19/05/2019 Sunday

Our flight was originally scheduled at 8:30am but left late due to a medical emergency. The flight was incredibly short 42 minutes. We were literally up, parallel for 20 minutes, then down.

Rob and I were very excited to visit Ireland as it wasn’t on our original itinerary. Being sick had opened up some time though, so we had four days to enjoy Ireland’s beauty.

After passing through customs and arranging to collect our hire car we headed for Dublin city.

We parked and walked to a hop-on-off green bus stop for a tour. As we were walking to the bus we saw this little guy.

The bus tour was great taking us along the River Liffey and across O’Connell Bridge. we saw the birthplace of Guinness.

We hopped off at the bus near College Park and Trinity College to walk around to see the book of Kells, c 800 AD it is an illuminated manuscript book in Latin containing the four Gospels of the New Testament. You have to book to see it though so we missed out as the day was fully subscribed, pics from the museum slideshow only.

So we moved on, next stop the Little Museum of Ireland. What a great place! Meghan our tour guide was charming, articulate, lyrical and very self effacing in her presentation of Irelands history. Sobering at times but very entertaining!

Next stop was Temple Bar to have a true taste of Guiness! Complete with Irish hats no less.

After sustenance we took a walk around Dublin City. We walked past a couple of really nice restaurants – Marco Pier White and Carluccio’s then past Dublin Castle.

Then we walked past the Cathedral and though the East Inner City, popped into the Clarence for a drink (Hotel owned by U2) and then over the Millenium Bridge.

Dublin is a beautiful city. Lots of tourist on this Sunday afternoon, a rain shower or two to keep us on our toes and history everywhere you turn.

We had an early dinner at Murray’s Hotel – 2 for 1 special included in our tour tickets.

After dinner we headed out of Dublin for Clough in Bellacolla, county of Laois, West of Dublin. We stayed at High Nelly Cottage, which had a thatched roof and was named after a Bicycle for the previous owner who fixed Bicycles. So cute and rustic and where I first start to run into internet and wi-Fi problems. None here!

Downstairs was one room and bathroom. Stairs either end to two loft beds. It was fun to stay there and experience life as it would have been in times gone by.

Great first day in Ireland!