A tour of Dublin, home to about 1.5 million people, was first up this morning. Key points of interest included:
- Christ Church Cathedral (or, more formally, the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity), the cathedral of the United Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough
- St Patricks Cathedral
- Guinness Brewery
- the Post Office and monuments commemorating the 1916 Easter Uprising, part of the Irish fight for independence
- the famous Trinity College
- statues of many of Ireland's famous including authors James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and George Bernard Shaw and other characters such as Molly Malone - affectionately known by locals as the Tart with the Cart or the Trollope with the Scallop
- The Phoenix Park - at 707 hectares (1752 acres) it is one of the largest enclosed recreational spaces within any European capital city. It is more than double the size of Central Park NY and larger than all of London's parks put together.
A short trip to Glendalough (valley of the two Lakes) through a beautiful patchwork of farmlands of changing scenery in all shades of green - this area inspired Johnny Cash to write '40 Shades of Green' in 1959. The ruins of an ancient monastery founded by St Kevin (a hermit priest) around 500 AD are located at Glendalough. The typically Irish round tower is still standing complete with roof - one of the few remaining examples in the world. An amazing place with one headstone dated 957 AD.
After some shopping in Dublin city, next stop was the Guinness Brewery! An amazing experience. The Guinness brewed in Ireland tastes so much better than that brewed in Australia. This has to do with the natural peat-filtered water piped from one of the Glendalough lakes.
To finish off the day, dinner and traditional Irish singing, dancing and comedian entertainment at Taylor's Three Rock. The food was excellent and the show absolutely entertaining and Noel V Ginnty was just hilarious. A great night had by all.

Across the country to Galway and Limerick tomorrow.

Insight for today:
Over 90% of the Irish are Catholics, however there is no Catholic Cathedral in Dublin.