ireland, day two

ahhhhh, the dawn of a new day on the emerald isle! we were up at a decent hour and ready to set out for some new exploring of ireland's capital city today. breakfast at the hotel- it was decent enough, just overpriced. (however, we did get a deal this morning since the family in front of us couldn't make up their minds about whether they wanted full irish or just continental, so the staffer offered them a coupon for either for a cheaper price, and since we had overheard him, he gave us the deal as well-- i swear, i didn't even ask for it, ha!)

first on the agenda this morning was the book of kells, so after breakfast we headed over to trinity college. beautiful buildings. and my husband was fascinated by some sort of solar powered trash/recycling receptacle... men. anyhoo, really enjoyed seeing the exhibits in the long hall. again, me and old books can't go wrong. :) it's too bad you can't take photos of the library-- it's just so lovely. and the crowd wasn't too bad either. there were a ton of people right as you walk in, in the area talking about the book of kells but as you passed thru the doorways, no one was actually in the room looking at the pages of book itself. pretty cool to have some alone time with major sites (which would be a major recurrance on this trip.)

after seeing the long room, we hopped on the good ol' hop on/hop off bus and rode out to kilmainham gaol. this was a really interesting place to visit. our tour guide was very informative and great to listen to. i'm the first to admit that while i know a fair amount about irish history pre-1600, the modern history is not my strong suit. this was definitely the place to learn about that though. my husband really enjoyed seeing the architecture and learning the history of the uprising here as well.


once we had completed our tour at kilmainham (including the museum, which is certainly worth a look while you're there), we headed to what turned out to be my favorite place in dublin - st. michan's church. we got to st. michan's at the tail end of the lunch break, so we walked around outside of the church taking a few pictures before we could get in for the tour of the crypts. once we did get in, it was just myself, my husband, and a gentleman from australia off to visit st. michan's mummies. the tour guide was kitschy and hilarious, and fairly informative. seeing the actual mummies was pretty cool too -- not to mention the fact that we got to molest the crusading knight, ::ahem::.


after st. michan's, we headed back across the liffey and did a little shopping and walking around in the city center. after walking around for a bit, we realized we still had some time before dinner, so we decided to head over to christchurch catheral. this site has such a wonderful history and the building has some amazing architectural details.


for dinner, we decided to eat in temple bar and found gallagher's boxty house. the food and service were both excellent. we also enjoyed some fine murphy's stout and live music. after dinner, we bought tickets for the ghostbus and headed out for some spooky fun. (i know, i know... more kitsch, but hey- we'd already played with mummies that day, why not??) the ghostbus is perhaps a little overpriced for what it is, but we did have fun and got lots of orbs/dust in our photos (any other ghosthunter fans out there?!?)


after the ghost tour ended, we walked back to the hotel and headed for bed. however, sleep was not easy. i was nervous. what can i say? day 3 was ::dun, dun, dun:: driving day...

to be continued...

Ireland, Day One

adventures in ireland with the husband, part one:
after our red-eye flight from philly, we landed in dublin about a half-hour early, around 8:15 a.m. local time. irish customs was pretty easy and we were ready to leave the airport before 9:30. i think the longest time spent was waiting for the luggage, ha. we also took the time to find where the car rental desk was so we'd know on thursday and went ahead and pulled some euro from an atm.

after some confusion over which bus was the free hotel shuttle bus, we ended up just taking the aircoach bus into city center. we got off about 2 blocks from the hotel and had no trouble finding it. being so early, we couldn't check-in, but we did drop off luggage and set out to explore the city.

the first place we walked to was dublin castle. we didn't do a tour of the offices inside, just snapped a few pics of the exterior and then went to the chester beatty museum for a bit. i collect old manuscripts myself, so it was really interesting to see the works on display there.

after seeing the chester beatty, we headed out to find the whitefriar st. carmelite church. the church itself is a little underwhelming, but i was really just interested in seeing st. valentine's relics. with that checked on the itinerary, we headed over to st. patrick's cathedral. gorgeous park! we explored the cathedral, but we were really starting to feel the jet lag at this point, so probably didn't give it as much attention as we should have.


feeling the jet lag, and by this point extreme hunger, we decided that we really needed to eat. we were a little late on lunch service and of course while we had noticed a ton of restaurants on our way to the previous sites, we couldn't find anything as we walked around actually looking for food. ha- isn't that always the case? you can find tons of whathaveyou when you're not really looking for it, but when you decide you need the whathaveyou... too bad, none to be found! it probably didn't help that patrick and i were getting slightly snippy with each other at this point. we finally managed to find a bistro (copper alley) and ate there. didn't realize until we were seated that it was the bistro for one of the hotels we had looked at staying at, but ah well. the food was just ok, but it was much need sustinance.

after our belated lunch, we found st. audeon's church on the way back to the hotel. this was actually one of my favorite sites in dublin. i really loved how they've managed to showcase the older parts of the church and tell its history. after st. audeon's, we returned to the hotel to officially check-in and relax for a bit. of course after a few minutes of lying around on the bed, we realized that if we didn't do something, we were going to be asleep at like 5 p.m. and that would really not be good for getting us on ireland time! sooo... we decided to make a loop on the hop on/hop off bus. we had planned on taking the bus the next day anyway and since tickets are good for 24 hours, we went ahead and rode the last loop of the day. i have to say that i loved the hop on/hop off bus. we had one with live commentary (as opposed to one we took later with the recorded loop) and it was great fun.


after orienting ourselves a little better with the city (thanks ho/ho bus!), we had dinner at an italian restaurant, pasta fresca, where we could sit outside and enjoy the lovely evening. we both really enjoyed our food and the service was great. after dinner, it was back to the hotel to turn in for an early night. --- and speaking of hotel-- in dublin, we stayed at the trinity capital hotel right across the street from trinity college. it's a great location and the hotel is pretty decent. i loved the gaudy decor. i will say that i probably wouldn't want to stay here in the summer tho, because our room was insanely hot upon arrival. it eventually cooled down with the window open and the fan we borrowed from the front desk, but i would have been miserable if it had been any warmer out.

next up, part two -- dublin, redux

d.c.

special notes on traveling to d.c.

1. don't use your car once you get to the city. the city has a great metro system that is easy to use and safe. seriously, you don't want to deal with the traffic.

2. you can stay for cheaper outside the district. just make sure you're near a metro stop. i'm partial to the crystal city/pentagon city area myself.

3. some general site seeing activities:
--the monuments. there are tours that take you around the national mall monuments, but it's really just as easy and satisfying to do your own walking tour. especially in the late evening. again, very safe area, and it's a good stroll all the way around hitting the washington monument, jefferson memorial, roosevelt monument, lincoln memorial, vietnam memorial, etc but it's not too long.
--the smithsonians. first, natural history - in my opinion a must. and to do it justice you need maybe 4 hours. i know some people just pick 1 or 2 exhibits and see those instead of the whole museum but by doing this, you really miss out. second, american history, can be done in 2 hours. some interesting exhibits for those who enjoy seeing strands of our nation's past. third, air and space. probably my least favorite, but then again, i'm not big into mechanical things. next trip, i intend to hit up the american indian museum. udvar-hazy - again, if you like looking at planes, you'll enjoy. myself...ehhh. national gallery of art - love. see what special exhibits are being shown in the west building. last time i was there, it was art and sculpture from pompeii. awesome. the permanent exhibitions are in the east building. and there's a great cafe between the two (underground).
--the holocaust museum. definitely worth a visit, though it's very thought provoking so make sure your children are age appropriate. it's very moving to see the stories throughout the the museum.
--arlington national cemetary. lots of walking, but a great place to visit. see the change of the guard at the grave of the unknown soldier and make the trek up to the lee mansion where you can get an oustanding view of the city from l'enfant's grave.
--national cathedral (shrine of immaculate conception). great for architecture lovers. certainly worth a visit.
--spend an afternoon walking around one of d.c.'s great neighborhoods. georgetown and old town alexandria are two top choices. both have lots of shops, great restaurants, and gorgeous townhomes to drool over.