This morning I got up a bit later for an 8am breakfast and then to meet my tour guide for a ride into town. I was the only one on the bus (again) and the driver seemed to know all about me and my plans. The irish do seem to like a chat :-). I had Dave drop me off in town at St Stephen’s Green and we arranged to meet at the castle where I would join up with the rest of the tour group to tour the castle.
Today went a little more to plan than yesterday, except for the fact that St Stephen’s Park didn’t actually open til 9.30, so I had just over half an hour to kill. The streets were deserted so I had plenty of good photo opportunities for various buildings around the park without buses and cars in the way. This changed later in the day when I couldn’t photograph some buildings for the buses in front of them…
The Royal College of Surgeons, Newman University Church wedged in between buildings to the left and right, and the tower floating above but looking quite magnificent inside:
After dawdling along here the park was finally open, so I went in. Near the entrance is this statue presented by the German people in gratitude to the Irish for their help with the children after WWII, and near one exit is the Famine grouping of statues:
After this, I headed in the direction of Merrion Square. I was waiting at the lights with my map out and a nice woman asked me if I needed help. I didn’t really, but explained where I wanted to go and we had a little chat, as you do. She was from Perth and had been here for 7 weeks and wanted to go home today or tomorrow because she was homesick, even though her visa was for one year!
Along the way, on Merrion Street Upper was this gorgeous set of structures with beautiful cast iron gates. They’re marked on the map as government buildings:
The streets around Merrion Square were mainly Georgian with the lovely brightly coloured big doors. At the end of the street, was St Stephen’s church, beyond which was the Grand Canal.
Beyond the church lies the Grand Canal:
I walked back to Merrion Square which was, by now, being surrounded by artists hawking their wares on the fence all around the park. I was about to take a picture of some paintings I liked quite a bit, but was politely told off. Further down the street I was admiring someone else’s work and got involved in a long conversation about the artist (the wife of the fellow trying to hawk her wares) about the paintings she’s sold to Australia, on commission and also people buying from the market (I assume). Apparently his grandson has just created a website for his gran to sell her stuff online too. This is not her stuff, but I liked it quite a lot:
When I finally got into the park, after the impromptu art gallery visit outside, I took the obligatory photo of the Oscar Wilde statue on the rock. It seems to be quite popular, though I did hear one homophobe saying how he’s not taking a photo of that guy. I quite liked the statue, which seemed to be about life-size, done in different coloured marble:
Kildare Street on which was Leinster House etc, though it was covered in scaffolding, was next. However, the gate was quite magnificent. I also photographed some other pretty buildings along Kildare Street:
St Stephen’s Green north, facing St Stephen’s Green has some wonderful buildings on it, including these ones:
Next up was The Book of Kells at Trinity College. This was not allowed to be photographed, unfortunately. I bought some postcards though, which I will scan in when I get home. I had my croissant and muffin, thieved from the hotel breakfast, in leisure sitting on the bench at the University, pretending I was a student. The sun was shining, so it was very nice :-).
Then it was time to head towards Dublin Castle where I was to meet my tour group. I had plenty of time, so I thought I’d wander through Temple Bar on the way. I came across this shop advertising its beautiful and brightly coloured adult and fetish ware, followed by my last solo stop, being City Hall:
Here I sat and waited for my tour to show up at 2.45pm. They were quite punctual and I was soon one of a crowd of 41 people walking through the Royal State Apartments at Dublin Castle. Strangely enough, we were allowed to take photos. Probably because nothing is all that old, since the castle was burnt down and rebuilt less than 200 years ago. The magnificent chandeliers are all Waterford Crystal, of course:
After the tour, it was back on the bus to do a bit of a tour of Dublin. We stopped for a 5 minute ‘photo-opp’ at St Patrick’s Cathedral and drove past Christ Church Cathedral. Then we drove out to the old port, past a beautiful Customs House, which I will have to come back to photograph (same as the Cathedrals), since the bus didn’t stop. We did stop for another ‘photo-opp’ at the famine statue on the side of the Liffey, not too far from O’Connel Street. These are similar (probably same artist) as the ones at St Stephen’s Green.
We got back to the hotel about 5pm and had to meet for the bus to our dinner and show at 6.30pm. I had a bit of a break to catch up on my photos and blog (though I didn’t manage to finish catching up!) and then got ready to go out. We took off, up the ‘mountain’ to The Merry Ploughboy Inn where we had an OK meal and one free drink included in the price of the tour. The entertainment was really quite entertaining. The band was great fun. The dancers were also good – especially the men doing the tap dancing which sounded a lot like the Riverdance:
The whole thing got us back to the hotel by about 11.30. Which is when I sat down and quickly labelled all my pictures from the day, so that I wouldn’t forget what was what. I’ll leave the editing for at home, and the geo-tagging for when I have some spare time – either on tour or at home. Finally got to bed around 1am…ready for the early start requiring all bags to be out front by 6.45am. Lovely.
