Weekend Trip To Ireland

Oh what a weekend. It’s been marvelous!

We flew to Dublin from Schipol, Amsterdam on Thursday afternoon with much excitement.

At Dublin Airport, we took the bus to the city center where we stayed at the Citi Hotel Dublin for the weekend. We first booked in and drop our luggage and rushed to our first stop. Where else than Guiness Brewery.  We did the whole tour inside the brewery and ended up at the top bar where we enjoyed a few (of many) Guiness beers with a spectacular view of Dublin. After our time at Guiness Brewery we walked back to our Hotel and ended our night at the Hotel’s restaurant/ pub with local Irish music.

On Friday we did a day tour with Wild Rover Tours. We hopped on the bus at 7am sharp and left Dublin. Our first stop was at Cliffs of Moher.
It was not at all how we imagined our time there would turn out. When we stopped there, we stepped out in heavy rain and strong wind. You can imagine for yourself, that wasn’t very pleasant but we survived it to the visitors centre. At the visitors centre we first went to have a look through the museum and read and learn a little bit of the area’s history in the hope that when we finished the weather would’ve perhaps cleared up. But unfortunately it didn’t.

Our only option then was to take a seat at the little restaurant and enjoy a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows and a bowl of delicious vegetable soup with freshly baked bread. We enjoyed our drink and food with a window view of rainy weather. We were really sad to not have been able see the Cliffs of Moher the way we imagined it. It was so misty and rainy the whole time. A few brave people did however buy a poncho and took the short walk to the Cliffs but we can only think that they didn’t see much in that misty weather. We felt really sorry for some of them because their umbrella’s broke and they got back in soaking wet clothes. Anyway, lucky our time came to get back on the bus and tackle the road to Galway.

We took a beautiful coastal road to Galway. Finally, we arrived in the city where Ed Sheeren shot his one of many famous music videos – Galway Girl. It was like a dream came true. I have dreamt of going to Ireland well especially Galway since the very first time I watched PS I Love You. And yes, Galway did not disappoint.
What a vibrant city. We unfortunately only had 2 hours in the city but it was still a good experience and just a taster for us to definitely have reason to go back and see more.

Our tour guide suggested a few places. We first took a short walk through the city then we went to Mc Dunnes for Deep fried Cod and chips and was that exactly what we needed? Yes, absolutely! We obviously sprinkled some salt and their famous malted vinegar over. We highly recommend Mc Dunnes if you are looking for a local fish and chips eatery. On our walk further down the busy street we couldn’t help but stopped at the famous Murphy’s for ice cream. Well, they gave out tasters outside and we tasted and decided we have to pop in for ice cream since the weather cleared up a bit and the sun came out. We tasted a few different flavors which were all delicious, from brown bread, chocolate whiskey, sea salt, butterscotch, and lemon lime. Heinrich finally decided on chocolate whiskey and butterscotch and I had to treat myself with the sea salt and the Gin and pink peppercorn ice cream. We’ve never had Gin and pink peppercorn ice cream, but let us tell you – it was incredible, a must!

We ended our Galway visit on a sweet note. First, at an Irish pub where Heinrich enjoyed a local beer and then on our way back to the bus we popped in at the Local Irish Sweet Shop where we treated ourselves with a few sweet treats.

On our drive back to Dublin we watch history videos in the bus and enjoyed the outside scenery and green fields. We arrived in Dublin at around 8pm. We ended of our Friday evening at an Irish pub with live music off course.

On Saturday we explored Dublin city and all the beautiful churches, buildings, and parks.

We started the day early as we wanted to see as much as possible and miss some of the tourist rushes that was happening all over Dublin. We started to walk from our Hotel in the direction of Trinity Collage and soon we arrived at the one entrance. We did not go to closed off areas so we could just walk in. We can into a big square quart yard, with a few statues and old buildings around us. We wondered around and had a look at the statutes and what was said about the, peak inside a few windows and wondered around. We did not enter the famous library unfortunately. We might have been to early for a tour and surprisingly there were a few students walking around and to the library to go and study. As we walked we cam across a green rugby field and a cricket field.

 

 

While thinking of our university days we wondered a bit around and found our way to one of the exits. We exited close to Pearce train station and did the trains over our heads make some noise. We wondered up the street and saw a old looking Church basically next to the train station.  We did as the locals do, and ran across the street, we did look left and right though. We entered the old building to find a old historical church that is till being used today.

The name of this amazing building is St Andrew’s Parish Church. This church building is older than 100 Years and the Church even older, we are sure there has happened a lot and a lot of worship. You can feel the energy and the history in such old buildings, it is truly amazing. There is some old art inside and history and one of the oldest organs in Europe.

From here we continued with our walk up the town. We then came across a beautiful park and building. Upon looking closer we saw the statue of Oscar Wild, the famous poet. We decided to use the cross walk this time and entered the park. We first went for a stroll and a friendly local took a Photo of us. After we saw that a big tour group left the statue we hasted over to get a closer look at the statute that is different to the normal statue. It is made off marble and consists of colors. It is a very nice and beautiful statue showing how Oscar would sit and ponder his work and think of what will his next masterpiece bee. The were other status with some of his famous catch phrases and sayings.

 

 

 

 

We continued with our walk in the park and exited. We soon realized we are going to get to all the tourist stops quite fast. So we decided to pop back to the other side of the road and visit the National Gallery of Ireland. All national galleries in Ireland is for free. So we entered the building got a map and had a look of some of Irelands art history and beautiful paintings. There were quite a few interesting paintings that showed some history of Ireland and then just also amazing paintings. This was very nice and was a great way of getting some time to pass.

We continued with our quest threw Dublin and the next stop was at St Stephen’s green park. The park was buzzing with Tourists, tourists groups and rugby fans as there was a big Quarter finals match happening in Dublin. We walked through the park a bit and exited again. We picked a street and weaved our way through small streets until Grafton street, we kept on walking as we would come back for this street and set our sights on St Patrick’s Cathedral. We walked through the city and what a beautiful Cathedral this was. We did not enter it, but only amazed the building from outside and had a glance at all the tourists and locals playing with there dogs in the park. We walked around the Church and set sight for Grafton Street.

On our way to Grafton Street we popped into George’s street arcade. Here you will find a few market like stalls and permanent quick eat and drink spots. This was very busy with tourists and locals as we got close to lunch time. We went on to Grafton street. Here we walked up and down and listened to some local talent performing in the street and watched all the people around us. We found a very nice kitchen/accessories store, luckily we did not have big bags we traveled with, otherwise there would have been a few euros spent. We continued our walk and found some amazing donuts.

On our way down to see Temple bar again we stopped at Molly Malone’s statue and as usual very busy. This is also one of the famous and beautiful statues in the lovely city. One can see why she sold so many fish to the men. We went on to temple bar and found a spot to grab a traditional Irish lunch. After our lunch we walked through Temple bar and headed for the pointless needle as the locals calls it. It is a “beacon” in the city and it is only a very big needle. We stopped at some of the famous bridges that crosses the Livy and took some tourist photos.

 

 

 

 

After we walked through some more small streets we found our way to a pub to watch the local rugby team on tv playing a team from France followed by another Irish team. We enjoyed a few Guinness beers and enjoy the life music and vibe into the evening. We headed back to our place for some well needed rest.

Sunday we woke up to wonderful sunny weather and headed for a early morning explore and walk through the city one last time. We walked to Christchurch church and down the road to Four courts and along the Livy to the famous harp bridge. On our way back we stopped to buy our tickets for the bus back to the airport and we walk through some more streets before ending at our Hotel. We packed our stuff and headed for a last Irish lunch and fresh Guinness. But we ended up at an Italian place and wow, that was some amazing pasta and pizza. Fueled and ready for the trip back home, we made our way to the bus stop.