Good Friday: Malahide Castle and Killiney

Although we arrived in our hotel room quite late on Thursday night (it was roughly midnight before we actually settled down to go to bed), we still rose rather early on Friday morning... mainly due to the kids, who popped up as though they had been sleeping for days and had excess energy to spare. In our previous trip to Dublin, we had been in Dublin for part of Good Friday, and knew that many of the shops, stores, and sights would be closed, so we had already decided that today would be a good day to head out of town a bit.

Meandering the streets for breakfast, we were reminded that Europeans as a whole take their holidays seriously, as most everything was closed. Much to my dismay, we ended up eating at, of all places, McDonald's. Dalton was delighted and suggested eating at McDonald's every day. Maybe he can apply for the international McDonald's eating award, having now eaten at McDonald's in the UK, France, Ireland, and the US.

Nonetheless, after our breakfast, we made our way to Connolly Station, where we took the DART to Malahide. Malahide is a little ways north of Dublin, and the main attraction there is Malahide Castle. From the station, you have to walk through a park with rugby fields, a nice wooded area, and a playground. The castle itself has a few interesting points, the main ones being the carved wooden panels in the original drawing room, and the rococo decorations around the ceilings in another room. "Rococo" can be considered baroque gone crazy, although I personally find both baroque and rococo styles to be quite beautiful. After the guided tour of the castle, which lasted about 45 minutes or so, we went back through the park and let the kids play on the playground for a bit, before grabbing a bite to eat in Malahide. Again, our choices were rather limited, but we did find a little place which served up fish and chips for Michelle and me, while the kids had one of their staples: chicken nuggets.

After lunch, we got back on the DART and rode down to Killiney. Both the kids fell asleep on the way, and I was feeling quite drowsy myself. Killiney is famed for a couple of things, but we spent the majority of our time walking the beach, collecting pebbles and stones. The beach is a mix of sand and pebbles, the sand being basically crushed stones. The rocks on the beach are usually smoothed by the tides, and they come in all sorts of colors - red, green, white, clear, purple, and black. They also can be marbled with different colors, and it was neat just to walk the beach and collect the stones. I suppose that it is only fair to also say that we did visit Bono's house while we were there. I don't think he was home, but we did bump into a couple of other U2 fans. The kids really enjoyed the beach, as did I. As evening came on, we headed back into Dublin.

By this time, everyone was getting hungry again, and we found ourselves sitting in Beshoff's for dinner. Beshoff's, another fish and chips joint, is not as well known as Leo Burdock's, but Mich and I had fond memories of eating there the last time we were in Dublin, so in we went. I think I now have enough experience eating fish and chips throughout the past year that I can weigh in as at least a moderate expert. I think Beshoff's is okay, Burdock's is better, but the best fish and chips I've had is Rock and Sole Plaice here in London. Still, the meal was good, and after a long day, we headed back up O'Connell Street to our hotel for some well earned R&R.

Next stop: A cafe formerly waitressed by a rock star before her international stardom

Busy, busy, busy

I think the title adequately sums up our week/weekend. Mich also reminded me that I'm a little behind on filling people in on some of the important stuff that's been going on. So, important stuff first...

On Valentine's Day, which already seems like forever ago, Maggie went over to a friend's house to play. She came back after a few hours with two 50p, and told us that the tooth fairy gave them to her. We, of course, took the 50p's and went to return them, only to find out that apparently they weren't theirs, and they didn't know where Maggie had got them. We quizzed Maggie about this, and discovered that Maggie had lost a tooth while visiting her friend. (It was loose.) Maggie, being the person that she is, wasn't particularly bothered with the fact that she didn't know where the tooth was, but was delighted that the tooth fairy had already given her money. We still don't know where her tooth is, or how she got the money, but the tooth fairy visited again that night.

Work recently has been busy, but as Dalton was out of school this past week on half-term, I managed to squeeze in one holiday on Friday. We headed into London and first, went to Covent Garden and the Build-A-Bear there, so Maggie's bear "Charlie" could get stitched up again. After popping around the corner for take-away from Rock and Sole Plaice, a great little fish and chips shop a few streets from the main plaza, we ate in relative peace behind St. Paul's in Covent Garden. If you make it to London, I highly recommend checking out the Rock & Sole. After that, we went to Kensington Palace, which was the real reason we were in London in the first place. Kensington, as some of you may know, was the childhood home of Queen Victoria, as well as one of the homes of Princess Diana. Maggie got to "ooh" and "aah" over real dresses worn by Princess Diana, so she was happy. The kids also made their own little crowns and listened to tales of Queen Victoria's childhood.

Saturday was the big day for Mich, as we went in to see U2 3D on the largest screen in the UK. Okay, I'll admit that I enjoyed it as well, but obviously not as much as she did.

Sunday, after church, we went back to Kensington Gardens and had a mini-picnic. Afterwards, the kids played on the Princess Diana Memorial Playground, which has a ship, wigwams, and all sorts of other things for the kids to run around on. We also popped by the Kensington Palace Gardens, and then ended up going to the Science Museum as well - mainly because Dalton has a small bladder - although we did wander for an hour or so before heading back home. We'll be going back, I'm sure, as we only made it through part of one floor (out of six).