Travelogue Dublin Greening and Going Bye Bye

It feels like I just checked in to Dublin yeasterday.  Wait, I did just check in the other day.  But, you know what I eam.  I feel like I just started my vacation and I've already come to the end of it.  This, March 14, is my last full day and the festivities for St Patrick's Day have just started up.  There is a beer village open today at Georges Dock.  They were to have food here as well.  However, all they had was a crepe tent, organic burgers, and a pie man who also had soup.  It has been open for an hour since noon and very few people showed up.

With the beer village being a big disappointment, I went to talk a walk along the nearby bridge   Looking toward city center, the Customs House lies on the banks of the river

Looking in the other direction towards the Irish sea

I began a walk back from city center towards Merrion Square.  Its a small urban park and one of two sights where carnival type rides will be erected for the festival

There are alot of these Carroll's place throughout the city selling souvenirs.  Before it was fugby relate.  Now its St Paddy's stuff to help get everyone into the mood

At 5pm, the city began the first night of "Greening" the city.  Building around the area are alight in green.  Clery's is a dept store on O'connell

I don't know what this building is.  Located just on the south side of the river at O'connell Bridge

Bank of Ireland joining in the greening

The Custom house from earlier in the day under the sun and now under the moon bathed in green

Of course the General Post Office is one of the many that are listed to be green. It sits on O'connell near the Spire. They should green up the Spire too

Crackbird on Dame St

Since I was nearby, I had dinner at Crackbird.  Crack or caric is an Irish term for enjoyment.  This is a hipster chicken place with low lighting and loud thumping music.  I ordered the dozen wings, soy fried.  I should have had half and half with habanero & honey.  They also offer 6 other sauces that you can add on.  The wings start to get salty quite quickly.  The soda with lime and mint helped to wash the saline from the tastebuds.  The one good thing is, a wing is the drumette and and wing.  So a dozen wings would be considered 24 pieces in other places.

Well, that about ends it for this trip unless something happens on the way back tommorrow

Travelogue London Artillery and Afternoon Tea

The weather of the last few days have not been conducive to my trip. Now, as if to mock me, I walk out into the bright sun this morning. Im still freezing my __(fill in the blank)__ off but at least a part of me can keep somewhat warm

Keeping with the military hardware theme, there is the Royal Artillery Museum. Its just east of Greenwich in Woolwich. My original thinking was to go here after the Royal Observatory visit yesterday. However, the museum is closed on Sun and Mon, so I had to coem back this following day. A shame to waste my brightest day in London in a museum.

Unfortunately, this place was smaller than I had hoped and they didnt have quite the exhibits to wow me

So this Rapier looked a bit familiar when I saw it. Something about these 4 rockets on either side of the vehicle rang a few bells

In a previous post there was one like this at the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation. I have a similar picture of the rockets there too

This Thunderbird missle reminds me of the marionette series Thunderbirds. One of the ships looks like this missile. Hmmm

A 155mm howitzer.

A 155mm howitzer and a shell being loaded

This was my favorite piece in the museum, a Gatling Gun

A far cry from today's highly mechanized and sometimes automated lead thrower. This forerunner incorporated 10 barrels and was actuated by a hand crank

This is not the end you want to be on

This is awfully shiny

Two 40mm anti-aircraft guns. This one was mounted on atrcuk so it could be easily move to where it was needed

This one on the other hand, was mounted in a fixed location somewhere

One thing alot of people like to do when they visit London is to have afternoon tea. This usually means a pot of tea or your choice. Mine being english breakfast with sugar and a spot of milk

With your tea, you get a selection of small sandwiches. Here we have a cucumber, smoked salmon, and egg salad

Next there is a course with scones and cakes. From the top a scone. Next is a little cake with lingen berrys(?), a macaroon, and a berry tart in a crispy shell. Clotted cream and jam for the scone. I had this light snack at the Saatchi Gallery Mess. Their website listed this for 17 pounds. When I recieved the bill, it was just under 11pounds including the 12% service charge

A few hours after the light snack, time for an early dinner. Went to this kebab place on my first trip and remembered the food being good. I was trying to look for the same item that I had ordered before. It was a kefte kebab plate but I couldn't find it

So I ordered this minced chicken breast meat with garlic. It was supposed to be spicy but I could feel non. It was served with yogurt, rice, and a grilled tomato. Most of their foods are grilled over charcoal and you can really taste it. I was afraid of the smoke from the grill impregnating my clothes as I remeber a smokey haze from before. Luckily, that was not to be found

Travelogue Back To Dublin

Today is the day to go back to Dublin.  There is some sun in the morning as I make my way to Victoria Station to catch a Southern line to Gatwick.  However, clouds start to gather and a light snow begin to fall as we are pushed back from the terminal. Below is somewhere along the west coast f England. The battery died and that was all I could getsince I packed the batteries in my check-in

Back on Dublin solid ground. The sun goes in and out as does the rain. The late afternoon sun runs down a street and illuminates half of the Spire

I didnt really have any plans for today. I like to really take it easy on travel days. But, with so much light, at least at the time, decided to go to Trinity College. the rain started as I got close and continued as I entered

Past the entrance, I make my way over to the old library. Maybe take in the Book of Kells while Im there. Unfortunatley, I had lost track of time and it was nearly a quarter to six. As my luck would have it, they closed forty five minutes ago. Oh well

Molly Malone is a well known character in this town. Ther is "The Ballad of Molly Malone" A statue dedicated to her stands near Grafton. Side note, I like a song by Metallica called "Whiskey in the Jar". A few days ago while on the tour bus, I hear this song along with a bunch of other Irish folk songs. It blew my mind cause it was the same song. I never imagined this would be the source! In the song, there is a mention of a Molly. Im wondering if this is the Molly

Nothing to do now but get dinner. Since I am close to Grafton St, I chose to go to Bewley's. At the Best Western that I am staying at, the in-room coffee and tea is from Bewley's.

I started with a wonderful seafood chowder. Creamy with bits of calamari, shrimp, and fish.

To follow it ups, I have the roasted vegetable salad which included humus and cous cous. I ordered the large and that was a big mistake. Way too big and could only get through most, not all, of it. The humus and cous cous did not have any additiional seasoning except the basics. The vegetables consisted of eggplant, squash, onions, and peppers. A splash of vinegar helped to brighten up the dish

Travelogue London Twinings Tea and Trafalgar Square

On the way back from yet another sightseeing trip and before getting to the next site, I had to stop over at Temple Station to pick up some souveniors. The station is on the banks of the Thames and te London Eye and Big Ben are clearly visible even on this day

Twinings Tea has a shop on Strand just by the station. It sticks out in my mind because I think its their main store

Its a narrow and tall bit of a shop stacked floor to ceiling with their teas and blends.

You can buy either loose or in envelopes. There is a sampling area in back. They also have several gift sets for your tea toddling friends

After picking up some tea, I progressed to Trafalgar Square. The mmonument that domints the area has a statue of Admiral Nelson atop a very high pedastal. Granted the weather was not favorable to lounging around outdoors.

There are some attractions in and around the square. To the north is The National Gallery.

In the northeast corner is St Martin's Church. I only know this because I read about a cafe in the basement of the church called The Cafe in the Crypt

Lastly, Big Ben is visible once again. Just pop down the street if you are so inclined. Its being guarded by a big lion at the base of Admiral Nelson who comes to life when anyone says bad things about Admiral Nelson

Lastly, that side trip to Twinings was to procure their Queen's Jubilee special blend of tea. They came in these special tins. The tea in envelopes are in the square tins while nthe loose reside in the more rounded containers

Travelogue London Prime Time

So I thought the day before was cold.  Today was colder and greeted me with intermittent snowfall throughout most of the day. Those white specks was the light snow falling in the morning as I left the hotel.  As I got to Victoria Station, the snow had let up and some sun came through.  It was very little sun but the most that would be seen today

To get to Greenwich, I used the Docklands Light Rail(DLR) for the first time.  Opposite of the subway, it stays above ground for most of its trip.  One of the few times it had to be underground occurred during the crossing of the Thames

A view of the London skyline.  You can clearly make out the profile of the Shard.  At a distance, reminds of the Transamerica Pyramid

Near the DLR Cutty Sark stop, the Discover Greenwich Visitor Center is available to help you sort out your visit.

There are displays on the history of Greenwich and England's Maritime history.  There are pamphlets for tours, loding, and sightseeing ideas.  There was a display of the city.  Press a button and a green laser overlays the Prime Meridian over the city, basically cutting it in half.  Too bad I frgot to take a pic

A gauntlet and knight's helmet was on display.  I think I saw another display of armor.  Maybe they used to make armor in the area?

Can you imagine trying to go into battle trying to peer through a little slit like this?

So I wanted to see what it was like and put it on.  One of the few pics of myself that I have ever posted.  Gawd, I hope this wont be all over Facebook. And, they call me The Stig!

A quick peek outside and the snow still falls and the waters of the Thames are ranging with anger

Anyway, the Prime Meridian is over by the Royal Observatory which is located in the middle of Greenwich Park.  You can see there was a decent amount of snowfall and the cold kept if from melting away.  Theres a planetarium, gift shop, and cafe in this building

Heres the observatory itself.  There is a display of how the astronomers lived during those time n Flamstead House

Like everyone else, I straddle the meridian with one foot in the west and one foot in the east.  And, one foot in the grave

During its heyday, the British were the most technologically advanced when it came to exploring and maritime ventures.  They were the Google of their time and got to designate where the day would start and end as well as the starting point for the world's navigational coordinates.

The Prime Meridian stretches to the north past the Thames and to the north pole

Now, I can scratch off standing in 2 directions off my bucket list.  Next on the list is standing in 4 states all at the same time!  There was a pie and mash shop that I passed by earlier.  Oddly enough, their storefront is on the wikipedia site on the subject of pie and mash

They sell several savory pies and a few sweet pies.  Their menu can be found on the web.  

As the name suggests, you order a pie and you get mashed potatoes with it.  I oredered a chicken and mushroom pie.  You get your choice of gravy or liquor. The liquor has no alcohol whatsoever but is a parsley sauce.   I ordered both and did the ying and yang.  The brown gravy was ok.  The liquor I didnt care for by itself and wasnt much of a benefit to the mash

So the insides dont look like much but the filling was quite tastey and i enjoyed the flakey pie shell.  Another thing these types of places also offer is jellied eels.  I was too full to make room for jellied eel.  Whew!