gollygoshgumgoonz: Dublin, vikings, and Crests

We spent the last couple of days of our Eire trip in Dublin, catching up with our wonderful friends Esther and Jarlath. Its' so amazing that after four years, we can just slip into the friendship like we'd all just come back from our 4 day mountain bike trip together.
Esther and Jarlath currently live in Vancouver but were home for Christmas. We mostly hung out at some local cafe's but also checked out the small museum, the Dublina which took us on a journey through the viking and medieval history of Dublin. Barry was especially interested to find out that his surname, Wilkinson, stemmed from the Anglo-Norman's, and wasn't native to Ireland. We had noticed that the name was nowhere in amidst the coat of arms for Ireland, nor for that matter, my mother's name, Rabbitt, which also was brought to to England and surrounds from the Normans. The Normans of course, were Northmen, or Vikings.
So it looks like Barry and I have vikings back in our ancestry. Cool! Hopefully we aren't distantly related though as that would be weird.

Jarlath and Esther

The Spire looking up

The Spire from Henry Street, all tied up with a bow

The river Liffey

The Georgian doors of Dublin were made famous when they were photographed and collated into a poster. I didn't know any of this when I first noticed the doors, but was captivated by them all the same. I have enough photos of them to make my own poster now. They are so colourful! These are just a few of the many photos I took.

Of course, doors were not the only things in Dublin I photographed. Not only did we have the city to explore with camera in hand, and friends to meet, but we saw some sun as well!