Well, I finally did get a new blog up and running and realized just today that I never returned here to let anyone know where it is!  So, here’s the information…

You can find me at http://chezwilkesamerican.blogspot.com .

I’d love to have you visit!

Well, I guess this is it for Chez Wilkes.  As “Chez Wilkes” has necessarily reverted back to the “Wilkes’ house,” it seems time to close this particular blog.

What can I say?  Thanks very much to all of you who have stuck with me through this crazy, wonderful adventure.  Thanks for finding me when I had to privatize the blog…not one of my better memories of France, and it didn’t even have a thing to do with the French!  And thanks for your comments and words of encouragement.  They were priceless when we were so far away from home.

Some of you have worried that I would find being back in Peoria boring, but I’ve found that, when God closes the French doors and boots you home, He tends to open others, some of them surprising and equally wonderful.  And I hope to share those with you, if you care to keep reading!  So I will not disappear from Blogland altogether, and I will let you all know when I get my next blog up and running.  I’m thinking sometime in early September.

So, until then…au revoir!  Je vous aime!

 

Well, we’re finally moved back into our house and have an internet connection here, so let’s see if I can get this trip finished off! 

Dublin is certainly a big city, but it is definitely light on famous, must-see sights.  This fit in excellently with the rest of our vacation because we were able to pick a few things of interest here and have a slow-paced city visit, something a bit unusual for us!  We’re used to rushing about and STILL not hitting everything we’d like to see.

We started our day with another full Irish breakfast at our hotel before heading over to Trinity College for a campus tour and a look at the famous Book of Kells.  Trinity College was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I and is still Ireland’s most prestigious institute of higher education.  As you probably know, Ireland is a predominantly Catholic country, and Trinity was designed to promote Protestantism.  The original student body was wealthy, Protestant, and male.  Women were admitted in the early 1900′s, and Catholics were finally officially admitted in the 1970′s, although there had been “special” admissions of Catholics long before. 

Trinity is everything one might expect from a grand, old, European college…beautiful architecture, grim statues, shining greens, cobbled paths, great stories.  Trinity College students offer 30-minute campus tours during the school year, so we joined the first one of the day.  Our guide, Stephen, a history major, was witty and clever and gave a great overview of this famous college.

At the end of the tour, Stephen left us at the Trinity College Library, home to the famous Book of Kells, one of Dublin’s greatest treasures.  The Book of Kells is a lavishly decorated copy of the four gospels, dating from the late 800′s.  There is a great exhibit on how the Book of Kells would have been created and decorated, leading up to the display of four pages from the actual book.  It is amazing and beautiful…and, of course, I could take no photos!

Afterwards, we took a brief wander through the rest of the library, with its soaring bookcases, stuffed with very old manuscripts, none of which can actually be checked out.  I guess you could say this place was a former English teacher’s dream, yet another thing I once taught and now got to see!

After Trinity College, we made the long walk to the Guinness Storehouse, the pint-glass-shaped building where we learned the history and method of making Ireland’s most famous export.  As with the Jameson tour, we did not go through the actual brewery.  (I’m thinking there must be some health regulations that prohibit that.)  But we did get an extensive look at what goes into brewing Guinness, culminating in a “free” pint of the dark stuff at the end.  (I use “free” loosely, since we paid a pretty steep admission fee!)

Arthur Guinness started brewing here in 1759.  He signed a 9,000-year lease for the property, at the cost of 45 pounds per year.  Think about that a minute…this truly has to be the bargain of the millennium!  We got to look at it, sealed under glass on the floor.

 

We then proceeded up the pint glass, spiral style, checking out the grain…

…the pure spring water…

…and the top-of-the-line hops (which I did not photograph) that makes Guinness so amazingly good.  In case you hadn’t picked up on it, this museum was truly one large commercial for Guinness!

We decided to eat lunch at one of the several restaurants on-site; the one we picked had a kids’ menu, and the prices were not as high as one might expect.  The kids had their old standard, chicken tenders and fries, and Jeff and I had soup and sandwiches.  Thus fortified, we headed to the Gravity Bar at the top for our free pint.

The kids got soft drinks, and Jeff and I each got the house special, complete with a shamrock in the foam, compliments of our friendly Irish barmaid.  It takes two minutes to pour a pint of Guinness, so the kids and I meandered about the bar, checking out the views of the city.  Dublin is definitely not the most scenic of towns!

Jeff finally arrived with our drinks, and Charlotte snapped this picture.

I then proceeded to take about two sips, and I was done.  Guinness tastes like dirt, in my humble opinion.  Bleh!  But at least I tried it!  So far, I was oh-for-two on Irish alcohol specialties!

After the Guinness Storehouse, we headed to the nearby National Museum of Decorative Arts and History.  We had not planned many hard-core educational activities in Dublin (or the entire vacation, for that matter), but Jeff and I did want to see a display on the Irish quest for independence, and the guidebook said that this museum had a good, free one.  We spent about 30 minutes wandering through the exhibit called “The Road to Independence,” before the kids and we had had enough.

By this time, we were tired of walking, so we decided to take the tram back over toward Grafton Street and Merrion Square, where we checked out the statue of Sweet Molly Malone at one end of the former…

…and of Irish writer Oscar Wilde in the latter.

Inspired by my clambering up the rock to sit with Oscar, the kids decided they needed to do so, as well.  I love the picture of poor Charlotte clinging to his leg!  That rock was pretty slick.

Afterwards, we wandered about Merrion Square, eventually locating a playground, where the kids played and Jeff and I figured out where we were going for supper.  We also walked the nearby street famous for its Georgian doors, brightly painted and not a one of them the same.

So now we come to supper.  I wanted a place that was very Dublin, with a kids’ menu, great food, and a bit of character.  I’ll show you what we settled on, so I don’t actually have to mention the name.

Why did we pick such a place, you might ask?  Believe it or not, it was guidebook-recommended and had terrific prices.  It was very kid-friendly (despite the dubious name, although the kids took the donkey at face value…this place loved double entendres).  Plus, do you remember Irish rock singer Sinead O’Connor?  She worked here back before she got famous.  So, this place fit all of my criteria!

Jeff ordered some buffalo wings as an appetizer here that were just as spicy as any we could get in the US, and we both ordered the fish and chips.  Very good!

After supper, we went for a stroll down O’Connell Street, Dublin’s best promenade, due to its wide pedestrian median and many statues and landmarks.  Here are a few.

This is the Millennium Spire, a 390-foot tall, stainless steel monument to…nothing.  No kidding.  Dubliners are pretty disgusted with this, as it cost 5 million euros.  I guess it looks nice.

This is the General Post Office, where the 1916 Easter Rising was kicked off.  Rebels holed up here for five bloody days, and you can still see bullet holes in the facade.

There are also several statues of Irish heroes and at the far end is a beautiful Garden of Remembrance for those killed in the Easter Uprising.  It was closed on this particular night, but we revisited it the next morning before leaving.  There is a cross-shaped pool at the base of the statue, and in the bottom of the pool are mosaics of Celtic weapons.  When the Celts would proclaim peace with another group, they would toss their weapons in a river or lake, so this pool represents the hope that Protestants and Catholics can set aside their differences and live together in peace.

And by the end of our stroll, we were bushed!  Fortunately, we were also close to our hotel, so back we went to get our stuff packed up in preparation for our flight home the next day.

The next morning, Saturday, 18 July, we ate our last full Irish breakfast, made sure that our room was packed up, and headed out one last time to check out the Garden of Remembrance and to swing by the Dublin Writers’ Museum.  Of course, we packed up the camera, so no great shots of the Garden!  I wanted to look for a book of Oscar Wilde epigrams in the bookstore of the Museum, but, alas, it did not open until a full hour after the museum.  Grrr.

So we consoled ourselves by stopping at the biggest, tackiest, touristy, souvenir place in Dublin, Carroll’s Irish Gift Shop.  I found an amusing t-shirt, Charlotte got a postcard, and Jeff found a hat.  All in all, not a bad stop!

Then, it was back to the hotel, where we checked out and lugged our luggage to the bus stop right across the street.  We had decided that the bus was the easiest and most economical, if not the fastest, way back to the airport from the hotel. 

But as we stood there waiting, a taxi pulled up, and the driver offered to take us to the airport for 20 euros.  The fare is usually 25 to 35 euros, so Jeff and I hastily scrabbled through our money to see if we had enough left.  (We had been running ourselves out of euros in anticipation of not needing them anymore!)  We did have enough, so we threw our bags in the trunk, piled in the car, and had an enjoyable 10-minute taxi ride with a talkative, friendly Dubliner, instead of an hour-long bus ride.  And Charlotte fulfilled her wish to ride in an Irish taxi!

Fantastic!

A couple hours and a lunch at Burger King later, we boarded our plane for Chicago.

And our great adventure had officially come to an end.

Sigh.

And I believe that Chez Wilkes is about at an end, as well.  But I will post at least one more time to say goodbye!

I’ll start with a quick update on our Peoria situation.  Our sea shipment from France arrives at our house tomorrow.  Woo-hoo!  We’re hoping that, by the weekend, we will be moved out of this apartment and that this very long transition will finally be over.  We are definitely ready to be living in one place–ours.

Our new appliances were delivered on Saturday, and our refrigerator was hooked up by the delivery men.  Our friend Mike Fiedler helped Jeff install the over-the-range microwave last night, and the gas-stove guy comes on Friday morning.  The Habitat for Humanity Restore truck comes on Thursday afternoon to haul off our old refrigerator and stove, and I have at least three car loads of stuff for Good Will, which will hopefully be delivered by tomorrow.  Whew.

But it’s all coming together.  The painting upstairs is done, and we have a good handle on how the downstairs will be finished off.  I think that, by the end of all this, we’ll have the house exactly as we want it, at least on the inside!  And that’s what’s important for right now.

Back to Ireland…

On Thursday morning, we loaded up our car one last time and headed for Dublin, the home stretch of our trip.  We decided to save the big city for last, as we were flying out of there and wouldn’t need a car while there.  This would save us two days of rental car charges, which was good.

As we drove toward Dublin, I was flipping through the guidebook and discovered a very cool-sounding place called the Gardens of Powerscourt, ten miles south of Dublin.  As we had no plans that evening other than returning the rental car, checking in to the hotel, and eating supper, I asked Jeff if he minded a quick detour down there.

Well, our quick detour turned into quite the adventure.  First of all, the GPS was not always reliable here because Ireland has done lots of infrastructure work in the past few years.  I think that our GPS maps are three years old, which means we were more reliant on our map from the rental car company for certain legs of the trip.  Second, we were supposed to return our rental car with an empty gas tank, so Jeff had been loath to put too much gas in it on this particular day.

Both of these things would nearly prove our undoing!

To get to Powerscourt, we literally had to drive through the middle of nowhere.  We didn’t realize that we were in the middle of nowhere, though, until we were there.  We went from being in a relatively populated place to being in the woods.  At about the same time, our car’s gas needle dropped like a rock to empty.  This was another great discovery about our piece-of-garbage rental car; it burns through gas like nobody’s business if it’s at a quarter tank or below.

So, we did what we normally do in this situation.  We asked our GPS to find the nearest gas station and headed for it as fast as we could…only to find that it was closed and had been for some time.  By this time, our car was sucking fumes, and the next nearest gas station was who-knows how far away!

Needless to say, this was a tense time in the Wilkes’ car!  I was fuming because I had suggested going back for gas before we were in the middle of nowhere, but Jeff really hadn’t wanted to backtrack.  Jeff was fuming because the gas station had been closed and the rental car was yet again making him crazy.  We both were afraid that we would actually run out of gas, and then what would we do?!  The roads on which we were traveling were barely on the GPS or on my map, and signs for places were few and far between.  Yikes!

But what could we do but backtrack for the nearest gas station?  So we did, and we managed to make it before the car ran completely out of gas.  Whew!  Jeff put in enough to handily make it to Powerscourt and back to Dublin before we set off again.

The rest of the afternoon was much less dramatic, thank goodness!  We drove through a part of Ireland that is frequently used as a backdrop in movies.  One section on which we drove was called “Braveheart Way,” one of several so-named “movie” roads through here.  Here are some of the striking landscapes that we saw.

Can you imagine running out of gas out here?!  Wow.

We finally arrived at the Gardens of Powerscourt shortly after 1:00.  Our first stop was one of the on-site restaurants, where we grabbed a quick bite of soup and bread.  (We had big supper plans for the evening in Dublin.)  We liked it better than the kids did.

While the house isn’t much, the gardens are considered Ireland’s best.  But since we’ve seen about a million beautiful houses and gardens, I might as well admit now that the biggest reason I wanted to visit Powerscourt was because I had seen a movie that was partially filmed there.  I’m not proud of that fact, but there it is!

Do you remember the Jim Caviezel movie “The Count of Monte Cristo”?  There was a scene in that movie…honestly, one of the only ones I remember…where the mysterious count rides a hot air balloon and lands in the middle of a big party with beautiful fountains, lavishly candlelit gardens, and a gorgeous house in the background.  That would be Powerscourt.  And I got to see it!

The only downside of this visit was that it rained.  If you remember, it also rained when visited Lyme Hall in England.  There was just something about rain and manor houses on this trip.  Anyway, here are a few highlights.

This first photo is of Pepperpot Tower.  One of the viscounts who lived here thought it would be great fun to have a tower made in the shape of his favorite pepper shaker.  Big proof that he had much more money than sense.  Below is a shot of the house from the Tower.

 

These are a couple of photos in the Japanese garden.

Jeff took this cool shot when he was in the Japanese garden and we were moving on somewhere else!

One funny stop in the garden was the pet cemetery, although it’s still hard for me to pass one of these without thinking of Steven King.  Horses, dogs, even a cow or two…all have a permanent home here!

And here are a few shots of the house and grounds from various spots.  In spite of the rain, Powerscourt was stunning.

I also have to share these photos with you.  Jeff took them in one of the gardens, and I think they are very cool.

When we finished in the gardens, we were damp and ready to go to our hotel.  While we were only ten miles south of Dublin, we were also heading in during rush hour, so it took us about 40 minutes to get to the hotel.  On the way in, I kept seeing buses headed for Dun Laoghaire (pronounced “leery”), and I had to take a picture, mostly for my friend, Dixie.  “Laoghaire” is the name of a villainous character in one of her favorite book series, and I thought of her every time I saw it!

Jeff decided that he would drop us off at our Dublin hotel, Hazelbrook House,  then drive to the airport to return the rental car, and finally take the bus back.  This worked extremely well.  As we were staying two nights in Dublin and would need to completely reorganize our luggage before flying back, I was able to unpack and get settled in during the couple hours it took Jeff to wrap things up and get back.

When he returned, we immediately headed off to the Hard Rock Cafe Dublin, where we had promised the kids we would eat that evening.  While we buy a teddy bear in every Hard Rock Cafe we find, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve actually eaten in one!  We were pleasantly surprised by the food, and the kids thought it was way cool to eat in a place that was blasting rock music, playing videos, and had guitars hanging on the walls.

Finally, we headed back to our hotel, ready to get rested up for our full day in the big city.  And that’s for next time!

Whoa, sorry for the long break!  This past week brought VBS and tai kwon do sign-ups for the kids, delivery of our storage stuff (a.k.a. the great junk delivery), and a last push to finish the painting upstairs.  As we don’t have an internet connection at the house yet, blogging really fell to the back burner.  But I’ll try my hardest to get the last few days of this trip done shortly!

Before I move on from Dingle, I’ll attempt to answer a question about why the Great Blasket Islands were evacuated.  As near as I can tell, the population had dwindled to about 20 residents.  The church and school had both closed, young people were taking the first boat away, and one man died because the weather prohibited medical help from getting to him.  I think that the remaining islanders were just weary of the hard, deprived life they were living.  The Irish government offered them state housing in a village on the mainland, and they agreed to leave.  Thus, a way of life ended.  Very sad, but also very likely necessary.

On Wednesday morning, 15 July, I woke up early and went for a quick run.  Dingle is a wonderful place to run…the cool air, the water, the sea birds, the quaint beauty of the town…perfect!  This was the second of two times I managed to run on this vacation; not great, but better than normal!  I usually don’t run at all on vacation.

After two great days and nights in Dingle, we ate one more hearty Irish breakfast, loaded up the car, and headed north for the Cliffs of Moher, a good three-hour drive.  We had a reservation at a Travelodge in Limerick for that evening, and, since we passed it on the way to the Cliffs, we decided to stop and see if we could check in early.  We could, but only if we paid 10 euros.  We opted to keep on driving!

We arrived at the Cliffs of Moher around 2:00 in the afternoon, parked the car, and bought tickets for the Atlantic Edge exhibit in the Visitors’ Center.  Then we headed inside.

The Visitors’ Center was a mix of eateries, cheesy photo places, and souvenir shops, which we quickly bypassed to enter the Atlantic Edge exhibit, a state-of-the-art, interactive introduction to the flora and fauna at the Cliffs. 

This was much more interesting than it might sound!  The kids and Jeff played this computer game in which they picked a sea animal and had to get it to a safety zone, eating the correct food and avoiding predators along the way.  At one point, Elijah’s white shark ate Charlotte’s tuna…not a great moment for family relations!  There was also this really neat IMAX-style theater where we stood and watched a sea gull swoop in and out of the cliffs, as well as dive into the sea.  During his flight, we saw puffins, seals, fish, and even a whale!  If one could avoid vertigo during this experience, it was pretty cool!

Afterwards, we headed out to the cliffs themselves.  The Cliffs of Moher are one of Ireland’s most dramatic seaside sights, with soaring cliffs, crashing waves, and incredible views.  I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of this beautiful place.

The Cliffs of Moher very windy and quite dangerous, especially if you walk anywhere outside of the fenced off areas.  Evidently, people die every year because they get too close to the edge and literally blow off.  Needless to say, we kept a tight grip on the kids’ hands and tried to avoid the crazy tourists who were shoving around people to get photos of themselves right at the edge.

This is the closest we got!

One cool thing that we could see from the Cliffs of Moher is the rock island where the local puffins nest.  This time of year, the white-chested birds dot this tall, rocky island, protecting the burrows that hold their eggs.  The photo below is of the puffin island; I think that, if you look closely, you can see the white dots!

While the Cliffs of Moher are absolutely stunning, this ended up being the only place we visited in Ireland where the tourist hordes made the visit less-than-enjoyable.  We just really don’t enjoy listening to noisy Americans’ conversations or being shoved out of the way by people trying to get a photo.  So, we stayed about 45 minutes and then headed back to Limerick and Bunratty Castle, where our evening supper and entertainment would take place.

We had 5:30 Medieval Banquet reservations, and, as far as pure, over-the-top, touristy things to do, this definitely took the cake.  But as far as rollicking good fun, especially for Charlotte and Elijah, this could not be beaten.

So, around 5:30, we entered Bunratty Castle and were greeted by the butler, Tom, and the head lady-in-waiting.  “Princess” Charlotte and “Prince” Elijah were made much of, and we climbed the narrow staircase to the great hall.  Upon our entry here, Jeff and I were handed tumblers of mead, a spiced honey wine, and the kids were given juice.  A harpist and violinist provided the background music.

 

Finally, the room had completely filled, mostly with American tour bus groups, and Tom and the lady-in-waiting started the festivities.  First, they welcomed all of us to the castle, and the ensemble who would be serving our meal and performing later in the evening sang a song of greeting and well wishes.  Then, an earl and lady of the banquet were crowned from among the guests.  (Charlotte asked if Jeff and I could have that honor next time.  I love how Charlotte automatically assumes that there will be a next time!)

Then, the crowd of us moved from the Great Hall to the smaller banquet room, where we were seated.  The tables were long and wooden with benches, and the room was candle-lit.  Because we were not with a tour group, we were seated at a table toward the middle that actually wasn’t jammed full.  On one end sat two tour bus guides, one of whom read a book all the way through the evening.  We were seated next to a couple from Dublin and their baby daughter, which was lovely.  We think they were probably the only non-American guests in the place!

Our first course was bread and spiced parsnip soup, much tastier than it may sound!  As this was a medieval banquet, we had no spoons at any point in the evening.  Bottoms up on the soup!

Our next course was spare ribs with honey and whiskey sauce, out of this world!  Of course, in addition to no spoons at the medieval banquet, we also had no forks.  Fingers were the way to go!  Charlotte, who tends to be a bit picky with what she eats, loved this course.  Check her out!

Between this course and the next, a “villain” was discovered in our midst and thrown in the dungeon.  In order to redeem himself, he was supposed to sing a traditional Irish number or be executed.  What did he sing?  “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” of course, loudly accompanied by the entire crowd, once again proving that we were mostly Americans!  This series of events absolutely delighted the children, especially Elijah.

Our next course was chicken breast in mead and apple sauce, accompanied by potatoes and vegetables.  And for dessert, we had a raspberry mousse on a cookie base called “rastin.”  There were also red and white wines to complement each course and pitchers of water and juice for those who preferred such.  All in all, the meal was surprisingly quite good.  When combined with the entertainment value, this was definitely worth it!

After the meal, those who served our meal changed roles and became the evening entertainment.  We listened to traditional Irish folk songs, including the ever-popular “Danny Boy,” as well as a couple of good drinking songs.  The singers and musicians were quite talented and took to their roles with great gusto.  Even Jeff and I, by the end of the evening, had to admit we’d had a great time!

 

When the banquet ended, we exited through the gift shop, giving us a chance to buy stuff that would help us always remember our evening.  (I’m saying this very tongue-in-cheek.)  Because we had enjoyed the music, we bought a CD recorded live at a banquet and then headed back to our hotel, five minutes up the road.

What a great evening!

Next time…Dublin and our final days in Europe.