We flew Delta, sleeping as best we could in the relatively plush economy plus seats which still made terrible beds, then took public transportation and met Brie at the train station near their flat.
We stayed at the Royal Marine Hotel in a large room that was supposed to be a business suite but really just had space and a raised ceiling. It was nice but had clearly suffered a bit during covid.
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The primary purpose for the trip was, of course, to see Brie and Aidan (and Finn and Pippin).
But we did spend some time touring around Dún Laoghaire, which was a quaint little seaside town. Unlike the US, there aren't a lot of mega-stores around, which left space for large numbers of small specialty shops.
The harbor was pretty and a giant seawall allowed you to walk out and see the town behind you.
The coolest thing about it, however was the library, which was modern and huge. It had your standard offering of books, but it also had valuable rare prints under glass, a small art gallery, reading spaces for adults and children in front of large picture windows looking out over the harbor, and kind of cool architecture.
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It also hosts the National Maritime Museum of Ireland, which was clearly a labor of love by a dedicated group of volunteers. They had the most elaborate ship models, all one of a kind, hand crafted creations. And it was in a converted church.
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We did a formal tea at the Royal Marine, which was kind of funny because we made a reservation, and when we showed up they clearly didn't have anyone to do the actual tea service. But after a bit of a wait someone finally brought tea and crumpets and those little snack sandwiches that seem to be required and we had a good time.
We also went to Dublin for a day. There was a fair amount of walking around (it's a very walkable city). Alison was delighted to find a rather unique used book store.
Then we had a second discovery, the Marsh Library. It was an unassuming little gate with a "public library" sign on it, and we had such a good time in the Dún Laoghaire library, we decided to check it out. As it turns out, it was the first public library in Ireland and hosts a private collection of books from the last several centuries.
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From there, it was on to Saint Patrick's cathedral. That was a bit of a disappointment. In other big cathedrals we've toured, they were still working churches. Here, you entered into a gift shop that took a signifcant part of the church and people were wandering around like it was a department store. Still, it had a lot of interesting history and anyone with a fair amount of money could have something stuck up on the wall in memorium.
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A final nice dinner with Brie (Aidan came down with something and was at home with the dogs), and we left the next day for the return trip.
And there is the reason so few Irish use an ambulance!
