From the Liffey to the Mersey

We left Dublin today just as the weather is clearing. Forecast for today is sunny with the light cloud cover and the possibility of an occasional shower. Ain't life a bugger!

So we made the most of it by taking the Red Bus Tour of Dublin before we got the ferry. As we knew that our time would be limiuted, we drove into the City and parked in the same parking station as we had last night, almost in exactly the same spot! Only two spaces away in a very full car park - ooh how I love that parking fairy!

From here it was only a short walk through to the Tourist Visitor Centre where we bought tickets for the Red Bus Tour. Because we only had a few hours, they sold us discounted tickets that saved us €5 each - nice gesture to be sure, to be sure! The bus left from just around the corner and operated every 10 minutes - must have literally just missed one cos it took 12 minutes for the next one to get there. While waiting we watched a steady procession of Eco-Cabs pass us by - these guys must be fit. Can you imagine this in Brisbane where there are quite very steep streets in the inner city?!

It was a one-man travelling show on the bus with our driver Paddy negotiating the heavy traffic and providing a non-stop commentary as we went. We had commenced the tour part way through - at stop 8 and so he was in full swing - you know I don't think he stopped to take a breath once!

Like many European cities, Dublin was once a walled city full of narrow little lanes within where at times, two ladies with hooped skirts would have had trouble passing. And it was a small city of just 44 acres set within walls with 6 gates and 42 defensive towers. Why so many towers? Well, the Irish and the Vikings were not allowed to live within the city walls and tried regularly to burn it down. When Johnny was King, he built Dublin Castle partly to house the soldiers needed to protect the city as well as being a home for himself. There was at least one occasion when he had to pull his sword and engage the enemy himself!

St Patrick's Cathedral was a fortified cathedral because it was built outside the city walls. It housed a garrison of soldiers. Oliver Cromwell went to service in this church one Sunday and half-way through, stood up and condemned the Catholic idolatory and closed the church. He re-opened it a week later as a stable for the soldiers horses. The Cathedral is linked with some notable locals - Sir Benjamin Guiness (yes, of that family) paid for the restoration of the Cathedral as well as the establishment of St Stephens Green.
One Dean of the Cathedral was one Jonathan Swift - of Gulliver's Travels fame. He was also a sufferer of Ménière's disease which at the time was diagnosed as a psychiatric illness and so he was interred from time to time in the psychiatric hospital! On his death, he had bequeathed £7000 for the construction of a psychiatric hospital - it is now a hospital that treats alcoholics - ironically located within a couple of hundren metres of the Guinness Brewery!
Another Cathedral Dean was renowned for his lengthy sermons - as much as two hours long. He had a pulpit on wheels constructed so that he could be wheeled by altar boys up and down the aisles throwing the bible at the hapless parishioner who was unfortunate enough to fall asleep - and so we got the phrase "To throw the book at you".

Living outside the wall meant that you had some liberties - you did not have the protection of the City, so you paid no taxes! There were and still are a number of traders who hold very special trading licences. These licences allow them to trade on the streets - literally. They cannot be bought, but are handed down from mother to daughter in families. There is nothing special about what they sell - it is the stuff of everyday life - in fact the thing I saw most on sale were multi-packs of toilet paper! And they cannot open a shop or they must surrender their licence.

And then there was the Guinness Brewery. Old man Guinness was cunning - he negotiated a 9000 year lease for £80. We did not go in though as we had such limited time. There are seven floors of museum - not only of the Brewery but of its place in Dublin and indeed Ireland. They then talk of an 8th floor - this is the famous all glass Gravity Bar with its wonderful views across the City. Would have been a waste anyway with neither of us drinking the stuff that even the Irish concede is an acquired taste. But Paddy related his memories of the draymen leading their Clydesdales pulling vats of the brew on tray topped carts out from the brewery gates. As the horses walked over the cobbled inner streets, their shoes would send sparks into the air. They way he spoke of it, you could see the picture in your mind's eye! Just wonderful! And those draymen had a prized job - you see the perk was that they got two free pints at each pub they delivered to - would have made for an interesting trip once their round was finished.

Arthur Wellesley was born in Dublin. He went on to become the Duke of Wellington and Dubliners were rightly proud of their son. Through public subscription they began to construct what was to be the second tallest obelisk in the world in monument to him. Part way through the construction, while he was Prime Minister of England he was asked in parliament one day whether he was Irish. His reply? "Just because you are born in a stable does not necessarily make you a horse!" Understandably this pissed off the Irish and work stopped on the obelisk that day. It was completed to what stands today only because he left money afer his death to finish it. Funds were insufficient however and to today it is not complete. Serves him right!

Another site that I feel compelled to mention is the Croppies Acre. This field on the River Liffey just across from the CBD is the site of a mass grave. Some 1,500 to 2,000 young revolutionary soldiers are buried here. Most were pitch-headed (scalped) by turning a helmet of pitch onto their heads, letting it dry and then yanking it off, before being hung from the bridge to die. Who thinks of such bizarre and in-human tortures? Such a sad loss of young life - but then what war is any different?

Funny how governments are the same time over and world over. The planning arm here is called Dublin Limited. They had decided that they needed a new office and so in front of some pretty amazing examples of Georgian architecture, they planned to build a very new style building. But that was just the start. At the time of the excavation of the site, a full Viking village was discovered, complete with many thosands of artefacts. But, with the contempt of their office they 'gave'themselves permission to build over it. 34,000 Dubliners took to the street in protest - but they went ahead irregardless. So, although the artefacts were recovered, and Dublinia was built to house them (similar to the Jorvick Centre we went through in York - blog date 25 April 2009), the village in its setting was lost. Bloody government agencies.

And then we pass Trinity College. Chartered under Elizabeth 1 in 1593, this is set smack bang in the centre of the CBD which means that there are many thousands of young people rubbing shoulders with the professional set all the time - nice to see. Even though they were chartered under a Queen, they did not admit women until 1904 - the nerve!

So we leave Dublin with two very typical shots - the bronze statue of Molly Malone with the barrow - known locally as the 'dish with the fish' and the street filled with taxis - there is no uniformity to it. You buy a car, have it passed for roadworthiness, buy a taxi licence and go head to head for business with everyone else doing the same thing! No industry regulation here. Its a wonder that any of them makes a buck.

So we eventually get back to our starting point just before 2pm. Our ferry departure is due at 4pm and we must be at the Port by 2:30 pm, so we hurry back to the car park. In fact, I am writing this blog from aboard the Stena Nordica - our ferry from Dublin Port to Holyhead in Scotland. We were welcomed aboard by Captain Neil Humphrey just before we set sail. At the moment I am sitting in the Internet Cafe with the laptop plugged in to power and happily typing away while keeping myself busy enough to hardly notice the rocking of the boat! There are a couple of eastern European boys here with us who are playing music and tv programs very loudly and pissing the rest of us off - just asked them to turn it down - the rest of us don't want to listen to the drivel that one of them is listening to. Got most of the blog done for today and then went down to have a look at the on-board shop. Got a 1 litre bottle of Jamesons for £21.95 and some really nice choccies. So I'm set!

So we dock in Holyhead and are now back in familiar Scottish country with the pleasant memories of the time we spent time earlier in the area. In fact, we pass within 5 miles of Caerwys where we had a week in March. The boat has docked late and so we are now pushing against the clock to get to Liverpool within a decent time so the manager does not have to wait too long.

Famous last words. We were doing just dandy until we got into Liverpool city itself. And then it all went awry. Trouble with reading directions that have been developed before roadworks start and new buildings rise up from the ground! Tomorrow I am going to buy a Tom Tom - just not worth the stress any more!!!!! And we do not want to be involved in a homicide investigation.

We are in an apartment for the next two nights - it will give us a chance to do some washing. Not planning anything really hectic tomorrow - need a day of not driving. Might try to get a haircut and go to see Angels and Demons. Or we might try to go on the ferry trip we missed last time we were here.

A face from home and the family

This blasted bloody rain. Here we are in Dublin and it is grey, wet, heavy, wet, dark, wet and wet wet wet. Really can't be bothered going out in it, so we crawl back into bed and close the drapes again. Up later and down for breakfast just before they finish at 12 (well, we went down at 11:30 am but lots came rushing in on the bell!) It then gave me the time to finish the marathon blog for yesterday too!

We are trying to touch base with our nephew Ben who has been studying in Dublin. He is on his way back from the Aran Isles where he has spent the last couple of days. We make contact, but the phone line keeps falling out (he is on the ferry at the moment). We would love to catch up with him tonight - his girlfriend though is leaving to fly home to Holland tomorrow and I am sure that the oldies tagging along would be a real wet blanket. So we plan to see him tomorrow before we leave for the UK.

Postscript: Did eventually manage to get on to Ben and have made plans to meet with him tonight for a drink. We head into the City about 6:45 pm and phone Ben - he and Nina (his girlfriend) are having dinner so we tell him that we will find somewhere to eat and catch him after dinner. We go for a walk up the pedestrian mall taking in the sights while trying to find somewhere for dinner. At one point there is an almighty crash and everyone in the street jumps about 3 feet. Turns out a piece of plate glass has fallen off the back of a truck and smashed - on our return walk down the mall, there is one of those street sweepers trying to sweep it up - and not having too much luck - I think the pieces are too heavy for its brushes. We left him driving over and over the mess.

We end up at O'Neills Pub for dinner - no photos and no description - the food was crap. But everything improves when Ben and Nina get over to us about 9:45 pm. Ben was genuinely delighted to see us and very natural in his enthusiastic greeting - this is really lovely when we all realise that it is 6 years since we last saw each other. Nina too is very open and warm and friendly and we share travel experiences and hear them tell us of their studies here in Dubin. After a little while there is a shriek from Nina when one of her best friends Cla(i)re shows up - Ben had sent her a text message. It was lovely to spend a few hours with the younger ones.

Turns out that Ben will be on the continent for some of the time we will be there - so we will keep in touch - we might even get the opportunity to do a bit of travel together. Keep safe guys - and keep in touch!

We feel small and humbled

Yep, we were right - the view from our bedroom this morning is just lovely. We are up fairly early as we know that Bill and Greta have a funeral to attend this morning. Bill is in to the full cooked breakfast for us. Mind you, they might do this sometimes on a weekend, but put a visitor in their home at any time and out come all the trimmings!
Sausage, bacon, white pudding, grilled tomato, mushrooms, scrambled eggs and great toast as well as the obligatory orange juice followed by cups of tea. I make the comment that with a breakfast like this we forgo lunch to which Bill replied that this was the plan!
Luke is champing at the bit to get to school - how unusual. He goes to arrive about 9am although classes don't start until 9:20am. He is full of energy (bit like Bud!)

Bill and Greta are so accommodating and generous. Plug the computer in so you can book accommodation, stay another night if you would like to - do you want to do a load of washing? Life is definitely better for knowing them. Thanks ever so much guys for making us so welcome. Please call in home sometime you are in Oz so we can return the hospitality.

We get away just before 10:30 am and get to Limerick when Michael realises that he has left his hat in the lounge. So around we turn and head back to Cratloe to collect it. Heaven help it that he might lose it!!!!!!! How on earth would we all recognise him?

Back on the road we head straight through Limerick. We had planned to have a quick stop at King John's Castle but now that we have lost 20 minutes, we just give it a passing glance as we drive on by.

A number of people have told us about this amazing megalithic cemetery near Dublin and today we are in search of Newgrange and Knowth. The two hour trip from Limerick up to and through the outskirts of Dublin to Slane was pretty uneventful other than constant roadworks - there is so much being done over here at the moment.

We follow the directions to the Visitor Centre at Newgrange / Knowth. You park your car here and then travel by shuttle bus to the two monument sites - a clever way of controlling numbers and minimising the potential damage to the sites. All of the sites had been restored and consolidated to the glorification of an enigmatic age.

These monuments are truly sights of sites, as our first visit is to the Great Mound of Knowth (Cnobha) passage cairn. We are greeted by Darra, our guide, who provides a historic preamble before we venture into the mound. During the initial dissertation, we all become aware that the mounds were constructed with ingenuity augmented with a knowledge of engineering, architecture, artistry and an understanding of astronomy and all thousands of years ago.

What is perhaps most amazing is that these tombs and chambers have not been dug into the hillside - they have been constructed from flat ground!!! The sheer overall weight of the materials used to construct the mound and the construction itself is almost imperceptible. In our arrogance we are inconsiderate as to the ingenuity, and the technological prowess which was possessed by these remarkable engineers enabling them to build this edifice about 5000 years ago. This predates Stonehenge by a thousand years and the Pyramids of Giza by 500 years! The mounds are surrounded by large border stones that have been sourced from a coastal area 40 kms from the site. Through wooded forest. Across streams. And they weigh between 1.5 and 10 tonnes. You thinking yet? Amazed yet? These border stones have rock art all over them and they are beautiful. In fact, almost all the rock on the site has been collected from far flung areas with quartz and granite also not native to the local landscape. This means that there was a very deliberate plan to build this sacred place. And a construction period of about 50 years when the average lifespan was 20 - 25 years. Wow, wow, and even more wow. Makes you feel very small and insignificant.

For 4,000 years they stood, forgotten in time, subsumed into the landscape and safely overgrown. They were only discovered in the mid 20th Century and archaeologists from the University College Cork spent 40 excavating, preserving, dating and interpreting before re-creating the exterior of the tombs. However, the inside chambers had not been distrubed and are just as they were built millenia ago! Probably the most fascinating bit of information for me was that the huge bowl stone 1.2m long x 0.3 m high had to have been placed before any of the construction of inner chambers or mound began as there was no way to place it inside when the chambers measured at their widest is 0.7m x 0.2m. Gives you goosebumps doesn't it!

At Knowth you can't go into the chamber, but go into an room created within the entry area where there is an interpretation of some of the major elements including the construction of layers, an enlarged photo of the bowl stone and an intricately carved stone mace head found in front of it. Now, that bowl stone is still where it was placed more than 5000 years ago. Maybe our neolithic ancestors understood human nature far more than we gave them credit for previously! This really is mind-blowing stuff. There are two chambers within the large mound, 40 odd smaller mounds surrounding the large one and ceremonial activity areas all round. The main purpose appears to have been for ceremonial internment of cremated human remains - there appear to have been placed into that large bowl stone for some time before being moved into the smaller mounds. All the reconstructed areas are based on legitimate archaeological information and represent exactly what was on the site.

Now, most people who come to the site visit Newgrange first. I think there are a couple of reasons - firstly, the mound itself is higher and secondly, with the amazing quartz and granite facade is so visually impacting. What it actually looked like is all guesswork, but there is no doubt that there was an entry facade constructed of these exact materials on this site and the remaining small low pieces indicated that it was something like this. All the materials used in the reconstruction are from the base of the mound - and like Knowth just a few kms away, they are not native to the area.

We were lucky though because arriving as late as we did (3pm) it meant that we could only do it in the order we did on the last tour of the day. And actually, visiting Knowth first gave us a greater understanding of the role of the area and how is was developed all those thousands of years ago. This was important because we were not overwhelmed by the actual visual impression and were able to concentrate more on the intricacies of this site that includes not only an amazing rock (lintel style large rocks) lined passageway with lots of carvings but also a roof box that at the winter solstice throws light through that passageway into the inner chamber. And we could go into that chamber!

Now, there were only twelve of us in the group plus the guide making thirteen people standing shoulder to shoulder. Normally they take up to 24 people. But with the smaller number, we could all see down that passageway - which was important. The guide explains the construction of the chamber and tells us that although there has been some securing of the lower small packing stones (to prevent stealing or 'souveniring') that everything above head height is exactly as it was found when opened! There are huge stones, layered upon layer, over hanging and balanced with smaller packing stones ensuring that they do not fall. And these have been accurately dated in place to 5200 years ago! So, with no modern engineering or construction techniques, this constructed place has stood for more than 5000 years. It is almost impossible to comprehend.

Then it was time for something really special - a simulation of the winter solstice. So shoulder to shoulder we stand. Jean, our guide, turns out the few lights and switches off her torch. We are now standing in total blackness (I would hate to be claustrophobic or nyctophobic) in a deep and mostly secret place. Jean then activates a lighting system that simulates what happens over a period of 17 minutes on 5 days a year only (if there is not cloud cover). I can tell you, my heart was in my mouth. It is such an amazing and humbling experience. The light, entering through the roof box chamber, crawls slowly up that passageway until it reaches that inner chamber and slowly fills it with light - right into the three recesses. And creeps away back down the passageway. You just have to experience it - it really is impossible to describe in a way that would allow you to feel what we felt. And there was more than just me wiping away a tear or two when the lights cam back up. They only allow 10 people on each of the five days to be there on the summer solstice and everyone has an equal chance of being one of the chosen few through a international lottery.

Unfortunately we can't take photos but then even if we could, it could never convey the specialness of the experience. But if you click here then you can get an impression of the 2007 event right at the entrance to the passageway. Now this is just totally mind blowing but let me add a few more facts for you to ponder - as you enter the chamber you are walking up an incline so that inside the chamber you are 6 feet higher than the entry and you are now in direct line with the roof box; and that roof box is perfectly aligned with the horizon at the hills opposite.
So where do we now think that Fred Flinstone sits in all this now?

BLOODY AMAZING. As we walk back to the Visitor Centre from the bus stop, we pass a little Robin Red Breast singing the praises of the site! We had lots to think about and talk about on the 30 minute drive back into Dublin. Called in to see the site of the Battle of the Boyne River - but the site was closed (well, it was now 6:30 pm!).

Tonight we are booked in to the Bewleys Newlands Cross Hotel, about 15 minutes out of the city centre. Interestingly, it is another in the DeVere venues chain (remember we stay in Barony Castle). A large complex that caters to businesspeople as well as travellers. Dinner in The Brasserie tonight - we are too tired to go any further. Choices - we shared a garlic bread and a breaded brie with the yummiest tomato relish for entree and for our main we both chose pan fried lemon sole on muchroom and bacon risotto with a red pepper sauce. Personally, the capsicum overpowered it. But the fish was superb!