Knock on Holy Thursday

We just arrived in Dublin. The weather has been really bad all day. We spent a couple of hours at the Knock Shrine. I can't explain the feeling that I had there.

We are having trouble with the wireless here at the hotel. I had to come down stairs to put yesterday's in. I am going to write more and then add some pictures to the previous blogs. I also just realized that one of my posts earlier this week was saved and not posted so please go back a bit to see the previous ones.

At Knock, I got Holy Water and spent some time in the chapel. I also got Cameron a rosary and prayer book from the Shrine for his First Holy Communion and Confirmation in May. I said a special prayer for Phil and am bringing him some Holy Water!

After going to Knock, I have many questions for my aunt Teresa about dates and times when our great grandmother came to the United States. It is hard to explain, but I really felt a connection there. I would like to come back again and spend more time in this area. It is beautiful. Westport, where we stayed last night, is a small town, but very busy and very beautiful. The pub where we ate was all locals and that was really fun.

Traveling anywhere in Ireland isn't very far in terms of miles, but the roads make things take so much longer. Today as we traveled across Ireland, there are many new roads being built and we were on a "divided highway" for much of the time.

We are staying in the heart of downtown Dublin tonight and tomorrow night. We walked a long way to find a place to eat tonight. There were many places around, but we walked to see what was available. Tomorrow is Good Friday and all of the pubs and restaurants and everything else will be closed. The desk clerk told me that we would have to make reservations to eat somewhere. I checked with the hotel "pub" and they are open. She did say that all of the tourist attractions would be open. I don't really have much I want to see tomorrow. I do want to go to Trinity College and see the Book of Kells.

Both Patrick and I are really tired tonight, but it is a good tired. We don't have to get up and go tomorrow as we are in this hotel for a couple of days. It will be nice not to have to rush in the morning.

This whole week has been an incredible experience. I definitely want to come back and spend some quality time in a few places. I thank Patrick for taking me here!!