Green leprechauns everywhere - no not really, but there is plenty of the broad Irish brogue to listen to. And it sound quite pleasant.

Today we explored Dublin.

It was recommended that we visit Kilmainham Goal so we headed off on a tram ride in its direction. The place looked interesting but we would have had to wait too long for a tour so we decided that we would pass on it and instead the young ones went for a tour of the Guinness storehouse.

This was not our cup of tea (or Guinness) so we opted to wait. There were some horse drawn carriages outside Guinness, so Bruce and I spent a pleasant half hour touring around the old part of Dublin. We were able to see the original Dublin wall and the steps the vikings built within it. The longest section is right beside St Audoen's church and there are bits of it visible in a few different places in that area.

We also got to see the oldest pub in Dublin, the Brazen Head (built in 1198) the Jameson Whiskey distillery, Christ Church Cathedral, John's Lane Church, The Four Courts (courthouse), ha'penny bridge - the first bridge across the river and it cost a ha'penny to use it. Quite an informative little trip.

We went back to Guinness to meet the rest of the family but the tour was longer than we thought so we arranged to to meet them in Temple Bar but we never got there.

Bruce and I visited the Christ Church Cathedral and then discovered the Dublin Castle which is where we eventually met up with the others.

Christ Church Cathedral has been an influential Protestant church in Dublin history, first as a wooden church built in 1038 and then subsequently rebuilt over time. It contains the most amazing mosaic tiled floor - very intricate - and of course, an obligatory crypt - not as interesting as others we had seen.

Dublin Castle, we kind of just stumbled across and though we didn't go inside (we figured we had already seen state rooms and these wouldn't be much different) there was plenty to see around the Palace - which we did for about and hour until the others turned up.

We wanted to organise a tour for tomorrow and a show for tomorrow night so we headed back into the city centre to make those arrangements. Of course it started to rain, and quite heavy, so that was fun. We made all our arrangements and found a place for dinner and then headed back to the hotel.

It was an early night which was good until the fire alarm went off. It seeemed to be a false alarm because it would start and stop but eventually it got going and we trudged downstairs in our pjs. 3 fire engines, plus 2 fire and rescue vehicles and an hour and a half later we were back in our rooms. Wasn't anything too bad, something about the sauna in the basement but it was a fire and there was smoke. So that was exciting!

Big day tomorrow (or today) with our tour to Kilkenny, Dunmore Caves and Glendalough.