A blanket of very heavy, thick fog greeted us on our last morning in Dingle. Not exactly the way we wanted to spend the four our drive back to Dublin. This was really the first less-than-awesome weather we’d seen on the trip, so we couldn’t complain. We arrived in Dublin in the early afternoon, and were so very happy to be rid of our rental car once and for all! We made our way from the airport to our hotel; then, we regrouped for the evening.
We decided to start our time in Dublin off right with a music pub crawl. This turned out to be the best thing we did while in Dublin. If you’re going, book your tickets in advance at: www.musicalpubcrawl.com. We met at a local pub, got a beer,
and listened as two very talented local musicians explained various types of Irish music, instruments, and the Irish music scene in Dublin and around the country. Then, we moved to another pub, got another beer, and learned a little more before repeating this process at two more pubs.
By the end of the night, we had sampled a wide variety of beers, visited four pubs, learned A LOT about Irish music, and had a list of pubs where music sessions were going to be happening in the days to follow. We stopped at one such music session before making our way back to our hotel for the night.
The next morning, we hopped on the bus and headed for the Guinness Storehouse. We learned all about the history of the Guinness brand, and Chris even learned how to pour a perfect pint.
We finished the tour in their sky-high bar which boasts some of the best views in Dublin. Any country that puts a beer in my hand before 10am is all right in my book.
Our next stop of the day was the Kilmainham Gaol (Jail). The jail was built at the end of the 18th century as a debtors prison, but was most frequently used to hold political prisoners. Ireland was actively fighting for independence from England for most of the prison’s 100+ year life span, and the British liked to lock up rebel leaders here.
Today, the jail is a museum dedicated to those who fought, and eventually won, independence for Ireland. The only way to tour the jail is through a guided tour. Our tour guide was quite the story teller and really had a knack for bringing the people who once inhabited the jail to life.
A quick bus ride landed us at the gates of the well-known Trinity College. Students of the college give guided walking tours of the campus nearly every day. Our “student” guide was actually a philosophy professor studying for is PhD in Physics (we didn’t get it either). He looked every bit the crazy philosophy professor you’re imagining in your head, but he did a great job taking us through the campus history.
Our tour ended with a look into the Trinity College Old Library and the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript of the four gospels written by Irish monks sometime in the late eight century. While the Book of Kells was amazing, the library itself was even more so. The English have a thing for beautiful libraries, and we enjoyed peeking into several during our two-week tour.
We finished our day with a walk through the Temple Bar area, taking in the sights and shopping for souvenirs, before grabbing a quick dinner of fish and chips at a pub near our hotel.
We attempted an early bed time in preparation for our 6am flight the next day. However, the sun was out until well after 11pm, so it was a little difficult to get to sleep.
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