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| The River Liffey |
We spent a week exploring the city of Dublin. We stayed in an apartment in the centre of town, mainly because the only campground in the area was nowhere close and I had a conference to attend.
The conference, if anyone is interested (!), was on CT Colonography and I actually really enjoyed it!! But enough about work...
Dublin is a really lovely city and very easy to explore. The central city is compact and has a great atmosphere, particularly when the Irish rugby team are beating the Aussies! Because a few of the sights are further out we did a bus tour, which we somehow got for free, and therefore was well worth it! Here's some of the things we saw along the way...
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| The Guinness Factory. I found out I actually quite like Guinness- who knew! |
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| The Grand Canal Docks with the new sports stadium in the background. |
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| The white building is where Oscar Wilde grew up. |
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| A slightly creepy statue of Oscar Wilde. |
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| Dublin's version of the London Eye. Not particularly impressive but I do like the name! |
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| Samuel Beckett Bridge |
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| The President's House. This is set in the enormous 707 hectare Phoenix Park, which was originally the royal deer park. The only other building there is the American Ambassador's Residence- they let them stay there because they were the first country to recognise the independence of the Republic of Ireland. |
We also visited Trinity College, mostly to see the Book of Kells. The Book is a manuscript created by Celtic Monks in approximately 800 AD. It contains the four gospels of the New Testament and is incredibly intricately illustrated and decorated. No photos were allowed of the book so here's a photo of a postcard...
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| Trinity College |
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| The Campanile, in Trinity College |
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| The Long Room at Trinity College. Absolutely beautiful with the most incredible number of books and a really interesting display of historical medical literature. And yes, this is a photo of a postcard! |
As usual we spent a lot of time walking around the city. To get to my conference though I had to take a bus. After asking for a bus map or timetable at the information centre I was told "No, there isn't one. It changes too often and it's too confusing anyway. Just tell us where you want to go!!" This seems to match up with the fact that out of the cities there are few street names or numbers and no postcodes. As we've been told "Why would we need them?
We know where we're going!"
Here are a few photos from wandering the streets...
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| The Post Office. A bit nicer than the ones at home I have to say. |
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| The River Liffey and the boardwalk on the left |
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| O'Connell Street with the Dublin Spire or Monument of Light to give it the official name |
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| A memorial to the Great Famine, in St Stephen's Green |
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| St Stephen's Green |
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| The name says it all. Unfortunately now he wont answer unless I call him The Morgan. |
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| Apparently this guy had been on this "island" for a couple of days, although he had to be taken off for safety reasons during the wee hurricane we had. I never quite figured out if he was there for protest or artistic reasons. |
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| The inside of a mall on the north side of the river. It was built in a previous tobacco storage building. It is known as the "Banquet Hall" because it was used for an enormous public banquet held in the mid-nineteenth century to celebrate those who fought in the Crimean War. |
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| The Remembrance Pool, dedicated to those who gave their lives for Irish independence. |
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| Molly Malone. |
We also visited the Leprechaun Museum.
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| The Giants Tunnel at the Leprechaun Museum. A very cool optical illusion where the tunnel looked the same diameter the whole way along but was actually bigger at one end than the other. |
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| One of the rooms at the Leprechaun Museum was fitted out with giant furniture. Great fun and very amusing watching all the girls try to get up without flashing too much thigh! That's probably why Morgan's grinning. |
We made the most of being in a big city and ate out a lot.
A lot. Amongst other things we tried Dublin Coddle, a tasty soup with sausages and potatoes, cuban/creole (mmmm hush puppies), Thai and a great bistro called Hugo's.
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| Dinner at Hugo's |
We may have drunk a little too....
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| Percy Pig Madness. |
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No pigs were harmed in the making of this picture.
Now, onward toward County Wicklow, water, fruit and vegetables.
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