Monday

Frau G and I sailed from NYC to South Hampton on the Queen Mary II. We had sailed on it once before, but from South Hampton to NYC. It’s an old. classy ship. Not at all like the floating Disney Lands they have today. It’s a good way to go to Europe – no jet lag. We were a week at sea and then we took a train to Holyhead, stayed over night, then caught the ferry to Dublin.

We stayed in the Temple Bar neighborhood, right near the Ha’ Penny Bridge. It’s called the Ha’ Penny Bridge because when they built it in 1816 it cost a ha’ penny to cross it.

Here’s the bridge at night:

 That’s the old part of Dublin where just about every fourth door is a pub. The first afternoon and evening we sat at the Ha’ Penny Bridge Inn, and I tried just about every beer they had on tap. Count ’em.

Then the Irish band showed up. They were from Sarasota, 15 miles from where I live. Here they are singing Folsom Prison Blues..

Bar tab was 99 euros. The nine days we were there we hit a lot of pubs.

This next one was the best…

It was late, and we stopped in for a last beer. The MC came up from the downstairs and said there was a free comedy show. So we went downstairs. It was packed, mainly with Temple University students. (I’ll post pics of Temple tomorrow)  We were the only old people there and Americans ta’ boot. There were six stand-up comics. The first was the MC. He mentioned something about wanking, and Frau G says “What does that mean?” That brought the house down. It didn’t stop. She was the hit of the show all night long.

More tomorrow.

Go back to December 1990. President Bush is facing another global crisis!