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A fantastic start to the day - it wasn’t raining!
We headed out to find the HOHO. We planned to do a complete circuit on the bus before choosing where we’d hop off, and it was interesting to find out more info about some of the places we’d visited yesterday. I wasn’t sure to be grateful or offended when Susan ordered a senior ticket for herself and he gave us both one!
A lot of the Georgian houses have ornate metal ‘Juliette balconies’ around the windows. They suit the style of the buildings, and are very attractive to look at, with many different designs.
We learnt that there are 2 types of police in Dublin, firstly the Garda who are the normal uniformed police, but also the Detectives who are plain clothed and carry firearms. Apparently they could be anywhere. It does make you look at strangers in a different way!
We went past the Guinness factory. It covers a massive area of land and even includes a hospital for the workers. Quite a few people hopped off the bus there. We didnt, but we did enjoy the smell of the barley being cooked and burnt –
apparently it was first made when the barley was burnt by accident. Now 3000000 (three million!!) pints are made each DAY ?
When Arthur Guinness first signed the lease in 1739 he agreed to pay £45 per year, and the lease was for 9000 years. That still stands to this day.
St James Gate of the factory was the traditional starting point for the Camino pilgrimage to Santiago in Spain. We’d already chatted about doing part of the Camino trail in the future, so watch this space…
I found it interesting to discover that while there are 700 pubs in Dublin, the number of churches in this city with a massive majority of catholic population is only 200 plus the 2 cathedrals.
The Bank of Ireland building has no windows. It was built in the 1730s when window tax was in force, as the first 2-chamber parliament building in the world. The plan had been to add glazing at a later date, which never happened. It was sold to the Bank of Ireland in 1800. I hate to think what the electricity bill is for lighting although I guess it may cut down the heating costs!
We hopped off the bus on our second circuit at the Little Museum of Dublin. This is the highlight of my trip so far! It’s a Georgian house with the rooms each set up as a different part of the history of Dublin. The presentation from our guide, Emma, was fantastic and incredibly informative and entertaining about the history of Dublin. I would highly recommend a visit if you’re ever in the area.
I was a little distressed to learn that cheese & onion crisps were born in Dublin; such disgusting flavoured crisps from such a beautiful and interesting city.
Apparently when Muhammed Ali was flying to visit Dublin the air hostess asked him to put his seat belt on and he replied, “Superman don’t need no seat belt.” Her response was, “Superman doesn’t need a plane either!”
We managed to find the physical bonus cache from the Adventure Cache we completed yesterday, so that was quite exciting for me – my first Irish cache ? It would be good to get one in each place if I can.
Once we got back to the city centre looking for food, Susan found us a pub
with live Irish folk music, so we delayed food for a couple of hours and had some happy juice instead while listening to the duo play. There was a guitar and a fiddle, and the singer had a wonderful gritty Irish voice and a very cute smile. There may have been a little jigging around, but definitely no dancing on my part!
Once the music finished, we headed off for sustenance and found a place advertising itself as a traditional Irish restaurant. The waitress (French), and the manager (Spanish) were both lovely, and I had Irish stew which tasted just like me ol’mam use’ta make! Mind you, Susan’s chowder looked and smelt amazing!
Overall, a lovely day, with lots of sunshine and no rain. Steps were around 13000 and 9km.
We’ve also worked out how to play Question of the Day with Alexa on my phone ? And there was no rain!
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Louise Parslow
non-member comment
HOHO
What does HOHO stand for? No comment on the senior tickets (mum) ??