We packed up our stuff and headed back to Dublin. The trip back was relatively uneventful. After awhile (and this sounds just awful), everything starts to look the same. Cows and stone fences dotting the green landscape like a patchwork quilt. Picturesque little towns full of colorful homes with pubs on the main thoroughfare. Sheep (natch). And castles! I thought I would never tire of seeing castles (or ruins of castles), but seriously, they are everywhere over there. You can swing a cat without hitting a castle. I initially started to take pictures of every one I could, but then realized if I continued in this manner, it would be like Bob and his “sunset” pictures. One hundred pictures of the same thing.
Outside of Limerick, Bob and I both noted that the landscape seriously reminded us of Central PA—gentle rolling hills with budding trees. And an Interstate highway, of course. We also saw tons of farm equipment on these major highways. Tractors, you name it! Can you imagine a tractor barreling down I-81?
The exit signs on the interstates were interesting. Instead of seeing, “N84, 2 km”, you’d see this:
///
then about 1/8 mile later:
//
then about 1/8 mile later:
/
And after you saw “/”, you’d better be ready to get the hell off the highway, ‘cause it was your exit!
And speaking of signs, I've never seen more comical signs than what we saw in Ireland. Here's just an example...
Seen driving through a small town:
Back to our drive to Dublin...we did NOT have a B&B reservation in Dublin. We found two B&B in this B&B Guide that Bob had that seemed to fit the bill of our needs for our last night in Ireland--near the DART ("light rail" line) into Dublin, plus close to the airport. So did we CALL these B&Bs for reservations, or even, directions? NOOOO! Someone decided to "wing it". Which would've been OK if we would've had something (anything!) that passed as a map of the Greater Dublin Area--which is where our B&B was located.
It will surprise you to know that we actually FOUND one of the B&Bs in the book, and called them (from in front of the house) to see if they had any vacancies. I wish I was making this up. *sigh* Thankfully, they had a room for us, so we unloaded our stuff once again, and headed off to the DART station.
Arriving in Dublin a short time later, we found Trinity College and wandered around, taking in the sights. We took the requisite picture of Pinky on the college grounds, and then checked out a game of cricket on the green. It was like something out of an English postcard--guys running around in cream-colored slacks, white dress shirts with cream-colored knit vests. Unreal. Cricket, by the way, is possibly a slower game than baseball, and I didn't think that was humanly possible.
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