Written by We started our Friday out nice and early to maximize our day left to explore! After a quick stop to return our rental car, we walked the 1.5 miles just south of the River Liffey to tour St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was quite impressive to have Christ Church and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral emerge as we approached. We took a short walk through the St. Patrick gardens and then toured this gorgeous church. I continue to be blown away by how buildings like this were constructed with such limited resources and just how hard working people were to complete these ornate structures. I loved the decor and stainglass throughout this Cathedral, but was specifically touched by the two remeberences to soldiers. The traditional, flags on display to remember the former Irish regiments to slowly fade away in the light to symbolize “soldiers do not die, they simply fade away.” There was also a new more modern tree structure (created in 2014 to commemorate the centenary of World War I), The Tree of Rememberence, where you could write your memory of someone lost in service/affected by conflict on a paper leaf to then hang on the sculpted tree.
From here we also walked through the beautiful Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin’s oldest Cathedral (worship has been done for over 1,000 years here). In addition to the amazing sights upstairs, the crypt that had just be restored in 2000 was really moving. Not only is it one of the largest in Britain and Ireland, it’s the oldest structure in Dublin and contains many historic artefacts which survivied simply because they were in no one’s way down here. They even have “Tom & Jerry” on display here, a cat and rat that were found mummified in the organ pipe. It’s assumed they were chasing one another and got trapped when running into the organ in the 1860’s.
We enjoyed some downtown just taking in the city streets as we made our way to the Dublin Castle and State Aparments. What a tour! Ireland has such interesting history, and this castle reflected so much of the transitional periods starting with the Vikings through Ireland’s independence. Only one of the four towers is currently visible by street from this castle ordered to be. Hilt by King John of England in 1204. It was a significant fortification in Ireland for the following eight centuries, as it functioned as the seat of colonial rule, the centre of military and political power, and was a social stage for Ireland’s ruling classes. I loved seeing the partial remains a second tower (Gun Powder Tower), not visible at street level. In the mix of the foundation is a wall archeologist deemed constructed by the Vikings due to the substances in the mortar – Ox blood, eggs, and horse hair. In the areas near the entrance there were several human skulls found from the history of beheadings and staking the heads near the entrance to forwarn visitors to be on their best behavior. After days of sitting on display, the heads would rot away and fall into the moat…and many other interesting stories I’ll save for when you visit yourself 🙂 Across the way from this corner of the castle was the Chapel Royal, which was also stunning with it’s messing of vibrant stained glass and dark mahogany wood detail. The architect severely missed the mark on his estimation to construct this chapel…(€42,300 Vs. the expected €9,500), oops!! We also learned it was completely built of wood and covered with plaster to give the look of stone throughout with just accents of wood. This is no longer active as a place of worship, unlike our first two stops of the day; but, is used for concerts, plays, and filming various movies/TV shows (most recently, the Tudors). From here we moved into the more “modern day palace” and took in the grand Battleaxe Landing, State Cooridor, Drawing Room, the Throne room (where we learned of a time the tiny Queen Victoria had to be assisted by ~4 tendents to make her way into the large throne originally constructed for the very large King George IV’s visit in 1821), and several other. My favorite was naturally the dining room that could fit a table for over 100 guests and St. Patrick’s Hall which is used for the most important ceremonies in Ireland, including presidential inaugurations. I could go on about so much more, but I’ll finish my thoughts on this castle by simply sharing what a Mecca this was for match making/social events. There was even a spring “meeting” season where parents and others associated with single children/friends would make a focused effort to match couples and introduce them at elaborate events/balls. There was even specific furniture for this where the couple being introduced sat on each end of the couch with three sections, and the fathers would sit on the shared section toward the middle of the couch.
After a busy morning, we grabbed a relaxing late lunch at Fallon & Byrne on Exchequer St., called FAB by the suburban housewives of Dublin (thanks, Tessa!). Brian had an amazing fresh salad, and I loved my cauliflower bay leaf soup down in their cozy wine cellar. From here we explored some shops on Grafton Street and found a coffee shop that even had a Barista Class we got to peek in on (Bryan was thrilled, given his love for coffee).
After a relaxing afternoon, we made our way to Trinity College to tour the Book of Kells (the Irish medieval gospel )/Old Library/The Long Room. This is one of the world’ greatest research libraries, holding the largest collection of maniscrips and printed books in Ireland. The Long Room, the main chamber of the Old Library, is nearly 65 meters long and houses ~200,000 of the oldest books, marble busts of famous writers, and the oldest harp to survive from Ireland, estimated to date back to the fiftheeth century! Very neat stop. On our way out, we heard a student leading a tour who shared dorms haven’t been updated since ~1922 and still have single pane glass and no A/C to help with upholding the historic preservation. Brave students 🙂
It was about 5PM as we wrapped up our tours, so we decided a pre-dinner pub crawl was in order (8:30PM dinner reservation). Although we knew it would be touristy, we had to make a stop by the iconic Temple Bar (It’s history goes back to 1599 when Sir William Temple, a renowned teacher and philosopher, built his house and gardens here on newly reclaimed land around Temple Bar. His son, Sir John Temple, went onto developed what we know as Temple Bar after a ‘sea wall’ was built in 1656 to hold back the River Liffey. The area thus became known as Temple’s Barr. A ‘Barr’ was a raised estuary sandbank often used for walking on.). As we entered we found great live music and a pleasant crowd (still comfortably crowded Vs. Chaos), so decided to grab a pint (well, half pint for me…greatest size ever to avoid getting too full)! As we took in the ambience we noticed police badges from all over the world posted on the wooden door frames throughout the pub, and quickly found Cleveland represented! Next we walked to a few additions pubs recommended by several family/friends to unwind before dinner…Stags Head, McDaid’s, and O’Donoghue’s. It was the perfect mix of authentic pubs and we met several welcoming locals. It was a fun evening of great conversations, people watching, and music!
For dinner, we gave The Bank on College Green a try (thanks, Samantha & David) and thoroughly enjoyed entering into this magnificent old bank parlour as live piano music flooded the space. With history dating back to the 18th century, this venue was a real charm. We were seated overlooking the bar down below and really struggled on what to zone in on for dinner because there were so many amazing options (fish, a seafood platter for 2, nice meat selections, etc.). After talking with our very personable server (who we learned was a HUGE LeBron James fan) we decided on the Irish meat board for two. It was a fabulous section of spiced beef (corn beef), bacon (ham), Irish chorizo, and a salami and accompanied by amazingly fresh, toasted bread, horseradish mustard, pickled onions, gherkins, fresh tomatoes, arugula, and roasted red peppers. We anticipated ordering this and maybe a fish to share, but were thankful our served suggested starting with this and ordering more later if we still needed it. We never would have had room for both. As we wrapped up our meal we engaged in conversation with a kind couple from New Jersey sitting next to us and had fun exchanging stories of our travels and experiences throughout Ireland. After much fun, we decided it was time to turn in for our early morning return home departure from Dublin.
After flying ~7,672 miles, driving ~762 miles (1,226KM), traveling ~ 254 miles by train and walking ~75 miles over the last ten days ; we had a fantastic time!! Certainly covered a lot of ground, but wouldn’t have done it any other way! Such amazing sights, friendly people, and many memories made. Looking forward to having the opportunity to return here one day!
We also couldn’t help taking a selfie with one B&B sign, since it’s what friends call us for short ☺️
Hope you learned something that might inspire you to explore Ireland for yourself! 🍀🇨🇮
Scenic Seitz 
