We were only in Ireland for a week, but we did a LOT of things and saw a lot, and ate a lot, and I took a bajillion photos. If you are going to turn 60, Ireland’s a fun place to do it in. It’s as green as promised, and the people are lovely. We stayed in AirBnBs, all of which but one had a million stairs, which was a bummer, since I am still in a knee brace, but I managed.
We flew to Dublin on Wednesday, August 7 and stayed right down in the city center near to the pubs and restaurants. Dublin is PACKED with pubs and restaurants. We had excellent luck with the weather as well. We took it easy the first night, after arriving just after lunchtime and headed out in the early evening to explore. We went down to see the Temple Bar Pub which has been there since the early 19th century (Temple Bar is actually the name of the whole neighborhood), but as you can imagine, it was STUFFED with tourists and no chance of a table or even a chair at the bar. We ended up in a bar called The Quays which had live Irish music playing (and the Olympics on), and after our first round of Guinness (and a ginger ale for me), we went upstairs to their very crowded restaurant and had a fantastic dinnr. Karin had bangers and mash, Anders had Shepherds Pie, Martin had seafood chowder, and I had the BEST pasta: smoked salmon and spinach in a creamy white wine sauce. YUM.
Saint Anne’s and the Royal Exchange, across from our AirBnB
Temple Bar Pub
Round of Guinness at The Quays (not pictured: my ginger ale)
The next day was a full-on museum day. We started out at the Irish Rock-and-Roll Museum, with a very good guide, and lots of information and music. I was actually not aware that Thin Lizzy was Irish, and they had an entire room to themselves. đŸ˜€ We must have heard The Boys Are Back in Town about 5-6 times during our trip, which is more than I think I’ve ever heard it total in my entire life. đŸ˜€
Karin and Martin waiting for our tour to start, in The Crow Bar
Irish Rock-and-Roll Museum, featuring U2 with newest member The Ek
Then we headed to the National History Museum, because I had read that they had a fauna exhibit of glass animals by the Blatschkas, a father and son glassblowing artist team, who did the glass flowers I saw years ago at the Harvard Museum, which were absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, when we got there, it turned out they were renovating, and all but a handful of the sculptures were in storage. So all we got to see were some little jellyfish, worms, and a sea slug. The hall they were in is called the Dead Zoo as it is FULL of taxidermied animals: creepy! (also very crowded with families and kids, so we ditched out quickly).
Glass jellyfish model by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka
Liz with Oscar Wilde outside Kennedys Pub
Continuing our museum themed day, we headed over to Trinity College for a guided tour of the campus. It was especially nice listening to people telling us about things in Irish; it’s such a pleasant accent! At the end of the campus tour, we did the Book of Kells experience, which my family wasn’t so into, but I was thrilled to see it after studying it in Art History years ago in both high school and college. The book was open to a very boring spread, though. Mostly text with only a couple of illuminated letters. Then upstairs to the “Long Room” Library which, guess what, was ALSO under renovation, with mostly empty shelves. Oh well! It was still cool to see it, and the marble busts of literary and scientific giants, including (FINALLY) 4 women (who were added just LAST year) and a huge glowing rotating holo sphere of the earth at one end.
Book of Kells
Francis Bacon
We had stopped at an Irish pub for lunch and had wraps/sandwiches, so the kids requested sushi for dinner, and we found a great, relatively inexpensive place down by the canal: EatTokyo. The weather was a bit iffy, and it had rained on us a bit at the start of the College tour, and started again as we were heading home after dinner, so we swung into a pub around the corner from our AirBnb for drinks.
Karin in Merchant’s Alley
Jumping on Ha-Penny Bridge
On Friday we had most of the day to do something before our train was departing, so we headed over to the Guinness Storehouse which was only a few blocks from the train station. It’s HUGE, and a real tourist attraction, with more than 1.5 MILLION visitors last year alone. Considering it’s all about beer, and a very unique one at that, it was pretty interesting and we spent several hours there, including lunch. On one floor, in a large hall with a bar, they had a live Irish band playing and clog dancers as well. Very cool! I especially appreciated all the exhibits about their advertising and branding over the years.
Next up: Galway!
Mood: happy
Music: Sinnead O’Connor—Nothing Compares 2 U