Our flight left PHL at 9:10pm and we arrived in Dublin Airport around 9am. Mom and George slept for a few hours, but Carol and I didn’t sleep much. We got our luggage, stood in a long customs line and took a taxi to the hotel. It was too early to check in, and they didn’t have our registration info at first. Fortunately our hotel is down the street from Trinity College and a few blocks from the Temple Bar district.

We decided to do the Dublin Go hop-on-hop-off bus tour and just stay on to understand the lay of the city. There were about 30 stops, and it was interesting since we didn’t know too much about Dublin. Everyone except me fell asleep at one point. We had to get off the bus half way through tochange busses on O’Connell Street (a main thoroughfare through the city), so instead of getting immediately back on, we went to find lunch – not a traditional Irish lunch, but bread, cheese, salami.

We didn’t stop to visit these places, many will be on our walking tough tomorrow. Some of the things we saw, and highlights included:

• Guinness storehouse (10 million classes of Guinness are consumed every day around the world)

Trinity college – old library and Book of Kell’s

Kilmainham Gaol – prison opened in 1796

Oscar Wilde’s birthplace

Phoenix Park

Many museums including Dublin’s little museum featuring a U2 exhibit, Museum of Modern Art, National Museum of Ireland, Irish Emigration Museum, National gallery, National Museum, Irish whisky Museum, Rock and Roll Museum

A few distilleries: Jameson, Teeling, Pearse Lyons, Ro & Co

Statues/monuments: Spire- tallest statue in the world, Famine memorial, Proclamation memorial– It features abstract and faceless bronze statues standing in a circle around a pillar, the words of their proclamation engraved into the metal. These eerily blindfolded statues each have an execution order or a verdict carved into their base, and their torsos are riddled with holes to represent where they were hit by the firing squad.

Christ Church cathedral, St. Patricks Cathedral

Temple Bar area, Grafton Street

Ha’penny Bridge, Samuel Beckett Bridge

After our tour was over, it was nap time, and we needed it. For dinner we decided to walk to the Temple Bar district and grab dinner. We found the Quays Bar an restaurant that looked interesting. While waiting for our table, we drank half pints. Mom, Carol and I had Orchard Thieves apple cider and George, a Hop House lager. We ate Irish beef Guinness stew, seafood chowder,Dublin Coodle (similar to bangers and mash), mussels, and a salad. All delicious.

After dinner, we walked down to the water (River Liffey), walked across the Ha’penny Bridge (30,000 people cross this a day). Enjoyed the beautiful fall temperatures, picturesque evening lit buildings along the water, and the people enjoying themselves at the pubs. As we walked back to the hotel, we thought we felt a drop of rain. Thankful for the weather today.