On Travel

A trip to Ireland with Family

Start Young

I grew up in the 1970s with a Dad who loved to travel. He still does. And we still go on great trips together, now including my three kids, husband and step mom. This year it was Ireland!

I have always been comfortable traveling. In my later teens and twenties I went on my own trips, sometimes alone. If I had some money and time, I left town. I guess it’s the only-child thing, but traveling alone was natural to me. In between jobs at 24 I went alone to Paris for a week, a city I knew well. It was both exciting and relaxing for me. I brought my journal and a New Yorker, sat in a cafe and watched the world go by. No phones in those days, I could be completely anonymous. No pangs of anxiety about who was doing what. I loved that I was utterly alone.

When Pel and I met, travel was something we had in common, if a little nuanced. He was adventuresome in the Far East and I was travelled in Europe. We instilled a love of exploring away from home in our kids. Now they are able to navigate the world with confidence on their own. Job done!

Why Travel?

Why does anyone care about travel? It can be exasperating. It’s an experience that has a beginning and an end and no tangible outcome. You may have spent as much as it costs to buy a car on a trip. So, why do we bother?

I cannot help thinking of Rick Steves, sweet wonderful man of wisdom who has trundled through Europe for the past fifty years (!) with us along for the ride. Unafraid to hold up a mirror to society and say, “See?” he is a man who, with warmth and gusto, shows us the food, history, art, culture, and for him most importantly, the people. Through his eyes we see travel makes us better, less afraid, and kinder people.

PS: If you haven’t watched his piece on Fascism in Europe on Public TV you must.

Rick quotes Mark Twain each show “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.” Oh that Mark, what a funny man. Travel is also an antidote for curiosity and discovery. Vive la différence!

Below is the full Mark Twain quote. Surprising Isn’t it?

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindedness. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all one’s lifetime.”

-Mark Twain

The more things change, the more they stay the same…

I had never read the full Mark Twain quote, which also means I haven’t read the book it came from, the 1869 The Innocents Abroad. I think I had better read it because it feels a little clairvoyant!

“…views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the Earth all ones lifetime” ?

Did he know about social media and gaming? I wonder what he meant? What did the people of 1869 do that was considered frittering time away stupidly? Today, we have brought it to an art form, obvi.

Travel with family

The trips we have done with the kids were not crazy or dangerous. But, we did do some fun cliff repelling in Zion, Grand Canyon hikes, hut to hut hiking in Switzerland, biking in Yellowstone, a lot of beach time and some ski trips in Europe which I think are my favorites. We have found the guided/group hiking and biking, skiing trips have worked well for us as a family. It keeps everyone in line when there is a non related person around. We sleep well because we have been active all day. This can be very important when traveling en famile, n’est pas?

Just get a guide

We learned this golden nugget of life wisdom through experience. It started when the kids were tiny and we had them on skis. As we slid down a bunny hill with a squirming toddler between our legs (plus another smaller one somewhere), passing happy tiny kids on a “magic carpet” with rosy cheeked instructors at the ski school it occurred to us that yes, this is why unrelated professionals exist: to keep us from throttling our offspring and going to jail. “Third party professionals” was a concept we quickly adopted into our parenting philosophy.

In travel we saw that with our three girls, a guide made the trip a lot more fun, mainly because the guide wasn’t me or their Dad. The guides are young and fun and the kids are like rockets compared to our damp fire cracker as far as agility and speed on a mountain go. With a guide around, no one can be in a crummy mood or torture their sister because that would be embarrassing. Thank God for embarrassing things as far as kids go. Keeps ‘em in line.

But, the same is true for parents and grandparents. We don’t want to come off as a turkey either. We want to be the guide’s best trip ever whom they will remember as the coolest family they ever guided. So, a guide keeps us in line too.

Onward!

Ireland 2026

Hailing from Boston one might think, “why go to Ireland when Boston is Irish?” It is, But it really is not. Dublin and Boston do have a lot in common: bricks, old stuff, great schools with old bricks, old churches made of old bricks, pubs, a lot of white people. Funny accents.

But, Dublin has a culture I had not expected: kindness and patience. They are really pleasant people to hang around. The “banter” thing is real. It’s like every person in the Republic of Ireland is given a quick silver tongue at birth. The non native Irish also have the gift of gab, so maybe there is something in the water? Or, maybe it’s because half the population can choose what to do with their bodies, unlike here in the US.

Today’s Irish are very liberal. The Catholic Church has far less power in politics and the country has legalized same-sex marriage (2015) and abortion (2018). They have shifted from religious restriction to one of personal liberty and individual rights [1, 2, 3]. I can imagine Ireland is a sociologists dream to study how these socially progressive amendments work over time. We spoke to people about Northern Ireland a fair amount and as they see it, it’s a matter of time before they vote to join The Republic of Ireland. The Catholics are about to outnumber the protestants and both are voting on economic lines, not religious. Stay tuned.

Perhaps due to being “neutral” during the war and a lousy couple of centuries economically, the old buildings of Dublin weren’t destroyed. The scale of the city is pleasant to be in and there are numerous parks to enjoy. The overall feeling in the city is celebratory. Pubs everywhere. Live music in every pub and hotel. Bookstores abound. Can’t say they have stellar art but the National Gallery of Ireland is gorgeous.

This is an old city. Lots of Viking chatter and sad Famine stories. The Irish history is incredibly bleak which may be why they are so dark humored.

Irish History in Summary:

• The British enslaved the Irish in the 16th century. Stole their land and enacted the Penal Laws placing restrictions on the Irish people, including: forbidding Catholics and Presbyterians from practicing their religion, significant limitations on the education systems, as well as prohibiting the Irish language, the right to vote, working in government or public office. Not very fair

• Then came the Famine in the 1800s. Little known to us here is that despite the failure of the potato crop, there was food, but the British through laws and tariffs mandated the livestock and other food be shipped to England turning the famine into a genocide. The population went from 8 million to five million. One million died of starvation and the others emigrated (many to Boston). The population has never recovered.

• The partitioning of Ireland into North (the UK) and The Republic (EU) in the early 1920s, their civil war in the mid 1920s and The Troubles (Catholics versus Protestants and Northern Ireland) that lasted over thirty years show that modern Irish history is as fraught as their ancient history.

Visuals

A bit o' Ireland

Photo Descriptions:

1. Travel is full of surprises! The first day in Dublin on our way to St. Patrick’s Cathedral a gigantic seagull let loose and covered me in poo. It landed in my hair, my face, all over my rain coat and sweater. It was really disgusting and even though we wiped it off, I stunk all day. I wasn’t going to abandon the tour over a little (a LOT) poop. Word to the wise, if you get covered in Irish bird poop, go shower and start over.

2. This pub, O’Reilly’s, was a lot of fun. It looks old, but it isn’t. I don’t care. I pretended it was old as we sat on a reclaimed wood bench and ordered Guinness. It used to be a pharmacy. Felt old to me.

3. Everyone goes to see the 1,200 year old Book of Kells at Trinity College, whoopy. It’s a book under glass and didn’t really wow me…I can be shallow. But, the room above the book cave is spectacular. It’s lined with book shelves and it’s called The Old Library. Go figure. Trinity is worth the visit.

4. We went out into the country and did country things like falconry (very cool, what birds! And, they behaved and didn’t cover me in feces), played with Border Collie puppies, did archery and shot skeet. Beware being forced to sit on a bus for full days while the countryside wizzes by. Skip the Ring of Kerry. Do some hikes in the area instead.

5. Fish and chips! we went to a super pub called Monks in Ballyvaughn and Pel got the Fish and Chips. I got the muscles and told the waitress how we don’t have muscles in Maine anymore and isn’t that a shame and how I miss them, all the while getting eye rolling from my family because I have a habit of telling that story every time I am near a bowl of muscles. They were very tasty.

6. Great decor. It isn’t only the English who have gorgeous decor and gardens! The Irish are right there….this chair really spoke to me.

7. There are many different landscapes on the emerald island. Shown is the rugged landscape of Killarney.

8. I collected dozens of garden photos. I am really into gardening these days and discovered part of my own garden I can rip out and do something like I saw while away. Pel is thrilled.

9. Here is the garden at the Literary Museum in Dublin. It is right on St Stephens park and has a wonderful restaurant and book store. I recommend it! The web site isn’t great, fyi.

We watched a lot of World Cup which kept us up late. Ireland was not in the tourney so there was not the buzz we have experienced abroad during a World Cup. During a hiking trip in Switzerland we watched a game on the tippy top of a mountain in a hut, the Suisse were in the tournament that year.

In Dublin we watched a game at O’Reilly’s and had great local banter to entertain us, Guinness in hand.

MEET ME IN THE COMMENTS!

Have you been to Ireland? What did you think? Got any family travel tips?

ICYMI

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