Where in the world...?

Can you guess where I've been for the past few days?

We flew into here:

Where we saw signs written in English and another, unfamiliar, language:

And there's a castle right in the middle of the city:

Have you guessed yet? Do you need more clues?

Well, there are lots of drinking establishments:

Could be anywhere, you say?

We were in Dublin, Ireland!

And while it may seem a bit indulgent to take a vacation from our vacation in Paris, it sure was nice to get away from all the people and the noise for a couple of days.

We saw so many neat things:

Sand sculptures with a Celtic theme at Dublin Castle.

And Churches. There are always lots of churches to see.

Christ Church

St. Audoen's Church (the oldest in Dublin, built between 1181 and 1212)

And St. Patrick's (of course)

We had wonderful fish and chips for dinner.

We went on a Ghost Bus Tour.

This fellow rode along with us

Our guide

Grave at St. Kevin's (formerly a graveyard, now a park)

Tombstones from unclaimed graves, which are now propping up the structure of the old church

We went to Trinity College (incorporated in 1592).

This is a statue of Edmund Burke

Other famous alumni include Jonathan Swift, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, and Samuel Beckett

The Book of Kells, an illuminated book of the Gospels written in Latin, is housed at Trinity College

We did a lot of walking around town and there are a lot of statues of famous people (some more famous than others, apparently, since I was not familiar with many of them). Check out this very interesting story about Molly Malone, who is the subject of the statue in the photo below.

We also went to the Guinness Storehouse to see where world-famous Guinness is made.

Last night, we went out for dinner at the Arlington Hotel, where there was Irish music and dancing along with a three-course meal. The meal was excellent - so good, in fact, that I forgot to take photos before I tucked in.

These three played and sang Irish folk songs for an hour.

Then the Irish dancers came onstage.

It was a wonderful time! I'm trying to convince Mr. P to make the trip with me, maybe in a couple of years. I'd love to go to England (and see all my relatives) as well as Ireland and Scotland, since both of us have roots in the British Isles. I'll keep working on him.

We have only two more days left in Paris. Two days to clean up all the loose ends and do/see the things we haven't yet done/seen. Both Sandi and I are a little museum-ed out (no kidding), and we've seen enough churches to last a lifetime. But, we do have a couple of activities planned for Friday and Saturday, so stay tuned. I'll be back with a full report!