Dublin, Ireland

In looking for things to do in Dublin I found the Dublin Pass. This is a pass that you order online. It can be shipped to you, if your not travelling for awhile, or you can pick it up at a visitor’s centre in Dublin. With it you get free or discounted entries to many places, you get a free Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour, and you get fast tracks and other bonuses. We bought one for each of us to use. We had a few problems with getting the receipt printed but the hotel staff was able to help us with that.

We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and then caught the tram into town. Kathy and I went to get everyone’s passes and when we return mom has disappeared into a department store. She wasn’t difficult to track down though. From there we catch the bus tour to the Temple Bar area of the city.

From Temple Bar it’s it’s a straight shot to Dublin Castle:

Christ Church Cathedral:

Dublinia – where Vikings roam:

After our adventure in this area we caught the bus to the Guinness Brewery. I’m not a beer drinker, I had a few sips of my sample and passed it on, but touring the brewery was amazing.  I am going to create a  post whole about the brewery because I took so many photo’s there. You can read it here, if you haven’t already.

After Guinness we head down to the Quay, the pathway that follows the River Liffey down the middle of Dublin. We walked along the river for a time. Then Grandma split from the group to do her own thing. The 4 of us went to the Jameson Distillery for a whisky tasting. There was an hour long wait so we got tickets for the next available time. We then went to find something to eat, since it had been since breakfast, and it was almost 4pm.

There was a wonderful little restaurant near the distillery that had an open window seat. We sat and ate and watched the world pass by the windows until it was time for our tasting.

You walk through a door and into a room with a large round table. One the table are three samples of whisky. One is an American whisky, one is a scotch whisky, and the final is Jameson whisky. You get a little bit of information about the differences between each whisky and then you sample. Mom made the best “alcohol is horrible, this burns so bad” face as she tried the Jameson. She then gave the rest of her samples to the young man beside her. She also gave him her free drink ticket. After the samples you head out the door and are able to enjoy a free drink Jameson and Ginger, or Jameson on the rocks. Then you have time to look around the distillery a bit.

After the distillery we returned to the bus and decided to do a full tour loop and see everything that we could. We passed Trinity College, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Phoenix Park and many other places along the way. It was great to be able to listen to the history as you toured around. By that time though it was getting cold and windy. After the tour we treated ourselves to some warm drinks.

After we walked from the cafe back to the tram stop. We quickly realized that we had all over estimated how much energy we had left. We were all happy to get the tram and make it back to the hotel.