More to Explore in Dublin
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The Castle Hotel was a quaint hotel built by combining four Georgian houses to make one hotel. The halls had some quirky slants, but the staff were friendly and they could accommodate all four of us in one room, something a lot of city hotels couldn't do. They also provided breakfast and although it wasn't as delectable as the Bayview Hotel, it had a machine to produce pancakes at the touch of a button!
We said goodbye to Franny when we made it to Dublin as Aaron, justifiably, did not want to navigate the city by car and have to pay for parking all over.
We had the nicest uber driver take us to St. Patrick's Cathedral and he taught us a bit about how life had been in Ireland since COVID - not enough housing, high inflation, vacant jobs, we have a lot of similarities!
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Amazing to think about St. Patrick bringing Christianity to Ireland and baptizing people in the 5th century!
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A playground for the little ones of today, too!
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I was mesmerized by the floor inside! I love this pattern.
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John Wesley, founder of Methodism, served communion here in 1775. These are replicas because someone stole the original set. Proof there have been bad people out there for ages!
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We didn't tour Christ's Church Cathedral, but a church was started on this site in 1060 and was part of the Church of Ireland. Today it is a Christian church.
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The choirs of Christ's Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral gave the first performance of Handel's Messiah in 1742. How amazing that must have been!
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This museum was a cool way to show kids Viking and Medieval history of Dublin. Lots to touch and interact with and provided a lot of information.
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Viking gear
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Showing off the public restrooms of Medieval times!
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The museum also includes the tower from St. Michael's the Archangel church. The building for the museum is on the spot where the church once stood and the building in its place connects to the tower. The views are very pretty and the stairs up will leave your thighs crying! We worried the stairs at Blarney Castle might be intense, but they were nothing like these!
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We walked through the Temple Bar district, sort of the Bourbon St. of Dublin, but it wasn't much to see during the day.
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We stopped into a churro shop because who wouldn't want one!
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Dublin Castle with sculptures of Brian Boru (early Christian king who fought the Vikings) and St. Patrick.
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The grounds around Dublin Castle were beautiful!
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We had a delightful Italian meal with delicious wood fired pizza and pasta!
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We really wanted to see Irish step dancing and most of the shows were not happening yet because it isn't really the tourist season, especially in cities like Galways known Irish music and dancing. Luckily, our hotel restaurant had an Irish singer and dancer performing on Friday nights.
The space was quite small and our table was actually in a separate room with the loudest group of Italians imaginable, but we were able to stand in the dining room and watch the performance! We met my Austrian friend there (what we call her because we never exchanged names) and she was in awe of my ability to sing along to the music because he was playing mostly American pop and folk music! She was very kind and enjoyed using her English. Always fun to meet someone along the way!
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