Bussing and Art

 

After a good solid night’s sleep in our comfy bed we were up in about 8:30-9:00 o'clock this morning.

We had a quick bite of cereal for breakfast and headed out to catch the hop-on hop-off bus and looped around Dublin having a look at what was going on. We had Gavin as driver, who entertained us with his commentary and some old and new (U2) Irish music. We hopped off the bus at a couple of locations and toured around having a look at Dublin.

Liffey River:

We toured the National Art Gallery near the Merion Gardens.

There we found some interesting numbering in the lift:

We wandered around Church of Christ Cathedral:

And saw lots of interesting sights:

Guiness Storehouse:

Pearse Distillery:

D'Olier Chambers:

Detail of National Library of Ireland (used to be the exclusive Kildare Street Club):

Pearse Station:

Pearse Street Garda Station (originally Garda HQ)

Old Ulster Bank:

Leanne waiting for the bus:

We didn't get here  but the name was intriguing:

The Spire (120m tall):

Michael O'Connell Monument:

It was lots to take in with lots of people everywhere wandering around - Dublin is a very very busy city. While many of the people were tourists, I think there was a lot of locals out there as well.

At about 5 o'clock it started to drizzle and we thought “bugger this, let's head for shelter” so we headed into the Old Storehouse, in the Temple Bar District, for a fortifying drink or three and a bit of music – a good old Irish pub.  I had to have a pint of Guinness because I'm an Ireland. Leanne had a taste as well, though it wasn't her favourite cup of tea (or in this case red wine). 

With some live music to entertain us, we had a nice dinner before trying to catch the local bus home in the rain. Unfortunately, the bus was chockers and we couldn't get on, so we ended up walking home in the drizzle instead. Fortunately, we didn't get too damp and arrived home after having done our 10,000 steps today.

We have no sign of jet lag so far, but we're headed to bed soon and we'll see how we sleep tonight.

See you tomorrow.