Here are more:
Notes that aren't contained in the captions:
* Irish people are seriously the nicest, friendliest people in the world. The harrowing drives were made less scary by politeness and waves in passing, and though our overnight stays varied, every single morning began with our host asking for our next destination or plans for the day, then providing detailed directions and recommendations. They're the kind of people who will, if you're stopped on the street reading a map, come up to you not fifteen seconds after you've paused and ask if they can help. Just lovely.
* We loved the OPW ladies! On some of your recommendations, we bought Heritage Cards at Glendalough and made them more than worth it - even found several sites we hadn't originally planned to see - and at every OPW (Office of Public Works) site, the docents and tour guides had this fantastically well-branded process and manner of speaking that despite most sites being under restoration had every air of professionalism and pleasantness.
* There were more photos taken at the stone circle. My sister is reading Outlander. They will remain unpublished.
* As usual, there are more photos from the first half of the trip. By the time we got to Dublin, it was harder to remember to take them. We packed a lot into that day:
-- St. Stephen's Green: Green, pretty;
-- Trinity College (plus Library and Book of Kells exhibits): Interesting, historical, poor layout though;
-- National Museum (Archaeology): BOG PEOPLE!;
-- My company's Dublin office, where we had lunch with some of my coworkers;
-- Kilmainham Gaol: Rather farther from the center than the maps indicated, actually, but quite interesting in tone and message
-- Guinness Storehouse: ROTFLMAO
-- O'Connell Street and Temple Bar: Really just walked around, but especially good for people-watching
* Ireland generally failed at signage, except for Toilets. They really want you to know where the Toilets are. Road signs generally weren't visible until after you were in the intersection, and several of them were perplexing. We didn't get any shots of our favorite ones, the white arrows on blue backgrounds. We decided these signs were saying, "This is a road." They would show up in clusters of five or more, all different sizes, at what we eventually figured out were places the road-builders seemed concerned that people wouldn't be able to differentiate between the road they were aleady on and, oh, stacks of orange cones, sidewalks, other vehicles, things like that.
The other awesome sign was at the bottom of a traffic light. Maybe 100 meters earlier, we'd passed one that said "Experimental traffic controls ahead." Apparently, that was the traffic light, because the sign at the bottom said, "Stop when light is red." *dies all over again*
* I took five different planes on this trip. SFO to Newark, Newark to Dublin, and then Dublin to Newark, Newark to Houston, Houston to SFO. When booking the flights, we discovered that going through Houston on the way home would actually be faster for me than waiting for a San Francisco flight. And as long as I was going that way anyway, I decided to just hold off until the later flight out so I could have dinner near the airport with the family. The youngest two sisters now live in Houston (one with the parentals, one actually in the city), so everyone was there, and I am so glad we got to do that.
All in all, the trip was fantastic. I highly recommend Ireland as a travel destination and want to go back to see the top half.
* We loved the OPW ladies! On some of your recommendations, we bought Heritage Cards at Glendalough and made them more than worth it - even found several sites we hadn't originally planned to see - and at every OPW (Office of Public Works) site, the docents and tour guides had this fantastically well-branded process and manner of speaking that despite most sites being under restoration had every air of professionalism and pleasantness.
* There were more photos taken at the stone circle. My sister is reading Outlander. They will remain unpublished.
* As usual, there are more photos from the first half of the trip. By the time we got to Dublin, it was harder to remember to take them. We packed a lot into that day:
-- St. Stephen's Green: Green, pretty;
-- Trinity College (plus Library and Book of Kells exhibits): Interesting, historical, poor layout though;
-- National Museum (Archaeology): BOG PEOPLE!;
-- My company's Dublin office, where we had lunch with some of my coworkers;
-- Kilmainham Gaol: Rather farther from the center than the maps indicated, actually, but quite interesting in tone and message
-- Guinness Storehouse: ROTFLMAO
-- O'Connell Street and Temple Bar: Really just walked around, but especially good for people-watching
* Ireland generally failed at signage, except for Toilets. They really want you to know where the Toilets are. Road signs generally weren't visible until after you were in the intersection, and several of them were perplexing. We didn't get any shots of our favorite ones, the white arrows on blue backgrounds. We decided these signs were saying, "This is a road." They would show up in clusters of five or more, all different sizes, at what we eventually figured out were places the road-builders seemed concerned that people wouldn't be able to differentiate between the road they were aleady on and, oh, stacks of orange cones, sidewalks, other vehicles, things like that.
The other awesome sign was at the bottom of a traffic light. Maybe 100 meters earlier, we'd passed one that said "Experimental traffic controls ahead." Apparently, that was the traffic light, because the sign at the bottom said, "Stop when light is red." *dies all over again*
* I took five different planes on this trip. SFO to Newark, Newark to Dublin, and then Dublin to Newark, Newark to Houston, Houston to SFO. When booking the flights, we discovered that going through Houston on the way home would actually be faster for me than waiting for a San Francisco flight. And as long as I was going that way anyway, I decided to just hold off until the later flight out so I could have dinner near the airport with the family. The youngest two sisters now live in Houston (one with the parentals, one actually in the city), so everyone was there, and I am so glad we got to do that.
All in all, the trip was fantastic. I highly recommend Ireland as a travel destination and want to go back to see the top half.
