Dublin

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After our very long flight it was great to get out in the fresh air and walk some of the areas of the south side of the river Liffey, including many of the Dublin highlight's, Temple Bar area, Trinity College, Bank of Ireland, City Hall and many Irish pubs. Great to enjoy the sunny walk to get and idea of what Dublin has to offer once we are over the jetlag. Great to enjoy some of Dublin hospitality for a cooling ale.

Lovely day Thursday exploring Dublin, a truly magical city. We started the day early as the sun rising at 4:56am (this is so suited to Rose) as she is walking at 6am. Walking down to the river Liffey where we found a great little restaurant for Irish Potato Cakes, so yum and cheap. After that we did a river cruise by Dublin Discovered with Tony and Jerry who personified the Irish larrikins term, they blended information, serious safety, professionalism and a great informative show. This was €36 well spent.

We then had a lovely lunch at The Bank on College Green , a 300 year old building originally built for a watchmaker/jeweler to the royal house. It then became a bank and they still had about 10 safes in the basement you could see. There was the most exquisite leadlight windows and leadlight glass atriums. After lunch we walked to the Dublin Castle, walked the grounds and toured the state apartment. Roses highlight came in the wedgewood room where she noticed one of the statues had lost his twinkie.

After finishing at the castle, we boarded a city bus for the Guinness Storehouse to organised chaos. Even though we had both had a greater than average understanding of Guinness from our Lion days, we were still in awe of the scale and of the company and while in Dublin, estimated that 60-70%!o(MISSING)f all beers being consumed were Guinness. The 7 story exhibition is reportedly the busiest attraction in Ireland. The ticket included a pint of Guinness on the top floor with 360° view of Dublin, it is so true that a beer is best consumed at the brewery. Patrick, our Taxi driver back to our hotel believed it was the biggest waste of money.

We found a great Italian restaurant for dinner and again we were in bed before the sun went down (9:56pm).

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