Saturday 15th November. We were up real early at 3.15 am to get showered and packed up and walked to the Acton Underground Station by 4.50 am to catch the train to Victoria Station. Next we got the Gatwick Express to the airport and flew off to Dublin at 8.50 am. We arrived at 10 am and were met by Karen and taken back to her house. It was great catching up on the news.
She gave us her house key to let ourselves in again. So at 2.30 pm we headed off to Croke Park for the rugby. We stopped at a wee pub and had a beer & watched the Aussie V England game on the large T.V.screen.
Karen went to the rugby with her clients - telecom N.Z.
We walked to the stadium and found our seats. Its a really nice venue, we enjoyed the pre - match entertainment. ( 3 tennors singing with 2 bands) The game was a bit disappointing as it was stop, start, stop & the referee blew the whistle heaps. The A.B.s won so we were happy!
Afterwards we walked back towards home, stopping off for another beer in a wee pub & listened to some Irish singing & music. We walked home arriving at 9.30 pm. We had some peanut butter sandwiches and a cup of tea. Then good old bed! Karen came home later as she had gone on down into town with her clients.
Sunday 16th November. We slept in till 9.00 am - very nice ! Up & breakfasted & then off to explore Dublin town. Karen dropped us off in town as she had some shopping to do. We arranged to meet at 4 pm at St Stephen's shopping complex.
We walked down Grafton Street & saw the Molly Malone Statue, Trinity College (1592), the Bank of Ireland (1729) with no windows, the Steyne Stone, the Pearse St Garda Station ( 1910 Police station).
We walked over the O'Connell Bridge (1880) over the River Liffey. We walked down O'Connell Street and saw the O'Connell Monument (1882) and the Parnell Monument (1911) and the Spire (2003) and their Christmas Tree ( that cost Dublin E350,000).
We then walked back along Bachelors Walk next to the River Liffey to the Ha'Penny Bridge (1816).We crossed it and went into the Temple Bar area. It has narrow lanes, cobblestoned streets, restaurants and boutique shops and also a Bookfair, Theatre Center and Irish Film Center.
Next we walked up Lord Edward Street passing City Hall (1779) and Dublin Castle (1204).We also saw Christ Church Cathedral(1030). We carried on walking down to St Patrick's Cathedral (1192). A lovely old cathedral situated in a delightful Park. We decided to head back so cut across Stephen Street which brought us back to Stephen's Green area,where we met Karen at 4 pm. We were a little early so wandered over to the park - St Stephens Green (1663). It has a lovely old Arch at its entrance called the Dublin Fusiliers Arch (1904). It has a lake and bordered gardens - lots of families & couples were strolling here.
We met Karen & she dropped us at the Airport for our "Aer Lingus" flight back to London - 6.50 pm.We arrived back in Acton at 10.30 pm.We had thoroughly enjoyed our weekend adventure!
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I have enjoyed reading this re your tour of Dublin. Kate works in O`C onnell Street so you might have walked past the book shop where she works. It would be fair to say tht most Kiwis here in NZ have found it quite hard to get interested in this Grand Slam tour because the quality of the opposition has beendisappointing.
Have a very happy Xmas. BILL.
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