Ireland again - Day 2: Lauren and Dublin

Day two began with a trip back to the airport to pick up Lauren.

As expected, getting out of center city Dublin was the hardest part. Even with a GPS and a navigator armed with a map, we took a "creative" route out of the city. The rest of the airport trip to fetch Lauren went without incident, and we were back at the car park just after 11 AM.

On the brief walk back to the hotel, we encountered some sort of photo shoot involving women in rollerskates. They seemed to be on skates for the first time in their lives, to our amusement.

After a brief stop at the hotel, we hit the Exchequer pub for lunch and Guinness.

Next, we headed over to Dublin Castle to look into tours. It was apparently group-fieldtrip-to-the-castle Monday, so the next available tour time was also the last time, at 4:30. We purchased tickets and left the castle to walk around for an hour or two.

We meandered over to the Guinness brewery to investigate their tour options, too. They're open until 7, but we'll probably do that tomorrow afternoon.

We got caught in a bit of rain on the walk back to the castle, but made our 4:30 tour.

The tour guide was very thorough, and in no rush, since it was the last tour of the day. Sabrina and I had taken this tour already, 7 years ago, but didn't really remember the "palace" part of it.

My favorite part was when people decided to sit/lie down on the floor to view the ceiling art.

Once we hit the underground part, it seemed more familiar to me.

After the tour, we wandered over through the shopping/restaurant district by the hotel, towards St. Stephen's Green for dinner.

We settled on an Italian restaurant, because Rudy was worried that it was the last time he'd have Italian food for the rest of the week.

Tomorrow, we're going out to Howth in the morning, hit the Guinness Brewery in the afternoon, and probably head to O'Neill's Bar after dinner for some local culture.

Ireland again - Day 0/1: Arrival in Dublin

It's the post you've all been waiting for!

We've returned to Ireland, where it all began, almost exactly 7 years later. (Yes I know the pictures are broken; I'll fix it some day.) Oh, how the times have changed.

But this time, it's slightly different. Sabrina is attending a conference for the first few days, at Trinity College, and we also have the whole Terrizzi clan along for the ride.

Astute readers will notice that we're actually missing someone; Lauren will be arriving tomorrow.

We flew out of Newark around 10 PM, last night. With the flight duration and the 5-hour time change, we got in around 10 AM local time. After sorting out the rental car (one of these, I think), off to the hotel we (tried to) go.

Remembering how "fun" it was to try to find the hotel last time, I had cleverly planned ahead and bought some Ireland map data for my Garmin GPS. It couldn't find the address for the hotel, though, nor could it find satellites immediately, so we struck out mostly blind towards Dublin. The airport had been super-helpful, again, in pointing out that one customarily drives on the left here.

... Except that we got on R132 headed north, instead of south, by accident. My passengers hadn't quite yet gotten reacquainted with the concept of navigating with a paper map, so it took a few miles to sort this out. That, and driving stick, with the stick on the left, while sitting on the right and driving on the left. And all of us on very little sleep. We eventually found the hotel, after some extended driving-in-circles.

The Central Hotel is perfectly situated within walking distance of everything, which is important, since I don't want to drive in the city any more than necessary.

We spent the remainder of today walking around, eating, and trying to stay awake. A 36-hour day has some difficult moments, but it's the fastest way to adjust to the time change.

We crossed a pedestrian bridge over the Liffey River, walked along the water, crossed back, and then briefly toured around the outside of Christ Church Cathedral, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and Dublin Castle.

Around 5ish PM, we regrouped at the hotel and tried to pick a place for dinner. After much deliberation and wandering, we found an acceptable pub with a quiet upstairs dining room. We finished just as the World Cup final was starting, and then headed back to the hotel for the night. I had a 2-or-3-hour nap, while everyone else actually went to sleep. Or tried to.

There's a "late bar" (club) in the adjacent building that has had a loud band playing all night. The place closes at 1 AM, but that just means they stop letting people in. It's open until 2:30 AM every other night of the week. We're in the last room at the end of the hall, so we have an exterior wall that must touch the next building. If they have bands every night of the week, we're going to need a new room, or a new hotel.

Tomorrow, Sabrina goes to the conference at Trinity, we pick up Lauren from the airport, and possibly tour the inside of Dublin castle. Maybe hit the Guinness Storehouse, too.

Last day in Canada

The Fundy National Park turned out to be a lot farther away that I thought. It's a lot closer to Moncton than Saint John, so we decided to skip that.

Instead, we got up early to go see the Reversing Falls at high tide (just after, actually), when the river was being forced back upstream at maximum speed.

It was incredibly foggy, probably helped a bit by the Irving paper/pulp mill across the river, so we couldn't see much. There were harbor seals and cormorants fishing in the incoming saltwater, and doing their best to not get swept upstream.

The jetboats were going out around noon, but it was a bit steep at $37 + tax, per person, for a 20 minute ride. Also, the guide book indicated that, despite the yellow rain suits that were provided, we would have gotten completely soaked. We told the guide woman that we'd be back (not really), and went back to the hotel for some breakfast.

The breakfast at the Château Saint John was quite good, for a continental breakfast, but was interrupted by some guy having a stroke a few tables away. April offered to help, being a nurse and all that, but they said everything was fine and that they already had an ambulance on the way. It was a bit odd to be eating breakfast while paramedics were shocking a man on a stretcher 20 feet away, but we got through it and he seemed to be doing fairly well, all things considered.

After checking out of the hotel around noon or so, we made a plan to head west, along the coast, and to stop in some tiny harbor towns along the way. But first, we returned to the Reversing Falls again, this time only a few hours before low tide.

This time, the river was actually flowing towards the ocean, and the rapids were ferocious. We opted to watch the jetboat tours, instead of taking one, and were finally able to see the paper mill and the bridge, as the fog had lifted slightly.

On the way out of Saint John, we crossed the bridge over the falls and headed towards the Bay of Fundy coast. Along the way, we stopped a few times in random little towns at the top of (what I'm going to call) small sub-bays and walked around.

Since it was approaching low tide, and the tides change by nearly 30 feet here, the water was quite far from shore and I was able to walk around essentially on the bottom of the harbor.

Our next destination was St Andrews. On the way into town, Matt and I spontaneously decided to visit Minister's Island, which you can drive to at low tide. Since Sabrina and April were sleeping, there were no objections, and we drove out onto the "sand bar" that goes to the island. Sabrina and I had been here before, 4 years ago, but were unable to drive to the island because it was high tide at the time.

The map that we got at the entry point has some "guidelines" on the back that are so unusual, in my opinion, that they merit repeating:

1. Check the Tide Schedule and plan accordingly
2. Carry a watch
3. Sing in/out at the Gate House
4. Carry a whistle
5. Bring a cell phone
6. If you are caught on the Island during high tide, NEVER attempt to swim to the mainland

The island was owned/developed by an eccentric millionaire (are there any that aren't?) who was some high-up guy in the Pacific Canadian Railroad. The main attraction is the mansion that was their summer home (winter one was in Montreal).

We took a tour of this 50-room behemoth, including a few outbuildings and the "bathhouse" down by the water.

There was also a 50-foot square pool hewn out of the sandstone that would apparently fill at high tide and get heated by the sun for a few hours. It was filled in, but the outline was still clear in the rock.

On the way out, we stopped briefly at the "barn complex" to see some animals and such. April really connected with the pigs.

After driving back to the mainland, we went down into "downtown" St Andrews to grab some sandwiches for lunch. Just like last time Sabrina and I were here, we passed on the Kingsbrae Garden, which, if you believe the guidebook, is one of the main attractions of St Andrews. Pffff.

Continuing along the coast, our next stop was in St. Stephen. Specifically, it was at the Chocolate Museum.

Despite the fact that I've never heard of them, Ganong chocolates is apparently a big player in the international fine chocolates market, and claim to have invented the chocolate bar.

The museum includes all-you-can-eat chocolates while you're wandering around. They literally have platters of assorted chocolates just laying around.

I've been writing this in the car ride through Maine, and my battery is running out. Also, I have web access via my iPhone, but I can't upload the pictures yet. I'll try to get them posted at some point tonight. We're headed to my parents' house again, for the night, before returning to Pennsylvania tomorrow.

Halifax

Our luck with the weather finally ran out today.

After a mediocre-but-free breakfast at the hotel, we headed across the bridge into downtown Halifax.

First, we took a drive around the citadel at the top of the hill (Fort George) overlooking the city. Since it was raining, we opted not to actually go in and walk around. I didn't get any pictures, but Google has plenty.

Next, we stopped at the Halifax Museum of Natural History to learn a bit about the history of Nova Scotia, including the local indigenous people, the Mi'kmaq. Once again, I don't think I took any pictures. (Maybe I didn't have the camera?)

By the time we left the museum, the rain was letting up, so we went down to the waterfront. I insisted on stopping at the Alexander Keith's brewery to get another shirt (my old one is getting worn out), but we opted not to take the tour.



For lunch, we headed to the Waterfront Warehouse(well, really Tug's Pub) right on the boardwalk, which turned out to be more of a seafood restaurant than a pub.



Following lunch, it was a short trip down the boardwalk to the Maritime Museum.


We spent the afternoon learning about the Titanic wreck, various other shipwrecks, and the Halifax Explosion (fascinating story; I have an entire book on it, somewhere, if anyone's interested).



The rain was starting up again, so we decided to move along back to New Brunswick, and headed to Saint John.

April and Sabrina did what they usually do: sleep while Matt and I drive/navigate.



We hit quite a bit of fog in the middle of Nova Scotia. It looked like dusk for quite a few kilometers there, but we eventually got through it. At one point, a toll booth materialized out of nowhere, and I got it on video. I'll post it later.



It was time for dinner by the time we got back into New Brunswick, so we stopped at an italian restaurant in Moncton. Sabrina and April picked it out of the guide book, and it was, coincidentally, right next to the Pump House Brewery that we ate at last week, on the way through Moncton the first time.



Dinner was good, and we took our time eating. As a result, it was almost 11:30 by the time we got to the hotel in Saint John. We're staying at the Château Saint John, which bears an eerie resemblance to the Château Moncton that Sabrina and I stayed at last time we were up here.

A random hotel employee in the hallways informs me that it is not only the same chain as the one in Moncton, but it is also the same owner.

Tomorrow, we're planning to see the Reversing Falls, and maybe the Fundy National Park just east of here. Then, it's back to Boxford, MA for a night.

Back to civilization (sort of)

After cleaning the condo a bit and making sure that all of our recycling/compost was properly sorted, we headed out to the eastern end of the island. On the way, we drove on PEI routes 1, 2, 3, and 4. It was mostly more of the same view: fields of potatoes, hay, etc.




These are the "main" highways on the island, meaning that they're 2-lane roads, often passing zones, and anywhere from 55 to 70 mph speed limits. They're often under construction, in poor shape, or severely patched and lumpy. In some places, it seems that they ran out of (imported) asphalt/gravel, and the side roads aren't even paved.

An hour or so into the scenic coastal drive, we stopped at another random scenic overlook (and lighthouse).



It seems that the parks department hasn't quite gotten to this site yet, or perhaps the guardrails have just fallen over the edge as a few more victims of erosion. Either way, the only attempt made at keeping people from plunging to their deaths is this sporadic deployment of signs that depict cars in various states of freefall over the cliff.




An hour or so down the road from the lighthouse, we stopped at the Rossignol Winery. They weren't offering any tours, but they did let all four of us taste about 10 different wines and liqueurs. I insisted on buying a bottle of the maple wine, even though nobody else really liked it.




Just past the winery, we stopped at another lighthouse at the southernmost point of the island, right next to the ferry terminal.



After walking around for a bit and taking a hurried tour of the lighthouse, we mosied over to the ferry for a ride to Nova Scotia.







Upon landing in Picou, NS, we had a relatively uneventful ride down to Halifax (well, Dartmouth really). We stopped briefly in Truro to get a map at the visitor center and such. It's hard to believe that we didn't have a GPS the last time we were up here. I don't specifically recall getting lost a lot, but that certainly doesn't mean that it didn't happen.

We went down to the Dartmouth waterfront for dinner, at the Celtic Corner. It feels a bit odd to be back in a "real" city, with buildings taller than 10 stories, and more than a few thousand people scattered here and there. On the ride here from the NS side of the ferry, it was odd to not see any potato fields for the first time in nearly a week. Words cannot convey how empty and deserted almost all of PEI feels. According to Wikipedia, there are just about as many people in Halifax as on the entire Prince Edward Island.

Tomorrow, we'll tour around Halifax for most of the day, then head back to New Brunsick at some point (to St. John for a night).

I don't have all of the pictures offloaded from cameras yet, so they'll probably go up tomorrow.