Poppins2000
Life is out there waiting so go and get it!
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2006
Sorry folks - I meant to have my trip report (or at least part of it) completed this past weekend but lucky me spent the entire weekend in bed with a bad cold. I'm back to working 10 hour days so bear with me, this will probably come to you in dribbles....
PRE-NIGHTS
We spent Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday (didn't meet our group until 5:30 Sunday night) walking all over Dublin. Let me tell you we had the BEST weather on this 10 day trip. It only rained one day, (day two in Killarney) and we were graced with sunshine and the occasional clouds for our trip. Temps were in the low to mid 60's during the day, mid to high 50's at night. Anyway, we spent our pre-days visiting parks, all of the shops up and down Grafton street (look for the fishmonger Molly Malone statue!), strolling the Temple Bar area , visiting the Christ Church cathedral (if you want to see the inside of this church, now is the time to do so - for it's not covered in your tour) and other churches as well. We also stopped by the Dublin Tourism center - a great place to pick up FREE pamphlets (has a nice gift shop too) for the places you'll visit or would like to visit on your trip.
A few tips on Dublin:
It's expensive. We ate at a few different pub's (O'Neils - across from the Dublin Tourist Center and Gallager's in the Temple Bar area) - the food was great but over $30 for two (We each had Irish Stew and a Diet Coke, the next time it was Fish and Chips and a couple of diet sodas...) On a positive note, all restaurants, bars and pubs are smoke free.
If you wish to partake in a libation, a pint of Guinness in Dublin was five euros, roughly $8.50. Cocktails at the Westin bar were 15 euros, that's right 15 euros, which means it was over $20 for a drink - yikes!
If you are a music fan, you must visit a pub! My husband is an avid guitar player, and we spent a lot of time at Oliver St. John Gogarty's Pub in the Temple Bar area. Music started around 2pm - we were there everyday, singing along the crowd.
Dublin is a very walkable city. The Westin is centrally located, you are about a block from Graton street, Trinity College is right next door and the Temple Bar area is right across he street. At all the crosswalks, there are signs that say "Look left" before crossing the road, helpful since they drive on the opposite side of the street. The crosswalks buttons are a hoot, you press the button for the signal to change to allow you to cross the street. Once the button is pushed, it starts ticking, like a kitchen timer and then DING! You're done, it's time to cross the street, haha!
Be back with more later....
PRE-NIGHTS
We spent Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday (didn't meet our group until 5:30 Sunday night) walking all over Dublin. Let me tell you we had the BEST weather on this 10 day trip. It only rained one day, (day two in Killarney) and we were graced with sunshine and the occasional clouds for our trip. Temps were in the low to mid 60's during the day, mid to high 50's at night. Anyway, we spent our pre-days visiting parks, all of the shops up and down Grafton street (look for the fishmonger Molly Malone statue!), strolling the Temple Bar area , visiting the Christ Church cathedral (if you want to see the inside of this church, now is the time to do so - for it's not covered in your tour) and other churches as well. We also stopped by the Dublin Tourism center - a great place to pick up FREE pamphlets (has a nice gift shop too) for the places you'll visit or would like to visit on your trip.
A few tips on Dublin:
It's expensive. We ate at a few different pub's (O'Neils - across from the Dublin Tourist Center and Gallager's in the Temple Bar area) - the food was great but over $30 for two (We each had Irish Stew and a Diet Coke, the next time it was Fish and Chips and a couple of diet sodas...) On a positive note, all restaurants, bars and pubs are smoke free.
If you wish to partake in a libation, a pint of Guinness in Dublin was five euros, roughly $8.50. Cocktails at the Westin bar were 15 euros, that's right 15 euros, which means it was over $20 for a drink - yikes!
If you are a music fan, you must visit a pub! My husband is an avid guitar player, and we spent a lot of time at Oliver St. John Gogarty's Pub in the Temple Bar area. Music started around 2pm - we were there everyday, singing along the crowd.
Dublin is a very walkable city. The Westin is centrally located, you are about a block from Graton street, Trinity College is right next door and the Temple Bar area is right across he street. At all the crosswalks, there are signs that say "Look left" before crossing the road, helpful since they drive on the opposite side of the street. The crosswalks buttons are a hoot, you press the button for the signal to change to allow you to cross the street. Once the button is pushed, it starts ticking, like a kitchen timer and then DING! You're done, it's time to cross the street, haha!
Be back with more later....
