Dublin, Ireland – Aug 7


Clear and 20 degrees

It was the perfect morning for a walking tour. I have always preferred walking tours to bus tours as they aren’t as confining as bus tours can be. Certainly a bus is better in the rain, but this morning rain was not a problem.

shopping

Of course we had to get on a bus to get out of the pier area and into the city centre. This is definitely where a river cruise is superior to an ocean or sea cruise like we are on now. Being docked right in the middle of town with a river cruise is terrific. However, we are not on a river cruise so…onto the bus.

self explanatory - no?

Oscar Wilde

We started with a brief bus ride into the Dublin's city center. There were only 14 of us on the tour, so that was also nice. A lot of what we learned was about Dublin’s literary personalities: Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, and Bram Stoker mostly. Dublin is a smaller city than we had expected. We visit Trinity Collage, Ireland’s oldest university (founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592.) This is where the Book of Kells (a hand illuminated manuscript of the Gospels is housed), but don’t visit as the line is LONG and we need to budget time for the Guinness tour. The tour ends with a stop at a pub for a Guinness.



view from the Guiness bar

After the tour we have lunch and visit the Guinness Storehouse (factory). This is a very slick place where there are multi-media displays on the making and history of Guinness. Of course there was a gift shop and I don’t think Chris has ever shopped more in his entire life! We left quite a dent in the shop. Although I got a couple pint of Guinness down, I don’t think that was enough to develop my taste for it – just not my thing, I did manage to buy a couple of shirts and a Christmas ornament – we need to start a new Christmas ornament collection and this is a good a place as any!