The Best of Britain and Ireland -- Day Ten

The following is my journal entry (with pictures added) for Day 10 of my vacation to Britain and Ireland.

Today is Bank Holiday, so a lot of the stores, cafes and attractions are closed.

We started the day with a short bus tour around the city. We saw the sites around Eire's capital, which included the statue lined O'Connell Street, the elegant Georgian Squares, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and other interesting buildings.

Christina telling us about Dublin.

The Custom House


Trinity College Chapel


Grafton Street and the Molly Malone Statue
Molly Malone is the girl featured in Dublin's unofficial anthem...In Dublin's Fair City. There is even a Molly Malone day on June 13.

Government buildings on Merrion Street



Some of the famous Doors of Dublin.



Fitzwilliam Square West



St. Patrick's Cathedral


Flowers on the grounds of St. Patrick's Cathedral



Christ Church Cathedral


My only picture of the Dublin Castle (but it's only a corner)



Wellington Monument



National Museum of Ireland



Along the River Liffey



Supreme Court of Ireland



St. Ann's Church -- The church in the heart of the city

We were dropped off down town and left to explore Dublin at our leisure. We walked to Saint Stephen's Green Park, the largest garden/park in Dublin. We walked around there for a while, as it was very beautiful and very peaceful.

The inscription of this statue says "With gratitude for the help given to German children by the Irish people after World War II". Signed Roman Herzog, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, 3/23/1997

After we left St. Stephan's Green, we found some shops (and we bought some cute hats there. I can't wait for winter to return so I can wear my new hat!) We decided to walk back to our hotel instead of wait for the bus. We walked through the streets of Dublin, around Trinity College (Ireland's oldest college), back to O'Connell Street to take better pictures of some of the statues, and continued down the River Liffey to our hotel.

Trinity College (where the Book of Kells is displayed. This illustrated Gospels book in Latin is widely regarded as Ireland's finest national treasure. We didn't go see the book because the entrance fee was really expensive, but we did take a picture of the outside of the building)

Church of St. Andrew with the Pearse Street Train Station next door

D'Oiler Street and Hawkins Street

The building between Pearse Street and Townsend St. I find these corner buildings fascinating.



Crossing over the River Liffey



O'Connell Street (Europe's widest street) with the Spire of Dublin (the world's tallest sculpture)

A better picture of the Custom House. Notice the bicycles in the foreground. Dublin has a great system to rent bicycles. These areas are all over the city. It seems very convenient.

On the river is an awesome piece of art to commemorate the Irish Famine. There are several statues of people and a dog walking along the river toward the docks. These people are starving and look frail and thin. It is incredible to look at. I took several pictures from different angles, but pictures do not do it justice.

Apparently, there are several memorials about the great famine around Ireland. This is just one of them.

We couldn't do a lot of the touristy things because they were closed today (UPDATE: We found out after we left Dublin that the Dublin Castle was open. Too bad...I would have loved to tour that castle!!)

We returned to our hotel in the early afternoon and rested until dinner. We didn't do the optional excursion to the Guinness Factory, so we were on our own pretty much the whole day and night.

The morning we put the DO NOT DISTURB sign on our hotel room door (since our laundry was hung up around our room). When we arrived back, there was one towel and a bag of coffee/tea refill items waiting for us by the door. Our other towels were being used or were on the floor, so we needed one more towel for our showers the next morning. We decided to ask for another towel later.

We rested, napped, watched TV, and caught up in our journals for most of the afternoon. At dinnertime, we headed back out to try our luck at a local restaurant. In the hotel hallway, a door was open to the maid's closet. There was a stack of towels in there. We looked up and down the hallway and I ran in, grabbed a towel, and ran out again. We raced back to our room to deposit our "stolen" item (it certainly felt like we stole the towel, even if it stayed within the walls of the hotel). However, we were almost caught when Christina (our tour director) walked out of her room. Luckily, she was walking away from us and didn't see what we were doing. :)

After our little brush with "danger", we finally left the hotel in search of a restaurant. We found an Italian restaurant (not the one I fell by yesterday) called Milano's. It's about a block from the hotel, so we didn't have to walk far. Yesterday it was jammed full of concert goers; today it was practically empty. We had really good meals...Kelli had cantaloni and I had a veggie pizza. The pizza had the middle cut out and a salad placed in the hole. I thought it was a great idea!!

We took it easy the rest of the evening and made it an early night. We were both exhausted.

Both Kelli and I have been most anticipating Ireland. Just seeing Dublin, we are a little let down so far. Dublin is not our favorite city on this tour so far (that honor goes to Edinburgh). Tomorrow we leave the city to start our tour around the country. We will experience a lot, so there is still high hopes for Ireland. One of the places I've been most looking forward to is the Cliffs of Moher. We will see it tomorrow....I can't wait!

One thing of note: Today was the coldest day yet. We've enjoyed very nice weather the whole trip so far. It's rained a couple of times, but always while we were inside the bus or a hotel. But of the time it's been sunny and beautiful.