I have traveled to several places in the US and also Internationally. My husband and I are avid cruisers and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic went on a cruise at least once a year. We hope to return to cruising once the baby is old enough! We travel to Disney as a family at least once a year and own Disney Vacation Club at the Polynesian! Today, I am going to leave Disney behind and talk about one of the best trips I have ever been on.
Growing up, I always remember my dad talking about his dream to go to Ireland one day, where many of his ancestors on his father’s side of the family emigrated several generations ago to come to the United States. When I got old enough to understand what that would involve, I promised him that when I graduated from school and was making money in my career that I would take him there. Finally after working a few years in the Emergency Room and after my husband and I got married, we decided that we were going to go to Ireland with my dad and it would be our last “big trip” before settling down to start a family.
I am a planner by nature. So I decided that I was going to sit down and plan every aspect of this trip myself. After countless and countless hours of planning and researching, using Trip Advisor, Google, etc., the trip was planned and in September of 2014, we embarked on an 18-day trip spending 11 days in Ireland and then a week in England/Wales. Today, I want to start highlighting for you the top must-see sights from the Ireland portion of our vacation. 11 days is a really long time, and in an effort to keep your attention. I am going to start in Dublin today and the next time I post we will travel south along the coast of Ireland!
Dublin
I’m going to be brutally honest when we arrived in Dublin and started touring around at first I was incredibly disappointed. When I pictured Ireland, I saw in my mind rolling green hills with grazing cattle and sheep. This IS NOT Dublin! Dublin is pretty much like any other world city be it New York or London or Paris etc. This does not mean that there are not a lot of great places to visit, however, if you are going to Ireland, do not make the mistake I did and expect those rolling green hills here in Dublin.
Here are my top must-see sites in Dublin
1. Trinity College/Book of Kells
You cannot leave Dublin without visiting Trinity College and walking through the library. Here is where you will find the Book of Kells which is an illuminated manuscript from Medieval times, written in Latin. It contains the 4 Gospels of the New Testament and was crafted in the Columban monastery on Iona (800AD) by Celtic monks.
2. Guinness Storehouse
Pretty self-explanatory- take a tour and get a pint of Guinness at the end
3. Jameson Distillery Tour
This tour was pretty cool and the Whiskey was perfect!
4. Kilmainham Gaol
This is a former prison where the history is truly fascinating. If you are a movie buff you may recognize it from several films including The Face of Fu Manchu, The Italian Job, The Babe, and Paddington 2. A music video for the U2 song, A Celebration was also filmed here.
Other Noteworthy Sites to Visit in Dublin:
· Dublin Castle
· St. Patrick’s Cathedral
· Christ Church
· General Post Office
· Temple Bar
Transportation
Most places we walked to. We stayed at the Best Western Plus Academy Plaza Hotel. It was nothing fancy, but it was clean and put us in a central location in the city. We were only sleeping there as we were gone all day sightseeing. I would stay there again.
From the hotel, most things were a 5-20 minute walk.
We did take the Bus from the Hotel to Kilmainham Gaol and then from there walked to the Guinness Storehouse (it’s about a 20-minute walk) and then walked to the Jameson Distillery (about 20 minutes).
The Bus was super easy to use and if you do not want to do all that walking you can easily take the bus around the city.
Dublin like all major cities, does offer a hop-on-hop-off bus which would be another great option.
Food
Another brutally honest moment, if you want good food Ireland is not the place to go. There are plenty of local pubs to visit, the food is okay, but the experience is worth the mediocre food. If you need a quick bite, which we wanted on our arrival day, Mcdonald’s uses fresh grass-fed beef for their burgers and I’m not going to lie, it was a pretty top-notch burger by McDonald’s standards.
That’s all for now! Join me next time when we leave Dublin and head south to Cork and then on to the Western Coast of Ireland!
Your Bibbidi Bobbidi Bestie,
Holly
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