Today marks the halfway point of our international adventure. We may be off by a day or so either direction, because we do not have our home travel details set quite yet. But by the time we get back to Gdansk on Saturday, we will definitely be on the second half of our trip. We have been away from home for 4 1/2 months. In some ways it seems like that long, and in some ways I cannot believe it has been that long. I imagine time will really start to fly now. My sister is coming to visit us for a week in six weeks (we can't wait!), and we have several more trips planned. Then we'll be busy packing everything up to come on home.
Today we are in Dublin, Ireland. We are staying at a really nice home. The lady who owns it lives here while she is in Dublin, but rents it out when she spends (I guess) a considerable amount of time in New York. It is very modern and the lay out is interesting.
I am not nearly hip enough to pull off the look, but we are having fun staying here. We are probably 10-15 minutes outside of the City Centre, but there are quite a few buses that come by frequently.
This morning we set out and caught our bus. It was a little rainy and chilly, but not bad. The zipper on my coat has broken. Drat! We are so close to the end of winter and I would really hate to have to buy another coat at this late date. But there surely are plenty of cold days still ahead in Gdansk. It also has buttons so I am going to see if I can get by with it for the rest of winter. It was a very economical buy back in October, so I guess you get what you pay for! The day cleared up in the afternoon and we were able to be outside quite a bit.
We walked around the City Centre for a little while and checked out several of the little shops. We made our way to St. Patrick's Cathedral. It is attached to a little park with a fountain and playground.
I was surprised to see quite a few people walking around and sitting on benches in the park since it was kind of a chilly day. We had lunch at the park.
We saw where St. Patrick baptized the pagans. The actual well is no longer there, but the location is identified.
The 12th century architecture of the cathedral is too "heavy" as far as I am concerned. But I can certainly appreciate the magnitude and detail of it.
St. Patrick is the patron saint of both Myles and Trey.
After seeing the cathedral, we went to a Viking Museum. It was really neat and I think we all learned quite a bit. The Vikings founded the city of Dublin.
This museum started with the year 841 and went through medieval times. Ben had just learned about the Black Death in the 1300s in his (our) World History class, so the part of the exhibit that referred to that was especially interesting to him. Some things at the museum were interactive and then there was a young woman dressed as a medieval woman who gave us great detail about many things.
We left the museum and went to see part of the original wall that surrounded Dublin along with a gate that was built in the 1200s.
We walked to the River Liffey. This river runs right through the middle of Dublin, but I had never heard of it. Here are the kids with the river in the background.
Then we made our way back home. The people here are very friendly. At the bus stop this morning, I asked a young 20ish man if we were on the right bus to go to City Centre. He told us it was. Then as we were getting close to the stop, he appeared from a different part of the bus and made sure we knew where to get off (he was getting off at the same place). Then after we had walked about a block, he approached us again and gave us some further direction. The people here have been happy to help or answer any questions. I have to tune my ear to understand the Irish Brogue, but it has such a pretty sound!
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