Two days in Dublin and Dalkey

After a day touring the West Coast of Ireland, now it was time to explore Dublin and the surrounding area.  We put our DoDublin bus passes (purchased at the airport together with our Airlink bus transportation) to good use and hopped on the narrated bus and began to tour the city.  Our bus driver was great, in between narrated portions of the tour he would sing Irish songs!

One of our first “hop offs” was the Temple Bar area where we visited the historic Temple Bar

Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce published in 1914.  Joyce describes middle-class Dublin life in the early 20th century. He specifically mentions many areas of Dublin, including Temple Bar:

    He went through the narrow alley of Temple Bar quickly, muttering to himself that they could all go to hell because he was going to have a good night of it. 

James Joyce, Counterparts, Dubliners  (Project Gutenberg text of Dubliners)

The Temple Bar area is indeed an area where you could “make a good night of it” – we visited in the afternoon and already there were signs that, come evening, it would be an exciting adventure to be in this area.

In the Temple Bar,  we enjoyed a pint while listening to some live Irish music. It was early afternoon and the bar was already very crowded.  We managed to get a table but many people were standing.

After the restorative pints, we walked around and admired the buildings.  We passed the Chapel Royal which is an excellent example of Gothic Revival architecture. This functioned as the King’s Church in Ireland. Next, we were headed to the Chester Beatty library.

Chester Beatty was a surprising find thanks to my sister-in-law’s pastor sending us information about it.

My original intent was to visit Trinity College to see the famous Book of Kells but after hearing about how crowded it can get with pushy tourists, I was not looking forward to the trip.  An average of 500,000 people visit the Book of Kells each year. I’m very happy we were informed about the Chester Beatty library where we were able to view ancient Biblical texts in a peaceful setting.  This museum was not crowded, entry was free, the air conditioning was cranking, and we were able to leisurely browse the displays without the crush of tourists pushing us along in a line.

All of the earliest copies/fragments (before the fifth century) are on papyrus (hand woven “paper”) and almost all of those originated in Egypt where the arid climate protected them from total decay from the natural elements. The condition of these pieces is amazing considering they were handwritten 18 centuries ago.

After viewing the Biblical texts, my son and I decided to visit the Jameson Distillery.  We headed over and bought our tickets for an upcoming tour.

 

At this point, I realized it was late afternoon and we had not eaten since breakfast earlier that morning. Since we were about to start drinking whiskey I thought a quick bite to eat would be a good idea.  We ate at the café in the Jameson courtyard.  The burgers were HUGE!

With full bellies, we were ready to learn about whiskey.  Our guide was knowledgeable and entertaining. The whiskey process was detailed from start to finish with hands-on activities along the way. First, we started in a round, stone-walled room where he explained the history both of whiskey and Jameson in Dublin as wells as some basics of whiskey making, then we moved into another room that was set up with several stations.  With three people to a station, we each were able to taste and smell the malted barley, smell the different varieties of alcohol and then analyze the color of each bottle as the whiskey matures.

Next, we moved into the tasting room to sample and compare three different whiskeys. A Scotch whisky, Jameson Irish whiskey, and an American Whiskey (Jack Daniel’s). The differences in flavor profile of each were striking.

After three shots of whiskey,  it was down to the in-house bar for an additional complimentary whiskey drink of Whiskey, ginger, and lime or a whiskey neat.

 

After the tasting tour, we made our way back to the DoDublin bus stop and got to see a little bit more of the city before disembarking near our hotel.

When we were touring the West Coast with our private driver, Paul, I had asked him if he had friends visiting from the US and could only show them one place near Dublin, where would he take them.  He said he would take his friends to the town of Dalkey. He went on to tell us that “anybody who is anybody in Ireland has a house in Dalkey.”  Since Paul had not steered us wrong yet, we decided to follow his recommendation.  The DART electric train goes from Dublin to Dalkey so it would be a simple trip for us even without a car. From our hotel, we walked to the Pearse DART station where a very helpful employee showed us how to use the ticket vending machines quickly enough that we were able to race up to the tracks and jump on the train that was just arriving.

The train ride to Dalkey took less than 30 minutes. As soon as we got off the train I knew that this little town was what I expected Ireland to look like.  It was picturesque and quaint with flower boxes with beautiful blooms at most of the windows.

Dalkey Castle is one of seven fortified castles and homes in Dalkey. During the middle ages, Dalkey was a port for Dublin.  The castles were built to store goods that were offloaded from the ships. Throughout the day, costumed actors give living history performances every half hour. Admission is €9.50 per adult and €8.50 per child. We looked around the outside of the castle but we did not take the tour.

After exploring the peaceful town, we took a walk to Sorrento Point where we had a nice view of Dalkey Island and the Irish sea beyond.

As you can see in the photos, the six-week-long draught was really impacting the greenery in Ireland while we were visiting.

All this walking was making us hungry so we headed back to town and ate lunch at Finnegan’s which is the restaurant where Bono took Michelle Obama and her girls when she visited Ireland.

At Finnegan’s, I finally deviated from my usual Ireland order of a pint of Guinness and ordered a Smithwick’s (pronounced “Smitticks”).  It was delicious and refreshing.

 

Entertainers Bono, Enya, Van Morrison and Maeve Binchy (Irish novelist) all own homes in Dalkey. I can see why.  If I lived in Ireland, Dalkey is where I would like to live.

Before we knew it our Irish Adventure had come to an end. The next day we would be leaving to fly home to Arizona.

 

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