We took off for a couple of days from Belfast to Dublin to see my nephew Karl, wife Susana and kids Aurora and Alex. It was purely to see them, so there’s not much sightseeing to relate, except that their house in Clontarf, just outside Central Dublin on the estuaries of the Tolka and Wad rivers, is where Bram Stoker was born. Yes, the Bram Stoker of Dracula fame. The house is Georgian, four stories high and on a crescent with its own park, just as you’d see in London or Edinburgh.
The park even has a plaque commemorat- ing Bram’s achievement. Karl and Susie had the place renovated from top to bottom and it was an ernormous project. Now, they have to deal with vampire freaks and Stoker experts showing up asking to look around. By the way, the house is NOT open for public viewing and both the residents and visitors agree that the place has good vibes only so Dracula must, finally, be at rest.
We do nip into Central Dublin for shopping, a poke around and dinner and do the obligatory posing with the statue of Phil Lynott, the singer from the rock band Thin Lizzy (photo somehow mislaid).
Dublin is as mad as ever and we are grateful to leave the car in Clontarf for the entire duration of our visit. Which reminds me, don’t book a car rental via Europcar in Belfast or they’ll charge you GBP90 for taking it over the border to the Republic. Criminal. Dublin does seem a world away from the history of the troubles in the North, but I wonder what will happen once Brexit comes into affect and the border, potentially, becomes “hard” again.
Before I forget, Karl and Susie are key players in the company Foxit which offers end-user, enterprise and developer PDF solutions with global support, so check it out all you techie types.
https://www.foxitsoftware.com
We only had a couple of days before we headed back up North so that’s it, but we couldn’t leave this post without a picture of the charming and precocious Rory and Alex.
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