Globetrotting: to Disneyland Paris and back with TCD

[disney4dan 68]

I guess it must be cheaper there. I think it's like $4 a pack. Not sure how long a pack lasts, but that's some serious change

 

In good ole "Taxachusetts" a pack will cost around $9 

 

Some people I know have started to roll their own again.  Just different "stuffing" than they used to put in 35 years ago.

[BigTom 76]

In good ole "Taxachusetts" a pack will cost around $9 

 

Some people I know have started to roll their own again.  Just different "stuffing" than they used to put in 35 years ago.

At $9 per pack, 1 pack a day = a full month at Fort Wilderness a year.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

I was surprised by the amount of smokers there were in Europe also. I guess they don't know it's bad for them. Lol.

I do like the public transportation system there. We traveled by train everywhere. And loved it.

Dublin is beautiful. DW and I decided on our next trip across the pond we will be hitting Ireland and northern England. Not just London.

[Beckers 1,136]

I don't think I could deal with all the smoking. Since they banned it at restaurants I'm now super bothered by it.

[parrothead7368 aka Norm 101]

 

 

 

Complete with the ugly modern "art:"

 

 

That's art huh, I though it was a boat anchor.

 

Best Regards,

Norm

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I can't seem to bring myself to get on a plane to fly across the country... let alone across an ocean so, I think this as close as I'll get.

 

I'm in!!!

 

The flight wasn't bad.  The in-flight entertainment options were great, and we were able to have a row of two seats to ourselves.

 

Yeah hopefully we'll get to take W to Europe one day. 

 

Luckily CP and I got to make a trip there before he was born, we'll definitely go back, we loved Italy too much not to.

 

 

Ahh....Dublin's fair city where the girls are so pretty...

 

 

There's just something about that statue that I really really like, maybe a couple things.

 

WBI

 

Edited to add: After reading this I had to break out my Creel music and listen to Molly Malone!

 

A couple of things, huh?  You're bad.

 

Same here, Nacole!  As much as I love flying, I can't think of being confined in a plane for hours.

 

After returning from Europe, I had the pleasure of driving to Auburn, Alabama and back on consecutive days.  I'll take a long flight over a long car ride any day.

 

Crum page 2 but I am in.

 

Page 2 is good!

 

Reading along.....this will be an epic TR. Thanks for sharing.

 

Glad you're reading, Aaron.

 

Oh my Dublin looks beautiful - and Disney Paris - that's so on our dream list.  What a great Graduation trip for your daughter.

 

Dublin was beautiful, and the people there were great.  We didn't realize how great until we met some of the folks in the other places we visited.

 

 

Page 2, not bad, and I read it all... and I'm a slow reader!

 

You got the last spot on page 2.  Not bad for a slow reader.

 

I'm glad to know you're reading along.

 

TCD

[Family of Bears 98]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, you are a great dad. Good work.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Enjoying your report, looking forward to more!

 

Glad you like it so far.  There is more on the way.

 

Page three bragging rights.  Ah well.  Better late than never!

 

The stone dedicated to the guy who died in 1915 is a memorial to Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa.  You can read more about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_O%27Donovan_Rossa

 

And "Molly Malone" is now Dublin's unofficial anthem, according to that most reliable source, wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Malone

 

For those of you who didn't grow up with a father singing folk music to you every chance he got (and oh how I miss him!), here is a recording of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diUkiTs1gxM

 

Thanks for the research, Marty.

 

This is a zoom on the plaque on that rock- I guess that says Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa:

 

 

Visiting Dublin made me realize how ignorant I am of Irish history.  And their history is very interesting.  The part we visited is an independent nation, but just became separate from the UK in the last century.

 

Oh see... I am the opposite.  Boat and planes, do NOT like either of them.  It only seems to get worse, the older I get.  Tough as my family is on the other side of the country

 

Yeah, if you can't do a boat of plane, you're going to have to rely on Epcot for your Europe fix.

 

So I'm wonderIng. Does wiling the day away relaxing in a beautiful park possess enough benefit to offset all the damage done by the smoking? I'm amazed how prevalent it is. Oh, and you were really heavy on the green filter in those park pics. Lol

 

Hey Fred!  Good to see a post from you.  You raise a good question.  The smoking issue was way worse in France.  Which is so odd- they're semi-communist government regulates everything, including recently passing a law making it illegal to provide soft drink refills at restaurants.  But, they let people smoke whenever and wherever they want?

 

It's not as bad as you'd think.  Try a 15 hour flight.  With 3 kids. Under 7.   :)

 

Wow.  I don't even want to think about that.  We had a good tailwind on the way to Dublin, and our flight was just over 8 hours.  I was definitely ready to get off the plane by then.  15 hours would be bad enough without kids.

 

The smoking in China was INSANE.  I mean people just walking around our fancy hotel smoking.  It was so strange.  

 

And people think Americans are unhealthy.

 

I guess it must be cheaper there. I think it's like $4 a pack. Not sure how long a pack lasts, but that's some serious change

 

Hmmm.  That's a good question.  I wonder if smokes are cheaper there?  Somehow I doubt it.

 

Well I new you were up to something but I had no idea it was world travel. Looking forward to the rest.

 

Yeah, a college graduation and world travel keeps you pretty busy.

 

This is probably my latest entry into a TCD TR, but I'm in!

 

I love traveling to new places. Can't wait to see the rest. 

 

I'm glad that you're here.

 

I don't consider myself to be a fan of travel, but we did have a great time on this trip, and I'd like to see some more of Europe now.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Page 3 bragging rights!  Don't any of you people work during the day?  Nice start to the trip report TCD!

 

LOL!  Glad you made it Dan.  Sorry that you have to work so hard!

 

In good ole "Taxachusetts" a pack will cost around $9 

 

Some people I know have started to roll their own again.  Just different "stuffing" than they used to put in 35 years ago.

 

Wow, think of all that smokers could do with that money.

 

LOL at the roll your own folks.  Danged hippies.

 

At $9 per pack, 1 pack a day = a full month at Fort Wilderness a year.

 

Wow.  I wish I smoked so I could quit and have the money.

 

I was surprised by the amount of smokers there were in Europe also. I guess they don't know it's bad for them. Lol.

I do like the public transportation system there. We traveled by train everywhere. And loved it.

Dublin is beautiful. DW and I decided on our next trip across the pond we will be hitting Ireland and northern England. Not just London.

 

I will be getting to our public transportation experiences later.  I hadn't really studied anything about Dublin's so we didn't use it.  Once we figured it out in London and Paris, it was great.

 

We also took a train from London to Paris, which I really liked, and would definitely do again.  In the future, I want to look into those rail passes that let you travel all over Europe.

 

Dublin was a really pretty city, and I want to go there again.

 

I don't think I could deal with all the smoking. Since they banned it at restaurants I'm now super bothered by it.

 

True.  I also used to be way more tolerant of smoke.  My kids can't believe that it used to be allowed in restaurants and on airplanes.  Times sure have changed.

 

That's art huh, I though it was a boat anchor.

 

Best Regards,

Norm

 

Maybe that is a boat anchor?  I thought it was a sculpture.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, you are a great dad. Good work.

 

Ah, shucks.  Thanks.  I try.

 

TCD

[shoreline99 137]

I'm anxious to hear about your Eurodisney experience. I know it's called Disneyland Paris now, but when my wife was your daughter's age or thereabouts, she went to school in France for a year and then worked in Paris while attending classes at the Sorbonne at the same time Eurodisney opened. She got to go several times in the park's first year or so, and I bet it will be interesting to see the changes since then. She may even give up her lurker status.

 

If you liked DLP, may I recommend this excellent book - don't know if you can still find a copy of it but this is a link to the author's page: http://disneyandmore.blogspot.com/2011/12/disneyland-paris-book-from-sketch-to.html

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I'm anxious to hear about your Eurodisney experience. I know it's called Disneyland Paris now, but when my wife was your daughter's age or thereabouts, she went to school in France for a year and then worked in Paris while attending classes at the Sorbonne at the same time Eurodisney opened. She got to go several times in the park's first year or so, and I bet it will be interesting to see the changes since then. She may even give up her lurker status.

 

If you liked DLP, may I recommend this excellent book - don't know if you can still find a copy of it but this is a link to the author's page: http://disneyandmore.blogspot.com/2011/12/disneyland-paris-book-from-sketch-to.html

 

How cool.  I hope that your wife does come out of lurker status when we get to Disneyland Paris. I have many thoughts to share about it.   After DLP, we spent a couple of nights in Paris itself, and weren't far from the Sorbonne.  She will want to see those photos too.

 

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Patiently waiting on an update ...

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Page 4!

 

Update time.

 

We're still on the first day of the trip- heading back to our hotel after our foray into Dublin.  In all, we had walked about 4 miles.  It was a nice cool day, so that wasn't a problem.

 

But, we didn't want to walk that far for dinner.  So, as we got closer to our hotel, we started to pay attention to the pubs and such as potential candidates for dinner time.

 

This place called Waterloo caught my eye.  It sat right at the end of the street our hotel was on:

 

 

This is Waterloo Street.  It didn't look like such a big street on the maps I had studied, but it ended up being a pretty major road:

 

 

Early in the planning process, I had considered renting a car in Ireland, and heading out to see some sights.  As I continued to think through the trip, I decided spending the day in Dublin would be a better use of our time.  After seeing the crazy traffic, I'm glad that I didn't have to drive a car with the steering wheel on the wrong side on roads where I had to drive on the wrong side.  We were doing good to not get run over in the crosswalks by not looking for traffic coming from the opposite direction that we were used to.

 

We saw our first double decker bus as we headed up our street.  At the time, it was a novelty.  Little did we know how common they are everywhere we visited:

 

 

Waterloo House is a row home in this building.  It ended up being a lot like a bed and breakfast, but was set up like a small boutique hotel. If you plan to visit Dublin, and want to have a car, this would be a good choice, as there is off-street parking, and it's free to hotel guests:

 

 

We finally made it back:

 

 

The entrance is right up those steps.  Another reason I was glad we chose to travel light.  We were on top floor of the building too.  They did have an elevator (or as they call it, a lift), but it seemed kind of iffy:

 

 

This is the reception area of the hotel.  I wish my deceased Irish Grandmother was with me to see this- she would have felt right at home.  To tell the truth, when I was greeted with this view, I was a little worried about this place, but it ended up being fine:

 

 

I only have a few photos of the room, and this is the only one I had of my bed, so I apologize for the blurriness:

 

 

I asked for twin beds, but I got a big bed, while DD got this one:

 

 

For the record, I did offer to sleep in the small bed. But DD was polite and said she'd take it.  I didn't fight her for it.

 

Our room was not on the street side of the hotel, so we had no traffic noise, and this was our view:

 

 

What a pretty city Dublin is.  We were facing away from the business district, and these must all be residences:

 

 

This is the view in the other direction- just more rooftops:

 

 

Some of the houses looked really nice:

 

 

Coming from good old flat Florida, it's always interesting to see a hill- this might even be a mountain:

 

 

Allegedly, our room had air conditioning, but I saw no controls for that.  Just a radiator.  It was no problem though, as we just left the window open, and enjoyed the fresh cool air.

 

Our private bath was nice and clean:

 

 

Since we were now well past 24 hours without any significant sleep, we both laid down for a little rest.

 

I couldn't sleep, so I headed out on my own to do a little scouting around the hotel.

 

I found the dining room where we would come for our free breakfast in the morning:

 

 

There was a beautiful sun room off of the back:

 

 

I asked the lady at the front desk for some dinner recommendations, and she named a few places in the area.  I decided to walk by them and have a look.  Like we used to do in the days before the internet. 

 

Phone booths are still a thing in Ireland:

 

 

All of the buildings had little shops on the first floor, and a lot of them were pubs:

 

 

The roads in Dublin are crazy:

 

 

This Waterloo pub seemed to be the frontrunner for our dinner destination:

 

 

It was cool to see evidence of how old a city Dublin is- like this old stone wall, for example:

 

 

I found my way back to Waterloo House:

 

 

There were pretty gardens out back:

 

 

When I got back, DD was up from her nap, and we decided to head out and take a look at the sights along a canal that was just a block or so from our hotel.  We passed the hospital on the way:

 

 

This is the canal.  I think it used to be more important to the city and more used than it is now:

 

 

Again, it was kind of interesting to see how there were no rails or barriers to prevent folks from falling in.  But, they did have these life rings available just in case:

 

 

It was really nice to walk along the canal:

 

 

There's a gas station over there across the canal.  It was the first one we saw:

 

 

This boat was really cool.  The enclosed area is a bar, and there are tables and chairs out there in the open.  It must take people on dinner cruises- that would be fun:

 

 

Speaking of dinner- it was getting to be about that time.  We agreed on the Waterloo pub, and headed that way. For those of you who care about such things, I have some pub food and beer photos to share.

 

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Thanks for all the photos!  Dublin looks nothing like what I would have imagined.

 

And that hospital looks a little scary.

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Can't wait to see the pub grub!

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Hotel looks clean and doable. 

 

Looking forward to dinner!

[caveat lector 181]

Hey TCD! Sorry I haven't been very active online. Nothing nefarious here, just the job. Don't expect the 12-14 hour days to end for several more months. However, that is no excuse, nor would I ever use it, to missed a full fledged TCD TR. especially one with an international TCD real man of genius. Gee, I'm not if Yuri's country of origin, but I bet it's closer to Ireland than disneyworld. :)

After seeing nothing but row houses in sub divisions, your view out the hotel room of the varying rooflines is really cool. I'm also seeing a theme in your comments about the canals and lakes. It appears that Ireland doesn't see the need to protect their citizens from themselves. It's refreshing that the country trusts people to not fall in the water if they don't want to get wet. How novel. I wonder if it's because their courts choose not to reward the dredges of society driving our litigious reputation.

[Dalspot ... Karen 21]

Ireland is on the very top of my bucket list!

[jmaul 65]

This TCD trip report better have some good local craft beer pics.  Oh, and local pood forn.

[HappyRedhead......Betsy 16]

I"ve been wondering where you were!  Great report so far.  Thanks!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Thanks for all the photos!  Dublin looks nothing like what I would have imagined.

 

And that hospital looks a little scary.

 

What did you imagine Dublin would look like?  It kind of looked right to me.

 

Agreed on the hospital.  I guess that's what you get with socialized medicine.

 

Can't wait to see the pub grub!

 

Your wait will soon be over.

 

Hotel looks clean and doable. 

 

Looking forward to dinner!

 

 

The hotel was great.

 

And dinner is coming up.

 

Hey TCD! Sorry I haven't been very active online. Nothing nefarious here, just the job. Don't expect the 12-14 hour days to end for several more months. However, that is no excuse, nor would I ever use it, to missed a full fledged TCD TR. especially one with an international TCD real man of genius. Gee, I'm not if Yuri's country of origin, but I bet it's closer to Ireland than disneyworld. :)

After seeing nothing but row houses in sub divisions, your view out the hotel room of the varying rooflines is really cool. I'm also seeing a theme in your comments about the canals and lakes. It appears that Ireland doesn't see the need to protect their citizens from themselves. It's refreshing that the country trusts people to not fall in the water if they don't want to get wet. How novel. I wonder if it's because their courts choose not to reward the dredges of society driving our litigious reputation.

 

Glad that you're doing well.

 

There seems to be a lot less government regulation in Europe.  And everyone seems to get along just fine.

 

Ireland is on the very top of my bucket list!

 

I hope that you get to go.  I loved the little we saw of it.

 

This TCD trip report better have some good local craft beer pics.  Oh, and local pood forn.

 

Please stand by.

 

I"ve been wondering where you were!  Great report so far.  Thanks!

 

I was just a bit busy.

 

But, now I'm back to posting.

 

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Since this is a long trip, we need to keep the updates coming.  We're still on day one, but this update will take us in to day two and on to London.

 

We left off walking along the canal:

 

 

There's a place near our house in Florida that has a bike decorated with wine corks, and here's another one in Dublin.  Small world:

 

 

We stopped at the Waterloo Pub, and were seated.

 

We chose this place just because of its proximity to our hotel, but it ended up being a great choice.

 

Here's a link to their website if you want to read more about the place: http://www.thewaterloobar.ie/

 

The inside was decorated like every Irish pub I've seen in America.  That big clock on the wall tells you that we were a bit early for dinner-it was just past 5:30:

 

 

Of course, I had to start off with a pint.  Truth be told, I am not a huge fan of Guinness.  I am not a beer snob, and am just as happy with a cold Bud Light.  But, I was in Ireland, so:

 

 

A guide book I read in preparation for this trip said that even if you think you don't like Guinness, you need to try one when you're in Dublin.  That was good advice.  That beer was perfect.

 

When it came to our food, I had a hard time deciding what to order.  I was leaning toward Irish Stew, but they had a special going on Bangers and Mash.  I tried them at an Irish Pub in Tampa once, but didn't really like them.  But, I decided to give them a second chance.  I'm glad that I did.  Here's my meal:

 

 

You can see DD's meal across the table there- she ordered a Panko-Crusted Chicken sandwich, which she really enjoyed.

 

As for my bangers and mash- they were great.  Way better than what I had in Tampa.

 

The bottom line is that this meal was a success!

 

Those are the last photos I have from the first day of our trip.  I had originally had big plans to spend the night in an Irish Pub.  But after just one beer and dinner, the lack of sleep caught up with me.  Plus, we would be hitting the road early in the morning to catch our flight to London.  So, we called it a night after that dinner.  Shameful, but true.

 

We both got a good night's sleep, and then we were up early to get packed up and to our free Irish Breakfast downstairs.

 

Our room had one of these electric teapots in it.  I've never used one before, but it would be a great item to take camping.  It boiled water almost instantly.  The hotel provided packets of instant coffee and tea bags for use in the room, which was nice.  Also, check out the weird electric plugs they have over here.  If you come, remember that you will need a converter, and they use different ones in different countries:

 

 

We made it to breakfast right when they opened at 7 am.  The service was superb.  This is what we got to choose from:

 

 

I chose the traditional Irish breakfast, and DD chose the French Toast.  I was most interested in trying the award-winning black and white pudding.  Here's my breakfast:

 

 

That was a win!

 

The things that look like sausage patties are the black and white pudding.  I don't know why they call it pudding.  Or black and white.  It tasted like sausage with bread crumbs mixed in.

 

Here's DD's French Toast:

 

 

After breakfast, we headed back to the room, grabbed our stuff, and headed back to the bus stop.

 

It was raining very lightly, but wasn't a problem.  And the bus stop was covered.  We only had to wait here a few minutes:

 

 

You may have heard that there was a big vote in the last week on gay rights in Ireland.  There were signs on practically every lamppost telling people how to vote on the issue:

 

 

Soon, we were aboard our bus and on our way back to the airport:

 

 

There was a lot of construction going on in Dublin.  Another reason I was glad I had chosen not to drive:

 

 

Today would not be a good day to go on a tour on that open double decker bus (and there's another random smoker) :

 

 

On our way, we saw some statues that we had somehow missed.  These look like fully clothed men though, so no big loss:

 

 

One of my big worries on this trip was that we would miss a flight and send our plans into a tizzy.  We had no worries today.  We got there early.  Of course, that meant that it was likely that our flight would be delayed.  And it was.  Only an hour, though.  And the Dublin airport has excellent free Wi-Fi.  So, we were fine.

 

In the airport, I noticed these signs everywhere.  What do you think they mean?:

 

 

If you guessed that is an exit sign, you're right.  If you were stumped, you would have a hard time in Europe.

 

For our flight to London, I booked us on an Aer Lingus flight.  This flew us in to Heathrow airport, and cost us less than $100 for two one-way tickets.  So, that $500 lower price to fly to Dublin ended up being a great move.  And, had I wanted to go cheaper, I could have.  There's an airline called Ryan Air that flies all over Europe for incredibly low prices.  Like $17 US dollars for a flight from Dublin to London.  People say it's fine, but I was scared by some things I had heard about them, and they did not fly in to Heathrow.  We would have been flying to an airport further away from the city.  We needed to get to London on time.

 

The reason we needed to get to London on time is that I had booked us theater tickets for the evening.  And, DD had a job interview that she was going to do by phone- hopefully right after we checked in to the hotel.

 

There were plenty of Aer Lingus planes around the Dublin airport, but not the one we needed:

 

 

Our flight ended up being a bit over an hour late taking off.  And then, when we got to London, we had to fly around an extra 20 minutes to wait for a place to land.  Not cool.  We were going to be pressed for time now.  And, I was not clear on how the London subway system worked.  I had good directions to our hotel, but getting from the terminal to the subway station wasn't clear to me.  We followed the signs and found our way.  We needed tickets for the subway, and went to a self service machine.  Since we would be in London for three days, and planned to use the subway and buses, I was interested in some kind of pass.  The machine offered me an unlimited three day pass, and I bought two.  This all took a lot longer than I had planned, but we could still make it.  We headed to the gate, and scanned our tickets.  The gate didn't open.  We were in a busy airport, and there were guests behind us wanting to go.  Fortunately, there was an employee there who came over to assist.  She looked at our tickets and informed me that I had purchased bus only passes.  Ugg.

 

So, back to the machine we went.  There was another employee there to help.  Went through the whole thing again, and when I went to pay, my card was declined.  I reckon my credit card company figured that there was no reason for me to be making two purchases here so close together.  Ugg.

 

The employee told me that I should go to the regular ticket window and sell them back my bus passes then use cash to buy the passes we needed.   So that's what I did.  That would have been great, except for the long line.  Ugg.

 

We weren't going to make it to the hotel in time for DD's interview.

 

When I got the pass situation straightened out, I asked the employee there where we could find a quiet place above ground to make a phone call.  He directed us upstairs to a bus waiting area.  DD stood outside there, and did her interview.  She's right outside the doors on the far left in this photo.  If she gets that job, she'll have a good story to tell:

 

 

We were now way behind schedule.  But, we found the tube entrance we needed:

 

 

We had to change trains once to get to our stop.  The London subway system is a lot like New York's, so we were figuring things out.

 

We left the train here:

 

 

As we emerged out into the world above, we were greeted by cold, hard rain.

 

Nuts.

 

If we hadn't been delayed we would have missed it.

 

I had my directions from here, but couldn't find the street we were looking for.

 

And we were getting drenched.

 

There was a taxi stand right there.

 

I told my DD to come on, and we would just take a taxi.  I knew we were close, but the taxi could take us.

 

We got in.

 

The taxi driver asked us where to.

 

We told him.

 

He laughed.

 

He said it was literally around the corner, and that since this was a one way street we were on, it would be quicker for us to walk.

 

I appreciated that.

 

So, we got out of the taxi and walked.

 

We made it.

 

Our hotel was nice.

 

I have photos to share later.

 

But for now, we were in a major hurry.

 

We should have been here two hours ago.

 

That would have been nice.

 

But, now we had to drop our stuff and run to get to the play.

 

We got some helpful directions from the front desk, and made our way back to the Tube.  Now that we knew where it was, it was easy.

 

A few stops later, we came up to the London theater district.  It was still raining, but not as hard:

 

 

We could see the theater we needed to get to.

 

But we needed something to eat.  We hadn't eaten since that Irish Breakfast.  Which was good, but that was at 7 am, and it was nearly 6 now.

 

I spied some familiar looking arches over on the first floor of that building:

 

 

And we did the unthinkable.

 

Mickey-D's in London.

 

You want to know something, though?  That was exactly what we needed-something fast that we knew we could eat.

 

Then it was on to the play:

 

 

We saw Les Mis.

 

I've seen it before, but apparently blocked it out of my memory.  I know that the actors were speaking English, but I honestly had a hard time understanding them and what was going on.  But, it went quick, and I liked it.  DD loved it.  One humorous story that will be retold is how I got up at the intermission and got ready to leave.  I thought it was over.  Boy, was I said when I found out that it wasn't.

 

The theater was really cool, though:

 

 

From there, it was back on the Tube:

 

 

I reckon this is why they call it the Tube:

 

 

And, that was it for day two.

 

We're moving quick now, huh?

 

Don't worry about it ending too quickly.  Day three was a long one.  We made it all over London.

 

That's where we will be next.

 

TCD

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

What did you imagine Dublin would look like?  It kind of looked right to me.

 

Agreed on the hospital.  I guess that's what you get with socialized medicine.

 

 

I imagined Dublin to be more modern ... more like your later photos.

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Oh London, I have missed you!  I was very blessed to spend 3 weeks one summer and four weeks another summer living in a flat in London with my parents.  After that, I had a few week long trips and weekend trips.  This was all back in the late 70's and 80's.  It seems like a year or two ago.

 

Can't wait to see more!

[keith_h 420]

Nice TR so far. Visiting The UK and Ireland is on our list of to do's. 

 

In the airport, I noticed these signs everywhere.  What do you think they mean?:

 

 

If you guessed that is an exit sign, you're right.  If you were stumped, you would have a hard time in Europe.

 

I thought it might have been a directional sign to the facilities for those passengers that had been stuck on the tarmac waiting for a gate.

 

 

 

Then it was on to the play:

 

 

We saw Les Mis.

 

I've seen it before, but apparently blocked it out of my memory.  I know that the actors were speaking English, but I honestly had a hard time understanding them and what was going on.  But, it went quick, and I liked it.  DD loved it.  One humorous story that will be retold is how I got up at the intermission and got ready to leave.  I thought it was over.  Boy, was I said when I found out that it wasn't.

 

The theater was really cool, though:

 

I have a cousin who used to work at one of the theatres nearby the one where you saw Les Mis. She is now at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.