I have to admit, once the Thames River Path walk was over, I didn’t have much energy to keep up with the blog. But here we go again, for our last week.
We spent September 3rd in London, flew to Dublin on the 4th from Heathrow, spent the 5th and 6th in Dublin, then travelled by train and bus to Portumna to pick up our boat for our cruise up the River Shannon.
I must ask why it’s the River Shannon and the River Thames, as opposed to the Shannon River, as we would call it.
Central London along the Thames, with its Parliament Buildings and newer buildings, seems shiny and clean and is expensive. In stark contrast, while it was also inundated with tourists, Dublin was old and somewhat gritty. Not dirty, just not polished like London.The streets along the Liffey were lined with small independent shops, pubs and restaurants, not much for tourist junk, and very few buildings more than a handful of stories high. It all comes down to where the money is.
Oops. I put Peter’s snail shells to soak so we could wash them and this little guy was alive – he had crawled out of his bath (luckily I hadn’t added any soap). So we took him outside and tucked him in the garden. Happy to say he was still alive and moving the next morning. We got pretty good at the trains and underground travelling back and forth as we were finishing our Wal. Hammersmith is a great place to stay, with easy access to the underground and direct route to Heathrow. I suspect he makes a pretty good living at this. Really REALLY long escalator. We went to see The Mousetrap – mostly because it is iconic and the longest running play ever…since 1951…a run which only COVID has disrupted. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Would have loved to gone to this but it’s in two parts – a few hours in the afternoon and the rest in the evening. Peter was happy to find these waffle ice creams that he’d had in Japan (in 2008 – his memory is phenomenal). I need an Air Floorce One in my house! And maybe even an Air Floorce Two. Our house for four nights. Who needs Google Maps? As we left our house for the 800 m walk to the grocery store, I spotted this little lady marching very determinedly down the street and figured she was heading to the store too. So we just followed her… Every cafe and pub serves hot chocolate. My morning staple. Sorry, Ken. No. St Patrick’s Cathedral. Disappointing as it was filled with cruise ship passengers. A tourist trap instead of a place of peace and reflection. But the floor was lovely… And unusual for a Cathedral. The band was setting up… The candles were an afterthought apparently, shoved against a pillar, instead of at a chapel or icon. Regardless, I lit one for Mary Ann, who has always held her Irish heritage close to her heart. They use these pencil posts in front of the schools! Peter spotted this fox in the creek by our house. Ken had also seen a fox as we left the Angel Pub in London. Fox plus heron on the grass. I have to pay good money for a small fuschia in a pot and here they grow them in bushes. Heavy sigh. We decided to take a boat tour on the River Liffey. According to the tour guide, this is the Irish navy. The Customs House, built by the British, burnt in 1916 by the Irish. I thought my sister Dana would love this. She’d be joining right in on this knitting bee. This was in the big emigration museum.This set of statues is called “Departure”. It is one half of a set, with the other half being in Toronto, with those statues called “Arrival”. Of note is that 7 people departed but only 5 arrived, because so many died on the voyage and were buried at sea. But the possibility of dying at sea and moving to a new unknown life in a different country was no deterrent when faced with starvation. It was interesting to see that Jean Chretien helped sponsor these statues as Canadian Prime Minister, but also as ordinary citizen John and Aline Chretien. British lion, Irish harp, Scot unicornThis was our tour boat. The Liffey is tidal, so we were pretty low when we went as it was low tide. This ice cream truck was whipping around the neighbourhood, playing Yankee Doodle Dandy. But it didn’t stop for me. More heavy sighs. Waiting for the taxi that never showed. Grrrr. So we had to call another and by the time he came, he said we would never make our train. But he did his best, whipped us as close to the platform as he could, told us which platform, and to run like heck. They actually held the train a few seconds for us. Whew. At the Ballinasloe train station. Given the anti-British sentiment here, it was surprising to see this post box from the King Edward the 7th era (1901 to 1910ish) survived. But all they did was paint it Irish green.I could read this. I could not read that. Our home for a week, a Crusader. It’s quite big as there were supposed to be five of us, possibly 6, and it turned out there were only three. 3 cabins and 3 bathrooms. That’s more bathrooms than our house has. Gotta love a poster showing a Canadian flag. This company (LeBoat) operates in Ottawa as well. It’s on our bucket list. Our first LeBoat canal trip was in 2005.
September 7 marked 25 years for Ken and me. And we’re still talking! ❤️
