UK & Ireland Trip Part Two: Dublin

BowlingWidow and I woke up on September 12th in Holyhead, Wales which was a good thing since that's where we went to sleep the night before. Plenty of time for an English Breakfast before we boarded the Stella Lines ferry to Dun Laoghaire, the small town where we stayed 8 miles south (and a short commuter train ride) of Dublin. From a quality perspective, the boat was somewhere in between our Washington State Ferries and a small cruise ship. It was a comfortable two-hour ride across the Irish Sea.

Sunday Market in Dun Laoghaire

We took a cab to Lynden B&B, although in reality we could have walked it. Upon checking in, we noticed that one of the stereotypical things we had heard about the Irish was coming to fruition: they do enjoy chatting you up. The friendly owner welcomed us and gave us a brief history of Ireland for 20 minutes before giving us our rickety old skeleton key to the room.

We headed off to lunch and found a place that had a nice roast beef carvery going for it, and along with some potatoes and vegetables, recorded the first of many pints of Guinness in Ireland (speaking strictly of myself here of course). As luck would have it, we found a nice Sunday market to stroll around and burn off some calories.

It was time board the DART train and conquer Dublin for the first time. Our initial impression of Dublin is that it's a grittier and more working class city than London is, although it's got every bit of the history (especially literary history) that London does and perhaps then some. The infrastructure is more worn down and its downtown workers are far less apt to wear a tie than in London.

Dining Room at the Lynden Bed and Breakfast

This takes us to the next two words: pub crawl! The theme of this particular crawl was Traditional Irish Music, as two talented musicians led us around Dublin's Temple Bar area (Temple Bar is to Dublin what The French Quarter is to New Orleans - or what Pioneer Square WANTS to be to Seattle). They performed at three different pubs in two hours, beginning at a place called John Gogarty's Pub, named after a local poet and author. This was a whole lotta fun as we had the pleasure of listening to instruments such as the fiddle and bodhran. When it was over, we had no idea where we were relative to the train station in the black night, so we took a cab to Pearse Station and hopped the DART back home.

Monday morning we made our way downstairs to enjoy a nice Irish Breakfast made by our hostess Maria. This consisted of eggs, sausage, bacon, porridge and...yes...blood pudding. We put the brakes on when it came to the blood pudding. Any dish with the name "blood" in it is guaranteed not to make the culinary cut on our list.

Dublin Traditional Music Pub Crawl Scene

Back to Dublin, this was a big sightseeing day for us. We visited Trinity College (founded in 1592) and took the informative hour-long tour given by one of the witty students. Trinity is where the famous Book of Kells is at, so we couldn't resist a glance. Next door is the almost-as-well-known Long Library Room with its two story high shelves of books, most of which were obviously bound a REALLY long time ago. For any library employees reading this, Bowling Widow wants to add that they shelve the books by size: big books on the bottom and small books on top.

Hungry for lunch, we stopped for a sandwich at the Stag's Head. This is a well preserved pub that was built in 1770 and contains a great deal of Victorian mirrors for some reason. Speaking of pubs, while I'm planning on devoting a blog post exclusively to "all things pub" (since much time on this vacation was devoted to the solid and painstaking research pertaining to what happens in a pub) but I do want to note one of the two best pub environments we encountered in the UK. If you are in Dublin, you *must* go to the Central Hotel Library Bar. There are no signs that will point you there. No advertisements. You probably won't find it in you guide book. Click on the hyperlink and check it out. Comfy, classy chairs and furniture. A delightful little bar in the corner. In short, a great place to take a rest from walking the streets of Dublin.

Street in the Temple Bar District of Dublin

Refueled, it was on to visit Dublin Castle a short walk away and the site of too many historical moments to mention (including some 20th century excitement) in this post. After the Castle, we crossed the Liffey River to the north into old town Dublin. And old town is quite a fitting description, we thought, as we walked along the quay. It has its own unique character but is definitely not the Dublin you'll see on the postcards.

It was nearing the end of a long day, so we thought it best just to stop at our new favorite place, Marks and Spencer, to get a wrap and a sandwich to go and eat them at the B&B that night.

September 14th would be our last full day in Dublin. It was also the exact date of our 25th anniversary and we awoke to howling wind and rain outside our window. Was it a sign? Nah, it didn't last and it turned out to be a fine day, although it did mark the end of seven straight days without any significant rain on this trip.

Back in Dublin, we took a long walk to Kilmainham Gaol (jail). This jail, now a local attraction, was built in 1796 making it a new building compared to most we had been in. This was prison for both debtors and those of the political variety. Many executions of Irish Republic leaders by the hands of the British took place within the walls of the jail. After looking at some of the cells and comparing it to a similar visit we made to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, we had to admit that relatively, Alcatraz would have been like staying at The Westin. At least in Alcatraz you got a bed and a hole for a toilet. At Kilmainham you slept on the floor and were issued a bucket that you did everything in - including eating out of. On a positive note though, I do need to point out that the size of the prison cells are actually larger than our B&B room at The Jesmond in London.

BowlingJoe: Dwarfed by the Gates of Guinness

And now for something completely different: The Guinness Storehouse. No trip to Dublin is complete without this. The Storehouse is not to be confused with the actual brewery. We aren't allowed in there. But the Storehouse did have some very nice artifacts of Guinness history both old and new that were there for perusal. The top floor of the Storehouse is The Gravity Bar where the black stuff can be consumed to sweeping views of the city. And, of course, we had to go to their huge gift shop for a few souvenirs that included some glasses and shirts.

View of Dublin from the Guinness Gravity Bar

On Wednesday it was time to say goodbye to Dublin and enjoyed one last Irish breakfast with a few others staying at the B&B. We realized that over the last three mornings we sat at tables with visitors from the Czech Republic, France, and Poland, respectively. And the conversations (or attempts at conversations) that ensue as a result are one of the things that makes travel what it is.

Next blog: the challenge of renting a car in Ireland and driving on the wrong side of their skinny little roads. Did we live through the experience? I'm not telling. Stay tuned.