Dublin for Easter

Marco and I hadn't seen each other since Madrid in February. So it was more than time to be together again - during Easter holidays!!!

Already for a long time on my to-visit-list it said "Dublin" and also Marco liked the idea of checking out Ireland's capital. And so it was agreed: next place we meet and visit is Dublin :-)

I knew my office would be closed over the Easter holidays already from Thursday 21st of April until Monday 25th including. However, we weren't quite sure how many days Marco would get off. Sure was, though, that Good Friday is not a bank holiday in Italy. He didn't wanna take too much risk by taking off too many days without asking for permission. So Marco booked his flights only Friday-Monday, so he'd need only the Friday off.

So below some pictures and details of our short-break.

Friday 22nd April:

My Ryanair flight already arrived at noon (local time - Dublin is 1 hours behind us) in Dublin - capital of the GREEN island :-)

Marco would only arrive later in the afternoon.
So I already went to the hotel and checked in. I had booked rooms at "The Townhouse Hotel", centrally located but also close to the main bus station "Busáras" (since I'd have to take the airport shuttle bus on Tuesday very early in the morning).
The hotel was really not a "granché", absolutely simple, nothing too nice about it, worn out furniture, a super old fashioned carpet, boring low-quality breakfast and unmotivated staff...

The hotel not inviting too much to stay in, I went out for a first quick walk through the neighbourhood.

Among others taking a stroll along O'Connell Street, one of the largest streets in Europe.

 Later in the afternoon also Marco finally arrived :-) :-) :-)

We didn't stay in the hotel - as some of you might have expected ;-) - but directly went out to town, passing again O'Connell Street with it's monument of light (known as "The Spire") a 120m high, latter-day iconic hallmark.

We just went on walking together discovering the city.

After a walk along the river Liffey...

...we had a first stroll through the cobbles streets of Temple Bar.  Temple Bar is a lively enclave of cafés, bars, restaurants and theatres. It is now firmly established as the city's most popular spot for tourists and locals alike, also known as Dublin's cultural quarter.

 

The early evening brought us to Trinity College, Dublin's most famous educational institution. Since it's foundation in the 16th century it has produced many impressive alumni such as Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift and Samuel Beckett. After entering under a wooden-tiled archway at the west front and we find cobbled quadrangles, smooth green lawns and an array of fine 18th and 19th century buildings some of which are even open to the public. The most famous being the Old Library with over 4 million books and one of the country's greatest treasures, the beautifully decorated manuscript "Book of Kells" from around AD 800. We didn't find time though to enter the Old Library in these days, but we already fully enjoyed our walk over the campus area which it's beautiful colours.

We actually spent pretty much time here, so by the time we left we were actually pretty hungry. Not far away from the college, in Castle Market street, we found a cosy nice restaurant called "Bedlam".

After a dinner with nice local food - namely fish and chips - we slowly walked through the side streets to our hotel.
Interesting how different the pictures of the same object turn out to be taken by two different cameras.

Saturday 23rd April:

Again we started the day walking westwards and we passed again the church we just saw beautifully illuminated the evening before on our way from the restaurant back to the hotel. It was actually turned into a mix of library, souvenir shop and tourist information.

First big stop of today's programme was then St. Patrick's Cathedral, founded in 1191. It is the larger of Dublin's two Church of Ireland cathedrals and the largest church in Ireland with a 43 metre spire.

From St. Patrick's Cathedral we walked along High Street and Thomas Street...

...passing St. Audoen's church...

...St. Augustine and John church...

... to the Guinness Storehouse. We spent quite a couple of hours in there, admiring everything and all round the famous Guinness brew.

The storehouse is laid out over seven floors surrounding a glass atrium in the shape of a pint of Guinness.

The ground floor introduces the beer's four ingredients, water, barley, hops and yeast, as well as the brewery's founder, Arthur Guinness.

 The second floor features the history of Guinness advertising.

Other floors incorporate a live installation of the present day brewing process and Guinness transportation.

 

The seventh floor houses the Gravity Bar where visitors can enjoy the 360° views over Dublin city and may claim a complimentary pint of Guinness - which we did of course :-).

At around 3 p.m. we left the world of Guinness and walked back to the city centre and stopped now also for a visit of Christ Church Cathedral, the elder of the capital's two medieval cathedrals - St. Patrick's from this mornig being the other one. Christ Church is officially claimed as the seat of both the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic archbishops of Dublin.
Having two cathedrals in one town is actually a really rare arrangement, which of course didn't remain without conflicts in history.
However, we just enjoyed the sun and this beautifully warm weather :-)

In Cow's Lane, a really small side street of the Old Town, we stopped for a bite of amazing sweets, at the lovely café "Queen of Tarts". This place really lived up to it's name!!! :-)

I was so in love with this place and especially its food that I totally forgot to take pictures of the great tarts. This is just the remainder of my warm plum tart...

After this little delicious snack it drew us once more along the Liffey river...

... and further on to the St. Stephen's Green in the south of the city centre.

For dinner we ended up at a Mexican restaurant in Temple Bar... We were recommended another place for dining out in Temple Bar, but all the places were so full and we were too hungry to agree on waiting for a table to become free. But my good hot stew in the end was pretty good.

Sunday 24th April:

Today we left the city of Dublin for a full day excursion to the countryside. The day before we had subscribed for 30€ each at the tourist office for a tour to Glendalough & Kilkenny including the Wicklow Gap.

We were picked up at 08:30 a.m. in the city centre, close to our hotel. Then the bus collected some more participants in the tour before it brought us out to the beautiful Wicklow mountains.

 After a while of driving we reached the area of Glendalough, a glacial valley located in the County of Wicklow, renowned for its early medieval monastic settlement founded in the 6th century by a hermit priest St. Kevin and destroyed in 1398. We started with a walk along the Glendalough lake...

 

 

...before reaching the monastic ruins with its Round Tower, "Kevin's Church" and the graveyard.

 

 

Across the beautiful and wild Wicklow Gap, we journey through some of Ireland's most spectacular and varied scenery...

...until we reach the Medieval Capital of Ireland - Kilkenny. Kilkenny is a popular tourist destination in the south-east of Ireland; its heritage is evident in the city and environs including historic buildings and culture with craft and designn. It was a Norman merchant town in the Middle Ages and a famous brewing centre from the late seventeenth century. Since the late twentieth century Kilkenny is a tourist and creative centre.

We had a couple of hours of free time to explore the city. First of all, though, Marco and I went to grap some (fast) food for late lunch.

For someone living and driving outside the UK this looks pretty irritating. A dog driving???

St. Mary's Cathedral

 

Kilkenny Castle, built in 1195

 

"Please no photography within the castle!" - no comment...

 

 

 

Departure time from Kilkenny was set at 4 p.m. And so we left the city in the early afternoon and drove all the way back along the M7 to Dublin where we finally arrived at 6 p.m.

The tour was really great, but it made us hungry as well and so we stopped just for a short time at the hotel before heading again to the streets of Temple Bar. We dropped in "Botticelli" for dinner - we just felt like something Italian to eat... :-)

Pretty mandatory when being a tourist in Dublin is having at least one drink in one of the many bars and pubs around Temple Bar and so we enjoyed a drink in one of the nearby places after dinner.

Monday 25th April:

This was not a nice day: today Marco had his flight back to Bologna... even early in the morning :-(
We got up very early and - while O'Connell was still totally sleeping and empty - I accompanied Marco to the Airport Shuttle bus stop.

Right after he left, I quickly went back to the hotel to have some breakfast. Then I made my way to the Kilmainham Goal. It's a former prison, located in Kilmainham in the west of town.

Kilmainham Goal was built in 1789, but the material used was sandstone which wept in bad weather, resulting in damp and and grim conditions that adversely affected the health of the inmates. The jail closed in the 1920s and wasn't touched again until it was restored as a museum in the 1960s.

Kilmainham Gaol played an important part in Irish history as many leaders of Irish rebellions were imprisoned and some executed in the prison by the British and latterly in 1923 by the Irish Free State.

In rememberance of the leaders that were executed here after the Easter Rising in 1916.

I walked all the long way back towards town...

 ...passing again Christ Church Cathedral...

... Four Courts, the Republic of Ireland's main courts building: Supreme Court, High Court and Dublin Circuit Court. The building until 2010 also formerly was the location for the Central Criminal Court.

Turning then northwards I arrived at the Jameson Whiskey Destillery where I joined a guided tour.

 

For 8 volunteers the tour even included a whiskey tasting - I was in! :-)

Another 1,5 hours later I walked again along the banks of the Liffey...

...and further on to the Dublin Castle. Unfortunately one could visit the castle only joining a guided tour, but all tickets were already sold out. So I could only take some pictures from exterior.

Since it was just around the corner - and sooooo attracting - I wanted to drop in again at the "Queen of Tarts" to enjoy another delicious cake or pastry. But the café was closed :-( Well, maybe anyway better for my hips...

So I directly started my souvenir shopping tour. I definitely wanted to have a typically green T-shirt from Dublin and I had also seen a nice shirt which was just made for my brother.

Thus being 100% tourist walking around various souvenir shops I spent the rest of my afternoon alone in Dublin.

Pretty early though, I declared this day to be over for me. I headed back to the hotel, grapping a piece of take away pizza on the way. I went to bed pretty early; my flight back to Oslo would leave at around 7 a.m.

Monday 26th April:

It's 3:30 a.m. that I got up. I got dressed quickly, checked out and proceeded to O'Connell Street. I took the shuttle bus to the Airport. Already having checked in because of flying Ryanair, I only dropped the luggage, passed the security control, boarded and off I went back to Oslo.

Upon arrival at the aiport in Rygge, I caught the shuttle bus back to Oslo downtown and went straight to the office - back to work, back to reality!

Dublin was a good trip - amore mio mi manchi!