14th March

6C

Woke up at 8am this morning. We are going to do a hop on hop off bus tour and a walking tour today. We hopped on the bus at Christ Church Place which is just opposite the hotel we're staying at. Christ Church Cathederal is the original cathederal of Norse Dublin, founded in 1030 by King Sitric and is Dublins oldest building. Then it's onto St Patrick's Cathederal which is the national cathederal for the Church of Ireland Community in Ireland. It was built by the first Anglo-Norman bishop, John Comyn in 1192 on the site of a little wooden church dedicated to St Patrick. The author if Gulliver's Travels, Jonathon Swift is buried in this cathederal. We pass Marsh's Library which is the oldest public library in Ireland. It was built in 1702 and contains over 25,000 volumes and 200 valuable ancient manuscripts. Next stop is the Guinness Storehouse which is the home of Guinness. It began in 1759 when Arthur Guinness started brewing his famous "porter" which is now produced around the world at the rate of over 10 million glasses each day. Then we pass the Irish Museum of Modern Art. I think it's the only museum open on a Monday. Then onto Kilmainham Goal which is the biggest unoccupied goal in Ireland. It was opened in 1796 and was closed in 1924. Leaders of 5 irish rebellions between 1798 and 1916 were detained here. We pass Heuston Station, built in the 1840's. It was the showpiece of the Great Southern and Western railways. Originally called Knightsbridge, it was renamed Heuston Station in 1966 to commemorate Sean Heuston, another Irish patriot. We then went into the Phoenix Park which was originally a deer park, and is now the largest urban park in Europe. Covering 1,750 acres it's the site of the Dublin Zoo, the Peoples Gardens and Aras An Uachtarain, the residence of the President of Ireland. We went past Ryan's Victorian Bar which is one of Dublins original Victorian pubs dating backto 1896. Then onto the National Museum of Ireland which was formerly Collins military barracks. We got off the bus at around 11am just in time too do a walking tour of Dublin. On this tour we saw Trinity College, the Italian Quarter, the National Bank which was the old parliment building. All traces of the parliment being there were taken out with the exception of The House of Lords. Went inside The church which is the beautifully restored St Mary's church. Built in 1700, it has beautiful stained glass windows and the original Renatus Harris built organ.Handel regularly used the organ to practice and his Messiah was first performed in April 1742 here. Arthur Guinness (founder of the Guinness Brewery) was married in this church in 1761.Walked past the statue of Molly Malone, past the Ha'penny Bridge so called 'cause in the olden days people had to pay a ha'penny to cross it. Saw the hotel that Bono from U2 bought….didn't look that flash but if you want to stay in the penthouse apartment it costs 1000 euro per night. Apparently Danny DeVito was staying there about 3 weeks ago. Bono was going to buy more apartments close by but the financial crisis put a stop to it. Went into the national Leprechaun museum which we thought was going to be really good but it was a load of crap and a waste of 18.50 Euro! Saw the Lord Mayor as we walked past his offices. Walked into the Temple Bar area which is famous for the bars, night life and shopping. Mum said it was abuzz on Sunday night when she was out walking. The Spire of Dublin sits in the city centre and is a replacement for Nelsons Pillar. It was erected in 2002-03 and is 120 metres tall. Ummmm…..l'm sure there was more that we saw walking around but l just can't remember. We had dinner at the Arlington Hotel Temple Bar where for 29.95 Euro you got a 3 course meal along with traditional live Irish music and dancing. It was really good. We sat at a table which has a set of taps which allow you to pour your own pint. We don't drink beer so we didn't pour any but it looked like a lot of fun.