Happy Thanksgiving! We are very grateful for the stay we had in Derry the last few days. We had multiple pleasant interactions with Irish people, and our hosts at our B and B were superb. We’ve had good health so far on the trip, and the weather has been much better than the days of solid rain we had seen in the forecast when coming to Ireland. So far, so good. But we’re not done yet!
We left Derry late in the morning and headed south toward Dublin. After a three-hour drive and a last-minute detour due to a closed bridge, we arrived at the Battle of the Boyne visitors’ center. As the Battle of the Boyne continued the story we saw beginning with the siege of Derry, I thought it would be a good sight to visit. We needed something that we could see in a couple of hours and that was close to Dublin, and Boyne fit the bill. Plus, Meredith and I hadn’t seen it on our last trip to the valley a year and a half ago, so it was new to all of us.
The visitors’ center is a small, but well-done, presentation of a very important battle about which I hadn’t known much of anything. The deposed Catholic king of England, James II, got French support to land troops in southern Ireland. France was hoping England would get tied up and leave France alone to go conquer things. William of Orange, a Protestant king of England who had deposed James II with the approval of Parliament, arrived in the north of Ireland with his troops. The two forces met at the Boyne River, and after William’s near brush with death from a very near miss of a cannon, William of Orange’s troops beat James’ army, and so Catholic Ireland lost an ally, and France had to deal with England messing around on the continent.
We petted a kitty outside the cafe (so cute) and then ate lunch before going into the center. The map room was offline, so that was a little disappointing, since I love an animated light map. But there was a fifteen-minute film explaining the events of the day, and a docent went outside with us to point out important places from the main battle. We walked along one path to a marker explaining where a small town had been, and then went back to the car another way.
Since we had a little time, I decided to try to squeeze in seeing a ruined abbey that was nearby. We had to go around the same under-repair bridge, so it took a bit longer than it should have, and when we finally found it in a cow field, there was a fence around it with the gates zip-tied shut. Not my finest tour-leader moment.
We headed off to the Dublin Airport to return our car and meet up with our friend Dubbs. Dubbs is spending a year or more studying in England, and she was kind enough to fly over to Dublin to spend a couple of days with us. We returned the car with no issues, and Dubbs met up with us after only a few minutes of our waiting. Since there were five of us, we took a taxi into Dublin to our hotel. It was much easier than dealing with a bus and walking while dealing with luggage.
Once we dumped the luggage, we walked over to the Temple Bar area, which is a happening place for bars and food. We finally found a quiet place next to a hotel where we could eat and still talk, and we got caught up some on Dubbs’ adventures of late. After supper, we walked to Grafton Street (with a quick detour to get a photo op with the statue of Molly Malone of Irish song fame), which is the main shopping street of Dublin, because we were pretty sure it would be all lit up with pretty lights. It was. We walked the length of the street and then headed back home to the hotel.
It’s been good to spend time with Sydney and Julia, and it was fun to add Dubbs to the mix, and Meredith, of course, is my favorite travel companion. I’m so very thankful that I have quality people in my life.