Our Dublin Visit

We spent one week in Dublin, but overall we were not quite as enthralled with it as we thought we would be. We unfortunately did not experience the warmth and fun loving attitude we’d heard so much about with the exception of our taxi driver on our last day who was the embodiment of the type of person we’d thought we’d meet throughout Dublin. Most of the city was very fast paced, very young, and like most cities a little bit of an on-the-street busyness leading to a disconnect between people. However our 18-night stay in Cork on the southeast coast of Ireland sure made up for that (more on that in a later post).

Our Dublin visit starts with a few of the images from our journey from London to Dublin. We purchased a Rail & Sail ticket that included train travel from London’s Euston Station to the Holyhead ferry-port in Wales followed by the ferry trip to Dublin. Both the train and the ferry were surprisingly empty of other travelers. Even so we did meet another couple on the ferry that were from the USA that we talked with to help pass the time. The weather for the ferry crossing was great, and the views as we were entering Dublin Bay were magnificent.

The place we stayed in Dublin was out of the downtown area a bit, so we purchased a bus pass which allowed us to get around much easier – there was a bus stop only a couple of minutes from our front door which took us right into the center of downtown Dublin. So this next set of images includes some shots from our neighborhood as well as images of the young and very hip Temple Bar area of downtown Dublin.

Next up is our visit to the Dublin Castle which we only viewed from the outside and the Chester Beatty Library (no photos are allowed inside) which we totally loved, and if you’re ever in Dublin we encourage you not to miss this “free” 3 story exhibit (Judy’s review is on TripAdvisor under 2WorldGypsies) – it is an amazing collection of historic and artistic treasures of various cultures and religions from around the world that includes manuscripts, prints, icons, miniature paintings, early printed books, and art from countries across Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.

As folks who have been to Dublin know, two things you can’t miss are the River Liffey which flows right through the center of Dublin and the Guinness Storehouse which you almost have to visit whether you like beer or not, but it helps if you like their beer. So this next set of images includes bridges over the River Liffey as well as a few street scenes from downtown Dublin followed by our visit to the Guinness Storehouse (see our review on TripAdvisor under 2WorldGypsies).

And finally we get to the end of our week in Dublin with an afternoon in Phoenix Park, one of the largest public parks of its kind in any European capital city. We fell in love with the swans that we saw in several of the small lakes located in the eastern section of the park.