A Final Day in Dublin

Sunday we spent touring Dublin again (using the second day on our Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour ticket).  It is really a very lovely, walkable city.  We had an inexpensive lunch at Gallahers Boxy (see below left pic).  We are finding the food to be terrific, with or without the Guinness!

And there are gorgeous flowers everywhere.  They really love the Dublin weather apparently - cool and damp intermixed with sunshine.

We visited Trinity College to see the Book of Kells and "the long room" - the most amazing library room I have ever seen.  The room is two stories high and 65 meters long and filled to the brim with very old books.  Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed, so you will just have take our word for all of it being very interesting.  

We spent some time riding around the tourist bus and learned more about Dublin, saw the amazingly large Phoenix Park (where the American embassy is and the Irish President lives).  We visited the Old Jameson Distillery. 

The tour was interesting but the best part was watching Jon participate in a taste test comparing Jameson Whiskey to Johnnie Walker Black Scotch and to Jack Daniels Bourbon.  Jon preferred the bourbon.  Most preferred the Jameson, but then we were in the Jameson distillery.  Great fun.

For dinner we went to a special dinner program at The Brazen Head pub - Dublin's oldest pub.   The pub was very authentic and lively.  The evening got rave reviews on TripAdvisor but I think we were all a little disappointed although the story telling was very very good, the evening seemed to end early and it didn't include as much Irish music as I was hoping.  The food was okay but we were hoping for amazing given the price.

Ah, well, it was a terrific day nonetheless.