Dublin

Our exciting voyage to Ireland started out on Thursday as we drove to the Karlsruhe Airport. The Karlsruhe Airport is the closest airport that offers Ryan Air, an awesome discount European airline. Since we weren't totally sure how long it would take to get to the airport, park, and check-in we arrived about 3 hours early. The airport was a ghost town! While we waited for security to open up, we grabbed some lunch at a little bistro inside of the airport. Here we are after security and sitting at our gate...very excited for Dublin:



Ryan Air works much like Southwest in that you aren't given seat assignments. Luckily, we were in the first 1/2 of people to board the plane, so we were able to get seats together. The 2 hour and 10 minute flight to Dublin was great. Comfortable and on time! Once we deplaned we walked straight out of the Dublin Airport and onto our Aircoach bus. The airport is about 30 minutes from downtown Dublin so when we planned our trip we tried to find the best way to get to Dublin without breaking the bank. Enter the ever-helpful Rick Steves. (Thanks again, T & E!!) Our Rick Steves' Ireland book mentioned Aircoach, so for only 7 euro/person/way we rode in style right to our hotel. We would HIGHLY recommend using Aircoach for anyone arriving at the Dublin Airport wanting to get downtown; it's extremely easy, efficient, and convenient.

As we walked up to our hotel from the Aircoach stop, we knew we were in for a treat. From the website we could tell that the Shelbourne was pretty, but we didn't realize just how gorgeous it was going to be. From what we learned after we checked in, the Shelbourne was where JFK, Grace Kelly, and the likes stayed while they visited Dublin back in the day. The Shelbourne definitely had that feel. There was a very old world romantic charm and elegance. (To say that we're getting spoiled with our Marriott Rewards Points is an enormous understatement.) Here are shots of the exterior, our mansion of a bathroom, and the lobby at night:



After we got settled into our room we decided to head out and find a good old fashioned Irish pub for some Guinness and fish and chips. We poked our heads into a few places and then finally settled on Bruxelles pub. It was JUST what we were looking for! We guzzled some Guinness and dined on fish and chips and coddle. Both were fantastic! The day of traveling wore us down a bit, so we finished our pints and headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

The next morning we were ready to take on Dublin. Our hotel was right across the street from St. Stephen's Green, so we decided to walk through the park as we made our way to our next destinations. Here's a shot of Brian in St. Stephen's Green:



One of the many great things about Dublin is that there are beautiful parks scattered throughout the city. It adds such a nice sparkle of green in an otherwise urban landscape. (We completely lucked out with LOVELY weather while in Dublin...sunshine and spring-like temperatures!) We exited the park and started towards Grafton Street, which is the main pedestrian-only thoroughfare in Dublin. Grafton Street is lined with glittering shops, cozy pubs, and talented street musicians...not to mention hundreds and hundreds of people shopping, eating, and listening! While walking around, one thing that took us a while to get used to was the fact that cars drive on the "wrong" side of the road in Ireland, so at all of the crosswalks you see very clear walking instructions:



Without those handy directions we probably would have wandered unknowingly into some oncoming traffic. We kept walking west towards our day's attractions and on our way we passed by St. Patrick's Cathedral. Directly next to the Cathedral is a pretty park. We didn't stop at St. Patrick's to look inside, but we did journey through the bright green park:

Once through the park we walked a bit more until we reached our first major stop of the day, Kilmainham Gaol. Kilmainham Gaol was a British-run prison in Dublin, used at first for men, women, and children found guilty of "normal" crimes. The prison then became more of an outpost for Irish political prisoners. Most of the political prisoners at Kilmainham Gaol were executed on the grounds. The only way to visit Kilmainham Gaol is by way of a guided tour. We lucked out and our tour guide, Donal, was fantastic! Here are some shots from our tour:

Upon leaving Kilmainham Gaol, we walked directly over to the Guinness Brewery for a tour. Unfortunately there are no tours of the actual working factory, but there is an impressive museum that you can tour. It was, by far, the slickest museum we'd ever visited. Our tickets to the Museum included a pint of Guinness at the bar on top of the building (and also the highest point in Dublin). The bar offered a 360 degree view of Dublin. Here are some pictures from our time at Guinness:

One of our favorite things about the Guinness Museum was seeing all of the former advertisements, print and TV. At the Museum you're able to watch old Guinness TV commercials from the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's. The older ads were hilarious!

We had heard it said before, and it's true...Guinness really does taste better in Ireland. Brian actually asked a bartender about that and he had some good reasoning as to why that might be:
-most bars in Dublin have Guinness experts out twice a week to clean the Guinness keg tubes
-bars in Ireland go through Guinness MUCH faster than your average American bar and therefore the beer is much more fresh (seriously, almost everyone at any given pub has a Guinness in front of them)

After touring and walking around Dublin for hours, we decided we were ready for a late lunch. We headed towards the Temple Bar area of Dublin, trendy and a little touristy, we found a plethora of pubs to choose from. Here's a shot of the a narrow street in Temple Bar:



We had read good things about Gallagher's Boxty House in the Rick Steves' book, so we went there. Boxties are a traditional Irish dish comprised of a potato pancake wrapped around some sort of meat filling topped with a cream sauce. We split a bowl of the potato and leek soup, potato dumplings in a beef and parsley sauce, and a chicken boxty in a creamy smoked bacon sauce. SWOON!

The chicken boxty is the photo above left, and the potato dumplings are above right. Once lunch was complete we walked back to the hotel for a little rest before our Friday night out in Dublin. We ended up going back to the Temple Bar area for dinner. It was delicious! After dinner we went to an old Irish pub, The Duke. We finally made our way back to the hotel for some much needed sleep after our full day in Dublin.

The next morning we made our way to Grafton Street for a traditional Irish breakfast at Bewley's. Sausage, bacon, potato pancake, black and white pudding, poached egg, toast, and a scone. YUM. With full bellies we walked all around Dublin. We walked through Trinity College:

Then made our way down a road until we found this gem:

I was SO excited to have found a "Clare Street" sign! Clare Street happened to be right next to another pretty green park, so we took a seat on a bench and soaked up more sunshine than we've felt in months. It was glorious! We made our way back to the hotel for a little rest before heading out for our last night in Dublin. We found a fun pub in Temple Bar and had yet another tasty meal (with Guinness) before heading in for the night.

Our flight back to Germany left at 0925 on Sunday so it was an early morning for us. Ryan Air proved to be on time and reliable again. We landed in Karlsruhe around 1230. Germany greeted us with cold winds and snowy streets...EW. At least we have all of our bright, cozy memories of Dublin to keep us warm.


If you'd like to view the rest of our photos from Dublin, please click on this link:
Dublin Photos