Trinity College
Shireland: Introduction
Shireland: Day 1 – Aer Lingus Business Class, the Burren, and Moher
Shireland: Day 2 – Driving Dingle
Shireland: Day 3 – From West to East
Shireland: Day 4 – Exploring Dublin
I just realized if I don’t finish this trip report now I’m going to forget everything we did. The great thing about the last part of our trip was I didn’t have to drive anymore! Dublin is a really cool city and somewhere I’d love to return. Here are our highlights from that day in Dublin, not too many pictures unfortunately:
Our first stop was Trinity College, one of the oldest universities in the world. We walked around the campus a bit but the real highlight was the Trinity College Library and the famed Book of Kells, one of the earliest manuscripts of the gospels from the Bible that is still intact. Unfortunately, like all old books, we weren’t allowed to take pictures, but I thought it was interesting and well worth the admission fee.
After Trinity College, we walked a mile and a half to the Guinness Brewery. At first, I was a bit taken aback by the 16.50 euro admission fee (which includes a free pint of beer), but by the end I decided it was well worth it. Unlike most brewery tours, Guinness is more like a museum. At times, it’s over the top and a bit self serving, but there’s a lot of interesting stuff there to see. We probably could have spent a whole day there, but wanted to move on.
There are two ways you can drink your free pint. You can either pour it yourself (they teach you the special way to pour Guinness), or you can go drink it at the Gravity Bar, which is on the top floor and has a great view of the city. We had one pint at each, they were both great! The one thing is, you can only use your tickets to get pints in these two locations, which is too bad – the Gravity Bar would be a nice place to get a drink.
After Guinness, we had lunch at Queen of Tarts, where we picked up a scone for later. We took a walk on Grafton Street, and then after a quick siesta at our hotel, ended our time in Ireland with dinner at Il Bacarro, a wonderful Italian restaurant that is like eating in a wine cellar. It was pretty tough to find but if you ever are in Dublin I recommend checking it out!
Anyway, I really loved Dublin, it had a great vibe, but it was time to go. After visiting another museum in the morning, we went to the airport to wait for our flight in the Gold Circle lounge. All in all, we loved Ireland and highly recommend visiting!