The time spent in Ireland either the North or the Republic is always too short. This time was unlike other times since we spent most of our time walking around Dublin or joining in on a Hop On Hop Off bus tours of the city. We also went on a small day trip along the 'south coast' of Ireland and then the 'north coast'. These are misnomers considering on the south coast tour we never traveled farther south than County Wicklow. The point of the tour to Wicklow was to visit Powercourt. Powercourt is one of Ireland's and indeed one of Europe's great treasures. It is Ireland's most famous House and Gardens. I'll post some of the photos from the grounds and gardens in another post. We also visited Marino Casino located oddly enough in Marino, Dublin. The casino (the diminutive form of the 18C Italian word 'Casa', meaning 'House', thus 'Little House' and not a gambling den),was designed by Scottish architect Sir William Chambers for James Caulfeild, the 1st Earl of Charlemont, starting in the late 1750s and finishing around 1775. It is a marvelous piece of architecture and perfect example of Neo-Classical architecture. More to come here too, although the photos aren't more than average so perhaps they won't be posted... we'll see.
On Saturday we traveled up to Belfast by train to visit with a whole gaggle of cousins... had wonderful 'craic' and food at the Fitz William Hotel. Nice place. I'd recommend it. We stayed overnight in Belfast and traveled back by train again. I'd highly recommend the train if you have time. I'd also recommend using the train as a great way to get around both the North of Ireland and the Republic. Both also have a wonderful bus system that caters to people who want to do day or overnight trips to various places. Hmmm perhaps I could pitch this as a travel assignment ... hmmm.
While I am pondering that you can ponder the photographs below. The first is the Ha'Penny Bridge, officially the Liffey Bridge. It is a pedestrian bridge built in 1816 over the River Liffey in Dublin. The other image is on an interesting portion of the new Samuel Beckett Bridge designed by the architect Santiago Calatrava. The shape of the spar and its cables is said to evoke an image of a harp lying on its edge. The bridge was officially opened to pedestrians on 10 December 2009 by Dublin Lord Mayor, Emer Costello and to road traffic on 11 December, 2009.
Hope you like the photos. I don't have many from the trip but I'll post a few more.
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