This post comes to you after we’ve been home a few days. Since Dublin was last on the agenda, we did a “hop on, hop off” tour. As it turned out, we never hopped off (the bus) – we wanted to make sure we saw as much of the city as we could. We also had the added stress of packing, returning the rental car, and getting to the airport in enough time for them to thoroughly ransack our bags.
The actual REAL reason this post was delayed is that after importing the Dublin pictures into the computer (like I’ve done at LEAST 1000 times in the past) when I went to look for a few to put on here, they were all missing. After some sheer determination, I finally found them buried in a library. Whew. Crisis averted. Stay tuned…I’m going to do some editing and will post a bunch of pictures on a separate page later.
But now….Dublin.
I’ve been clear about the driving challenges in Ireland. None of these compared to driving in Dublin. Armed with a regular GPS as well as my iPhone 6+ (I don’t EVEN want to look at my bill this month) it took us an ungodly amount of time to find our hotel. The GPS kept wanting to direct us to the bus lanes, where a lovely, unfortunately positioned officer continued to flag us in the opposite direction. After driving in circles for the better part of an hour, we finally found our hotel…and their teeny tiny sign. I’ve had better luck in Boston (which for my money is the most horrible city in America for driving.
My next post is going to outline our overall impressions of Ireland, but let me share our thoughts on Dublin.
Irish Wolfhounds are really big.
People were not overly friendly…even more than New Yorkers, they all appear to be in a HUGE hurry to get where they’re going. Dublin is a VERY busy, crowded city with very few WOW sites. We were advised to avoid Guinness – nothing but a big tourist trap. The Book of Kells (at Trinity College) is supposed to be a Dublin highlight. We stayed on the bus – maybe because we were at the end of the trip, but it just seemed like too much effort to “museum” site see. We were more than satisfied to ride the bus for two and a half hours and get a nice overview of the city. We had done the same thing in Madrid (but did our fair share of “hopping” off.
The Irish are really passionate about rugby, soccer and Irish football. There were some major matches going on while we were there.
Dublin (like the rest of Ireland) is chock full of pubs and restaurants. Because of a soccer match against Germany, we tried very hard to find a pub that wasn’t all about sports. Fortunately there was a spot 2 doors down from our hotel.
It was a great way to wrap up the trip. Next up…overall impressions and lots and lots of pictures.
WeilStyle 