Walk-about in Dublin, Ireland: Travel Reminiscences

Bear with me … back to Ireland …. nearly done and dusted 😉  !!  but a holiday never to be forgotten !

Having gone around most of Ireland on our 10 day self-drive tour, I will jump back to the beginning of our holiday in Ireland .. our starting point and ending point .. Dublin.  Here again, with large cities, a few days isn’t nearly enough time.

We stayed at the Brooks Hotel , on Drury Lane, for a few days, centrally located, comfortable, very friendly and helpful staff.  Our introduction to the friendliness of Ireland 🙂  To venture further, we caught ‘Hop on, hop off’ buses

Unfortunately, the timing of our trip clashed with Elaine’s Honours Graduation at University 🙁   No matter how we tried, we couldn’t get a firm date for the graduation until after doing final bookings for air travel etc.   Sadly her graduation was on the day we arrived in Dublin.  The day after we left home.  We missed it.  We missed it by a day 🙁  Jeanette and Carl took our places.  Jeanette, with camera in hand, took photographs … lots .. and lots!!   She downloaded some onto her blog, which is what we saw that evening in the Brooks Hotel in Dublin!   We sat there, in the small computer room off the ‘quiet lounge’ with tears streaming down our cheeks as we ‘watched’  are youngest daughter receive her Honours Degree in Marketing from the University of Johannesburg

 From our window … The Covered Market, which takes up the whole block

Sadly we didn’t go inside … and I can’t remember why.  We set off early in the morning from the hotel, on foot, and returned late .. maybe it was always closed.  I do remember walking passed the side gate on Drury Lane seeing tables of fresh fruit and veg.  Looking back now, we should have at least gone in to see what else there was ..

Not far from our hotel was the Tourist Information Centre (Suffolk Street) … inside this church !

Arriving in Dublin in the morning gave us an opportunity to do a ‘walk-about’ getting our bearings once we’d freshened up in our hotel room.   Stepping off the bus, which we took from the airport, we must have looked a little lost as we tried to make sense of the map directions to our hotel.  A woman stopped to asked if she could help – our first encounter of the friendliness of the Irish.  Actually it was the second, the first being an Irish chappie seated next to us on the flight from Heathrow, who we chatted with the whole way.  He told us that we had chosen the best time to come to Ireland .. October.  It rains less in October he said.  I couldn’t help wonder if he was right as we flew over thick cloud cover the entire journey!!!!   But he was right!!  We had about 2 days of rain!

Grafton Street ..

 Statue of Molly Malone on Grafton Street:  It has since been relocated to outside the Tourist Information Centre in Suffolk Street.   She is the fictional fishmonger in one of the most famous Irish folk songs … ‘Cockles and Mussels’   

In Dublin’s fair city,
Where the girls are so pretty,
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,
As she wheeled her wheel-barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!”

“Alive, alive, oh,  Alive, alive, oh,”Crying “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh”.

She was a fishmonger,
But sure ’twas no wonder,
For so were her father and mother before,
And they wheeled their barrows,
Through the streets broad and narrow,
Crying, “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!”

She died of a fever,
And no one could save her,
And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone.
But her ghost wheels her barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!”

Bank of Ireland …

Statue of Thomas Moore : Irish poet, singer, songwriter and entertainer …

Temple Bar : dates back to the 18th century when the area was ‘home to many insalubrious characters’.   Today it is ‘an exciting place with bars, restaurants, shops and several galleries’ ..

One of the many buskers ..

The Ha’penny Bridge (or Liffey Bridge) linking the Temple Bar and Liffey Street over the Liffey River.    It was built by John Windsor, an ironworker from Shropshire, England and was opened in 1816.  It got it’s nickname of Ha’penny Bridge from the halfpenny toll that was levied on it up until 1919 …

Dublin Castle : For seven centuries Dublin Castle was a symbol of English rule, ever since the Anglo-Normans built a fortress here in the 13th century.  All that remains of the original structure is the Record Tower (1226) and the butt of the (Gun)Powder Tower

Bedford Tower (1761) ..

Record Tower (1226) and the Chapel Royal completed in 1814  …

Dubh Linn Gardens (Snake Park)  lies behind Dublin Castle  ..

Across the gardens is The Coach House …

Walking back to our hotel to freshen up before heading off for a pub supper ..

 O’Neill’s pub opposite the Tourist Centre (we went there on our last night in Dublin) ..

Green post boxes!!!!!   only in Ireland !!

This particular evening, it was recommended by the concierge of the hotel to have pub grub at Gallagher’s Boxty House in Temple Bar.  We were not disappointed 🙂

And .. what does one have on their first night in Ireland .. Irish Stew !!  … looks a little insipid in the photo because of the flash,  but it was very yummy!!

We were ready for a good nights sleep after that …. ready to explore Dublin the following day

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