In Dublin’s Fair City

Day 0

14 hours in cattle class is never pleasant! A very tight connection gave us our one and only view of Dubai….

But all was forgiven on the Dubai to Dublin link with us both lucky enough to have a row each to lie down, spread out and get those DVT ankles elevated. We hit Dublin about 9pm, still daylight. Found our digs eventually, not very well signposted, but hosted by the charming Marco, who also operated the Italian restaurant downstairs. We literally have an apartment rather than just a bedroom. Very spacious and elegant.

You could see the Temple Bar area across the river even from the toilet!

However, you couldn’t do anything risque near the windows….

Wanting to soak up that culture asap, we headed over the Liffey, through the pretty tacky touristy area of Temple Bar, further on to the outer tacky touristy area and found a real gem in the Trinity Bar. At least most of the tourists there were from Northern Ireland! With Paddy on vocals and guitar, John (not Partland) on the fiddle, pint of Guiness in hand, we finally felt we were in Ireland. Paddy even sang a song about Botany Bay to make us feel at home. Not the one we know, but one about Irishmen coming to Australia to find gold. As Tim Minchin said, “the tune is alright but the lyrics are dodgy”.This poster on the wall summed up the night pretty well…

Day 1

Awake at 4.55am, not because of jetlag, but because it was broad daylight. I had forgotten all about this northern hemisphere phenomenon. So we got going early. First stop Trinity College (Dublin University), including the famous Book of Kells. The books were initially written by monks in Scotland about 800 AD, but were brought to Ireland to protect them from marauding Vikings. They’re famous not just for being very old, but for their colourful patterns, drawings and calligraphy. I’m no expert, but they didn’t impress. Sorry! But the long room housing library books used from the 1800’s was amazing. We walked canalside, very pretty, then hiked to the other side of town to check out the Guiness Disneyland Brewery.

For €11 each, we were taken on a magical self-guided tour of the brewing process, across 6 storeys of displays, up escalators, under waterfalls, through barrel caves to finally reach the 7th level where you picked up your complimentary pint of brew enjoying the spectacular skyline view of Dublin from the very crowded bar. The bottom photo is from the outside of the building looking back up at the funky circular bar!

Weaving our way back home. We accidentally stumbled on the Palace Bar, THE place to go apparently, if you are a whiskey lover. Our bar companion was a yank from Las Vegas, once a fire fighter now turned whiskey guru. He gave us quite an education about the topic and assured us the display of whiskey at The Palace, featuring a bottle of the amber liquid from every ‘vintage’, was worth a cool €75000! Wow!

So by the end of the day we’d clocked up over 26000 steps. A great start to the trip!

Day 2

Headed out of town to the village of Howth (rhymes with ‘both’), on the northern fringe of Dublin, to do the 2 1/2 hour cliff walk. 4 hours later we finished absolutely wrecked. We must be getting older and slower. But it was worth every step. Spectacular scenery all the way on a gloriously hot sunny day.

Caught the train all the way back through the city to the southern most side of the bay at Sandycove. Sipping our fist pint for the day, we relaxed and looked back at the mountain we had conquered that morning.