Monday, July 7th

After a good night's rest, Holly and I awoke, too late for breakfast at the hovel, so we hit a Starbucks before Tom and Bill joined us.  This was momentous because this was my first time purchasing coffee at a Starbucks.  You'll remember, I've only recently started drinking coffee.. and that's assuming I'm not imagining having blogged about it.  Hmm..

Anyway, the plan for the day was that we would purchase, for a low price of 19 Euro, a ticket for a hop-on, hop-off tour bus which, as good fortune would have it, stopped right outside our hovel!  The first pick up was about 10, so we bought our tickets and got aboard.  Along the ride, the driver would impart all sorts of tidbits about the city and its history.  Unfortunately, in my humble opinion, none of them were as good as Barry.  

Our first stop was at Trinity College, an active university whose library houses a copy of every book ever published in the British Isles... I'm wondering where the section was that housed all those dreadful Barbara Cartland romances from the seventies.  Additionally, the library is home to the Book of Kells - the oldest handwritten copy of the four gospels in existence.  We couldn't take pics of it, so I'll try and Google up a copy.

Trinity College was nice, but I think we all agreed that it would be a pain to attend a college where tourists were crawling all over the place.  

Back on the bus - our next stop was Dublin Castle.  Ireland, having been under British rule for 700 plus years, didn't have a king living in this castle, but the British King's main dude assigned to keep an eye on Ireland would live in this castle.  We got to roam around the upstairs and then took a guided tour of the underbelly, if you will, of the castle.  No dungeons, though.  I've discovered that Holly is a blood-thirsty thing, wanting to see dungeons and torture stuff.  Hmm.. and I'm sharing a room with her.

After we finished at the Castle, we needed to sit down for some lunch and we found an Italian restaurant directly across the road from the Castle.  I had a lovely grilled chicken and green salad.  Getting actual vegetables in over here is harder than one might think it would be.

Back on the bus - the next place we wanted to investigate was Kilmainham Gaol ("jail") - I'm thinking that this place should have made Holly's bloodthirsty soul happy.  We got to tour the jail where all sorts of Ireland's political prisoners have been held and executed.  In fact, I now know so much more about Ireland's political history and their rebellions/revolutions and what all it took to become a free republic rather than a part of the UK.  I really enjoyed the tour guide at the Gaol - she did a marvelous job.

One thing that I have learned about Ireland that I think they could improve upon is the important lesson learned at Graceland, i.e., "exiting through the gift shop."  Now, if you go to Graceland, you will not be able to leave any of the various sections of the estate without exiting through the gift shop.  Ireland, however, if they have a gift shop, it's only selling a few dinky books.  I'm thinking that Gaol could have had a gift shop with books, yes, but also all sorts of things.. action figures of the political figures, a toy gallows, paper dolls of the prisoners with different prison outfits..  you get my point.  They are missing a prime income generating opportunity here!

When we got back on the bus, the next stop we made was the Guinness factory.  Not that any of us were really interested in going through the tour, but Tom was interested in seeing the gift shop.  Here was another missed opportunity.  You HAD to take the tour to get to the gift shop.  NO !  They should have had the gift shop available to anyone passing by.  I might not want to take the tour, but I might be inclined to buy a doodad with "Guinness" written on it.  

After all of this excitement, when we finally made it to our last stop on the tour, the Jameson Whisky factory (are you sensing a trend?), it had already started it's final tour, so while Tom was disappointed, I can't say that I was.  And my sore feet definitely weren't!  

Soon our bus dropped us back off at the hovel.  It was too early to go up to our TV-less room, so we headed off in search of dinner at a pub with live music.  We asked the guy behind the counter at the hovel and he suggested two places not far away, in the Temple Bar area.  We found the first one, and there was no room in the inn.  So we headed for the second, it had a table, but the music wasn't all that outstanding.  We ate some food and fabulous desserts and I had not one but TWO cranberry juices (I know, I know - don't judge me!) then we roamed back down to the first place in time to hear the musician's last two songs which were very enjoyable.  Made me wish we'd have been able to fit into that pub in the first place.