29 January, 2017

Dublin, Ireland

En Route to Dublin

7th of January, 2017

On our way from Cork to Dublin - via Limerick, we stumbled on the Barack Obama Plaza - a motorway service centre named after the current US President. I made sure to buys a fridge magnet to remember this momentous visit by.  They had a Barack Obama information centre where you could lean more about him - I'd only gone in for fuel, but I had to get the rest of the family in one I realised how bizarre this place was.  Obama actually had relatives (about five generations removed) in the area. One of the 'comments' painted on the wall of said 'we hope to find out what happened to the missing apostrophe in my surname...'. During my stay in Ireland, I've learnt to take things with a grain of salt, so I suspect that Obama didn't actually say that, but it sounds good anyway.




Our First night in Dublin

By the time we arrived in Dublin, it was about 2pm; unfortunately too early to check in at the hotel, so we lounged around the hotel for a bit, got settled in our room before heading to Temple Bar on the Luis - a tram system in Dublin. The Hop-on Hop-off bus guides all thought this was a bit of a joke - LUAS being Irish for Fast and the Trams are hardly fast...


One of the bridges across the Liffey River.




The Temple bar area of Dublin

The Temple Bar itself









7th - 10th of January, 2017



The Irish White House - home to the President

Gaelic Footballers warming up in the great park


Max & Jemima with a Leprechaun 



Guinness Factory

The Guinness Power station - should power fail in Dublin, at least the Guinness factory will continue to brew the black stuff.

The Wellington Monument - second tallest Obelisk in the world behind the Washington Monument was built to commemorate the Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington in 1861










Dublin Castle - which has been everything from a fort to a hospital to offices to a school over it's life.

A tribute to Oscar Wilde





The Book of Kells

For those that didn't know (like me!) the Book of Kells is a hand produced manuscript of the Old Testament produced by monks at the monastery at Kells in the ninth century. It's housed at Trinity College in Dublin.  We were a bit disappointed with what we saw of the Book itself.  The displays before the room where the book can be viewed was interesting and well done, but only two pages of manuscript were actually displayed - these pages were approximately A4 in size, so quite small. Photography is banned in the Book of Kells exhibition, so I have no photos of that, but upstairs in the library, available light photography is allowed and the following photos are of that.

You might be thinking that looks like the library at Hogwarts (Harry Potter) and you'd be right.  Some of the library scenes are shot at Trinity College library.

Max thought it hilarious that Trinity College should have a bust of Bacon!



Busts of famous Authors, Playwrights, Scientists and Philosophers.



Pop art at Trinity College


Some of the amazing sculptures around Dublin city



Churches - lots of churches (650 of them in fact)



Memorial to the Potato Famine


On the banks of the Liffey is a memorial to the many thousands who died or emigrated as a result of the Potato famine - seriously haunting statues.







Jemima trying her hand at creative photography.


What looked like real fish embedded in the pavement uplights near the potato famine memorial - I'm not sure why, but that there were there.


The Guinness Storehouse





Jemima was fascinated by the cooper's work and how they built their barrels to be water-tight without any nails, glues or bolts.



Having a break at the Guinness Storhouse


Max with one of the Guinness Tiny Trains

Some of the Guinness Marketing props

One a bit closer to home...


The cycling Fish


The whistling Oyster - make sure you have the sound turned up for this one

The Gravity Bar

At the end of the Guinness Storehouse tour, you get to the Gravity Bar - where your ticket entitles you to a Guinness :)
Satisfaction in a glass


The Gravity Bar has a really great view of Dublin


Max and I were the only ones to go up to the Gravity Bar - Jemima was feeling a bit peaked and was resting back down on level two.


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