Okay, second post in my effort to catch us up and the first post since my parents visited about out of town guests. Adina and Sean, aka sister and brother in law, made their way over to Dublin as part of their first visit to Europe.
After a few days in Paris, they landed in Dublin on a Friday night. We have an out of town guest formula now that is simple and works every time: pints, dinner, pub with music. Solid night out in Dublin. Future guests take note, your first night here will be the following.
We started their tour of Ireland with a trip to the local pub for a pint of Guinness.
Smyth's in Ranelagh (our hood) has become our "local" as they say here. Not a fancy spot but lots a cozy nooks, a nice fire place, and of course a decent pint of Guinness.
Later that night we ventured up to the city center for dinner at
Crackbird. People are always skeptical when we tell them we are taking them to a chicken restaurant called Crackbird, but they are never disappointed. Would I steer anyone towards a bad meal? Seriously, I think it was my sisters favorite part of the entire weekend, she still talks about it.
Sean on the other hand was in his element down the road after dinner at
Dame Tavern, our favorite pub for some great craic and live music on a Friday night. They always have a guy with a guitar playing Irish music, classic rock, and a few songs that the kids like but Michelle and I have no idea what it is. Sean did as he always does and made friends with some old ladies and a few random dudes at the bar. That's one great part of the Dublin pub scene, most everyone is friendly and happy to chat.
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| Adina, Sean, and the music man at Dame Tavern. |
The next morning we ventured out for a little walking tour of Dublin. We left our house and headed along the canal, up through Iveagh Gardens, over to Saint Stephen's Green, down Grafton, and over across the Liffey up O'Connell Street. Again, future visitors take note...
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| Look, sunglasses! No umbrellas for a change. |
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| Key West busking on Grafton. I was in an unusually good mood thanks to the sunshine and bought all 3 of their CDs. |
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| On the Liffey, no more sunglasses... |
After a lunch of classic fish and chips, we made our way over to the Guinness Storehouse. Michelle and I have actually been waiting for guests to come to Dublin so that we could go.
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| The 4 of us at the famous St James's Gate |
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| Really cool collection of old Guinness bottles from over the years. |
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| Water on its way to becoming beer. |
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| Sitting in the man Arthur Guinness' chair |
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| Finally the end of the tour and our perfectly poured pint up in the Gravity Bar atop the brewery. |
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| Perfect timing with the sun setting over Dublin. |
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| Last shot before they kicked us out of the bar for closing time. |
After Guinness we went to dinner at
Coppinger Row, one of our favorite restaurants in Dublin. It is the type of place that would be popular in San Francisco, London, or any other big food city. It's a nice treat for Michelle and I from time to time.
The next morning we took full advantage of the rare sunshine in Dublin and headed out to the country to see some castles.
Trim Castle is an incredibly well preserved Norman castle that was last lived in around the 1300s. The reason why this is so cool is that a lot of castles that we have seen such as Malahide and Kilkenny where lived in up to the 1960s so their medieval features are all but gone. That is not the case at Trim, and the setting on the Boyne river is spectacular.
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| The castle keep |
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| Notice the tower? It is the remains of the bell tower from the cathedral across the river. The house to the left was built from the ruins of the church. There are several other smaller ruins around the castle that are accessible on a great walking trail along the river. |
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| Sean doing his best Katniss through the castle walls. |
The tour at Trim Castle was really good and the guide was incredibly entertaining and knowledgeable. After Michelle told me that she reminded her of Mrs. Doubtfire though, I had a hard time concentrating. It was also freezing cold and after an hour I was ready for a warm pub and a cold pint.
Before the end of the tour though we were able to go up to the roof of the castle keep for some spectacular views of the surrounding area.
When we left the castle we had to deal with Europe on a Sunday. We walked forever trying to find an open pub that served food. It's not easy to get around on a Sunday. Finally, we were successful and were able to warm up over a pint and some pub grub.
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| After the castle walking through the town of Trim. |
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After lunch we crossed the river to explore some of the surrounding ruins and were awarded with a fantastic view of the castle.
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| Blue skies but freezing cold. Hey, we take what we can get here. |
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| Their first castle! |
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| Very Irish, a stone wall and grass... |
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| Showing Michelle who's boss. |
Unfortunately the next day Adina and Sean were off to Italy and we were back to our cubicles. I don't know if they would have made it to Europe this year if we were not living in Ireland though so we were happy that our move got them over here to explore a little bit of what Europe has to offer.
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