Dublin Ireland

Thursday 11^th August To Dublin:





There are statues everywhere of freedom fighters and politicians





The GPO (General Post Office) where a great siege was held in 1916

We drove down from Leeds back to London to drop off the flat keys to Manolo and then we had to return the rental car to the airport, £85 later for a stonechip on the windscreen and a spot on drivers fender that I swear was on the car already.  We finally made our way back to Stratford by about 9pm to the Holiday Inn Express to finally relax.  We had a quick look around Stratford and saw only Wilkinson’s had their front windows smashed and boarded up from the riots and looters on the previous 3 nights.  We had a good nights sleep and I used my cellphone to wake us at 5.45am to return to the airport.  It went off and we got up. Rod showered first and came back into the room to dress.  He picked up his watch and saw it was 5am.  I checked my phone and oops I was still on Austrian time!! We jumped back to bed for an extra 45 mins sleep. Once again this time at the right time and went down to breakfast and make our way to catch the bus.  Once we had checked in and made our way to gate 50, (It’s always the furtherest away gate) we saw that the plane was delayed an hour.  We have not yet caught a flight with Ryanair running on time.  We finally board and an hour and a half flight we land in a cool, rainy Ireland.  Headed to Avis to pick up the rental ( a little Nissan Micro, nothing special about this one).   With the trusty Navman telling us where to go we head into the city to find the B&B that is to be our home for the next two nights.  A nice house run by a welcoming woman.  After a refreshing cup of tea we headed into the city by bus.  When we got there we booked ourselves onto the hop on hop off tour and proceeded to get the guided tour of the city. Well, I did, Rod kept falling asleep.  A pretty city with lots of pubs (700 in total) and wide streets.  A mixture of the old with the new.  We have made a note to try and see the book of Kells, the jail, the Guinness storehouse and try and also get to the cathedral and then a spot of souvenir shopping might be in order.  We then jumped off the bus and headed to O’Neills for a genuine Irish meal.  The Kilkenny Draught was not as nice as a Tui but the seafood chowder was divine as was the fish and chips in Guinness batter.  Then find a bus to get back to the B&B.  Luckily I spotted the #4 so we jumped on and eventually he worked out we wanted to go to Ballsbridge.  Back to our room and relax.  Aaahh! The bed is so comfortable. Night all xx.



One of the 800 pubs in Dublin (The Bachelors Inn)