Flight

After planning our trip for one year, we opted for a red-eye flight to Dublin on Aer Lingus on Father's Day. It was our hope that the kids would sleep a little bit before our 11:00 AM Monday arrival. Our two school age kids were very excited about flying in a new plane (complete with green shamrocks) that had TV monitors on the back of each seat. This provided them with hours of entertainment and was a free baby-sitting service for us! None of us slept on the 10 hour flight, but we ended up catching a tail wind and arrived in Dublin one hour earlier than expected! The plane was completely full and we were served dinner, snacks and breakfast. We met a lady in the airplane from Dublin and we discussed our itinerary with her. She said that we had picked all the BEST places and that we couldn't go wrong.

Arrival

- As the plane landed, I shed a few tears. Ireland, at last! The temp. was 54 degree when we arrived and we breezed through security, baggage claim and customs. Where were all the tourist they warned us about? We also stopped at the ATM machine and got local currency. Next was a taxi drive into Dublin city centre (32 euro) to go to our hotel - Jury's Inn at Christchurch. The room was ready early as promised and we were all ready to crash. We thought we were getting a bedroom with a sitting room area, so we were surprised that both beds were in one room. Either way, the hotel was clean, very quiet (ask for a room away from the elevator) and in a perfect location for touring Dublin on foot. (116 euros per night )

Dublin First Day - (First Impressions / Temple Bar, Jet Lag )

After a two hour nap, we decided to stroll around the city centre area. We loved the cobblestone streets around the Temple Bar area and all the sights. We felt very safe. Dublin was much more multi-cultural that I had ever imagined. Where was the red hair and freckles? We saw several people with dreadlocks and many, many people smoking as they walked around the streets. This is just not done in CA. We found a good place to eat dinner - Elephant Castle. We had hamburgers, sandwiches and buffalo wings and our first Guinness to drink. We bought a few souvenirs and walked around a bit more. Since we were all suffering from jet lag, decided to make it an early night.

Dublin - 2nd Day - ( Book of Kells, Kilmainham Goal, Guinness Storehouse and more...)

We ate breakfast at the hotel - we opted for the ala carte menu ( about 6 euro) instead of the full Irish breakfast which was 12 euro. We started our day at the university to view The Book of Kells in the Trinity Old Library. There were only a few people in line and once again, we breezed through this fascinating centuries old exhibit. Later we got on the Hop On/Off bus and we thoroughly enjoyed the commentary and sites....but not the rain. Thank goodness for the wind breakers that we packed! The remainder of our day included a tour and history of the Kilmainham Goal (Jail) the Guinness Storehouse and lots of walking. At the Storehouse, we ignored Rick Steve's advise to skip the tour. Our school-age kids loved the tour. We all enjoyed the view of Dublin from the Gravity Bar on the top floor and we met fellow travelers there, so it was a fun time visiting with them. Dinner was a Gallagher's Boxty House and we decided to sample boxty. These potato pancakes were very tasty and we decided it was Ireland's answer to the enchilada. We enjoyed our first mini session of traditional music in the Temple Bar area on this night too.

Dublin- 3rd Day - (National Museum, National Gallery, St. Stephen's Green, Arlington Hotel)

Thanks to the forum readers, we knew about Applewoods Cafe for breakfast. It was a very short walking distance just right of the hotel entrance. There were two women cooking for the whole restaurant of about 5 tables. We loved the small-town feel, the friendly service, and the tasty food. We don't have restaurants like this at home, so it was a real treat. After breakfast we walked to the National Museum and did the self guided tour. Among other things, we saw the special exhibit on bog people. We had the place pretty much to ourselves until about noon when a group of uniformed school children descended upon us. Ah, finally some red hair and freckles! After the museum, we walked to the National Gallery. A special exhibit of Beckett was on display. You can read all about Beckett in the Aug. issue of Ireland of the Welcomes. Beckett was the 4th Irishman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Our afternoon included more walking around the various sites - O'Connell Street, Grafton Street, Merrion Square, St. Patricks Cathedral, Christchurch, Dublin Castle, Ha' Penny Bridge,etc. We did a little shopping and then headed to St. Stephen's Green. This is a 22 acre park with manicured grass, fountains and beautiful flowers. Dubliners simply call it "the green." It's a nice place for photos. On our last night in Dublin we visited the Arlington Hotel, which is across the Liffy River. We had heard by asking around that they had a trad music and dancing session every night. We went early for the dinner and stayed into the evening. There was one male dancer and about five women. This was such a terrific and very professional show and definitely among the highlights of our trip. We later bought a CD of Irish pub songs so we could enjoy these songs at home too.

As a side note, our kids were always welcome in the pubs -- at any hour. All in all, we enjoyed Dublin and thought our 2-1/2 days and 3 nights was plenty of time. We went to pick up our rental car on our final afternoon, so that we'd have it early the next day. The weather in Dublin remained cool and misty throughout our time there. No sun at all. Stay tuned for Kilkenny....[-- Edited by Irisheyes at 14:24, 2006-07-27

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