Bono and The Edge bought the old place in 1992 and re-opened it in 1996 as a boutique establishment. Inroads Ireland contracted here for the first time this year.
Saturday, 7/21/18
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We slept as if drugged, not arising until 0930. We did breakfast and watched a family with small children acting like small children. Very much like our grandsons.
After a leisurely morning in a Castle we moved to the River Liffey and on a section of it, The Clarence.
He used a synthetic device to provide background percussion and so forth, but had a good strong voice and was having fun. The customers were applauding after most songs, so they appreciated him. I did, too.
Then we went back to the hotel. The room was ready so we went up. We hunted for a while for the A/C and concluded there wasn't any. So we opened the windows and got nice fresh cool air.
We unpacked and loafed.
On the way there we came across the Viking ship, an abstract thing (picture Left) to remind everyone of the Viking heritage of the place.
The Franciscan church of Adam & Eve is quite large and ornate. The service was simple and done in 40 minutes. See picture link (when I finally provide one).
We hiked uphill past the huge Christchurch Cathedral, the mother church of the Church of Ireland and turned left down Dame street, a shopping area. But we came across something called Beef and Lobster. The menu outside looked good so we took a table and ate. My steak was really tender & D's crab claws + king prawns was good in her opinion.
D wanted to rest her feet so we went back to the room. We got better situated and started up the TV to watch The Open as it's called here.
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Up at a decent hour and down the street to a cafe for omelettes. Then up the street to Dublinia. It's a hands-on museum with some live demonstrations of Dublin life from the early days, through the Viking era, into the Normans, and a little of today.. It's housed in old St Michael's Church (which has a archway over the road to Christchurch Cathedral) on three floors. The Vikings were a bid deal here from about 790 to 1066.
They were strong up till around 1000 when Irish king Brian Born drove them out. However they came back later and re-established themselves, killing Boru in the battle of Clontarf.
There are a few fragments of the old Dublin city walls. Our hotel is just outside where the walls were located.
At the end of the tour we walked into our part of Temple Bar. We saw this place to eat. Our table was upstairs, right in the left-hand window. It also looked out over the far street. The food was good and the place wasn't crowed.
The streets were crowded. It is said this area is the big tourist draw and that the Guiness brewery is the #1 attraction.
PhotoLink Beware! The last file is a video of a Irish duet singing "Hallelujah". Might take a while to see it, depending on your browser and internet connection.
Up & out for breakfast at the Brick Alley. Then back onto the hoho to find things.
We wanted to do the Kilmainham Gaol but their walkup tour line was full. We went on and transferred from the red to the blue line. In the course of this trip we saw the local arena Croke Park. Why all U-shaped stadiums have the open end facing North I'll never know. It just makes certain that the day you attend will have a cold fierce wind out of the North.
The tour ended out our way so we wandered through the Dublin Castle and its gardens. Pretty impressive place, but architecturally weird. After they built the Castle around the interior courtyard they went nuts and tacked things on all around paying no attention to the harmony with the castle. The big tower I can understand. But the Chapel looks terrible tacked onto the eastern end. There's an octagonal tower outside the main building.
The garden behind the castle is nice. Quiet, with seating. A corner set off for remembrance of fallen Garda. The gift shop was ordinary.
At some point we went into the Norseman ground-floor bar and had a glass. The temperature got right up there again today.
Back then to the hotel where D sat and I went out to find an ATM for journey cash. Then I returned and we both sat for a bit.
We had to walk through the early-evening horde of people outside the Temple Bar bar to get there. Once there we found it wide open. We ordered our lamb shank (D) and penne arabiata (O) with Italian red wine. Later D had a brownie and ice cream while I had a sambuca. I had some of hers and she had some of mine. She said it tasted like the old candy "Good and Plenty". Actually it was very good, and we even got in on the old Florida tradition - Early Bird.
We returned to the room by way of sticking our noses into the bar Temple Bar. Too crowded for me so we went on to the room. I'm doing these notes while D rests. I'm going out for a wee drop. Then I'll return to pack so we can rise early and get started on the tour.
I went back to the Norseman and found my way to a second-stool seat from the two-person group. Guy guitar/singer & lady fiddle/singer. Good songs, took two Guinesses before I went back to the room.