Today was another girls adventure day. Shane has 2 more days of 'work' to do in Dublin (today and tomorrow) so the 3 of us headed out reasonably early (before 10 - we are now acclimatised and are getting up at 730am...kids are still not going to sleep until 830pm - it is just too light to even consider sleeping before then - and even then we have to close all the blinds to try and convince them it is getting dark outside!
The day was bright and sunny so I thought we would jump on the dart and head down the coast ('dart' stands for Dublin Area Rapid Transport I learnt the other day - overhead it when one of those Viking Splash buses drove past me in town)....
The Viking Splash bus....I think we will be donning the helmets on Wednesday....
The 'dart' from Landsdowne Rd station
The train/dart ride down to Bray was very scenic. It took about 45 minutes but ran all the way along the coastline. Since we left after peak-hour we had the carriage mostly to ourselves.
The view from the dart as we travelled down the coast....
Once we arrived at Bray we headed straight to the 'beach' and the walkway that runs along it.
The sun was shining intermittently....it is amazing how much the temperature drops when the sun goes behind a cloud - it was jackets on/jackets off/jackets on depending on what the clouds were doing. I was going to take the girls to the sea-life centre but they decided they would rather just play on the 'sand' and collect 'shells' - I am glad they didn't want to make a sandcastle as this would have been pretty difficult!!
The lifeguards were on duty....watching over the seagulls and the 4 people I saw actually IN the water.
I was amused to see that the red and yellow flags basically were at each end of the beach....obviously not a dangerous current today - and I think the lifeguards knew there wouldn't be many people to have to watch over today.
The lifeguard 'tower'.....it's no Baywatch!!!!
One thing I have noticed in Ireland - and this is just because we have come from America where security is EXTREME (I am glad I don't have to take my shoes off in the airport anymore!)...is how trusting the Irish are. In a pub you order at the bar and they bring your drink to your table - but you don't pay until you leave when they ask you "what was it you had?".....it's very tempting to say "just a glass of lemonade" - the same at restaurants....but my conscience insists I tell the truth. I can't imagine what you'd say at the end of a big night when you can't remember how many drinks you had!!!
In America you couldn't get into ANYTHING without a security screening (x-rays of bags, metal detectors, the lot). I am sure this has all increased due to September 11 but I wonder when it will end. At one point we just wanted to get into a building to let Eloise use the toilet (by this point she was almost hysterical needing to 'go').....but we still had to do the metal detector, bag screening , etc.....
Not sure I can remember anytime my bags or anything were checked since arriving in Ireland.
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