After a relatively short flight from Helsinki we arrived in Dublin late afternoon for a reunion with my Mum! We stayed next to the Old Jameson Distillery at a nice Airbnb apartment. Mum, who had only come all the way from Australia had prepared dinner for us! It was great to be able to sit around undisturbed and catch up with Mum.
Dublin welcomed us with the most beautiful weather. In fact, in a way, it was a bit of a shame because it set the bar FAR TOO HIGH for the rest of our time in Ireland! No, it was lovely and possibly even nice for Mum who had come over to seek respite from a very cold winter - during 2015 Melbourne recored the coldest winter morning for 18 years! It was great we had such good weather on our first full day as we had opted for a Sandeman's New Europe Walking Tour. Rob and I had only ever had good experiences with "free" (tip-based) walking tours, usually finding them a great introduction to a city. We weren't disappointed: this was not only engaging but memorable with our guide Liz starting by teaching us some gaelic and proceeding to recite a verse here and there.
My favourite part of the tour was learning about Dublin Castle, originally built for defence, once the seat of the UK's administration of Ireland and now an important Irish Government complex. It was a key site during the Easter Rebellion and leading up to the Anglo Irish Treaty in 1921.
Dublin also provided us with the worst museum experience I can remember. Maybe it was the recency effect, but the National Leprechaun Museum was truly terrible. The premise of the museum is that a tour guide takes you into different rooms where they narrate Irish folk stories. I thought that sounded great and the reviews on trip advisor looked quite good. My problem here was that the day show reviews (good ratings) vastly outnumbered the night show reviews (bad ratings) but they were all mixed together...and we chose the night show. Granted this sort of concept relies heavily on the skill of the story teller. Well, we truly lucked out (FYI for the USA readers, that's a BAD thing). Later (when others complained after the show) we found out it was the guide's first night. It was also expensive and though I enjoyed climbing up a super big chair, the entry fee was not worth feeling tall for a few minutes.* DOLPHIN SANDS ROAD!
Luckily, the Leprechaun Museum wasn't the only museum we attended. The Little Museum of Dublin was certainly small but well worth the effort. It had exhibitions on 20th century life in Dublin with a 45 minute tour. Though the museum was good, we all agreed that the associated optional outside tour of St Stephen's Green was a highlight of our time in Dublin. Apparently Donal Fallon's Green Mile tour only takes place on certain days so we were lucky to catch it. Donal was very passionate about his job and provided an excellent historical tour of the Greens. The Greens was the site of the Easter Rising of 1916. It was not a great choice of location as the British Army took up position in a nearby hotel allowing them to fire directly into the Greens. Donal told us about how during the Rising, fire was ceased temporarily to allow the groundsman to safely feed the local ducks!
Another highlight of our time was a simple thing, but as we know the simple things in life matter! We all really enjoyed our walk into the centre of Dublin. It was a good 20-30 minute walk to most places we found ourselves wanting to go and it was nice way to start and end the day. The lovely River Liffey, the green post boxes, the company and of the course the "No dog fouling" signs are probably what made it!
From Dublin we hired a car to do a daytrip to the Wicklow Mountains and Glendalough, followed by a much larger trip that would eventually end in Belfast. Stay tuned!
* Clearly I have not gotten over this yet!
Dublin welcomed us with the most beautiful weather. In fact, in a way, it was a bit of a shame because it set the bar FAR TOO HIGH for the rest of our time in Ireland! No, it was lovely and possibly even nice for Mum who had come over to seek respite from a very cold winter - during 2015 Melbourne recored the coldest winter morning for 18 years! It was great we had such good weather on our first full day as we had opted for a Sandeman's New Europe Walking Tour. Rob and I had only ever had good experiences with "free" (tip-based) walking tours, usually finding them a great introduction to a city. We weren't disappointed: this was not only engaging but memorable with our guide Liz starting by teaching us some gaelic and proceeding to recite a verse here and there.
My favourite part of the tour was learning about Dublin Castle, originally built for defence, once the seat of the UK's administration of Ireland and now an important Irish Government complex. It was a key site during the Easter Rebellion and leading up to the Anglo Irish Treaty in 1921.
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| Dublin castle |
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| Hanging out in Dublin's Brick Alley |
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| Having heard about the Irish "YES" vote to marriage equality only about a month earlier (and wishing Australia would get on with it already) it was great to see this on the streets of Dublin. |
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| My goodness... |
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| Picnic time |
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| Look how optimistic I was at the beginning of the tour! |
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| Probably the highlight. The fellow customer taking the photo must have also felt outraged about the show he just paid for as he didn't bother to focus the camera! |
Luckily, the Leprechaun Museum wasn't the only museum we attended. The Little Museum of Dublin was certainly small but well worth the effort. It had exhibitions on 20th century life in Dublin with a 45 minute tour. Though the museum was good, we all agreed that the associated optional outside tour of St Stephen's Green was a highlight of our time in Dublin. Apparently Donal Fallon's Green Mile tour only takes place on certain days so we were lucky to catch it. Donal was very passionate about his job and provided an excellent historical tour of the Greens. The Greens was the site of the Easter Rising of 1916. It was not a great choice of location as the British Army took up position in a nearby hotel allowing them to fire directly into the Greens. Donal told us about how during the Rising, fire was ceased temporarily to allow the groundsman to safely feed the local ducks!
Another highlight of our time was a simple thing, but as we know the simple things in life matter! We all really enjoyed our walk into the centre of Dublin. It was a good 20-30 minute walk to most places we found ourselves wanting to go and it was nice way to start and end the day. The lovely River Liffey, the green post boxes, the company and of the course the "No dog fouling" signs are probably what made it!
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| On our daily walk across the River Liffey |
* Clearly I have not gotten over this yet!
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