We woke up late - I mean very late - because we still hadn’t adjusted to the timezone change.
So, we got a late start.
We drove to Bray, the seaside town about 10 minutes south. As we were a bit lost (and Jared is a new Irish driver) we went around in circles a few times so we were able to see a good deal of the cute town before finding a parking place. We took the DART into Dublin Pearce station. What a beautiful ride up from the south! The DART follows the sea for most of the ride - we had spectacular views. Apparently we past Bono’s house - but I don’t know which one it was.
We got into the Pearce station downtown and walked around the corner to get coffee and a WiFi. We stopped in to TRUFFLE HONEY - a small shop near Trinity College where Jared and I had coffee and my mom had a muffi she called “the best muffin she’s ever had.” It was a grainy lemony muffin with fruit (currants) on top. It was quite nice.
From TRUFFLE HONEY we walked a short while to the college and we went to see the book of Kells (which was OK– there were only two pages on display). Upstairs the exhibit included THE LONG ROOM where we were able to watch a book restorer work. I chatted with her when she got off her shift (and American). The long room was beautiful, lined with busts of famous philosophers and politicians (not just Irish: Plato, Aristotle, etc.) and of course no women. The original HARP was also on display. Mom bought a t-shirt for herself and Jared bought his mom a necklace with a harp on it (her last name is Harp).
After visiting the college, we walked to see one of places Oscar Wilde lived and looked at the Wilde statue.
It was a bit too much walking for my mom so we headed back on the DART to Bray. In Bray we first went to a terrific bar called HARBOUR BAR (?) where I had a little whiskey, mom had a milk stout (which was very nice) and Jared had tea with a tostie. We loved the atmosphere - cozy fires everywhere and red plush carpets and walls - but as they didn’t serve anything but toasties we decided to go have dinner at OCEAN (right on the seaside). Another wonderful meal - where I had HAKE, Mom had “the best seafood soup she’s ever had” and Jared had a ginormous burger. We then hit a grocery store on the way home before settling in for the night.
The previous night Mom got to pick the horrible movie, which was some romantic comedy I hardly remember. The second night Jared got to pick - double Adam Sandler (again totally forgettable). A totally forgettable film whose budget was $70 million and only made $57 million. I’ll make sure to pick out a better movie when it is my turn.
