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Our son, Matt, is in his second year at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. He was accepted for their semester abroad
program in Greystones, Ireland for this semester, and Rick and I used the second half of our February vacation week to visit
him.
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| Gail and Matt in Greystone the evening of our arrival. |
Since we are living in Europe, it seemed like it would be such an easy hop over to Dublin to see Matt. It ended up being
quite a day of traveling! We took a bus from our home in Comano to the train station, a train to the central station in Milan,
a taxi to Linate airport, AerLingus to Dublin, a bus to downtown Dublin, and finally a 50 minute train ride to Greystones,
in County Wicklow, south of Dublin.
But it was wonderful to see Matt! We hadn't see him since August 2nd when he dropped us off at the airport
in Chicago. It was a beautiful, mild evening in Greystones, and the three of us went out to eat at a local pub.
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| Some of the Taylor group in St. Stephen's Green, Dublin |
On Friday morning Rick and I were able to accompany the group to an outing to Trinity College in downtown Dublin to view
the Book of Kells. The book of Kells is the first 4 gospels handwritten by monks around the 8th century. The edges
of the pages are intricately decorated with the intertwining designs that has become know as Celtic design. It is really just
beautiful to see!
Then we went to a local museum for the students to learn about recent Irish history. The rest of the day was ours to
do as we pleased.
Matt's friend Brad came with us as we enjoyed the many shops in downtown Dublin. We were amazed at how cheap the prices
were! Better than at the Italian markets in Italy. This was Rick's first time in Dublin, and he found it very beautiful -
he really loved the city! Later in the day we enjoyed a rest at a pub. It's wonderful now in Ireland because there is no smoking
allowed anywhere inside, so we could enjoy any pub without smoke!
In the evening, Matt was in the mood for Chinese food, so the four of us enjoyed a nice meal together in Dublin before
returning to Greystones.
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| Gail, Matt, and Brad on Grafton Street, Dublin |
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| Rick, Gail, and Matt in the area of Dublin called Temple Bar |
Saturday morning we woke up to very windy weather. There were on and off light showers, and Rick and I were surprised
to see this beautiful rainbow that morning right outside our Bed and Breakfast in Greystones. We could see the rainbow from
end to end (but it was too big to capture completely in a picture.) It was awesome!
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| Rainbow in Greystones |
For Saturday we went with the school group to Powerscourt estate, which used to be private but is now open to the public.
The views are beautiful and there are wonderful gardens to stroll about in. Although it looks beautiful and peaceful in the
photo, it was actually a very cold and VERY windy day. There were gale force winds from the north pole and on and off scattered
showers. It was quite tiring to be outside in that wind! And since we had taken a couple of buses there, we had to walk back
to the nearest town to catch the bus back. On our way back we stopped in the town of Bray, which is next to Greystones, and
shopped around their downtown area for a while before heading back to Greystones.
That evening Rick took me to dinner in Greystones at an adorable cozy restaurant called the Hungry Monk, for an
early Valentine's dinner. Matt ate with the others at his school.
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| View from Powerscourt estate |
Sunday turned out to be an even windier day! In the morning we went with Matt to a local church in Greystones which happened
to be a Willowcreek Association church! It was very refreshing to go to a good service - something we have missed immensely
in Switzerland.
Our afternoon was spent mostly in travel trying to get downtown. Then we had dinner with Matt at a pub, and after sending
Matt back to Greystones on the train, it took Rick and I two hours to try and get to our hotel near the airport! We stayed
there for our last night since we had a 7:20 am flight back to Milan on Monday, and Greystones was too far to try and catch
that so early in the morning. But all in all we had a wonderful time with Matt!
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