Dublin

Our long weekend in Dublin

Night 0

After a short flight we took the bus into the city, a surprisingly easy experience. The photo shows the Samuel Beckett Bridge seen while walking to our hosts' apartment (AirBnB) along the River Liffey

Our first beers at Quays in the Temple Bar area (Guinness of course). We met some very nice Irish folks who first asked "Why are you here?"

Day 1

Garden outside our hosts' window

Their apartment, great place to stay for a weekend!

River Liffey in the morning, with the cool harp bridge in the background next to the Jeanie Johnston Ship (which is a museum)

Jon loves posing for photos

As fans of breakfast, we were very excited to try an 'Irish breakfast' - at Kilkenny Shop/Restaurant near Trinity college

Next we went to the Book of Kells at Trinity College. We didn't take photos in the exhibit, but below is an idea of what it looks like. It was truly beautiful and very impressive.

After the exhibit, you are lead into the Long Hall, a beautiful library. The library is entitled to receive a copy of every book published in Ireland, making it a very large library. 

Busts along the stacks

It was a really beautiful library

For some reason this was included in the library...

Now back to old books

I went a little crazy taking photos, but I figured I should throw one in with one of us.

Walking around Trinity College

Daffodils were blooming everywhere! 

We saw something on the map called 'Science Gallery,' so of course we had to go investigate. It was a really neat science museum/exhibition at the college. The theme was Fail Better - the idea that failures can bread innovation. This photo shows an incubator made from car parts and the light (but less-than-sturdy) shoes of a hiker. The incubator was developed for communities without access to new medical equipment but with many car mechanics. It failed because the local doctors/people did not think it looked good and did not want to put babies into a weird collection of car parts. The exhibit was also neat because most of the collection was hung from connected beams attached to the ceiling.

The strangest invention of the exhibit.

It's a birthing machine. It looks totally crazy, but definitely check it out at their website. This is the only one that was every built, and it was crafted by set builders specifically for the exhibit (no, it doesn't work). This is their description:

In 1965, George and Charlotte Blonsky, a married couple living in New York City, were granted US patent #3216423 for an “Apparatus for Facilitating the Birth of a Child by Centrifugal Force”. When a woman is ready to deliver her child, she lies on her back on a circular table. She is strapped down. The table is then rotated at high speed. The baby comes flying out. This is intended to “assist the under-equipped woman by creating a gentle, evenly distributed, properly directed, precision-controlled force, that acts in unison with and supplements her own efforts”.
Though meticulously and lovingly engineered with safety features to protect both mother and child, the device never made it into general use. Few people other than the Blonskys perceived the need for it. Their method stands rather outside most birthing traditions. Their mechanism is expensive and complex. Also, the tiny net designed to catch the child may be inadequate to the task.
The Blonskys, though childless, loved children. Their idea was conceived during a visit to the Bronx Zoo. They noticed an elephant that was slowly spinning in place. A zookeeper (wrongly) told them that’s what elephants do prior to giving birth. The Blonskys were posthumously awarded an Ig Nobel Prize for their invention in 1999. They and the invention inspired an opera, The Blonsky Device, that premiered in 2013.

After the Science Gallery we headed to a nearby pub to catch the rugby match (Six Nations: Ireland vs. Italy). It was an especially important game because one of their star players, Brian O'Driscoll, retired. It was a great match and fun to  be surrounded by huge fans and great beer at Porterhouse. 

We walked through St. Stephen's Green after the game, waiting for our evening activities to begin. Really beautiful park, would be a nice place for a picnic.

We decided to stop for a coffee and some sweets, again, Jon loves being in photos. There is a chain of coffee shops called Insomnia, not to be confused with the Insomnia in LA.

Our evening activity: Literary Pub Crawl. These were our hosts, good actors and funny guys. We started at The Duke, and went to 3 other bars with comic, educational, and literary stops in between.

Pub 2: O'Neills (we also went to the Palace Bar, but I didn't take any other photos)

One of the stops (they acted out a scene that would have been typical of the day)

Day 2

The next day we took a half day trip to Howth, a fishing village about 1/2 hour north of Dublin. It was a great recommendation from our hosts, we'd recommend it to anyone.

Interesting shop - babies and robots?

The few paths you can take to tour around the area (you start at the top of the map)

It was a beautiful area, started out cloudy, but just wait...

Beginning to climb up hillside

We stopped to get a cup of coffee at the Cliffside Cafe and were met with three great dogs. The two big ones are Great Danes and were very interested in us until it was obvious we weren't going to share our coffee. The third can be seen on the left, it was a tiny poodle-like dog. He likes to follow the yellow Dane around everywhere, it was pretty cute.

Sun comes out! (our view from the cafe)

Sun in our eyes and spot on my phone camera lens

So beautiful

Sometimes reminded me of hiking in Northern California

I am not sure why the colors are all off - I was trying to capture the mist coming off the sea

Fire

There was a car half hidden in the hillside

Meandering back around through the very nice homes at the top of the hill

Back in town we (of course) sat down with some Guinness and very fresh seafood

Once back in Dublin, we headed to the National Museum, which is next to the National Library

The building itself was really beautiful - the floors and ornate wood doors

Interesting columns and ceiling

We saw the Viking exhibit and an exhibit on things found in the bogs around Ireland. Among the things found were 4 very preserved bodies (or parts of bodies), with hair, nails, and skin still attached. It was creepy and fascinating at the same time. 

We stopped at a market quickly and found this... 1) why? and 2) no we didn't buy it

For dinner we ate at a great Irish restaurant called Gallagher's Boxty House. I forgot to take photos of our food (travesty I know), but no worries I found some on the internet. mouth watering?

They are known for a few dishes, this is beef wrapped in Leitrim Boxty Pancake (potato pancake). Photo from here.

Three stew combo - amazingly good. Photo from here. I guess they have revamped their dinnerware, ours came in cute mugs with 3 different types of bread.

Our final dish, bread pudding (and Jon's hand). All in all, amazing dinner

Walking back to the apartment

Day 3

Attempting to take a photo at St. Patrick's Cathedral 

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Unique seat cushions (?) at every seat

Stained glass is so neat

I would have come closer, but they were filming some interview in this area

Knights of St. Patrick

William III (William of Orange) sat in this chair while he was at the Cathedral

Awesome staircase

The story goes that two families were fighting, and one barricaded themselves behind this door in the cathedral. After some time they decided to stop fighting and in order to prove that one side would not kill the other if they opened the door. The head of one feuding family used an ax to hack through the door to shake hands and forge a truce. This is that door.

Flags above the a large memorial to soldiers. It was interesting to see how much of the church was dedicated to soldiers, elected officials, and dignitaries instead of the usual kings and religious leaders.

Staircase from across the room

Organ in the cathedral - complete with Guinness keg fund receptacle  

Very impressive statues

The amount of work on this statue was really amazing - the arm and empty space under the cape

Cathedral from the outside

Beautiful day (we got pretty lucky)

Final stop, Guinness Storehouse

The whole place was like a Guinness Disneyland. Overwhelming in its magnitude and heavily crafted. Every moment was constructed and guided - really impressive and slightly intimidating. And yay hops! Apparently Guinness has more hops than most IPAs.

Demonstrating there is pure Irish mountain water in Guinness

I can't remember what this is for...

Artists constructed a 'glass of Guinness'

The inside of the building is all open air (6 stories up)

In the advertising section

Tasting room - intensionally sends you through a blackout tunnel to readjust your senses

Smelling the components of beer

Proper method for drinking a Guinness (elbow up)

Finally drinking our 'free' Guinness in the Sky Bar

The view was totally worth it, 360 deg around Dublin

Wicklow Mountains where the water for Guinness comes from

Working factory

Last beer with lunch - farewell Dublin

Giant, giant spire called the Spire of Dublin. After reading the wikipedia article, I'm still not sure I really understand it (our hosts didn't really like it either). Regardless, it's noticeable, so I felt it should be included. Photo on the left was taken from the upper level of our bus to the airport, the one on the right is from wikipedia.