Animating Apothecary - Perpetrations by Jim Middleton: Post 685 - Ireland Part One - Dublin - Ashford Castle

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Post 685 - Ireland Part One - Dublin - Ashford Castle - Cong and the Wolfhounds

Don't let the sleek lines fool you - this American Airlines jet engine was about ten feet in height, and we had the great luck of having it in our view for just a few moments short of four hours. It was the Friday of the CrowdStrike computer debacle, and we sat in the plane from just past 10pm to 2am. At one point we were getting notification that, if the software couldn't be fixed, we'd all have to unload (it was a full 300+ passenger flight) and get onto another plane. At 2:01am we were in the air. At 3am, we were roused to be fed DINNER, and then four hours later, roused again for BREAKFAST before setting down in Dublin. The delay cost us our first tour - a trip through the streets of Ireland's capital.

The Clayton House - Ballsbridge - was originally a Masonic Orphanage for Girls. Yeah, that certainly sounds like the setup for a Netflix mini-series. Amazingly, it was a well-regarded orphanage, and the converted lodgings were completely un-haunted.

Sadly, the water was a bit recycled in flavor, too. In Ireland, the caps don't complete detach, so you don't lose them when you open the recyclable container. However, it keeps hitting you in the snozzola when you take a drink. I always thought Yeats was thicker than water.

First rural vision of Ireland. Stone walls. It's an art and a profession.

Tiny lots for Irish renters from British landlords. Seems Henry VIII really wanted that divorce and took it personally when Ireland didn't capitulate.

Cong was a quick drive-thru experience, but this is the Cohan Bar from The Quiet Man, and bits of the town are given over to the celebration of that film from 1952, We didn't get off the coach (NEVER bus) because the amazing driver, Milos from Croatia, nudged his behemoth through the narrow one-way streets with scarcely an inch to spare, yet alone a door to open!

Hey, "Animating Apothecary," you know!


And lo! Ashford Castle, complete with moat and golf course.

And every castle must have its Lodge! (image by Richard Ong, fellow tourist from Toronto)

The Associated Lodge is a lovely Irish place - even the floors have freckles

Bathrobes abounding, openfaced showers, and furthermore, heated towel racks.

About to inspect the gardens with the horticulturalist of the family

Odd how, in a country with so much rain, there are so many ornate places to sit

Jacob and Alesha, from Wisconsin, celebrating their honeymoon. Some of the brightest and deepest conversations involved these two. They were also smart enough to bring their own umbrella.

Where there's a rabbit hole...

...there's a RABBIT!

View from the Ashford Castle Lodge site - just above and behind this view is the Wilde Restaurant, named not for Oscar, but for his physician father.

It has been a while since visiting a restaurant where waiters wear gloves to pour my tea. Or was it a Guinness? Regardless, the Wilde Restaurant was a wonderful bit of pampering after a long flight and neck-bending twist through nearby Cong in our tour bus. It is in the Ashford Castle complex, and we were seated in the same window view shown in its online photographs. The cod was great, the pasta fresh and savory, but the "veg" course - a small saucepan of root vegetables - was a searing burst of flavor to these displaced Midwesterners taste buds.

Here are the ingredients to the little saucepan containing that evening's "veg" course: butternut squash, parsnips, carrots, and turnips, with butter/milk/cream to make it buttery/milky/creamy, with a teeny dash of ginger. Your mouth will depart for Nirvana moments after that. Try to catch the lip gloss before it leaves.