Once again in Ireland…..

So, after a long hiatus, Roaming Our Way is back and yes, those coupons are still good! After many months of planning, re-planning, re-planning again and of course, re-re-planning, we’re here in Ireland with our friends Chris & Sue Morasci and Russ & Lori Nikolopolus.  With our first timers to Ireland we have a real busy itinerary and tons of things to see so on with the first few days……

Chris & Sue and Russ & Lori arrived a day before us to get better acclimated to the time change. Collette and I decided to rough it out so we arrived the evening before our start.  Amazingly, we all made it! We met up in Dublin so it was time for drinks and a little decompression. In the morning its off for our 2-day Hop On – Hop Off tour and the sites of Dublin.

Early Monday morning and we’re off to start our grand tour. Of course, as soon as we started there was a change. Monday was Easter Monday and a holiday here in merry ole Ireland so the first stop on our tour, Trinity College and the Book of Kells, was closed until 1pm.

Switch to plan “B”! Instead of the college, we went to Dublin Castle. First founded as a defensive work in 1204 by King John of England, the castle has served as a defensive building, a prison for the leader of the 1798 Uprising, a torture chamber for three members of the 1916 Uprising, the Seat of the English Government until 1922 and today is used for inaugurations and more importantly, a tourist attraction.  Fun tour with a very informative guide.

 

After the castle, we walked to Christchurch Cathedral just about 10 minutes down the street. This tour was a little more engaging as we actually got to go up to the belfry and ring ‘dem bells! Now short fun facts, founded somewhere around 1028 when King Sitric Silkenbeard (real name) the Norse king made a pilgrimage to Rome. Huh? Don’t blame me, that’s the way Wikipedia has it written. Anyway, Sit (as his friends call him, the term was later adopted for a dog obedience business) decided the city needed a second church besides St. Martin of Tours. No that’s not a divine travel agency, it’s really a church.

Somewhere around the late 1180’s a man named Strongbow (a Norman elite) funded rebuilding the cathedral adding several transepts and extensions to the main structure. Numerous other modifications have been made over the years but I mention Strongbow because he’s actually interred in the church. The other famous residents of the cathedral are a mummified cat and rat that were actually stuck in the organ. The rat was in desperate need of an escape and chose to hide in one of the organs pipes which the cat soon discovered, snagged the rat and got equally as stuck in the organ. After a few years, bingo, dried tourist attraction!

The final attraction here was the bell tower. After a short walk, crawl, scooch, drag, and slide we managed to make it up the circular stairway to the top of the tower. The bell tower has 19 bells that are rung in a “circular” fashion making this collection a world record for bells rung in this manner. Once our guide had finished with the instructional lesson on the how-to of bell ringing, we were free to ring a couple of the bells. So, add that to the old resume!

All this bell stuff makes you hungry so more of Dublin to follow but first a break for lunch and a little refreshment. We made a quick stop at Darkey Kelly’s pub. For generations Darkey Kelly was known in Dublin’s folk memory as the woman who was burned at the stake for witchcraft but new evidence uncovered suggests that although she was innocent of witchcraft she still had a dark side to her character. The discovery of bodies under the floorboards of the brothel she ran in 1761 suggests she may have been Ireland’s first serial killer! Good enough for me, let’s eat!

After some great pub-grub we were back on HOHO for our next attraction…..Jameson distillery! In 1780, John Jameson opened his distillery on Bow street in Dublin. Still there some 200+ years later but with a different purpose. Now the Dublin distillery doesn’t brew that magical elixir today, instead it’s a tourist attraction. We decided to take the tour which was mostly a multi-media presentation narrated by our guide. There were a few props like jars of grain and a “smell the barrel” display but primarily it was our guide describing the process and giving everyone a chance to taste various types of whiskey. Good tour, especially for those who drink whiskey, and pretty informative on the “how to” if we decide to make our own.

Done with day 1 of our Dublin adventure. Time to head back to the hotel and decide where we will have drinks and dinner. Pretty good first day, only fell asleep twice – fortunately I wasn’t driving!