The Americans have Landed
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2012
1
6
Trip End
Mar 28, 2012
Where I stayed
Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Our first adventure: taking a bus from the airport! It actually was pretty fun, since we were on the top deck of big double-decker bus, and Grace and I were giggling over Chris' Ireland hat and flag. Couldn't judge too much, though, b/c we all were pretty much decked out in green. We made landfall at Paddy's Palace, and set off over the River Liffey (our guidepost for the trip) to take in the sights.
The fist stop was Trinity College--we had a nice stroll around the quad, and then checked out the Book of Kells. Learning about the illuminated manuscripts was fun, but I must confess that seeing the Old Library was even more fun--it looked like something out of Beauty and the Beast, with its towering walls of leather bound books, and sliding ladders to visit them from. They also had the oldest harp in Ireland on display there (the harp being an historic symbol of the Isle).
Our next stop was Oscar Wilde's birthplace, one of my favorite playwrights (I starred as Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest in college, and my cousin Bob played the title role when he was in high school). The house is a simple row house, and is now used for university classrooms. Across the road was Merrion Square, which a friendly local suggested we go visit to see the Oscar Wilde statue (it's pink!). The park itself was lovely--kinda like a woodland bower. After exploring that a bit, we went in search of lunch, but since 11 am is too early for the Irishman, we had breakfast at nearby coffee shop, and Grace conquered an enormous porridge.
After scone-ing it up, we checked out a couple of the museums nearby. The natural history museum was small, but had some interesting skeletons of giant elk that were discovered in Ireland (and hey, anything for a photo op, right? :) Next we visited the national archaeology museum, and checked out some interesting exhibits on bog people, etc., although I was primarily drawn to the ancient jewelry they had displayed in the central lobby (shiny!!) We were pretty beat at this point, so we had a quick lunch and pint at a nearby hotel, and strolled back to our hotel for a nap. We walked the famous Grafton street along the way with its jostling shoppers, and got in some quality pics.
Feeling rested and refreshed(ish), we went in search of a Boots (to buy some forgotten toiletries) and Temple Bar. We had a nice walk along O'Connell street (another shopping promenade) and admired the Spire, a monument to the new Millennium. Finally we found the promised land: Temple Bar. It was packed, but we eventually found seats and enjoyed some live music, Guinness, and assorted snacks. Then on to the main event: dinner at Trinity Bar, which had the best fish and chips of the trip (in my humble culinary opinion). We capped off a stellar first day with shopping and gelato in the Temple Bar area--we weren't too ambitious about hitting the town hard on our first night, given our bus tour left at 8 am the next day. Soo worth it though--read on!
