Welcome to Éireann

Well after a long anticipated wait for Covid-19 to recede, we have managed to finally get to Ireland. It was a brutal 24 hours but nothing a couple of days of taking it easy couldn't fix.

We waited for an hour and 15 mins for our luggage to appear in the carousel, and had almost resigned ourselved to the loss, when the two suitcases appeared in the now deserted arrivals. Luckily our dear friends Mark and Zvia hadn't given up on us and were waiting at the gates. Since then we have been looked after brilliantly by our hosts. Malahide is a lovely little village just north of Dublin and Mark & Zvia's place is quite near the railway and a quick 15 minute ride into Dublin city.

Malahide itself is a weekend holiday destination, a mecca for spanish students learning English, a retirement centre and lots more besides. Here's a picture of us in the main street just before gelato....

Mark & Zvia have been very generously ferrying us from place to place around the area and we have been very lucky that the days since we have arrived have been very clement. 23 deg C on arrival and going up to 33 deg C on Monday, Ireland's hottest day in the last two centuries. It's felt a bit like the Riviera at times! Our first excursion was to the fishing town of Howth, which is just south of Malahide. A lovely cliff walk leading down into the town for (you guessed it) more gelato!

Our next trip was to the little town of Skellies, which is just to the north of Malahide. Some more great seaside experiences and on the way back we discovered our first early medieval church with round tower.

In between these trips, I've forgotten to mention that we caught the train into Dublin and went to the National Archaeological Museum. Wow. It really does rate up there with the British Museum in many ways. Great to be able to see so many actual artifacts in real life, as well as many that never make the books of course.

Next post will be the story of our upcoming visit to Bru Na Boinne!