“Interior, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin” — Looking down the length of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland.
I have recently shared a lot of photographs from Scotland, where we spent almost two weeks in May. But that was not the extent of our trip — in all, we were “on the road” for six weeks, also visiting Ireland and England. Ireland was next on our agenda after we departed Scotland, and we had a bit more than a week there. This time we concentrated on cities, quite a contrast with our rural adventures in Scotland. Our first stop was the marvelous city of Dublin.
“Kirk of St. Nicholas” — Black doors and entry arch, Kirk of St. Nicholas, Aberdeen.
There is a bit of a story about our May visit to Aberdeen, after our northwest Scotland loop and before we flew to Ireland. Patty had been to Aberdeen decades ago for a music festival, when she was on an international orchestra tour, and I think she has always wanted to revisit this place. In addition, it seemed like a good place to enjoy a couple of slow days before embarking on the rest of our six-week trip through Scotland, Ireland, and England. So we had no big plans, and on this day we simply headed off on a “random walk.”
“Cubist Wall” — A wall of rectangles and colors, Cork, Ireland.
When we travel we like to combine the new with the familiar. That was true on our recent trip — the Scotland portion was an extension of the familiar, and Ireland was new to us. That’s right, this was our first visit to the Republic of Ireland. We know there is much, much more to Ireland than we could see in a week, but on this trip we focused on three cities: Dublin, Galway, and Cork. This photograph comes from Cork.
“Eilean Donan Castle” — Eilean Donan Castle, on the inland sea near Isle of Skye
We have been traveling. A week ago we returned from a six-week visit to the British Isles — a couple of weeks in Scotland, a bit more than a week in Ireland, a one-week walk in the Cotswolds, and then some time in English cities. The photograph comes from near the start of the trip, just before we arrived on the Isle of Skye. We paused at the Eilean Donan Castle along the inland sea before crossing to the island. It was a welcome break on my first day of driving on left side of the road!
