James, Amber and Amber’s mum, Clare, came
to visit us for the weekend. We had not
met Clare before, so wanting to make a good impression I had my hair done in
the morning. Unfortunately for me, the
winds were up and I met them at the bus stop looking like Phyllis Diller on a
bad hair day (not quite as bad as the first Skype session we had with Amber,
but that is another story). We dropped
their suitcases off at our apartment and then headed out to have some lunch.
Everyone assured us that it wasn’t too
windy to sit outside and enjoy the view of Grand Canal, so we took our seats at
a lovely café and ordered our lunch.
First we watched our table napkins blow away, closely followed by our
menus. Our meals arrived and my salad
took flight. It wasn’t until the vacant
chairs from the nearby tables sailed by that we admitted that perhaps we should
have sat inside. We persevered until our
meal was finished and decided that we would have our coffee indoors at a
different café. It is a downside of
living on a small island that when the winds are up, there is no escape.
We had a bit of a walk around Dublin,
showing the sights to Clare. Once we
were away from the water, the winds dropped and walking was much more pleasant.
The Irish Whiskey Museum was next on our agenda. We joined the long queue waiting our turn to
purchase our tickets. We couldn’t
believe how busy the museum was and how slowly the queue was moving, until we
saw the gentleman manning the counter.
He was a very friendly fellow and had a grand old chat to every single
person at the counter. When it came to
our turn, he heard our accents and asked which part of Australia we were
from. When he discovered we were from
Melbourne, he told us that he spent some time there and asked which AFL teams
we followed. He was tickled pink to
discover that Michael was a fellow Sydney Swans supporter and he and Michael
waxed lyrical about the team and reminisced together about Barry Hall famously
punching Brent Staker. Amber, James and
Clare couldn’t believe it! The queue
behind us was getting longer and I explained that this is just how the Irish
are. The tour itself was very
interesting as we were not only given information on the history of whiskey but
also a little on the history of Ireland.
There were interactive exhibits and we finished with a tasting at the
end of the tour.
We did a little more walking around before
stopping for a drink at the Palace Bar.
This is an original Victorian pub, built in 1823 with lovely stained glass
windows, high vaulted ceilings and a beautiful mahogany bar with mirrors. Suitably refreshed it was soon time for
dinner. We had chosen an Irish
restaurant, Gallagher’s Boxty House, which was a bit of a gamble as we hadn’t
been there before. A Boxty is a type of
potato pancake from the counties of Leitrim, Cavan and Fermanagh. Luckily the restaurant proved to be a hit
with each of us enjoying our meals. A
brief walk around Temple Bar followed our meal and then it was time to head for
home.
It was a late start on Sunday morning for
us, as the shops in Dublin do not generally open until 11.00am. Clare wanted to do a little souvenir shopping
so we took her to some of the better Irish shops known for their quality Irish
goods. I never tire of looking at the
beautiful woollen items for sale however, I just know that there is absolutely
nowhere to wear them in Australia (unless I was to suddenly take up
skiing). James had hinted that he would
like a roast for his Sunday lunch, so we headed over to FX Buckley for their
signature roast beef. It was a nice way
to finish our time together before walking them to the bus stop for their
journey back to the airport.
It was only a quick visit but it was lovely
to see James and Amber and to finally meet Clare.
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