We were free!! I know no one was sitting outside our door, paying attention to whether we went out or not, but I was totally paranoid. Walking outside that door felt so daring once our quarantine period was up. We reacquainted ourselves with this cute town, walking both of the main streets (only one of which is called Main Street) many times. There’s also a fabulous coastal path that I will talk about in a bit. First thing we did though? Planned a weekend in Dublin! We swore to never again go to Dublin in the summer – not after last summer’s experience. That was awful. But…this summer was a completely different matter, you know?
Friday after the husband was done working we made our way to Belfast, Lanyon Place train station to catch the Enterprise train south. I’ve driven the route several times but never taken the train. Go figure. We had splurged on first class tickets (maybe an extra $15 or so) and were thrilled when we realized that we had picked a train car with NO ONE else in it! Best kind of social distancing🤩After completely disinfecting every surface we settled in for the two hour ride. I have to admit to being rather nervous about being on the train, but having no one anywhere near us made it very enjoyable. it was an easy walk from Connelly Station to our hotel too. We elected to stay at the Morrison on Bachelor’s Walk since we knew that was convenient to where we wanted to be – I recommend the place!
First thing Saturday was breakfast at one of our absolute favorite places -The Bakehouse!! We stumbled on it our first trip to Dublin (2014) and it never disappoints. I think the Husband orders the same thing every time, but I try to get something different. This time we had a wonderful server, Sabrina, who only added to our enjoyment of returning. Thank you Sabrina for a fun morning 🥰
After getting properly fueled up we walked over to Trinity College, as we had tickets to see the Book of Kells (again). It was so strange to see the front gates closed and locked. I missed walking through the very old gates and into the quad. We had to go around the side of the campus, as entry was very carefully controlled. There were no lines of people waiting – very strange! When we brought the Daughter and her Best Friend here last year it was unbelievably crowded. There was no enjoyment of the experience. That was part of why we chose to go again. The ability to spend time in the exhibits with no sense of rush, no moving along quickly so you don’t block someone else’s view, no crowd anxiety…it was wonderful! There was maybe ten other people in the exhibit with us and we all took our time.
After enjoying the Book of Kells our plan was to wander the city and enjoy being in Dublin. We wanted to spend minimal time inside. Fortunately the weather mostly cooperated…this is Ireland after all. This was very different from a sight seeing trip as there was no rush to get somewhere else. We took a left on one street if it looked interesting, wandered through parks as we found them, thoroughly enjoying the experience.
After our very long walk we were more than ready for some lunch. There were two options: Zaytoon, Persian food. Super yummy. Or The Queen of Tarts. Ah, the Queen won again! Again, if you find yourself in Dublin you need to go to the Queen of Tarts. Breakfast (if you can tear yourself away from the Bakehouse!), lunch, tea, it doesn’t matter. Everything is good, but this is what you really want to have:
More walking to burn off lunch (I did resist having two pieces of cake)…
We very much enjoyed our time in the south – I miss the Gaelic up here in the north. There are many similarities however…in both areas it is uncommon to find cinnamon in apple products – like apple pie. This is something very wrong as far as I am concerned. Cinnamon belongs in sweet things. Drives me nuts. It does rain a lot. Maybe more the farther north you go though. But don’t come to Ireland for the weather. You need to accept it for what it is and not let the weather dictate your activities! The list goes on – it’s a small island after all.
Last weekend we walked the coastal path. On Saturday we went to the right and on Sunday we went to the left. Saturday’s walk was definitely the shorter one by several miles, however it was the boggier path (path being a loose term for some areas). I want to say that we went north on the first day, but that isn’t correct. It was more east I guess. My internal compass does not function well. What I do know is that between the clear skies and going farther east we seemed to be really close to Scotland. Close enough that we could tell one set of hills was closer than another set. There was a very brisk wind blowing too, brisk enough to give Belfast Bay whitecaps. I felt queasy just looking at it! The path we walked began as a nice, wide, paved trail, then sand, rocks, bogs, through an animal control gate, and eventually we ended at a rocky beach – we were glad the tide was out!
Now that we were all warmed up, we were ready for Sunday’s walk. If we had really thought about what we were setting out to do we might have changed our minds! This time down at the marina we turned to the left and began walking the path back towards Belfast. The day was beautiful, with none of the brisk wind from the day before. Blue skies. And everyone was out! Boats were being prepped down in the marina, Pickie Fun Park was full of children playing in the water (social distancing? Nope. Face masks? Nope. We gave that area a wider berth), and dogs with their people were everywhere. Life this far north dictates that you enjoy every nice day, especially at the end of summer.
On we walked, laughing at the antics of the dogs, admiring sweet babies, greeting everyone and being greeted. We were all in a splendid mood and that made it all the more enjoyable. Miles passed. The skyline of Belfast was not all that far away. But we had a goal – there was a waterfall in Crawfordsburn Park. I like waterfalls and try to seek them out. Unfortunately, this one did not come with directions. We knew it was up at the top of the park and approximately the area. That was it. The park is built on a hillside, so there was a lot of climbing. We knew when we found the train trestle we were close!
Eventually we could hear the rushing water – SUCCESS! We are getting pretty good at finding things with minimal directions.
After a small skirmish regarding photographing the waterfall (sigh…someday he will learn that I am always right), we joyfully headed downhill! Down where the park meets the beach there was a lovely little cafe that we intended to have lunch at. I managed to resist the scones, but they were incredible looking! Have I ever mentioned that scones here are round – as opposed to the triangles or wedges you usually see in the US? They also tend to be more bready than biscuity. Still very yummy but not at all what I expected them to be like.
At the end of Sunday we calculated that we had walked about 17 miles between the two days. And we were tired! Fortunately we have a wonderful bathtub in this flat, as we both took long, hot baths with epsom salts☺
Now we are in the midst of packing, getting dinners from all of our favorite places one last time, and preparing for our next stop…which is unfortunately not Berlin. I can’t begin to tell you how sad we were to cancel that. But we just were not comfortable that the immigration authorities there would let us in, even though we have spent over thirty days outside of the US. But it is on to a place I have dreamed of going since I was young. A place with so much history even I have trouble comprehending it. A place of astounding natural beauty. Malta…here we come.