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December 10, 2015

Things to do in Dublin Ireland

Arrived in Dublin on a very cold December evening, non EU passport holder need to go through immigration Check it is very fast and can be a present experience, the immigration officer asked me where I was from, told him Texas and he smiled, next question was what was the purpose my visit, told him wanted to see the Guinness Store and  he was all smiling, stamped my passport and I exited the Airport.

Stay: I stayed at the Hilton Airport Hotel, its half way between the city and the Airport. Easy access to both, my return flight was early morning and it was very convenient location. They had a shuttle pick up and drop off from the hotel. I could have picked a cheaper place to stay, though if you add the added cost of transportation to and from the airport, it works out to about the same. Also they has some amazing Fish and Chips.

Picture below - The Oliver St. John Gogarty Irish pub in the city center's Temple Bar nightlife district, walking distance from Trinity College.

 

In Dublin I took the hop on hop off bus to see the city, from my hotel I took the city bus to city center, walked 2 minutes to O'Connell Street, there is a tourist office there, got all the info I needed and was off to see the city, I do recommend taking the city hop on hop off bus, it was 10 Euros. It was raining in the morning, I had a light weather proof jacket.

Picture of the Post office on O'Connell Street during the day and one later at night


The hop on hop off bus goes through 28 stops, not enough time to see everything, so read the brochure that comes with the ticket and choose the stops you want. I did get off the bus a few times, at Trinity College Stop I got off and walked till Guinness Storehouse, seeing the sights along the way.

City Hall Dublin below, there was an exhibit in the basement, the entrance to the City hall is free, there is 2 or 3 euro fee to see the exhibit in the basement, the exhibit has history artifacts of the city.



Pictures below Christ Church Cathedral Dublin



Guinness Storehouse

You can easily spend a few hours here and its worth it, walk through all 7 floors and see the history and beer making process explanation, the entrance is 20 euros and come with a free pint of Guinness Beer, on the 7th floor of the store house, there is Gravity Bar with 360 views of Dublin, I used my Free Pint coupon there as does everyone else.





Below Picture I took from the Gravity Bar



Ha'penny Bridge Dublin night picture I took, as per my bus tour guide, couples used to put padlocks on the bridge so that they will remain together forever, the bridge stating getting too heavy and the city was concerned about the added weight on the bridge, there is already pedestrian traffic, so the city decided to cut the locks off.



As the tour bus goes through cobblestone streets, the tour guide said the century old stones were all taken out and washed, put back together in the 80's, don't know how true that was, but he put Irish humor on every site the bus drove went across.

When the Bus went past kilmainham Jail, the Guide explained how bad the prisoners were kept, no electricity or heat,  and now days Prisoners in Jails have TVs.

Another stop is The Old Jameson Distillery, on the way back as the bus stopped at the Distillery, few people that were not part of the Hop on bus wanted to get on, mistakenly ofcourse, the tour guide said this happens all the time, guess  Jameson is generous with its Whiskey tasting.

Below: A bar by Samuel Beckett Bridge and St Stephen's Green.



St Stephen's Green is a peaceful park with Swans, a getaway from the busy city of Dublin.

See Dublin, its Amazing and fun friendly people.

Comments or Questions?




4 comments :

  1. Dublin is definitely on my must visit list. Being half Irish, I have always wanted to go there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post! I've never to been to Dublin. Looks like a nice and interesting to visit. I'll add this to my travel list.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello, I enjoy reading through yor article. I wanted to write a little comment to
    support you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi there, I clicked to read this post as I'm planning to visit Dublin next year. I visited once before about 10 years ago and we did a walking tour of the city which I enjoyed so I did see some of the sites that you mentioned. From what you shared though, I'm really interested in visiting St Stephen's Green as I enjoy green spaces in the city. Was there anywhere that you didn't get to visit that you would want to see on a return trip?

    ReplyDelete

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