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Sorry this has taken a bit to update. I made an entry yesterday but it didn't save.
Day two in Dublin
Started out at 7:30 am with breakfast at the hotel. Toast, sunny side up eggs, ham and mushrooms and coffee :). Very good!
Headed out around 9:00 towards Trinity College. Too early on a Sunday to see anything. Ended up taking a walking tour of Medieval and Viking Dublin. Was supposed to take 2 hours but took 3 1/2 hours due to the fact our tour guide Joe is easily thrown off track and talks a lot! He was very nice though :)
I was not smart as I left my umbrella at the hotel and for a while my hood was enough but finally had to put the good camera away.
We started by seeing the Bank of Ireland as it was across the street. It looks like a coliseum with no windows. I found out that England put a window tax when it was built so they just decides not to put windows in it. Presidents Obama and Clinton spoke here when they visited.
We moved on down an ally where we saw we saw an old pub named "The Stag's Head" It apparently got it's name because a stag rammed the building and got it's head stuck in the wall.
Just down the ally you can see the brick tops of windows that belong to underground Dublin. They apparently are like Seattle where they built over the original city. They do not allow anyone there because it is very unsafe.
Moved on to Dublin Castle. In the courtyard there are all the flags of the Europe Nations. This is where Queen Elizabeth recently visited. There are two statues on the clock tower, one is Lady Justice the other is Fortitude. There was an outcry with the people because Justice is facing in towards with her back to the people. Her scales are real and when it would rain they would tip toward the people. The people felt that was fitting. They government then drilled holes in the scale plates to keep them even.
There was a fire in the 16th century that destroyed part of the castle and it was rebuilt partially in a Victorian style per Queen Victoria.
There is a remaining in tact tower by the church connected to the castle. The church is no longer a functioning church but is used for filming a lot. Part of the HBO series "The Tudors" is filmed in this church.
You will see what looks like decorative crosses in the wall. These used to be just up and down slats to shoot bows from they added the cross sections when crossbows were invented. The walls and towers are slanted so they could drop things like fire weapons and burning oils and it would hit the wall and bounce out and hit the attacking enemies.
Outside you can see thy are doing restorations and using multiple colors. This is sad, too bad they can't restore it to the former glory.
Next we went to the castle gardens and saw the coach house. They gardens have little brick paths that make up a Celtic design. When they have state functions this is where the helicopters land.
There is a library that was donated by Chester Beatty. He was a very wealthy man that gave everything he had and all of his collections to the people.
You will see some underground ruins that were discovered by accident when they were doing construction.
Moving on we started the viking tour. Apparently they were building their courthouse building and disturbed Viking ruins. There was a public outcry and now when any building goes on an archeologist is assigned to the building team. There are copper plaques all on the sidewalks depicting what was found there. One of the pictures will show what a Viking house looked like. Their houses lasted 10 to 12 years and then they just built on top of the old house. They could not leave for any length of time or they would come home and another family will have moved in.
We also went by where the Handel Messiah was first performed. It is the courtyard next to the George Fredrick Handel Hotel. There is a statue of Handel, makes him look like a Greek God!
We then went by Christchurch Cathedral. Very impressive Protestant church. This and St. Patrick's are both Protestant churches, not Catholic. I never really knew how bad it was for the catholic's here.
We ended our tour at the The Old Jameson Distillery. I left my group and went in and had lunch and bought a few souvenirs.
I had wanted to find the "hop on and off" tour bus, it is 16 euros for two days. Unfortunately I got lost and it took about an hour to find it. I did find it and got on and did not realize that the receipt was the ticket and proceeded to lose it. The wonderful bus driver, Kevin, when he was dropping me off at the Guinness Factory told me to talk to the supervisor in an hour. At that point I figured I would have to buy another ticket.
I went into the Guinness Factory. Took the tour and did my shopping. This place is several stories with the Gravity Bar at the top where you get your free pint at the end. I of course could not drink a whole pint and when I put my half drank glass on the counter a man looked at me and said "for shame" in his Irish accent :)
Went out of the factory and found the bus. The supervisor was not there but the nice driver Ann contacted the supervisor by phone and they wrote out a new ticket for me. At this point this was the last run of the bus so was just going to ride it back. The last stop was still away from Trinity College where I began and Ann said that she would be going home that way and I, and others could stay on and she would drop us off at the college.
Made my way back to the hotel, had a guinness with black currant and the. Headed to the Temple Bar district for dinner. My goal was to find a place that had traditional Irish music. You will see I stumbled on to Wynn's Hotel!! (my maiden name) I had to go inside. The doorman gave me a brochure, apparently secret meetings were held there during the Irish uprising. He also pointed me to a great place to eat. The Ashford Hotel they have music and Irish dancing.
I arrived there was no table near the stage so they let me set at the bar to eat and watch the show. I had chicken with Irish potatoes which was wonderful! Also a 1/2 pint of Guinness with black currant. I then met my friend Dermit! This gentleman decided I was the person he would spend his evening with. He owns a business that deliver heavy machinery to England. His ferry to Liverpool had been cancelled. He kept buying me my drink (Guinness and black currant) thinking I would get drunk, he didn't know my situation where I am sober in 15 minutes. Plus I nursed the drinks all evening. After a wonderful show and lots of fun talking to Dermit I had to leave! I walked fast back to my hotel, called my hubby and mom then went to bed :)
I am running about a day behind on the blog. It takes forever to upload the pictures, please check back as I will be adding more to each day as I have wifi available!
Tomorrow ... Teresa's not fun driving in Ireland!
- comments
Kathy Sounds like you are having a fabulous time! :)
karen I would give near anything to see the band you took a picture of...a real Celtic band...mayhaps I must go to Ireland to find my muse ..your stories are delightful. Live, Love, Laugh...... Cerrigan..