Where in the heck is he now???

Okay....when I last "blogged"....I was in Ireland.....with beautiful flowers...

 A quaint little fishing village like that of Wexford....

...with such beautiful hillsides and an occasional swan.....

Then a ferry boat set to sail in the Irish Sea......

But now....there are sandy beaches......

But.....then...what is this "hi-rise" apartments....beach "condos"....ummm....costal living one would presume...

Then...one reflects on what type of transportation he would be on....metro?  commuter train?....bus?

Well...we do have some drinkers..on board....so we know it is a festive journey....as well as a "bank holiday"....the Royal Wedding day you know....

OMG....there he is again...and with that same photographer as before.....how stunning....

Well...one thing for sure...there are still livestock....like these horses...in fact a lot of more horses than you see in this picture...

But then the scene changes very rapidly...to industrial...like this huge....steel plant....in full production....

and then a city.....

oh yes....there is a bridge or two....

....no it is not Dublin again...nor is it Ireland.  It is Wales....and Bobby is where some of his heritage began their journey to the United States.  

The first half of my journey around the world is almost at an end....beginning on 9 February and after a few days in London will end 4 May when I head back to Washington for the summer.  I will be heading back out 27 September for the second half of the world journey.  However, during the summer I will keep you abreast of final planning for that part of the journey...and one thing is certain....a lot less will be placed in the luggage for the 2nd half....believe me!!  I hope all that have followed this journey have enjoyed it....and like me are looking forward to that 2nd half.

Statutes & Bridges - Must be Dublin

I have so many pictures of statues and bridges from Dublin that I decided they deserved their own blog page.  Let me begin with the bridges....this little river called the Liffey is as I noted earlier ...a very prominent part of the city of Dublin.  And...getting from one side of the town to the other you need to cross either at a pedestrian bridge or one of the car bridges.  At one time one of the bridges across the Liffey was a pedestrian toll bridge...the "Ha-penny" bridge...

The O'Connell bridge from 1880....O'Connell being the name of the major street thru Dublin...

...then we have the Hauston bridge dedicated in 1828...but erected as you see in 1821...go figure...

Now some of the newer bridges....like the Joyce (as in James) bridge from 2003...

and how about the O'Casey from 2005....

Okay there were many more...trust me....but I saved my favorite and the newest for last....this in person was just awesome....it is the Beckett (yes, as in Samuel) Bridge...

Now for a few of the many statues and really works of art that are in place around Dublin.  The most famous and most photographed is that of Molly Malone....Yes, by day a woman who pushed her cart selling mussels...and then reverted to the world's oldest profession at night!!!  This statue was commissioned for the the millennium and unveiled in 1998...of a very scantily clad Molly...thus causing some controversy.

Another controversial piece of sculpture is that of Anna Livia....it was moved from its location on O'Connell street to accommodate the "erection", if you will,  of the Millennium Spire...now this statue locally is referred to as the "Floozie in the Jacuzzi"...you can guess why...

A favorite collection of sculpture was Famine....it depicted the infamous Irish Famine and was quite moving...it is located along the River Liffey..

Okay....just one more...this one is the man O'Connell who has his own bridge, street and statue...dating back to 1882...

Okay...that was just a sample of the many many statutes....one thing I found interesting was they have beach volley ball in Dublin...well maybe just for a day or two.....this was set up near the Liffy River during the noon hours...

I also found that Dublin has a bike system similar to what we have in Washington, DC...it is the rent a bike by the hour system....here it is Dublin style...

While bikes are in the minority here...Taxi cabs are in the majority.  It is said that Dublin has more taxi cabs than New York city....certainly you have no problem finding one...day or night....

A interesting fact on the buildings in Dublin.  Many have windows like the ones in the building below...and the windows decrease in size as you progress from the ground floor to the first and then the second floor....this is as the result of a tax on windows...the smaller ones required a smaller tax.  Ummm

Trinity College has been around in Dublin since the late 1500's..and is quite impressive...I leave you with this shot of the College.  I am off South of Dublin tomorrow heading to Rosslare and the Harbour to take me over to Wales and Cardiff on Friday..... 

On to Ireland - Dublin at first blush....

Heading out of Scotland and South to make connection with the Ferry that will carry me to Dublin, Ireland.
The embarkation point was from Holyhead...a quick ferry ride across....here is the embarkation point...

And here is one of the ferry boats that make the crossing....

The crossing is most uneventful....nothing by sea....

....and before  you know it....land....Ireland....

The thing that surprised me the most...the ferry docked and a short taxi ride and I was at my hotel in Dublin....I was expecting to probably have to take a shuttle or metro train into the city.

Dublin has a population of around 1.2 million people...Ireland as a whole...around 4.3 million.  The thing that struck me first was the Liffey river that comes thru the center...and the number of bridges.  However, one has to consider that getting from one side to another in such a small area requires a number of bridges....but I have saved pictures of those bridges as well as the vast amount of sculpture
in the city for a separate blog....

The first thing that caught my eye...was this 400 ft spire or needle in the middle of the busiest street in Dublin...at a cost of several million dollars...it is called the millenium ...opps I did say I would have sculpture elsewhere...sorry....but I just wanted you to see what I saw after being here only about 20 minutes.

Dublin also has number of beautiful churches......in of course the Cathedral District.....first the Christ Church Cathedral....

A "wow" factor for sure....but then just down the road is another even larger church...St Patrick's Cathedral....

Yes, I did like it...sorry!!  And the weather?  Could not be more perfect...I have been very fortunate in all my travel thus far...only in Phuket, Thailand did I have a complete wash out...where it rained for 5 days in a row....so I do consider being very lucky..especially while I see some of the weather reports from the United States.

Okay...back on tour....the biggest thing in Dublin...well the one drawing the most visitors...over 1 million a year.  Guinness and the Guinness brewery which covers some 60 acres producing over 3 million pints a day...not all consumed here of course, but exported around the world.  Here are just some of the pictures I have of this vast empire...and money maker for Dublin.

A little fact on Mr. Guinness...he had 21 children...so you can expect he wanted this brewery business to be successful in order to support his huge family.  One more shot of the vast brewery empire...from a distance on the other side of the city....

Another area of the city that covers a vast amount of space is Phoenix Park...dating back to 1662...it is twice the size of Central Park...and among other things is the home of the Dublin Zoo which began in 1831 with just a wild boar....and over the years grew into a large zoo park...and just 2 weeks ago the latest edition arrived...a baby boy gorilla!!

Upon entry into the park I passed the namesake ...the Phoenix itself....

Interesting other things were a cricket game in progress through the trees....

The roadway in the park is illuminated at night by city maintained gas lamp lights....they not longer have to be lit individually...now they are automated to illuminate at dusk...but still powered by gas....

President Obama will be visiting in Dublin next month, and when he does he will be staying at the Ambassador's residence which is also located in  Phoenix Park....

Queen Elizabeth will also be making a historic visit to Dublin....and when she is here one of the places she will pay tribute to is the Garden of Remembrance.  I found this to be a beautiful memorial to the war veterans....

Now Dublin does not exist without pubs....all the Guinness...are  you kidding?  Well I found one that was my namesake....really my paternal grandmother's maiden name....Doyle....

Oh...almost forgot....Jameson  is also very prominent in Dublin...while no longer is the whiskey brewed here...it is still home to their corporate offices...

Finally....a pub that begs one to ask...what is the "E"....."Excess"...."Extra"...oh I know..."Everything"!!!

Okay...next up...those Dublin bridges and sculptures.....