Dublin

Other than passing through Edinburgh, Scotland, to exchange our rental car and landing in Belfast by ferry and heading straight toward the country, so far our trip had been all about the quaint, small towns and the countryside.  We had loved every minute of it and it was all new to us. 

So, when we arrived in Dublin and spent almost two hours driving in circles looking for our hotel, getting lost in a maze of one-way  and dead-end streets with traffic that would rival New York City, we were less than thrilled.  Wanda, our trusty GPS lady, had a bit of trouble navigating there, as did our printed Google Maps.   The culmination was when we finally found our hotel and were told they had no onsite parking and we would have to park about 3-4 blocks away and walk there, through the city…with luggage, lots of golf purchases and two golf bags!!!  We ended up opting for the risk of leaving golf bags and gifts in the car and took off  for our journey to the hotel.  We can laugh about it now, but we sure weren’t laughing about it then!!!

Then when we got to our rooms, neither of our keys worked to let us in!  By this time, we were more than tired and ready to get in that room.  While Bryan went down for new keys Paul, Maria and I decided we needed to leave Dublin first thing in the morning after a good night’s sleep.  Luckily Bryan, always the voice of reason, convinced us we were there and we needed to stay as planned and check out the sights.  Plus, he reminded us that we were planning to go to the Guinness Factory and Jameson Irish Whiskey Museum so those were good incentives!  The problem with the room keys turned into a major joke by the end of the trip because almost without fail, every time we got back to our rooms the keys didn’t work!

It was a completely different experience, but we ended up enjoying our two days in Dublin and spent much of the time wide-eyed at all the various craziness going on around us.   I loved all the sights…including lots of new colorful doors for my growing photo collection, wonderful churches and great architecture.  Temple Bar was a fun place I would compare to Soho or Greenwich Village in New York…wild and crazy on the weekend.

P.S.  I should mention that some of these pictures were taken by Maria.  When that is the case, I have not put my copyright on them; however, please don’t copy without her permission.

Temple Bar...shops, street vendors, street artists, lots of people...and so much more!

This one's for our friend, Derek!

 

Doors, doors, doors!  A friend named Ted would call it
"Argument for Urban Color"!!!

Cheers to you and yours...

"But one of the most fantastic things about Ireland and Dublin is that the pubs are like Paris and the cafe culture. And Dublin, in many ways, is a pub culture."
-Hugh Dancy