Trip to Dublin 23-26 June 2014

From Oxford, we caught a train to Gatwick Airport which is a South-West of London and flew out to Dublin. South Africans don't need a visa for Dublin so we didn't go through the visa/passport check. At the boarding gate to my horror we realised that our boarding passes needed to be stamped at passport control so we dashed back. The man at the Airport desk said that Ryanair officials would come through to take us back out to the entrance. When they eventually came they said that they could have actually stamped it at the boarding gate but now the plane had already left. We had to buy new tickets (it cost 110 pounds each, even though our original return ticket was 80 pounds each!) and go through security again.
So four hours later, we eventually arrived at the Dublin airport. The public transport was very efficient. Airlink (government owned which also do hop on hop off tours) offers visitors a buss service to/from the airport into the city (about 20min) including a 2 day hop on hop off tour for 19 euro.

We stayed at Cassidys Hotel along O'Connell Street. It was a nice old hotel close to the main attractions. Since we arrived late, we decided to have dinner at the hotel which was very delicious.

On Thursday, we went on the city tour bus and hopped off at Trinity College.

We walked to Merrion Square where there was a statue of Oscar Wilde. Apparently he is the only statue in colour and he faces the building where he grew up. Oscar Wilde was a very colourful character in real life too.

We went to the National Library of Ireland as there was a WB Yeats exhibition, which Athol is a fan of. It was a great audio visual exhibition of the great writer. Ireland is very proud of its writers, there were even 3 noble prize winners for literature.

 Where the president lives

We hopped back onto the bus and it took us around to see the Zoo (there are apparently many deer there), Guiness, the Jameson Distillery, etc. We stopped by Blue Apple for a Chai Latte and a snack. For supper we ate at Oasis Cafe in Smithfield, a slightly dodgy area but a very nice, cheap restaurant with very good food. It was raining so we caught a cab back home.

On Friday, I had booked a tour to Newgrange (ancient heritage site just out of Dublin). We waited outside the Gresham Hotel at 11am but no bus came. Eventually a tour guide told us that there weren't any tours that day. Nobody had told us :( We were looking forward to the tour. Anyway, we had a day to explore Dublin. We had a coffee and hot chocolate at a gelato shop along O'Connell Street and then caught the tour bus to Grafton Street. We got some sandwiches at M&S and ate at St Stephan's Green - a lovely park. We saw a Tagore and  Yeats memorial. Athol was inspired to write a poem about the WB Yeats statue.
There was even a children's orchestra playing classic music during lunch time.

After lunch, Athol wanted to go to the Marsh Library so I took the Docks Tours. It was a 30 min tour which took us around the docks. We stopped at the U2 Graffiti Wall, this was apparently where the band recorded some albums.

For supper we met up with one of my fold varsity friends at a Japanese/Korean restaurant just around the corner from our Hotel, which was very nice. After supper we took a stroll down to the Liffey River.

I like Dublin, it is a nice colourful city with diverse people.




  

Oxford 23-25 June 2014

From Stratford-upon-Avon we caught the train to Oxford via Banbury, which was about a 1.5 hour trip.

Walking out of the train station we saw a large statue of a bull.... there was no name or plaque on it. Athol is a big fan of bulls, in his younger years, others called him "Bull".

We then walked to our guesthouse which was called White House View Guesthouse just off Abdington Street, it was about a 20 min walk from the station.

After checking in, we decided to walk into the city centre. We passed the Thames River (yes the very same river which is connected to London!). It is a very small city but busy around peak times. We had lunch at Cafe Loco, a Alice in wonderland themed cafe. There was a shop next door called Lewis Carroll's Alice shop.

We saw Christ Church College which was very grand. There are many Oxford Colleges, probably over 40 and each of them as grand as the next. We sat on a bench for a while just watching the cars and people go by. I pointed out a "bull" on some water sign which I kept seeing. Then it occurred to us, it was an Ox! After all we are in Oxford! :) So the "bull" which we had seen at the station was in fact meant to be an Ox. Technically an Ox is just a castrated bull. So it all made sense now :)

On our way back to the guesthouse, we found a footpath (or should I say cycle path!) along the river so there a while and watched the rowers practice. People also park their canal boats there.

We had supper at the White House Pub, which was a little dingy but I guess most pubs are :) we even did a crossword. We have a crossword book which we take on all our travels and we do at least one wherever we go. We write in the date and comments depending on where we are. Coincidentally, we got all the answers right in the crossword - I guess that we are just smarter in Oxford ;)

On the Tuesday, we wandered back into the city centre and saw a lot more of the Colleges. We had bought some fruit and ate it in the Christ Church College Park. The building in Oxford re so impressive! We walked past the Botanical Gardens, the one entrance had a grand ancient arch with a little maze garden outside.

We wandered around the city. There was a covered market along High Street, we stopped by a cafe called Brothers for lunch. The sandwiches were huge. We saw the Bodleian Library which was a grand round building.

We walked past some of the places which Athol had been to on previous visits. This was my first visit to Oxford.

Oxford is a lovely, academic city. There was even a small mall and Cornmarket street is a closed pedestrian street for shoppers.

The Randolph Hotel, where Athol stayed once for a conference

Postboxes in Oxford

  Christ Church