Day 2: Dublin

Day two in Dublin revolved mosly around a bus tour of sorts. They have a few different companies that offer "24 hour" tickets that let you get on and off their buses at any stop. So, you can ride the tour bus (double decker, open on top) for awhile, and get off if something interests you.

While walking to the north side of the city to start the tour, we saw what turns out to be a very common site:

Must have seen half a dozen of these trucks, picking up empty kegs and dropping off full ones. This was the largest vehicle we've seen in Dublin, except for a single 18-wheeler and maybe a construction vehicle or two.

One of the first things the tour guide pointed out was the very large spire in the middle of the street.

Apparently it's the tallest spire in the world, or something, erected in 2003... to commemorate the millennium. The guide referred to it as the tallest, heaviest, waste of money we'll ever see.

The first stop that caused us to get off the bus and investigate was the Dublin Castle.

Most of the castle part was destroyed in a fire that involved the gunpowder reserves, but there are some photos from the basement in there somewhere.

Then we went in some of those churches that we saw from the outside yesterday. One of them had a huge crypt with lots of dead people in it, the other is something like 1000 or 1100 years old.


One of the churches was soliciting donations to fund renovations of the organ:


Then we went on the Guinness brewery tour:


The tour includes sampling in the "tasting lab" (awesome name)...


...a free pint in the huge bar at the top, which serves nothing but Guinness, and must be the tallest structure in all of Dublin:


... as well as an opportunity to try your hand at properly pouring a pint...


... which I did perfectly, of course.


Then it was off to the official Guinness store, to sample some wares:

I got a commemorative T-shirt and an official Guiness.... um... Irish hat? You know, like the old men wear.

We then hopped back on the bus, skipped the Old Jameson Distillery tour (I hadn't eaten since breakfast, and did double-duty at the Guinness tour, since Sabrina doesn't drink...), and finished the bus ride just across the river from the Temple Bar area. We walked around looking for dinner. In case anyone's looking, there are exciting opportunities in real estate in Dublin:


We ate dinner and walked around Temple Bar for a bit. There is literally a pub on every corner. In fact, I would go so far as to say that we were never in danger of being more than 500 yards from a bar at any point today.




Again, I tried to cover just the highlights of today's activities here. Since we both have digital cameras, the photos tend to pile up quite quickly. Hopefully I touched on the main points. If you don't believe me, all of the pictures are available in the official Ireland 2007 photo gallery, starting on page 9 somewhere.