My goodness, the deliciousness just didn't stop at our B&B...Moira ensured we were well-fed on our last day at Anam Cara. This morning started with a rasher of bacon, asparagus from the garden, Irish cheeses and tomato on soda bread, and the most exciting slice of honeydew melon we've ever seen.
The happy honeymooners say farewell to their jolly host, Moira. She was an incredible innkeeper and showed us amazing hospitality. By far, the most personalized and welcoming stay we had on our trip...and perhaps in all of our Team CocoBri travels. <3
We’d heard it was snowing in Iowa at this point in our journey, but meanwhile the signs of spring were everywhere in Ireland!
We had seen signs for Kiltrea Pottery as we left our HQ each morning for an adventure. We had to take a detour due to the recent heavy rains, but eventually made it to the shop. The pottery was gorgeous, and we would have loved a set of large pots for our garden if we owned a shipping company, but settled on two pieces that were more international travel friendly - a garlic keeper and tea canister. Conveniently, the garlic keeper fit into the tea canister - but we don't recommend putting garlic in your tea!
Next it was time to journey back north to Dublin. We had read about Avoca Handweavers and there are several Avoca stores in Ireland. We found our way to the original mill in Avoca Village, co. Wicklow, and had a light lunch. Brian tried a nut loaf (go ahead and giggle) and Coco decided a piece of double chocolate cake would hit the spot.
A fun pastime during our trip was reading about the local history, and imagining the conversations that had happened in these places. "George, did you hear the American colonies say they want to be independent?"
A quintessential shot of the mill...
Again, we found another benefit of traveling by two, rather than on a tour bus, is that we got private tours of facilities. The weaver "on duty" was a quiet gentleman busy with the day's orders, but answered our questions and even ran the manual, 1700's-era flying-shuttle loom for us. We were mesmerized by the shuttling of the...shuttle.
The heart of the operation were these huge mechanical looms, which still get set up by hand. Here is where they produce all of the textiles that Avoca weaves today using the brilliant dyes that the Wynne sisters developed nearly 100 years ago.
A reference sample of the many brilliant dyed-wool colors that Avoca is still producing today.
We made it to our final city of this trip, Dublin, in the afternoon and went for a walk along the many bridges that cross the River Liffey. Our first evening there was cool and calm, but showed a hint of the sunny days that would follow. The riverbank looks so high because we were there near low tide; high tide is about 10 feet further up on the walls.
For dinner we headed to our long-held reservations at The Church Bar & Restaurant, formerly St. Mary’s Church of Ireland until it closed in 1964. It reopened 12 years ago after an impressive historic restoration.
Brian taking a photo of Colleen who had taken a photo of Brian at our table in The Gallery Restaurant, on the upper level.
Our meal was amazing, so much so that we didn't get photos of what we had... and we were also a little tired at the end of this day of traveling.
One of the clever details of the restoration at The Church is the elevator that was added to allow access to the Gallery level. Instead of trying to squeeze one into the interior and losing details there, or gluing it onto the outside and hoping no one would notice, they created a new tower outside as if this church has featured a round tower. It's a modern/ancient striking design on its own, and only the walkway interferes with the view of the historic church it connects to.
The Irish sunset and soft light made us take even more honey woo selfies and "senior pictures."
One of Brian's favorite photos of the trip!
...and one of Coco's favorites.
We splurged and stayed at the very posh Shelbourne Dublin hotel on St Stephen's Green at the end of our trip, with some help from Coco's Mariott points that made us feel like we won the lottery with a free night! It was a fantastic location for our base of exploring Dublin on a tight schedule (pronounced shed-ju-uhl).