Ireland trip - Dublin leg

Dublin, the capital of Republic of Ireland would be the first port for most tourist entering the country. After having spent hours at other large city airports in London, Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid etc to get through immigration, I had budgeted 90-120 mins at the airport. But I was pleasantly surprised in Dublin to breeze through immigration and was out in 30 minutes! So much that we had to wait for 30-40 mins for the taxi driver to take us home, enough time for some selfies!! 😁

Brother's home was 25 km away in Maynooth, in adjoining county Kildare, close to a beautiful sprawling Maynooth University campus. Since it was already late evening by the time we reached home, we hit the beds early. 

Day 1 (Thursday) - roamed around Maynooth. 

The charming little town reminded me of Ealing (London UK) & Pitshanger Lane where we had stayed for 4 years.. the pubs, bakeries, cafes, convenience shops around the Main Street.. There was a beautiful water body flowing by, which i came to know was part of 130 km long Royal Grand Canal Greenway stretch. (https://www.independent.ie/news/a-game-changer-130km-royal-canal-greenway-launches-as-irelands-longest-greenway/40230958.html)

The roads were so tempting so I couldn't resist a 10 km run exploring the town, after dropping family back home.

Day 2 (Friday) - Dublin City tour:

We bought Hop-on Hop-off bus tickets to explore Dublin city. These buses have 24-26 scheduled stops/ places of interests. I had tried these earlier in London, Vienna, Barcelona where there were multiple lines and involved lot of planning to cover maximum places. In Dublin, it was a single bus route and infact 18 places out of the 26 stops were situated within walking radius. So if it was a small adult group, it may make sense to save the €28-30 per ticket and explore the city walking (though you would miss the commentary about the city history). 2 of the farthest points in the bus route were Phoenix Park and Dublin zoo which we anyways require a full day by itself.

A quick overview of our city tour in the link : #dublincitytour

Dublin City tour

Dublin night life

In the evening, both of us brothers & better-halves decided to explore the famous Dublin night life.. so we took off leaving the kids in safe hands of grandparents !!

Dublin by night was completely amazing experience. We went about pub hopping trying out different pubs across temple Bar and Camden street. The whole atmosphere was so lively with Irish music being played by bands at most pubs. 

After food and few more drinks at Porterhouse with some amazing live Irish music, we headed back late night hailing a cab as the buses were too crowded and infrequent. 

 

Day 3 (Saturday) : Dublin Zoo and Phoenix Park

After adults-night out, it was now kids turn. We spent most of the day at Dublin Zoo and Phoenix Park. We may have walked 10-12 km the day seeing animals, clicking photos, that by the end of it, we were dead tired !

All in all, a day well spent !

(Wellington Memorial at Phoenix Park)

Day 4 (Sunday) : St Catherine's Park

Put few green trees together and Mumbaikars would be happy 😄 !! So walk across the St Catherine's park was heavenly !! The huge park is spread across 2 towns of Lexlip and Lucan in Kildare county. 

Day 5  (Monday) : Dublin City tour continued

I found it amazing how much Irish people were fond of their history. Every corner of Dublin had a history associated with it, some famous world personality having their genetic ties there. The 2 good places to immerse in the history are Jeanie Johnston ship tour and EPIC museum. These 2 places (situated next to each other near Customs House) tell stories of the tragic Irish Potato Famine of 1845-1852 which resulted in deaths of 1 million Irish residents and 2+ million immigrating to other countries notably to the USA. These immigrants faced the hardships on  their journies through rough seas by boats like Jeanie Johnston and of societal acceptance as they established in the new countries. They are the same ancestors who gave us several distinguished leaders, businessmen, artists etc. The combo tour of Jeanie Johnston boat and EPIC would take about 3-4 hours depending on your interest. 

(Statues depicting the tragic famine on the walkway)

After these 2 places, we roamed around Grafton Street, had our hot chocolates at Butler's, spent some time at St Stephen's Green park. 

I did a quick Irish Whiskey Tour & had some more Irish coffee too !

On that 'high note', the Dublin leg ends and we start our 5 day trip to the south-west. 

It's been a long post, hope you are still here !! If yes, I love to hear your views and read your comments below. 

Cheers !!