Dublin Take Two

We arrived in Dublin early Wednesday afternoon in the pouring rain. We were confused about where to find our hotel and the Tourist Information Center, but we asked around and eventually boarded a local bus. We got to our hotel and found it to be beautiful and quite suitable for us. Rick, Katie, and I shared a room (upgraded from a 3-bed to a 4-bed, we lived in luxury) and Mom and Dad had their own room two floors up.

We made our way to the Guinness Factory, across the city. The walk was long but there was a lot to look at along the way (though Katie and Rick's eyes were glued to the ground looking for money). When we arrived at the factory, we took the whole tour, enjoying our taste test of Guinness halfway through.



In the Sky Bar at the top, we looked at the view of Dublin and read some of the Irish quotes on the glass. Dad and Rick used their tickets for a free pint of Guinness while Katie, Mom, and I had Coke.

I think Rick enjoyed his Guinness, though not quite as much as Dad, who has been looking forward to drinking this particular beverage.


Here is the whole family minus me at our table in the Sky Bar. It was crowded, as I imagine it always is, so we didn't get the prime seats by the window, but we were able to snag a table to stand around.


After all the drinks were finished, we hired a taxi to take us to St. Patrick's Cathedral, not feeling much like walking all the way there. We did not go in the cathedral, but we went to the courtyard and took some pictures.


Here is Katie in front of St. Patrick's. She insisted upon taking one like this and then on taking one of me in the same pose. I don't quite get it, but here it is.


Rick attempted to throw Katie in the fountain in the courtyard. It may have been a plot by both of them to get the coins from the bottom of the fountain, but we had other things to see and they never went through with it.


We headed back to the hotel for a rest before going out to dinner. Katie, Rick, and I had the hotel coffee while watching The Simpson's reruns on TV. We also reviewed our purchases of the day and planned out our next plan of action.

We ate dinner in the Temple Bar area at a lovely Italian restaurant called Botticelli. We all ended the meal with dessert which was spot on.

This morning, we took a tour of Dublin Castle which was awesome. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and entertaining and I think we all learned some new things about Ireland. Above you can see Rick, Katie, and Mom in the lobby of Dublin Castle, waiting for our tour to begin.

We also saw The Book of Kells, Trinity College campus, Christ Church Cathedral (I hadn't been inside before--it's amazing) and a few sites North of the Liffey. We had a long haul with all our luggage to the bus station but we made it and took a 5:00 bus out of the city. It took a bit longer than expected to get back to Galway, but we all made it safe and sound. Tomorrow we'll be hanging around Galway. I have classes to go to and I think the others are doing some shopping in town. We'll see how Galway celebrates Halloween!