St. Patrick's Day in Dublin

Hiya! As all the Irish say. We arrived a little late in Ireland. Four

hours to be exact. So, I could not go to the genealogy room to

look up my relatives. Sorry Aunt Barb, no new exciting news. I

hope to go back and look it all up another time - maybe when

Mom comes! So anyway, we headed straight for the Shelbourne

Hotel to have the best oysters in Europe. They were quite yummy.

Derek even had two. Then we were off to our very first Irish pub...

It was a little rainy but that was not going to stop us. We went in

and the place was packed. We were waiting for our musical pub crawl

to begin. While we were waiting we met a very friendly couple from

Scotland. They took the next picture and also invited us to stay

with them in Glasgow...

So, here we are having our very first pint of Guinness. It is so

funny to go in a bar and see everyone drinking the dark stuff!

They love their Guinness. I have to say I have a new appreciation

for it too. It tastes better in Ireland - no matter what Derek thinks!

Here are our lovely musician tour guides. They gave a wonderful

performance and history of Irish music. We got to see 3 different pubs

and hear a bunch of songs. There were people from all over the world

on our pub crawl - Chinese, Australians, French, Dutch, British and of

course Americans! All ages too! We had a blast on the pub crawl. I highly

recommend it for anyone traveling to Dublin.

Here I am the next day on O'Connell St. Bridge over the

River Liffey. This bridge is the main bridge that links

north and south Dublin. It is wider than it is long.

We started our bus tour from O'Connell St. Station

and the following pictures are some of the sites...

This is just inside the gates of Trinity College which was

founded in 1592. Bram Stoker studied here along with numerous

other literary figures.

This is Christ Church Cathedral. Dublin's first church

was founded here in 1038. Sadly, I have no

pictures of St. Patrick's Cathedral. It is being refurbished

and has scaffolding all over it.

This is Dublin Castle. The tower dates back to 1226!

It was a medieval fortress and now is vice-regal court

and administrative offices. I highly recommend

the bus tour also. It was a great way to see so

many of Dublin's sites!

We went out and celebrated St. Patrick's Eve!

How fun, an extra day of Irish celebration!

Now it is actually St. Patrick's Day! Derek even got

in the spirit. It was hard not to. Everyone was all

decked out in Irish gear. St. Patrick's Day is

Ireland's national holiday. Everyone is off of work

and ready to celebrate!

We decided to get up early and go to the Guinness Brewery!

The whole place smells like Guinness and is very

informative. I have a new respect for brewing beer.

Arthur Guinness founded the yummy beverage in 1759.

He signed a 9000 year lease with the city of Dublin

for the land the brewery is on. The tour covers all

aspects of Guinness production and videos, models and displays

tell the story of its history, worldwide appeal and advertising campaigns.

Here we are in the tasting lab. Nothing like a bit of

Guinness for breakfast!

When you reach the top of the 7 story structure you

are rewarded with a pint of Guinness. Look very closely

and you will see little shamrocks in the foam! Our

very talented bartender poured them up like that!

Next, we went to the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

It was packed. We could barely see except when a huge

St. Patrick rode in on a motorcycle.

Now that St. Patrick's Day was over Derek went to get some

pictures of the beautiful St. Stephen's Green. Our hotel

was on the green and it was so peaceful. We had an absolute blast here in Dublin.

The Irish people are the nicest we have come across in Europe.

I am very proud to be Irish and hope to go back very soon!

Maybe next year we can get some of you to come over and

celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Dublin!

Love to all,

Leah and Derek