Steve The Wandering Aussie

We left Plastic Covered Paddy’s at five am to get to Kildare and to find some Wi-Fi for Lyn to work and thus keep me in the manner I am rapidly becoming accustomed to. An hours drive with a little anxiety mixed in as our tank showed a bees mote off empty.
Arriving with two minutes to spare and now 30 liters in the tank, Lyn started work at six while I went in search of coffee and munchables for breakfast. Not easy in a small village in Irelands Ancient East.
Kildare is the center point of Irish horse racing, so I’m told (refugees from the glue factory, every one of ‘em, sez I).
After wandering the town we found St Bridget’s Holy Well and explored the cathedral of the same name. Lyn made a friend in Kelly who is the Warden of the aforementioned cathedral. Kindred sisters in the spirit. Cool to watch. We stopped at the Hermitage Nunnery for Lyn to experience the Irish form of the retreat she so wishes to build for herself in Australia, then away again.
From Kildare to Yellow Bog Church where 600 years of Lyns ancestors are buried. Then to the Pub (at last) where we watched a strapping lad get beaten senseless in the car park by his petite girlfriend. Well, I couldn’t laugh so I had beer instead.
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Thursday Morning:
Late-ish start, headed for Dublin. Managed to get into the Guinness Factory tour at St. James Gate and fully enjoyed the six levels of history and the Gravity Bar on the top level. Had a couple of pints overlooking the City of Dublin. Cranes!! Cranes everywhere. If the prosperity of a city can be measured by the number of cranes on the skyline then Dublin is doing well. Dozens of them.
And the Guinness was excellent.
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Our next stop was Dublins Trinity College to see the Book of Kells (for Lyn) and the great hall library (for me). It’s not Alexandrea’s library but I’m sure it’s close. Even though most of the books have been removed for electronic tagging and cleaning the place was everything I had hoped for. A bucket list item successfully completed.
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The third tourist stop was St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. An enormous edifice and a magnificent feat of architecture. Lyns family have (surprise) a shrine / monument / memorial inside the church. The biggest one inside the building by at least 10 times. It has to be 9 metres high and features effigies of Sir Richard and his wife, mother and children. One gets a little irked by the regularity of this occurrence through the Emerald Isle and where ever else we travel.
Interesting side note: the cathedral was a run down ruin in the late 19th century until the Guinness family paid for its restoration. Beer paid for the work. Yea! Beer!!
Three tourist stops is a lot for any given day and we’re both shattered. Tonight we’re on a seven hour ferry trip to Liverpool, England. We have a cabin with a window and twin beds.
Good night, my friends. Be kind to yourselves and I thank you for joining me on our little journey
Cheers
Steve