St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, July 2, 2010

And so, this will be our last blog post from the road, which we write from a shady bench in the park in Dublin.

We spent our last day in Spain wandering through Retiro, the big park in the center of Madrid, playing cards and stopping for the occasional beer. There was a Metro strike going on, which cost us a few extra Euros to take a cab to the park. The day was really spent anticipating the World Cup showdown between Spain and Portagal—the Spanish love their team, so we figured it would be a hoot to watch it with a crowd of enthused fans. Was it ever…

The hotel we were staying in had a nice lobby bar, and we considered watching it there. But they also had some sort of business gathering at the hotel, and had set up the area for a big sit-down dinner, positioning their big screen TV in such a fashion that no one else could see it except those dining. Bummer.

But, true to form, we had located a small dive bar, the Cervesaria (love the name), just around the corner and decided to check it out. It was, of course, packed with folks watching the game. Fortunately, Spain trounced Portugal and so everyone was in a great mood. Soon, we were high-fiving people at each score. One woman we met taught us their fight song, something about “go boys, go boys, go go go boys.” Victory turned everything up a notch, with dancing and kissing and drinking (lots). Soon, we were in the middle of a full-blown party, and the Spaniards had taken us in as one of their own. By the time we left, Robin was draped in a Spanish flag and I had lipstick all over me. A fine end to our Spanish vacation.

The flight from Madrid to Dublin was a bit nightmarish, as it seems that all of the Spaniards pawn their teenagers off to other countries for the summer. As a result there were at least two large tour groups of very excited kids—we felt bad for the flight attendants who couldn’t even get them to sit down.

Dublin is having beautiful weather, though they are saying that it is quite warm (about 72 degrees F.). Yesterday we saw the Book of Kells and took one of the jump on/jump off buses, which I wouldn’t recommend, but it got us where we really wanted to be…the original Guinness St. James Gate brewery. And let me tell you, they know how to do a tour. It was almost like a ride at Disneyland, but better because it ended with a free, perfectly poured pint of stout and a 360 degree view of Dublin from the Gravity Bar high atop the brewery.

We meandered back toward the hotel on our own, stopping in Temple Bar (the Dublin equivalent of Austin’s 6th Street) and ended up at a brewpub for dinner and local beer. But, lo and behold, just as Tom ordered our pints he saw the familiar green Sierra Nevada logo. For those of you who know Tom, he never even looked at the local beer again. In fact, he is now threatening to never leave Dublin.

So, tonight we are ending our travels with what we anticipate will be a very nice dinner at one of Dublin’s finer restaurants. Tomorrow we will be back home, rubbing dog bellies, scratching cat ears and breathing a big sigh.