Making a Splash
Wednesday, 3/7
Housemate and I both slept well past breakfast on Wednesday, and we ventured out of a mind to get something to eat on the way to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where we would meet our Viking Splash tour. Viking splash is listed in the Lonely Planet “Best of Dublin” guide as the city’s kookiest tour, and as enjoyable as it was, I am first compelled to mention the cafe where we had lunch.
Usually, when I’m visitng a city with a lot of good restaurants, I like to try as many as possible. Queen of Tarts is the only place in Dublin that I exempted from my “one visit per restaurant” policy. It’s directly across the street from the pedestrian entrance to Dublin Castle (more on that later), and has the quintessential European Cafe look going; tiny space with commensurately small tables, baskets of fresh fruit that double as storage and decor; mismatched vintage-look (or possible vintage) china, and a counter and display case packed full of more sweets and savories than I could count, all of which made decision-making a challenge. Lunch for me was a spinach, brie, and pine nut tart, which came with mixed greens and foccacia. Housemate had a chicken and stuffing sandwich on focaccia, also with mixed greens. If the weather had been warmer, we’d probably have gotten takeout—as did a steady stream of people—but I was glad to get out of the wind. One look at the dessert menu convinced me that we were stopping in for tea on our way back to the hotel, which is exactly what we did. I had a plum tart (which I attempted to simulate today; recipe follows) with fresh whipped cream, and housemate had the “rustic” apple tart. Both were wonderful, and I particularly liked the fact that neither one was overly sweet. The fruit took center stage, as is, I think appropriate. Note that if you’re fortunate enough to be going there, they don’t take cards, so make sure you’ve got cash.
Fortfied, we ventured back out. We had plenty of time to enjoy the walk, and we lingered in the general vicinity of Christ Church long enough to see the chapter house ruins, the medieval “gerbil tube” to the bishop’s palace, and photograph same. From there, we made our way over to St. Patrick’s cathderal, which conveniently enough, is located right next to St. Patrick’s park. Like so much of Dublin, the park has a Georgian look to it, with one of Dublin’s millenium projects along the eastern side. This particular project blends very nicely with the rest of the park, being a red brick wall with large, arched niches that hold plaques commemorating famous Irish writers and poets. We didn’t go into either Christ Church or St. Patrick’s cathedrals; generally I don’t like to treat a functioning house of worship as just another tourist attraction. The one exception I made was to go into St. MArk’s in Venice, and while it was gorgeous, I felt quite uncomfortable intruding upon those who were there for, shall we say, business rather than pleasure. We had plenty of time to lounge around the park, watching pigeons and a Spanish middle school tour group, before our tour.
The tour itself is aboard a WWII-era amphibous vehicle, and ours was led by a lovely, brilliantly red-haired young lady in Viking get-up that I suspect is far more colorful than the original. She also encouraged us to perform a Viking roar at unsuspecting passers-by, particularly those absorbed in cell-phone conversations. Lynne the Red and Jimmy the Driver started out taking us past the Marsh Library, which is said to haunted by the ghost of founder Narcissus Marsh, still looking for the note his daughter left explaining why she was out past curfew (busy getting married to her sailor boyfriend). From there, we went past Christ Church (Ireland’s oldest Cathedral) and the bishop’s palace, which is now home to Dublinia. From there, we passed a large government office complex built atop one of Dublin’s main Viking-era archeaological sites. This was apparently a very unpopular decision, because in the single year the archaeologists had with the site, they excavated over a million artifacts. From there, we crossed the Liffey and followed the road along the river to O’Connell Street, where we caught a glimpse of Daniel O’Connell and the Spire of Dublin. The Spire is one of the most expensive and least popular of Dublin’s millenium projects, and is apparently referred to as the Stiletto in the Ghetto, among other things. We crossed back into the southside at O’Connell Street, via one of the main vehicle bridge. We saw the Hugenot cemetary, which is the final resting place of over 600 people and not much bigger than my living room. I’m not sure how they all fit, but there are some questions one simply does not ask. Other sites on the tour are Merrion Square (which we went to on Saturday), Trinity College and the Bank of Ireland, which is in the building that held the Irish Parliament before 1800. We also saw Leinster House, the current home of the Irish Parliament, where according to Lynne, they make tea. (”I was going to say ‘decisions,’ but they keep changing their minds, don’t they?”) An interesting thing about Leinster House, as well as the Taoiseach’s (head of state’s; currently Bertie Ahern) residence, is that they’re simply tucked into one of the southside neighborhoods, amongst museums and libraries, and while I’m sure security is present, it’s quite unobtrusive. From the more central part of Dublin, we headed out into the Beggar’s Bush area, and into the Grand Canal Docklands. We went past Dublin’s most expensive apartments and U2’s recording studio. (According to my Lonely Planet Guide, published in 2003, the studio is “soon to be demolished,” but I expect that by now someone has gotten it declared a national cultural treasure or somesuch, because it is still standing.) Overall, I highly recommend the tour, not so much because it’s amazingly kooky (it isn’t, or at least not by my admittedly-skewed standards) but because you get to see a good bit of the city, and it doesn’t take itself seriously.
After the tour, we headed back to the hotel, stopping at Queen of Tarts for tea, and then took a long nap. Dinner was at Gasworks, which is the restaurant attached to the hotel we stayed in. The place was absolutely packed because they were having what the bartender called a “quiz night”, so they were kind enough to serve us in the much-quieter hotel lobby. Panini sandwiches seem to enjoy great popularity in Ireland, as they were on a great many menus. I decided on a roasted-vegetable-and-brie version, with a Guiness, and Housemate went totally trad with fish and chips (also very tasty).
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