Hello Friends and Family!
We made it to Ireland this morning, arriving at 8:45 am local time, 3:45 am EST. We did get a few hours of sleep on the plane and for the most part it was smooth sailing on our journey from the states.
Today we explored Dublin before heading out to the countryside tomorrow. It was a tiring day, as I type this Dustin, Josh, and Sarah are already fast asleep despite the fact the sun hasn’t gone down yet. For some reason I’m not quite as tired. One reason they might be more tired than me is they put a little more effort into helping out our sticky situation.
Flat Tire (hours in Ireland = 1.5)
We were graciously given a free upgrade to a slightly larger car…which is nice for all 4 adults plus luggage. Dustin is doing a great job with the left side of the road driving and using the manual in all the city traffic. Unfortunately the garage we were parked in briefly for breakfast was being remodeled and they were having the traffic come in and out the same direction. They had workers directing traffic, and the turn to go back up the entrance was quite narrow. Our left front tire hit the curb (passenger side here) and went flat.
Sarah, Dustin, and Josh did a great job changing it! I never knew Sarah had changed a tire before.
I was the photographer…because well we all were laughing and thought, well at least it’s a funny story to tell so we must have pictures! It was a blessing we had a space in the garage to change the flat, and were not on a busy street. Josh snapped a picture of me with my mocha latte cheering them on.
We went about our day in downtown Dublin, first visiting the Guinness Brewery. Here is a picture of Josh and Sarah outside the gate.
There were lots of pharmacies downtown, so of course I had to get a picture!
Then we walked around downtown and taking pictures of the beautiful churches. Here are a few. We visited St. Augustine and St. John Catholic Church, which was free to go inside, then we walked to the Dublin Castle and went into the cathedral there, as well as walked by St. Patrick’s Cathedral the largest cathedral in Ireland. Here are a few pictures from the afternoon!
The churches were all beautiful inside and out…but it made me a little bit sad too. So much money and time was put into these buildings that now function mostly as tourist attractions (some do have mass still). But I think it was a good reminder for us that the church is not a building or fancy walls… we are the church, the body of Christ. We need to spend our resources building the church through discipleship and ministry, through the people.
Ephesians 1:22-23
“And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
After walking for what seemed like a long time, we got a snack on the way back to the car. 2 for 2.50 EUR Apple Pastries…YUMM! 1 for the Hartzlers, 1 for the Rodewalds.
We decided it would be a good idea to head back to the rental car company by the airport and see if they wanted to give us a new car just a new spare tire before we headed out of Dublin tomorrow. Well despite having very expensive FULL coverage insurance, the only 2 exclusions were tires & if you break a GPS unit. So we could have Budget fix it for 160 EUR at least or we could try to have it fixed ourselves. We then headed to the hotel and on the way, we saw a “tyre” shop. Praise Jesus for providing this man. He normally was already closed but he got us a brand new tire and took the spare off and put the new tire on for 70 EUR. We saved more than half. His shop was really already closed, but he was very kind to stay opened. We were very thankful God put him on our path today.
At this point we had been in rush hour traffic back from the airport to our hotel for at least an hour before stopping to fix the tire. We all were very hungry and Dustin’s brain was hurting from all the driving. We found a great pub near our hotel and had dinner. I had chicken with veg and potato & leek soup. The veg was cabbage and turnips. I don’t think i’ve had a turnip before, but they were good.
I think that is about it…we are planning to check out the cities of Kilkenny, Cork, and Waterford on our way to Kinsale tomorrow. Hoping for no more flat tires for this trip. 🙂
Excited to get 8 hours of sleep tonight!
~Melody
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