Long Weekend in Ireland - August 2007 (by Adam)

Friday, 24 August 2007

Having made our way through the mass of humanity that converges on Heathrow on the Friday evening of a bank holiday weekend, we boarded our 7.45pm flight to Dublin, and arrived there just before 9pm. We picked up our hire car, and with the help of our recently acquired Sat Nav, had checked into our hotel less than half an hour later. We stayed at the Westbury Hotel (http://www.jurys-dublin-hotels.com/thewestbury_dublin), which was lovely and very conveniently located, just off Grafton Street. We immediately headed out for a stroll through the nearby area, which was humming with Friday night crowds. It was then back to our room for a very late room service dinner.

Saturday, 25 August 2007

We slept in a bit longer than we had intended, due mostly to the very effective curtains in our hotel room. After breakfast at a vegetarian place called Cornucopia, we headed for Trinity College, where we enjoyed the magnificent Long Room and the Book of Kells...

Here, we encountered our first taste of Irish friendliness - we got talking to a couple of Irish guys in the queue for the Book of Kells, and they ended up giving us a couple of spare tickets, saving us the admission fee. Throughout the weekend, we found the Irish people to be unfailingly friendly.

It was then on to the shops and restaurants of bustling Temple Bar...

Cat found a music shop in Temple Bar called Mojo's Music, which sold a number of old LPs. Despite the fact that we do not own a record player, Cat invested in an LP of U2's "Unforgettable Fire", one of her all time favourite singles. She is proudly showing off her purchase in the photo below...


We then crossed over the River Liffey...


...and made our way to the 120m tall Dublin Spire...


Across the road from it, we had a look at the General Post Office...



The bullet marks from the Easter rising of 1916 can still be seen in the columns of the building (you can see them in the above photo if you look very carefully... and your eyes are very good). We then crossed back over the river and had a stroll through Dublin Castle...





As you can see from the photos above, a number of sand sculptures had been erected in the Castle courtyard, based on interpretations of Irish literature (obviously, the one above was someone's take on "Gulliver's Travels").

Next stop was Christ Church Cathedral...



...and then a visit to the Guiness Brewery (despite Cat's constant protestations)...



It was then on to St Patrick's Cathedral...

We returned to our hotel via St Stephens Gardens, where we watched an impromptu performance of Taming of the Shrew (which I stupidly forgot to take a photo of). After resting our weary legs for a little while, we headed out for dinner at a great little Italian place, and then went for a drink at Dublin's oldest pub, the Brazen Head. It was then back to the hotel, where we slept extremely well.

Sunday, 26 August 2007

We checked out of our hotel around 8.30am and, in brilliant sunshine, we drove for about an hour to Kilkenny. We explored Kilkenny Castle...

...then made our way onto Tipperary for lunch (we had hoped to go via the Rock of Cashel, but had a few teething problems with the Sat Nav)...


We had lunch at a cosy little pub called the Auld Murray Inn, then headed on past Limerick and Shannon and into beautiful County Clare. Below are a few photos of the County Clare countryside...



We arrived at the Cliffs of Moher at about 4pm, just as the last of the day's clouds disappeared. It really was perfect timing. The Cliffs of Moher were truly spectaular, and we spent an hour or so walking along the cliff tops...

It was then into the moonlike terrain of the Burren and to our accommodation for the night, Gregans Castle Hotel (http://www.gregans.ie/). It was a really beautiful place, with a croquet green that looked out over the Burren and Galway Bay...

We had a cosy little room, with a really nice view of the gardens and the Burren beyond that...

After a quick visit to nearby Ballyvaughan, we had a fantastic dinner in at the hotel.

Monday, 27 August 2007

We were up soon after 7am and headed out for a walk through the Burren. We walked for the best part of 2 hours, taking in the Burren countryside which included lots of rocky fences, lots of cows and even the ruins of an old castle...

It was then back to the hotel for a very big breakfast, and then back on the road, headed for Dublin. We stopped for a light lunch in the picture postcard town of Athlone. After a stroll through Athlone Castle...

...we wandered through the colourful winding streets of Athlone, stopping for a quick sandwich...

It was then back into the car and onto Dublin airport. We ended up cutting things quite fine, the motorways be less motorway-ish than expected, but ultimately found ourselves on board our 5.35pm flight back to London. We were home by 8pm, already missing Ireland.