Ireland

Today we had scheduled a day trip with Coastal Adventures.

Lucky for us we found the pick up spot and before long were headed to a lookout on the cliffs over Howth.

A photo stop was made with views of the lighthouse.

Howth harbor was the next stop – we were promised seals but I didn’t see anything but boats and seagulls.

It was still nice to be out of the city and near the ocean.

From here you can see the Irish eye which our guide explains is a small island that is usually the first thing people see when they fly in to town.

After the Harbor we are taken to Malahide castle for lunch and a tour. The castle area has a big park with flowers and gorgeous trees.

The castle tour took us thru several rooms with gorgeous wall carvings and medieval furniture. It was owned for 800 years by the Talbot family.

During the battle of the boyne all 14 in the family died after breakfast that day.

Beautiful daffodils in park near castle.


Trees on outskirts of park.
This was a lead into our visit to the Battle of the Boyne. This is one of the hugest battles in the history of Ireland. We had a brief walk on the battlefield and a movie, light show and walk around the exhibits.

We were back in town by 1630 and decided to see Marley and Me at the movies. If forgot this was a book about a dog and his family. OF course the movie doesn’t end well for the dog and I was streaming tears. Not really my goal for the movies.
Dinner was at a…..pub again! O’Shea’s was only a block away from our room and served decent enough food. By the time we left they had a band playing Irish music. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay long because we had to be at the airport very early.

Another plus with this bed and breakfast is the breakfast!! Afterwards we headed down by the pier and passed a monument to the immigrants during the potato famine.

Also along with water was a ship that was nicknamed a coffin ship because so many of the immigrants died. There was not enough food on the ship and hygiene was horrible.

Our route to Trinity college went by lots of cute doors which are famous in dublin.

The story goes that a drunken husband came home and went in the wrong door (back then they were all black). He went to bed with the wrong with whose husband came home and shot him. From then on the women painted their doors a different color so their drunk spouses could find the way home.

The book of Kells was inside the library of Trinity college and displays on 4 pages. The designs by the monks are gorgeous and its incredible how long it would take to do that on calf skin.

After checking out the book we walked around the grounds and came across a rugby game. Supposedly it was Trinity vs. a Paris school. It was fun to see the game up close and learn something about Irish sports.


Daffodils along our walk.

Trinity college
Later lunch was at the Boxty house. Boxties are pancakes with meats rolled inside with gravy. I had chicken and Curt had gaelic. They were expensive but awesome.

Temple Bar area.
Next was a walk past the Ha’Penny bridge (named because it used to cost half a penny to get across).

We walked along the River Liffy to the Guinness Storehouse.

The first few floors teach you about the brewing process and then ends with a beer at the Gravity bar on the 7th floor.

The view over Dublin is beautiful but of course the bar on the Saturday before St. Patricks day is very crowded.

The bar tenders make your guiness with a clover on top.

Unfortunately no sporting events were happening in Dublin this weekend but Ireland vs. Scotland was on tv in the pubs. We scored a table at a pub and had fish and chips which we watched Ireland go for the win.
A pub crawl was on the schedule next but where the limit is 50 people there were about 300 +. Everyone could not even get in the first pub so we gave up that idea and hit another one by ourselves.

Today is the day I have been dreading – I leave the 20’s and enter the 30’s. For most of today we were traveling to Dublin, Ireland. We got a Ryan Air flight from Frankfurt Hahn and arrived in Dublin airport by 1900. A short bus ride later we arrived at our bed and breakfast, The Townhouse. The place was adorable and very irish with green walls and black carpet with huge roses.
O’Connell Street is one of the main roads in Dublin and that’s where we headed for dinner at Flannagans. I had pizza and french fries to celebrate my birthday The place was already crazy for St. Patricks day and everyone was wearing green or St. Patricks day costumes.

Me on the Ha' Penny Bridge.