Dublin

With May bank holiday upon us it was time to get out of town again. Although this time we went off in the other direction to the Emerald Isle, Dublin to be exact. Upon landing we were introduced to something which became a feature of our holiday...rain. This wasn't the weak little rain we have become accustomed to in London, this was proper big fat heavy rain like you get in New Zealand. That's why both NZ and Ireland are so green. After checking in to our hotel we made our way across the Liffey and in hunt of something we could do indoors. We made our way down to Trinity College, home of Irish academics and the Book of Kells. It is a 1200 year old book which contains many passages from the new testament along with detailed illustrations and calligraphy. They have done a good job of presenting it along with a large exhibition explaining the book so less enlightened people, such as ourselves, can actually understand what we are looking at. After a look at the book we popped our heads outside to see if the rain had stopped. It had eased, but not stopped. We went for a walk up Grafton Street (the shopping street, but not any more exciting than what you get in London) and found a local pub where we could indulge in our first Guinness of the trip as well as trying out some Smithwick's Irish Red Ale. Not too bad. People always say Guinness is better in Ireland, but to be honest we couldn't tell the difference...With the rain largely gone for the time being we then went for a walk around the rest of the central town, discovering that it wasn't exactly huge. We paid a visit to St Patrick's Cathedral (yes the Irish one) which felt like more of a museum than a working church. It was full of plenty of history about Dublin and the church itself including a door with a hole in it, where a man had put his arm through after being besieged for a very long time and made peace with his besiegers. After a short walk we found ourselves back at our hotel. It was getting late so we made our way over to the Temple Bar area on the hunt for dinner and then quickly made our way away again after seeing the drunks and the hen and stag parties everywhere and so made our way to St Stephens Green, a nice little park at the end of Grafton Street. It looked like a nice neighbourhood where we hoped to find some nice restaurants. Alas, after much searching we found nothing at all we wanted to eat. We made our way back towards Grafton Street and found a street full of nice looking restaurants and were ultimately very happy with our meals. Local seafood and good wine. Can't loose with that combination.

The next day we went for a wander through Dublin again looking for some inside activity to avoid the rain. We decided to go for a walk around Dublinia, a sort of London Museum for Dublin. It is basically the history of Dublin from pre-historic times up until present. You could see it was largely targeted towards kids but there was a good balance between games and interactive activities (including the scary video face man) and actual information. Overall it was a good way to spend a couple of hours. It is also housed in Christchurch Cathedral which is somewhat more impressive than its South Island counterpart. There was a local arts festival on around some of the streets so we went and checked that out. It had a Cuba Street sort of feel to it and after checking out one of the markets we were off to THE tourist attraction in Dublin, the Guinness Brewery. Been a while since we last visited a brewery. It was in a bit of a seedy part of town but once we made it there and got our tickets we were off to learn all about the Guinness brewing process. The tour itself is in a giant pint glass up the middle of the factory. It was interesting but very similar to the Heineken tour we went on, only with more black and Toucans rather than green. We also learnt how to pour the pint of perfect Guinness and then of course drink it. We also checked out the view from the very top of the glass. You get a good view right across Dublin. Unfortunately there isn't all that much to see. It being our last night in Dublin we decided to see what Temple Bar had to offer in the way of food. Before eating we checked out some traditional Irish music in one of the pubs. I don't think Irish music is our thing but the hordes of American tourist seemed to be enjoying it. There wasn't much to say about the meal either. It was all perfectly fine, but we were happy to get out of Temple Bar and head back a couple of streets where we found some cool local bars which were much more enjoyable.

The next day we decided we had done our time in Dublin so jumped on the train and went south down the coast to the seaside suburb of Dalkey. After a stroll around the town and some lunch we went for a wander down what looked to be a walking path which eventually took us for a nice walk along the coast and then up through a park. If not for the stone walls and the castle at the top of the hill we could have been in New Zealand. It was great seeing some greenery and families out playing and looking out over the ocean. The rain even managed to hold off for us to give us a nice relaxing end to our Dublin holiday. With hindsight we probably should have spent less time in Dublin and done a bit more travelling around the rest of Ireland. Guess that is a good reason to come back?

Speaking of getting back we were lucky to get out of Dublin at all. It was right at the time when the Icelandic ash cloud was playing havoc with air travel. Flights were being cancelled left right and centre. Luckily ours took off but by the time we landed in Heathrow an hour later Dublin airport was closed...

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