slowly she turned

In the morning, I had coffee and a continental breakfast downstairs, and then I got on a hop-on, hop-off bus to tour around Dublin and see some more areas I had not seen before, and some that I had seen in 2012.

When we went by Sweny Chemist, I had to get off and see if P.J. was still there. It was much the same except all the books in there were by James Joyce, and there were many collector’s items. P.J. was off that day, and I bought some lemon soap for my niece Brooke. I went across the street to Kennedy’s for lunch. It was late enough that I had no problem getting a seat, and the salad was fabulous. I also had an Irish coffee since they were famous for it.

It was raining so the bus seats on the bottom and the covered part on top soon filled. I ended up in a stuffy corner in the back on the bottom, and as people got off, I moved up.

I knew that I only had enough time to see one museum before they closed, and I was trying to choose between the Modern Art Museum and the history and decorative arts museum. In the end, I chose the history and decorative arts museum because it was in easy walking distance of the hotel. I saw some beautiful things there, including a William Morris tapestry designed by Edward Burne Jones and woven by Henry Dearle but I left wishing I had chosen the other museum. Oh well, that will be for the next trip to Dublin!

On the way back I decided to try Nancy Hands Pub again and had a delicious seafood chowder.

The news about Glen Hansard’s death had not hit Dublin yet when I was out and about. I wondered if the sirens I heard that night were for his accident.

That night at 2 a.m. I was awakened by a phone call from Sandy. Concerned that he would be calling so late, I answered it with some dread. “Where are you?” he asked. I answered that I was in bed in Dublin, what was wrong? He was at the airport to pick me up. We got that straight, then I got back to sleep.

The next day, I took the bus from Heuston Station to the airport, and had no issues on my flight back. I checked one bag, then decided to gate check the other, since it was free to do so. Lately I have traveled with all carry-on, sometimes with another bag packed inside my carry-on, because of the huge hassle I had with Aer Lingus losing my luggage on our Portugal trip. But it was really nice not to worry about lugging that stuff around the airport, and on this trip, it all worked out well.