Last days in New York

It's been some time since my last post - I'll have to try to be brief.

On Monday morning, 26 September, we dropped into Bernstein’s for breakfast and had a nice chat to the man on the till. He gave me some pointers on what we should order at Bernsteins’ (a little late) and then we strolled up 70th St to Park Ave only to find that the Museum we wanted to visit was closed on Mondays. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.  I remembered that the Guggenheim is closed on Thursdays so assumed it would be open – and it was.  There was an exhibition by a Korean artist and let’s just say “each to his own” when it comes to taste in art. Here is a sample of his work .  However, what was very impressive were the Kandisky paintings.  

Overall, I was disappointed with the museum but Peter persevered  and found  some Monet, Rembrandt, van Gogh and Picasso!  I was a little p…’d off when I found out after we left!

Mary & friend

That afternoon, on Barb’s recommendation, we did a three hour cruise around the island of Manhatten. Definitely recommend this as it gives one the opportunity to see NY from a totally different viewpoint, i.e. from the water!  The man providing the commentary was very informative and the weather was perfect.

New World Trade Centre

 

Brooklyn Bridge 

Last day in New York we spent a few hours at the Frick Museum .  It is in what was the Frick family home New York home (they had a larger summer residence in New England) where they spent June to September.  They would move their substantial art collection to the residence each summer.  It was a definite highlight of our New York experience and we would highly recommend it (it was also on Hara’s ‘highly recommend’ list which can be found at:  http://www.frick.org/information/

Hara put us in contact with a driver who would collect us from the apartment and drive us to the airport (at $US59 quite expensive but worth it).  All was looking well for departing JFK on time until the Captain advised us of a ‘short delay’ that ended up being two hours. As we only had two hours connection time between Heathrow and Dublin, we were concerned that we may lose a day in Dublin.  We actually made up time and arrived about 50 mins before our plane was due to depart. However, as we had to get through customs and security, we missed our connection but only had to wait an hour for the next flight.  

We had basically had a sleepless night and when we arrived at the Academy Hotel in Dublin were feeling pretty exhausted. However, that didn't stop us venturing out to explore the city and, more important, find a pub with some food and music.  We found just that at Gogardy's Pub in the middle of the Temple Bar area. There were two men performing and, as it was quite early we got excellent seats. When  they sang one Christy Moore song, I requested another and, believe it or not, the only other one they perform was the one I was going to request - Ride On. What I didn't know is that it isn't about the hore but two brothers, one who joins the IRA and one who doesn't. 

We got talking to a friendly couple from Canada who had just returned from the trip we were planning. It was a brilliant night.

Thursday, 29th Sept - we joined a three hour walking tour of Dublin and, as there were only four in our group, we got to learn a lot of things.  A highlight was a statue of Oscar Wilde which, looking from one side he looks as if he's smirking but looking from the other side, he looks quite pensive. Unfortunately we didn't take a photo.  

Last time we were in Dublin I was very keen to go to The Cobblerstone, a small put out at Smithfield. Anyway, this time I dug my heels in and we caught the tram out. First, we had dinner at a little Italian restaurant - my pasta & shellfish was lovely, Peter's steak was very average. We then went to the pub to 'The Back Room' where performances are held. What a night! As we walked in we met a man and his son, Porag (sic?). We had a lovely chat with them and they invited us to join them. Porag, about 25-30,  is a teacher and both of them are right into music.  The performers were a group of tree men, one a traveller who played the tin whistle beautifully - the best I've every heard. The other two played guitar and the bodhrán. The lead was moving his hands so fast, you couldn't see the bodhrán stick! It's hard to explain the atmosphere in the place. All appeared to know one another (this pub is not on the tourist map). We met the three members of the band who played nearly all their own material. They were then joined by different people, including a young girl with an angelic voice.  When it was time to leave, our two new friends, who didn't drink, insisted on giving us a lift back to our hotel. True Irish hospitality!

Friday, 30th - last day in Dublin so we did the hop on, hop off bus.

We then caught a cab from the hotel to pick up our hire car.  After telling us a number of jokes, we happened to mention that one of the places we wanted to visit was Skibbereen in the south west of Ireland. He told us that his father, Jim, who died two years ago, sang a ballad about Skibbereen and would we like him to sing it? Would we what! So, here we are, driving through the streets of Dublin, with our cab driver singing this sad ballad to us. When he finished, he looked out the window and said, "that was for you Jim". OMG!

We collected our little car and headed out of Dublin. What I didn't take into account was that, even in Dublin, 4.30 pm on a Friday afternoon isn't the best time to be leaving the city. It seemed to take forever to get out.  We stayed the night in our first B and B in the town of Wicklow.  We had a view of the Irish Sea, that is, through the mist.  Beautiful actually.

Rosie, our host, recommended a little restaurant down the road. The food was superb. Peter had crab claws which had been partly shelled and caught earlier that morning. He followed that with baked salmon. I had a huge steak which was cooked perfectly.

It is now Saturday morning and we are about to head of to we're not sure. Probably in the direction of Glendalough and then possibly onto Kilkenny.  We'll see - it's all part of the fun, isn't it.