Oh Ireland. Oh Dublin.
What surprises you would have in store for us today.
Getting teenagers out of bed to do sightseeing has run its course. It is now bordering on Chinese water torture to get either of them moving barring utter bribery with something.
We showered and got out the door eager to see Dublin city. We contemplated the Hop on Hop off bus that picks us up outside of the hotel but we were 30 minutes west and had a tour at the Gaol ( pronounced jail ) at 1015.
We headed north first to the laundromat where we dropped off an entire backpack of dirty clothes to be washed. For 14 Euro they washed dried and folded the clothes ready for pickup the next morning.
We left there and headed East towards downtown but couldn't get he to work. We made a couple wrong turns and ended up on the M50 interstate which wasn't good.
At the next overpass, we got up and went East looking for a crossroads to get to the prison period eventually we found the street we needed but had to make one illegal U-turn in order to get going the right direction and two minutes later we arrived at the jail period what a surprise and complete blessing! We grabbed a bagel and hot chocolate for breakfast across the street. We lined up and into the jail we went.
The only way to get a tour of the jail want to book tickets online and they were booked up a couple weeks in advance. Because it was the 100 year anniversary of the 1916 revolt, everyone on the planet wanted to come to Dublin to see the jail. The gym with self always a little impressive but not extraordinary in any way shape or form period the most interesting part of the tour was all the information about all the different uprisings in Ireland in their attempt to be independent from Britain. Between that and the great potato famine, there were a lot of people going in and out of the jail for many years.
The tour wrapped up and we jumped in the car and drove off to the Guinness storehouse about 7 minutes away. We found some free parking a couple blocks away and left the car there for the entire day.
We wanted to go on the hop on hop off bus tour which start right in front of the Brewery. We purchased are tickets from the bus driver for a good price of 38 Euros because they gave us a discount at the Brewery. We entered the brewery and discovered a giant Warehouse 6 stories tall with a tap room on the 7th story when you had a 360 degree view of Dublin period we went floor2floor learning how the beer was made and all sorts of information about the Guinness family including the 21 children they had.
On one floor we got a little sample shot glass and learned the Irish cheer - Slainte - pronounced slantcheh meaning good health.
We watched videos and even got to pour our own pint! Krista Hayes beer so I ended up with two pints while the boys each got a Coke.
We wanted to get the bus tour started so I downed both my beverages and onto the bus we got.
It was a little overcast them sunny them it rained off and on for an hour - similar to Calgary- if you don't like the weather, just wait 15 minutes...
We toured around the city listening to the hilarious announcer Trevor recite history on everything imaginable and poke fun of many things and had us laughing hysterically.
He asked if anyone wanted to get off at the Modern art gallery as the last time someone wanted to was 1986. There was no one so we all had a laugh! He told tales of Oscar Wilde, James Joyce and George Bernard Shaw - birthplaces and hangouts. It was am overwhelming amount of info but well worth the 38 Euro for the day. We hopped off downtown as one of us needed a washroom badly. We granted a quick butte to eat and went shopping to find some shoes for the wedding.
After wandering through some shops, we found a pair for me. We wandered back to the bus and continued for another hour before arriving back at our car. All our phone batteries had died and we didn't have a car charger so we struck out for home at t Jr e hotel without a working GPS.
BAD IDEA!
INSTANTANEOUSLY LOST! !
We pulled over to a McDonald's and gas station and asked the counter girl to charge the phone while we grabbed a bite to eat. We left half an hour later and made it back to the hotel with ease.
We got everything packed and ready for tomorrow as we had an early start making our way south to see everyone for the wedding!!
No comments:
Post a Comment