocery store, was boarded up tight.  Lots of young folks who obviously attend the local Catholic school were walking around the town in their uniforms.  I actually found myself admiring the uniforms.  As a youngster, I didn’t like the idea of being forced to wear the same thing as everyone else did.  However, as a middle aged woman, I don’t think school uniforms are a bad idea.  And I even liked the classic look the kids were sporting.

In Ballysadare, apparently being versatile is the key to economic success.

The construction stoplights in Ireland have timers on them, letting you know how long you have to wait.  Bill and I both like that.  There is a lot of construction going on here, which is a good thing.  The roads are narrow and very well used.

After we shopped, we finished our drive to Aughris Head, which is where our beach cottage rental is located.  When we arrived in the mid afternoon, Bill found the keys to the house.  The ads didn’t lie.  It’s literally right next to the Atlantic Ocean.  As I type this, I hear waves crashing dramatically on the rocky coastline.  It’s very peaceful.  Adding to the appeal is the fact that there is a bar located within walking distance of our little house.

More on Aughris in part eight!

First impressions…  I picked another winner.

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