Means "100,000 Welcomes" in Irish, and we would have to say we all felt incredibly welcomed by the people of Dublin on our recent trip. We also felt incredibly welcomed by the weather...nothing but sunny skies and mild temperatures during what is generally a cold, rainy time for Dublin.
Mom, Aunt Marianne, Shea, and I arrived in Dublin about 9:30 on Sunday night March 15th. We all cleared customs and headed to the taxi queue. Our taxi driver loaded our bags and immediately wanted to know where all us "Yankee Doodles" were from...Aunt Marianne said Michigan and we said Texas..."Who killed JR and let me see yer beltbuckles?!" he replied. He kept us rolling on our 25-minute drive through Dublin to our hotel (whilst driving on the wrong side of the car and the road- very hard to get used too). He showed us all the major sites and filled us in on where we should spend our time and how best to enjoy St. Patty's Dublin style.
We checked in to our hotel and were really impressed with our accommodations. Definitely the nicest hotel we have stayed in in Europe. We really lucked out and if anyone plans on going we have a great recommendation.
So, on Monday, we woke up and jumped on a bus downtown. We walked along the River Liffey and made our way to O'Connell Street that runs through the heart of the city. There we jumped on a guided tour bus to see the sites Dublin had to offer. On the tour we would get off the bus and visit the sites we wanted to check out thoroughly.
Just to name a few things we saw Trinity College, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, the Irish White House, the Jameson distillery, their Parliament house, and the O'Connell Monument. As I know many of you are dying to know...Yes, we did tour the Guinness Factory. We ran through the tour and then shot up to the 7th floor bar that sits atop the factory. From there you get a birds-eye view of Dublin and can see the beautiful old city (without any skyscrapers). We each enjoyed our pint of Guinness with a shamrock delicately imprinted in the foam by the bartenders. Great times!!!!
From there we took the tour bus to Ryan's Victorian Bar (a famous bar in Dublin) where we enjoyed a few more pints and some dinner. Afterward, we headed back down to O'Connell Street where we stocked up on supplies for St. Patty's Day. We bought shirts, scarves, snacks, and beer.
The St. Patty's Day parade starts at 12:00 and we were told that if you want to get a spot anywhere close to the barricades you need to be out there early. So, we packed our supplies and headed to the parade route for 10:00. We scoped out a spot directly across from a grandstand and only had one row of people in front of us. They were super friendly and came down for the parade and to get away from Belfast on this rowdy day. At around 11:30 a couple local personalities started warming up the crowd. They walked around the grandstand and baited people into singing songs from their homeland. We heard the Canadian national anthem, the Swedish anthem, the Yellow Rose of Texas, and of course as he walked past us, Mom grabbed the mic from him and belted out our National anthem. It was great and everyone around was thoroughly impressed.
The parade started and countless bands, bagpipers, floats, clowns, and drunk Irishmen made there way down the route. When it ended we crossed the street into a Pub and got a pint and some hearty Irish stew. From there we joined the celebrations in Temple Bar. Temple Bar is not a Bar, but rather an area, similar to Bourbon Street in NO or 6th Street in Austin. It was packed with St. Patty's Day revelers…most decked out in green and goofy tall hats. We had a great time just watching the celebration. We found a bar and went inside...met some people from Michigan, via London, a couple French guys, and some Aussies. People come from all over for this event just to say they were there...including us!
We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the party in Temple Bar and then along the River Liffey. We saw the Half Penny Bridge and after a big late dinner we headed back to the hotel.
We hit the sack as we had an early wake up call for our 6:30 flight the following morning.
We all had a great time and really enjoyed the city and the people in Dublin. Shea and I would love to get back and explore outside the city and see the countryside of this welcoming "green" isle.
Mom, Aunt Marianne, Shea, and I arrived in Dublin about 9:30 on Sunday night March 15th. We all cleared customs and headed to the taxi queue. Our taxi driver loaded our bags and immediately wanted to know where all us "Yankee Doodles" were from...Aunt Marianne said Michigan and we said Texas..."Who killed JR and let me see yer beltbuckles?!" he replied. He kept us rolling on our 25-minute drive through Dublin to our hotel (whilst driving on the wrong side of the car and the road- very hard to get used too). He showed us all the major sites and filled us in on where we should spend our time and how best to enjoy St. Patty's Dublin style.
We checked in to our hotel and were really impressed with our accommodations. Definitely the nicest hotel we have stayed in in Europe. We really lucked out and if anyone plans on going we have a great recommendation.
So, on Monday, we woke up and jumped on a bus downtown. We walked along the River Liffey and made our way to O'Connell Street that runs through the heart of the city. There we jumped on a guided tour bus to see the sites Dublin had to offer. On the tour we would get off the bus and visit the sites we wanted to check out thoroughly.
Just to name a few things we saw Trinity College, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, the Irish White House, the Jameson distillery, their Parliament house, and the O'Connell Monument. As I know many of you are dying to know...Yes, we did tour the Guinness Factory. We ran through the tour and then shot up to the 7th floor bar that sits atop the factory. From there you get a birds-eye view of Dublin and can see the beautiful old city (without any skyscrapers). We each enjoyed our pint of Guinness with a shamrock delicately imprinted in the foam by the bartenders. Great times!!!!
From there we took the tour bus to Ryan's Victorian Bar (a famous bar in Dublin) where we enjoyed a few more pints and some dinner. Afterward, we headed back down to O'Connell Street where we stocked up on supplies for St. Patty's Day. We bought shirts, scarves, snacks, and beer.
The St. Patty's Day parade starts at 12:00 and we were told that if you want to get a spot anywhere close to the barricades you need to be out there early. So, we packed our supplies and headed to the parade route for 10:00. We scoped out a spot directly across from a grandstand and only had one row of people in front of us. They were super friendly and came down for the parade and to get away from Belfast on this rowdy day. At around 11:30 a couple local personalities started warming up the crowd. They walked around the grandstand and baited people into singing songs from their homeland. We heard the Canadian national anthem, the Swedish anthem, the Yellow Rose of Texas, and of course as he walked past us, Mom grabbed the mic from him and belted out our National anthem. It was great and everyone around was thoroughly impressed.
The parade started and countless bands, bagpipers, floats, clowns, and drunk Irishmen made there way down the route. When it ended we crossed the street into a Pub and got a pint and some hearty Irish stew. From there we joined the celebrations in Temple Bar. Temple Bar is not a Bar, but rather an area, similar to Bourbon Street in NO or 6th Street in Austin. It was packed with St. Patty's Day revelers…most decked out in green and goofy tall hats. We had a great time just watching the celebration. We found a bar and went inside...met some people from Michigan, via London, a couple French guys, and some Aussies. People come from all over for this event just to say they were there...including us!
We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the party in Temple Bar and then along the River Liffey. We saw the Half Penny Bridge and after a big late dinner we headed back to the hotel.
We hit the sack as we had an early wake up call for our 6:30 flight the following morning.
We all had a great time and really enjoyed the city and the people in Dublin. Shea and I would love to get back and explore outside the city and see the countryside of this welcoming "green" isle.
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