Appropriately, a big rainbow started our trip--no joke. Pat and I saw it as we were driving to the airport in Leeds to fly over to Dublin. It was a very pretty morning with rain breaking up and the rising sun casting beautiful colors on the clouds and the fall landscape.
We flew into Dublin Tuesday on our first really cheap RyanAir flight. We just paid tax essentially. I would recommend it. There is a little more of the corral mentality i.e. there are no assigned seats, except for the first row, so when they're ready to board you go into a holding pen before you go out to the plane. No snacks, no drinks, no magazines, but you can pay extra for it. You also pay extra for your checked bags. It was a larger plane than many of the Comair flights I've been on (3 seats on each side of the aisle), the seats were arguably more comfortable than Comair, and they still had two stewardess/stewards which surprised me. The most notable thing about the flights was the rocky landing on arrival in Dublin. It was very windy and it felt like the plane jumped sideways when it touched down although other people felt like it landed on one side before the other. That was followed by a triumphal horn (like we were at the races) celebrating an on-time arrival--that was pretty funny.
Pat was headed to Dublin for business and I was tagging along for fun. So while he worked on Wed., I took my first double-decker bus ride into the city center. Of course, I had to sit on top, otherwise it wouldn't have been a double-decker ride :)
I got off next to the Liffey, the major river cutting through Dublin, and walked the streets taking pictures... because that's what I do. I saw Temple Bar, walked through the pedestrian shopping areas of Grafton Street, cut through St. Stephen's Green, and walked along Merrion Square.
Here's the famous Ha'penny Bridge across the Liffey. It's a cast-iron bridge, originally named the Wellington Bridge, built in 1816. When it was a toll bridge, they use to charge a halfpenny to cross it which is how it got it's current name.
This is the exterior of a pub in Temple Bar that looked pretty cool, and Irish.
And just so you know you're really in Ireland, all of the street lamps have clover motifs. Of course you see other hints of "Irish" things like harps and bilingual gaelic names and signage as you wander the street, but it's not nearly as over-the-top as I would have expected.
The structures of some of the covered shopping areas are interesting too and definitely remind you of another time.
I stumbled into the grounds of the Dublin Castle--literally. I wasn't planning on seeing it since the pictures in our travel books didn't look too interesting, but ended up walking around the exterior of the complex and the Upper and Lower Yards. It's a really odd combination of architecture with a medieval-looking tower that is somewhat original, a church, and a palace-like apartment quadrangle added in the late 1600s, early 1700s. The picture below best shows the conglomeration. However, it doesn't show that sections of the back of the castle complex have been whitewashed and painted really bright green, blue, yellow, and orange--that's a little odd too with the old architectural details surrounding it. If you ever go, the garden in the back is nice to see, however the signage is horrible. I never would have found it (even with my maps) if I hadn't been wandering around in what felt like access roads when a passerby said I should check it out.
For those of you wondering about the weather, yes I am wearing my winter jacket AND gloves in that picture. We are having a bit of a cold snap and I was glad I had them since I walked around all day. The highs have been in the upper 40s, lower 50s. We actually turned on the heat when we got home. Luckily it's suppose to warm up a little soon, but I expect we're on the downward spiral.
Walking around Dublin, I realized how truly spoiled I've become. Without a true appreciation of Dublin's history or of all things Irish, I found the city itself disappointing. It just can't compare to Rome or some of the other places we've been, but now I can say I've been to Dublin. Even if for only a day.
Now the piéce de résistance...
The Guinness Factory. This is the one thing Pat really wanted to see in Dublin. Luckily, he was able to finish up work just in time to hop into a cab, get on a tram, and run a couple of blocks to get to the Factory before the last admission. I sped-walked across town to get tickets--the constant flow of people with Guinness Factory shopping bags reassuring me that I was on the right path. I actually had to open my coat after that :)
You got to tour an exhibit showcasing the ingredients, the manufacturing process, and the history of the brew. This included old bottles and labels, old advertising, etc. This is a picture of one of the old humongous barrels and coppers used to store and heat the brew. For scale, this is taken from a balcony. You can see a human-size doorway in the bottom of the barrel so that you can inspect it from the inside.
The exhibit was really well done and well worth seeing. At the top of the 7 level tour is the "Gravity Bar" with a wonderful 360˚ view of the factory, the city, the sea, and the Wicklow mountains off in the distance. To top it all off, you get a pint of Guinness to enjoy. See Happy Pat below...
On the way out, we purchased our own set of Guinness pint glasses. I also took a look at the lease framed in the floor of the lobby. I think it was one of the most interesting things in the Guinness Factory. The founder, Arthur Guinness, signed the lease in 1759 for £45 per year for 9,000 years... that's about $90 a year for a whole lot of space. They obviously expected him to fail. There are a whole lot of beer fans who are glad he didn't. We ended the night by taking a quick walk past some of the sights so Pat could see them and then met his co-workers in Temple Bar for dinner.
One thing that really impressed me were the cab drivers. The nicest, most normal cab drivers I have ever met. All three that Pat and I had were friendly and talkative. Like Pat said, it's like getting a ride from a friend.
