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Well, we’re finally moved back into our house and have an internet connection here, so let’s see if I can get this trip finished off! 

Dublin is certainly a big city, but it is definitely light on famous, must-see sights.  This fit in excellently with the rest of our vacation because we were able to pick a few things of interest here and have a slow-paced city visit, something a bit unusual for us!  We’re used to rushing about and STILL not hitting everything we’d like to see.

We started our day with another full Irish breakfast at our hotel before heading over to Trinity College for a campus tour and a look at the famous Book of Kells.  Trinity College was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I and is still Ireland’s most prestigious institute of higher education.  As you probably know, Ireland is a predominantly Catholic country, and Trinity was designed to promote Protestantism.  The original student body was wealthy, Protestant, and male.  Women were admitted in the early 1900′s, and Catholics were finally officially admitted in the 1970′s, although there had been “special” admissions of Catholics long before. 

Trinity is everything one might expect from a grand, old, European college…beautiful architecture, grim statues, shining greens, cobbled paths, great stories.  Trinity College students offer 30-minute campus tours during the school year, so we joined the first one of the day.  Our guide, Stephen, a history major, was witty and clever and gave a great overview of this famous college.

At the end of the tour, Stephen left us at the Trinity College Library, home to the famous Book of Kells, one of Dublin’s greatest treasures.  The Book of Kells is a lavishly decorated copy of the four gospels, dating from the late 800′s.  There is a great exhibit on how the Book of Kells would have been created and decorated, leading up to the display of four pages from the actual book.  It is amazing and beautiful…and, of course, I could take no photos!

Afterwards, we took a brief wander through the rest of the library, with its soaring bookcases, stuffed with very old manuscripts, none of which can actually be checked out.  I guess you could say this place was a former English teacher’s dream, yet another thing I once taught and now got to see!

After Trinity College, we made the long walk to the Guinness Storehouse, the pint-glass-shaped building where we learned the history and method of making Ireland’s most famous export.  As with the Jameson tour, we did not go through the actual brewery.  (I’m thinking there must be some health regulations that prohibit that.)  But we did get an extensive look at what goes into brewing Guinness, culminating in a “free” pint of the dark stuff at the end.  (I use “free” loosely, since we paid a pretty steep admission fee!)

Arthur Guinness started brewing here in 1759.  He signed a 9,000-year lease for the property, at the cost of 45 pounds per year.  Think about that a minute…this truly has to be the bargain of the millennium!  We got to look at it, sealed under glass on the floor.

 

We then proceeded up the pint glass, spiral style, checking out the grain…

…the pure spring water…

…and the top-of-the-line hops (which I did not photograph) that makes Guinness so amazingly good.  In case you hadn’t picked up on it, this museum was truly one large commercial for Guinness!

We decided to eat lunch at one of the several restaurants on-site; the one we picked had a kids’ menu, and the prices were not as high as one might expect.  The kids had their old standard, chicken tenders and fries, and Jeff and I had soup and sandwiches.  Thus fortified, we headed to the Gravity Bar at the top for our free pint.

The kids got soft drinks, and Jeff and I each got the house special, complete with a shamrock in the foam, compliments of our friendly Irish barmaid.  It takes two minutes to pour a pint of Guinness, so the kids and I meandered about the bar, checking out the views of the city.  Dublin is definitely not the most scenic of towns!

Jeff finally arrived with our drinks, and Charlotte snapped this picture.

I then proceeded to take about two sips, and I was done.  Guinness tastes like dirt, in my humble opinion.  Bleh!  But at least I tried it!  So far, I was oh-for-two on Irish alcohol specialties!

After the Guinness Storehouse, we headed to the nearby National Museum of Decorative Arts and History.  We had not planned many hard-core educational activities in Dublin (or the entire vacation, for that matter), but Jeff and I did want to see a display on the Irish quest for independence, and the guidebook said that this museum had a good, free one.  We spent about 30 minutes wandering through the exhibit called “The Road to Independence,” before the kids and we had had enough.

By this time, we were tired of walking, so we decided to take the tram back over toward Grafton Street and Merrion Square, where we checked out the statue of Sweet Molly Malone at one end of the former…

…and of Irish writer Oscar Wilde in the latter.

Inspired by my clambering up the rock to sit with Oscar, the kids decided they needed to do so, as well.  I love the picture of poor Charlotte clinging to his leg!  That rock was pretty slick.

Afterwards, we wandered about Merrion Square, eventually locating a playground, where the kids played and Jeff and I figured out where we were going for supper.  We also walked the nearby street famous for its Georgian doors, brightly painted and not a one of them the same.

So now we come to supper.  I wanted a place that was very Dublin, with a kids’ menu, great food, and a bit of character.  I’ll show you what we settled on, so I don’t actually have to mention the name.

Why did we pick such a place, you might ask?  Believe it or not, it was guidebook-recommended and had terrific prices.  It was very kid-friendly (despite the dubious name, although the kids took the donkey at face value…this place loved double entendres).  Plus, do you remember Irish rock singer Sinead O’Connor?  She worked here back before she got famous.  So, this place fit all of my criteria!

Jeff ordered some buffalo wings as an appetizer here that were just as spicy as any we could get in the US, and we both ordered the fish and chips.  Very good!

After supper, we went for a stroll down O’Connell Street, Dublin’s best promenade, due to its wide pedestrian median and many statues and landmarks.  Here are a few.

This is the Millennium Spire, a 390-foot tall, stainless steel monument to…nothing.  No kidding.  Dubliners are pretty disgusted with this, as it cost 5 million euros.  I guess it looks nice.

This is the General Post Office, where the 1916 Easter Rising was kicked off.  Rebels holed up here for five bloody days, and you can still see bullet holes in the facade.

There are also several statues of Irish heroes and at the far end is a beautiful Garden of Remembrance for those killed in the Easter Uprising.  It was closed on this particular night, but we revisited it the next morning before leaving.  There is a cross-shaped pool at the base of the statue, and in the bottom of the pool are mosaics of Celtic weapons.  When the Celts would proclaim peace with another group, they would toss their weapons in a river or lake, so this pool represents the hope that Protestants and Catholics can set aside their differences and live together in peace.

And by the end of our stroll, we were bushed!  Fortunately, we were also close to our hotel, so back we went to get our stuff packed up in preparation for our flight home the next day.

The next morning, Saturday, 18 July, we ate our last full Irish breakfast, made sure that our room was packed up, and headed out one last time to check out the Garden of Remembrance and to swing by the Dublin Writers’ Museum.  Of course, we packed up the camera, so no great shots of the Garden!  I wanted to look for a book of Oscar Wilde epigrams in the bookstore of the Museum, but, alas, it did not open until a full hour after the museum.  Grrr.

So we consoled ourselves by stopping at the biggest, tackiest, touristy, souvenir place in Dublin, Carroll’s Irish Gift Shop.  I found an amusing t-shirt, Charlotte got a postcard, and Jeff found a hat.  All in all, not a bad stop!

Then, it was back to the hotel, where we checked out and lugged our luggage to the bus stop right across the street.  We had decided that the bus was the easiest and most economical, if not the fastest, way back to the airport from the hotel. 

But as we stood there waiting, a taxi pulled up, and the driver offered to take us to the airport for 20 euros.  The fare is usually 25 to 35 euros, so Jeff and I hastily scrabbled through our money to see if we had enough left.  (We had been running ourselves out of euros in anticipation of not needing them anymore!)  We did have enough, so we threw our bags in the trunk, piled in the car, and had an enjoyable 10-minute taxi ride with a talkative, friendly Dubliner, instead of an hour-long bus ride.  And Charlotte fulfilled her wish to ride in an Irish taxi!

Fantastic!

A couple hours and a lunch at Burger King later, we boarded our plane for Chicago.

And our great adventure had officially come to an end.

Sigh.

And I believe that Chez Wilkes is about at an end, as well.  But I will post at least one more time to say goodbye!