Dublin
Day 0 & Day 1 - June 24 & 25, 2017
Dublin has a population of 1.3 million people which is more than 25% of the total population of Ireland. In Dublin, the triangle formed by the O'Connell Bridge, St. Stephen's Green, and Christ Church Cathedral is the center of most tourist attractions.
As Rick suggests, we arrived one day before our tour started to help us get over jet lag. I'm glad we did as we were able to prepare for our group meeting and enjoy our first group dinner together. Those that arrived the same day as the tour started were pretty tired during the group dinner. They wished they had arrived a day earlier.
On the day we arrived, and the next day before our tour started, we explored some of Dublin that we wouldn't see as part of the tour. We visited Merrion Square with the statue of Oscar Wilde, the Temple Bar area, O'Connell Street, O'Connell Bridge, the Garden of Remembrance, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Castle, and the National Museum of Archaeology. On the right are some pictures from our exploration.
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The time finally came to meet the group. Cathie explained the rules and guidelines that we would be following for the tour. After the meeting we headed to our first group dinner at Bang's Restaurant. The dinner was wonderful and we had a chance to get to better know a few our tour members. On the left are a few pictures of the evening. After dinner, we had a short orientation walk before heading back to our hotel for the evening.
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Day 2 - June 26, 2017
This morning, we met our local guide, Tommy Graham, for a walking tour of Dublin where he explained some of the history of Ireland and the Dublin Architecture. We ended our morning tour at Trinity College for a look at the famous Book of Kells (pictures of the Book of Kells were not allowed). On the right are some pictures from the walking tour.
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The afternoon was free to explore Dublin on our own. We had lunch, explored more of Dublin on our own, and then in the evening enjoyed a traditional Irish Musical Pub Crawl that Rick recommended in his book. There were two musicians who explained the history, and played and sang traditional Irish music. It was a fun way to end the day. To the left are pictures of our day's exploration ending with the Irish Musical Pub Crawl.
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Tomorrow we leave Dublin stopping at Kilmainham Gaol and the Rock of Cashel before finally reaching Kinsale.