Ireland, Part Two

November 23, 2012

After a much needed night of sleep, we got up and walked toward the city centre. The streets are pretty with great architecture, so although we walked a lot, the walks were pleasant. Here's a view of Pembroke Road.

We had breakfast at Insomnia (mine included a fantastic lemon and white chocolate muffin). We browsed the shops around  Grafton Street and found a very American-esque mall. In fact, there was a T.G.I. Friday's out front, which was interesting. And no, we did not eat there.

We also walked around St. Stephen's Green.

It was interesting to walk around the park and read the inscriptions on the statues. There's a lot of history there. As you can see, it's a pretty place.

After exploring Stephen's Green, we decided to walk to Dublin Castle.

This is right outside of St. Stephen's Green.

On our walk to Dublin Castle. There are a lot of shops and pubs everywhere.

I loved looking at all the wonderful architecture everywhere.

So we made it to Dublin Castle. We had a look around Dubh Linn Garden. The history is amazing. This was the original site of the dubh linn, or dark pool. As you may have guessed, this is where the name Dublin comes from. Where the River Poddle used to join the River Liffey, a dark pool formed. This is also where the Vikings settled.

The entrance to Dubh Linn Garden.

And the inside of the garden. So much history.

So either fortunately or unfortunately, the interior of the Dublin Castle was closed that day due to a government event. Because we were unable to tour the inside, they were doing free tours of the Medieval undercroft area. Umm, yes, count us in for that one.

We got to go into the undercroft area and learn about how some archways were closed off with bricks during the black death in 1348. There were a lot of interesting historical facts learned on our tour. Apparently, Bram Stoker worked for the Irish government writing tax codes. Fittingly, he then wrote Dracula later in his career.

Our tour concluded in the courtyard of the castle.

There used to be Irish Crown Jewels. They were stolen from somewhere in here in 1907. They're still missing.

You can kind of see Lady Justice at the top of this one. She's not blindfolded and the scales did not balance due to rain water accumulating faster on one side. Apparently they drilled holes in the bottom so that they wouldn't immediately become unbalanced every time it rains (you may have heard that it rains a lot in Ireland).

By the end of the tour, it was pretty much dark.

We decided to walk around Temple Bar, which is a touristy area with a lot of pubs.

We walked by here. It was fun to see my name on things.

We stopped into The Auld Dubliner and had some pints. They were playing live music and we heard "Whiskey in the Jar" and "Molly Malone" among others.

The Temple Bar area.

Afterward, we started the long walk back to our hotel. It was a busy Friday night with lots of people out and about. We did some shopping along the way.

We ate dinner at The Dubliner, which was conveniently attached to our hotel. The hubs had shepherd's pie, which I bravely tried, despite the fact that I don't like lamb. As I expected, I was not fan. However, I did definitely enjoy my fisherman's pie.

Overall, we did a lot of walking this day. We explored several areas of the city and had a great time. I absolutely became enamored with Dublin. Stay tuned for Part Three!