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Ireland Tour 2014
Dublin & Belfast
June 21st - 30th, 2014
June 23rd
Our guide Kate met us this morning to take us on a short tour of
the city. It’s mostly an 18th century city of 1 million. Full of
Georgian squares and townhouses. Space and symmetry are the
hallmarks of the Georgian Mile, where everything matches and is
the same height. It was very fashionable to live in this area
and a family of four could have 20 servants! Christchurch with
its flying buttresses was a beauty to see, part of medieval
Dublin along with the Castle. The 18th century walled garden
that we visited is run now by volunteers and students. All the
food goes to the restaurant. St. Patricks Cathedral built in
1189 is beautiful and across the road is a red brick building
where the little boys practice choir. Guinness of course is huge
here and each worker still gets to this day 2 pints per worker
per day. Beautiful Phoenix Park is 1170 acres and called the
lungs of Dublin (that is also where the Victorian Walled Garden
is). There are said to be about 400 deer in the park and the zoo
here is the 4th oldest in the world and did you know that the
MGM lion was from here?
Then it was on to the National Botanic Gardens Dublin for our
guided tour…so many beautiful glasshouses filled with all manner
of plant material. There is a lovely potager walled garden
filled with yummy veggies too. The Palm House, designed by Sir
Charles Lanyon, had the two wings added in 1840 by Richard
Turner then he went on to build the Great Glass House at Kew.
There are vast numbers of beds with colourful plants in them, a
charming rose garden, alpine garden, rock garden, arboretum,
tropical ravine. It is a beautiful place to just sit, as I did,
on a large stone. Looking down the hill to the fields of tiny
flowers coming up through the grass was just so peaceful.
We had a break for lunch in the city center so I used the time
to walk around and discover…
Finally a visit to the Garden of Helen Dillon, except that she
was off filming something with Diarmud Gavin for BBC so we ended
up being entertained by her husband Val. This garden just
explodes in colour…what a pleasure to visit. I have seen it at
least 3 or 4 times now and I have to admit, it was just looking
so perfect for our visit.
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