A Drive Outside of Dublin

 This morning we board our sprinter van to take a look outside Dublin.  Our first stop was the the Botanic Gardens and the Glasnevin cemetery. The gardens were quite beautiful and very large.  I’m sure we could have spent many hours taken plant photos but we had other things on our agenda.  Connected to the gardens was a very large cemetery.  There was quite a span of time covered by the cemetery and it shows with the sheer number of tombstones that were practically on top of each other.  Of course it was predominantly Irish names that you would have been familiar with: O’Conner, McNally, etc.. At the very back was the section where the Catholic priests, bishops, and archbishops are interred. 







After a little drive we arrived at the fishing village of Howth.  This is a decent size port with lots of boats both fishing a pleasure docked here.  We talked to a fisherman that was sorting through his traps and he was currently fishing for whelk.  These looked like very big snails.  We walked around the docks for awhile and also saw some seals in the bay.  They would surface occasionally, probably looking for fish handouts.








One side of the docks was lined with small fish restaurants.  I’m sure you couldn’t go wrong with any of them but we had a reservation at Octopussy.  The food was extremely fresh with some preparations outside of fish and chips (although those were on the menu).  After lunch we walked to the end of the docks to take pictures of the lighthouse.  

We went a little ways to a path up a steep hill so we could get a better view of the town and more importantly the harbor.  The fog was rolling in over a distance island which made for great photography.  There were various boats out for the afternoon along with a lone fisherman on the rocks below.




After a 45 minute drive back we had a few minutes to refresh in our rooms before our final activity of the day.  We had a lovely model for the next hour.  There was a colorful, if a little sketchy, alley behind our hotel where we set up.  She was really very lovely and I think we all got some great photos.  






Dinner tonight was in the hotel since we had an early start tomorrow to head out west.

Tomorrow: Into the country

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