The Emerald Shores of Ireland - Part 22

The Emerald Shores of Ireland
A trip journal by David Bowers
9/2/08-9/11/08
Part 22

We then boarded the bus and resumed our trip to Dublin. It was still raining pretty hard so there wasn't much to see. During the drive Jerry told us the story of another important person in Irish history, Charles Parnell. As Jerry put it, Parnell was very active in politics, even though at the time Ireland's role in parliament was ceremonial at best. It was in that political atmosphere that the popular school of thought was why bother attending the parliament meetings if you don't really have any impact. Parnell thought otherwise, he convinced his fellow Irish members in parliament to actively attend every meeting, not only that, but to become very active in the debates. It almost sounds like our filibuster, as they would target topics that in reality had little to no impact on Ireland, but were very important to England. They eventually got England to allow Ireland to have its own parliament, in order to get rid of them. Parnell's victory was short lived with him on a personal level as he was soon exposed in the midst of a scandal. We chatted briefly about elections and Jerry reiterated that they are pretty amused watching our election. Jerry also tried to take credit for "Vote Early, Vote Often!" as an Irish custom. It seems they sent out election tickets some two months before the election, and go the roles are often out of date so people have been known to use tickets for people who had died or had moved away.

As we approached Dublin, Jerry had an interesting proposal. You see, his instructions were merely to take us from Glendalogh to our hotel, which was in Dublin. Jerry and John were talking, and they said they felt kind of bad about sending us away without at least a cursory driving tour of Dublin. So they offered to give us a short driving tour of Dublin, indicating we would still arrive at our hotel in time for dinner. We, of course, accepted the extra touring opportunity.

As we approached Dublin, we began to see the transportation method of choice in Dublin, the doubledecker bus. There seemed to be an endless fleet of these busses taking people in, out and around Dublin. Jerry also pointed out the yellow zones around major intersections, the rule being you aren't supposed to drive into the yellow zone unless you have enough room to drive out of the yellow zone. I think I have seen similar tactics used back home as well, not that I have seen any of them work well.

As we entered Dublin we passed a lot of houses that had two flagpoles out front, and Jerry explained we were going through an area that houses a lot of the embassies in Dublin. You won't confuse the United States embassy, however, in its round and modern looking building. We drove past the United States embassy making it our first embassy that I have seen. We then drove through the town and saw the iconic long rows of townhouses. As has been pictured, often times the only thing that differentiates one townhouse from another in a long row is the color of the front door. It is believed that this is a visual aid to help people locate their house after a long night at the pubs. We then winded through Dublin seeing a complex known simply as the "Government Buildings" along with the Leinster House, which combines houses the Irish Parliament and other key government functions. The main government building having a façade very similar to our main congressional building. We also passed by the Mercy International Centre where the Sisters of Mercy were founded. We then passed by one of the big city parks in Dublin, St. Stephen's Green. From there we passed by the Mansion house, the home of the Lord Mayor of Dublin. If I get some of these buildings out of order, that comes from taking a fast pace city tour. Continuing our Irish government tour, we went past Marrion Square and could see the City Council building at a distance. We then passed by the Shelbourne Hotel, which is a fairly famous hotel in Dublin, and then Grafton Street which is a trendy night spot that is pedestrian only at night, which runs from St. Stephen's Green down to Holy Trinity college where one could see the Book of Kells.

After passing Holy Trinity College we passed the Olympia Theatre, which is a Victorian era music hall before heading to Christ Church. The unique thing about Christ Church is that the church is on both sides of a major road connected by a bridge. We also passed through the financial heart of the country seeing the Bank of Ireland as well as another major Irish bank. We then headed to another hot nightspot in Dublin, the Temple Bar area which is also where the River Liffee passes through the city. Amongst the sights to be seen in the river area is a famous pedestrian bridge known as the Ha'Penny bridge, a Victorian style bridge that originally cost a half penny. We then turned down O'Connell street to see the famous statue of O'Connell as well as the new Spire of Dublin. Another key monument to Irish history can also be seen here in the form of the General Post Office often believed to be the starting point of their revolution, At this point we turned onto Parnell Street and headed to our hotel for the night, another Jury's Inn. I must say I was most impressed with this unexpected extra city tour of Dublin.

It was time for our final schedule briefing, and it started as it did normally with dinner scheduled for 7pm, but then the bad news came. It's not anything we didn't already figure out, because our flight back home leaves at 9AM tomorrow morning. Jerry informed us that regulations state we report to the airport by 6AM, and so he wants to have us on the road by 5:30AM. In order to accommodate us, he has arranged for the hotel to serve us a special express breakfast at 5AM. I leaned over and joked that it would be a bagel and coffee, and then realizing we hadn't seen a bagel all week, the person responded "That would be great". Next topic of discussion involves our luggage, the hotel will take our bags to our room for us, and if you don't mind having your luggage out by 4:45, the will take them back down for us as well. However, John will be arriving at 4:55 and wants to start loading the bus at 5:00, so it would greatly help if as many people as possible volunteer to take their own luggage down to the hotel lobby by 5:00. Jerry also cautioned us that since we have been spending the week in rural Ireland, that we are in Ireland's biggest city with over 40% of the population, and we should be mindful of all the things that come with big city life. Due to that the hotel has a security system, and the elevators will not operate until we insert our room keys, and the porters will not take our bags out to the street, we will have to claim them in the lobby, so either way you are taking your bags to the bus yourself. Then, one last time we headed into the lobby and picked up our keys.

We headed to the elevators and I notice d they have the card readers mounted by the outside call buttons, whereas I am used to seeing the card reader inside the elevator. We wait out turn for an elevator and then ride up to the fourth floor. When we get out of the elevator we note not only vending machines but an ice machine as well. Looking at the room locator sign, we get the dreaded news that our room is as far from the elevator as possible. We walk halfway around the fourth floor to an interior room that has a wonderful view of an uninteresting hotel courtyard. The room, no surprise, looks just like the rooms at the other Jerry's Inn's we have stayed in So after getting settled in and freshened up I started looking towards getting ready to leave. It's not mean but when the end of a trip is near, no matter how nice the trip, you start getting a little homesick. I also knew that dinner was likely to run long being the last night and all, and I knew we would be getting up at 4AM, so the more I can do now before dinner the better.

When you order a United States passport they send you a very scary brochure titled "Know Before You Go" that attempts to put the fear of Customs into you. In particular they talk about keeping all you receipts for souvenirs and having the items and an itemized list of the items ready to present to customs. So, I sat at the desk in our room in Dublin and took the back of piece of notepaper and itemized out all of my souvenirs. As I was doing this I also had all my souvenirs out on the desk so I could look at them all in terms of figuring out how to pack everything the best way. By the time I finished this chore, our big luggage came. I started to move my liquids into a clear airport security bag, and then packed away everything except for the clothes I would need the next day, the camera charger and my overnight kit. As it happened by the time I had everything packed up, it was about time for dinner. We left our room, and walking around the other way verified we are about halfway around.

We rode the elevator down to the restaurant level and headed to our tables in the middle of the dining room. I could tell this would be better than the last Jury's Inn when a barman came over and took drink orders right away. You can be assured I did order my last Guinness of the trip. It was then time to look at the menu. When the waiter came around I ordered a field green salad, Beef and Guinness stew (so yes, I had my Guinness and ate it too), and finished up by ordering Bailey's Cheesecake. The appetizer came, and from what I heard from those that ordered the soup, it was Jury's Inn soup. Lifeless soup that tastes the same no matter what the flavor it is advertised as. Tonight's soup was billed as broccoli and cauliflower, and those who had it noted they could taste neither broccoli or cauliflower. I'm happy I went with the traditional salad option. I also enjoyed my beef stew with a Guinness based gravy, served with plenty of potatoes and vegetables of course. We had a laugh when we had run out of dinner rolls, and somebody at our table asked for more by saying "Could we have some more bread?", well they brought out a loaf of sliced bread. You have to be careful what you ask for. Speaking of things you ask for, another person asked for some coffee and was informed it was not time for coffee yet. I don't think she took to kindly to that. But with the coffee comes that wonderful treat known as Bailey's Irish Cream Cheese Cake. Wonderful, they could have served us that more often.

The desert course started with the announcement of a birthday in the group, and the customary singing of happy birthday. There were then a few brief goodbye speeches, and some singing and general partying. After dinner, we made the walk back to our room, and upon returning to our room looked around for the ice bucket. No ice bucket to be found, but the plastic carafe from the coffee maker will work just fine. One last Jury's Inn shower, and the camera was charged, so I packed everything away except tomorrow's clothes and my travel wallet. All I need to do tomorrow morning is toss my night robe into the suitcase and my overnight kit. I tired to use the automatic system to set our 4AM wake up time, but Jerry had already had the desk set it for 4:15, so the automatic system would not let me override it, but a quick call to the front desk and it was changed. We then tried to get to bed but between the coffee and the music from dinner rolling around in our heads it was about another hour before we got a quick four hour nap before starting the final day of the trip.

Day 10 - Thursday, September 11, 2008

So we woke up at what my friends would call an uncivilized time in the morning, got ready, and then checked and double checked that everything was packed, and we had everything we would need on the way home in easy reach. We knew the morning would be rushed so we took all of our luggage and coats out of our room, and headed down to the lobby. When we got to the lobby shortly before 5, the bus had arrived and there was already a nice size pile of bags waiting. We added our luggage to the pile and headed to breakfast. The express breakfast was a continental breakfast with breads, toast, fruit and cereal, along with juices and coffee. They had the same fancy coffee maker as the Jury's Inn in Cork, so had some cereal and café mocha, which I followed up with a nice plate of melon with some toast. At around 5:20 we headed back down to the lobby. At this point we were asked to claim our bags and take them out to the bus. John was busy loading bags and we waited outside the bus until we saw our bags get loaded as we were told they would not have time to double check the load.

We boarded the bus and it was another "Sit wherever you like day" on the bus, so we all quickly grabbed seats and headed out. On the way to the airport, Jerry asked our opinions about the hotels and the various attractions so he could file his report back to the tour agency with our opinions. There were some more thank you speeches on the way to the airport and Jerry mentioned again how lucky we were with the weather, and then noted that you can have perfect weather, a punctual group, and have everything work out exactly to plan, but if you have a cold tour group, it can still be a bad trip, but he mentioned that we were definitely not a bad tour group and that we were a wonderful tour to end his season with. The prime touring season is over, sure Jerry will do weekend or day tours, but for the most part he is off for the winter to be with his family.

As we approached the airport, Jerry let John lead us through the procedure. We were told that when we arrived at the airport we would have to first check in for our flight, and that we would be interviewed before being allowed to check in. At this point Father interjected that this is not the time to display your Midwestern friendliness. No, this is time to use as few words as possible, preferably yes or no. Anything else you share can only be used to further question you, making the process longer for everybody. After getting checked in, we should then clear security. At this point we will be in the duty free mall, our third stop should be the tax refund office, which is in the duty free mall, then the currency exchange office. John reminded us that currency exchange offices generally don't like dealing with pocket change, so if you have coins left over, they are pretty much only souvenirs at this point, also the tax refund people may pay you in Euros so be sure to hit the tax refund office first. After that the fifth stop is the US Immigration office for preclearance, then finally the gate area, where we would need to check in again. He also stressed not to dawdle as the process could take every bit of the three hours.

Stay tuned for the exicting conclusion - only one more segment to go!