As previously mentioned, Jay and I flew back to Spain without Mike and the cheapest one-way tickets we found to Europe flew direct from San Francisco to Dublin. Instead of going directly on to Spain after we arrived in Dublin Jay and I decided to hang out there for a few days. I'm so glad we did because it made the trip much easier and I loved seeing Dublin. Jay was an amazing little traveler, as usual. He really is wonderful!
He only slept a few hours on the flight but he pretty much just played and watched movies (we had our own personal screens on the backs of our seats) the whole time. We arrived in Dublin early Saturday morning Dublin time. We found our way onto a public bus which took us to the city where we walked a block to our hotel. We stayed at the Best Western Premiere Academy and we loved it! It was a perfect location, right off O'Connell street and across from the 1st hop on hop off bus stop. The hotel was great. The staff was so nice. We arrived at about 10 am and I had written them earlier asking that we have a quiet room with a crib. Since the room they had reserved for us wasn't ready they gave us a free upgrade. We had a huge bedroom (with a comfy king size bed) with a bathtub and an extra sitting room off the side. It was quiet and clean. We really lucked out.
After checking in we went explore Dublin. Dublin was originally settled by Vikings but eventually became part of the Kingdom of Dublin. For many years it was under British rule and now it is the capital of Ireland. Dublin ranks 10th in the
Global Financial Centers Index, which means it's a great place to live and work. Some of the city's claims to fame include being home to Guinness Brewery and having been the first place Handel's Messiah was performed in 1742. Many famous writers came from Dublin too including James Joyce (Ulysses) William Butler Yeats (poet - hugely influenced 20th century lit), George Bernard Shaw (playwrite - Pygmalion), Oscar Wilde (playwrite - The Canterville Ghost), Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels) and Bram Stoker (Dracula). Dublin of course is also home to the famous rock band, U2.
To see the city best we bought 72 hour a hop on hop off bus ticket, which included our transportation to and from the airport, all for only 25 euro. Wow! What a price. It also allowed us to ride all of the city buses. I definitely recommend it if you're ever in Dublin. After buying our ticket we hopped on the bus. We got off at Trinity College where Jay got in his stroller and promptly fell asleep (it was 1 pm). I toured the college while Jay slept.
Trinity College was founded in 1592 (take that Harvard!) by Elizabeth I. Interestingly enough Catholics were not allowed to attend the college until 1970 (partly due to discrimination, partly to the Catholic Church banning their attendance). The school now has 15,000 students and houses the famous Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript in Latin containing the Four Gospels which was created in 800 AD.
After seeing Trinity I tried to wake Jay up to eat some dinner. He
freaked out to say the least and we made a huge scene. As quick as I could I raced back to the hotel and got him to bed. I decided I might as well sleep too (it was 3 p.m.). We ended up sleeping until
5 a.m. the next morning. It was GREAT! I couldn't have planned it better.
We were out of the hotel at about 6 a.m. and we caught breakfast at the only place open, McDonalds.
It was good though and after we ate we were on our way. Since the hop on hop off bus wasn't operating until 9 a.m. we decided to walk on our own. First we toured O'Connell street. This is the General Post Office which has significance because it was the site of the start of the Easter Rising in 1916, a war for independence from British rule.
We then walked past the famous Molly Malone statue.
Molly Malone is the subject of a famous Irish song also known as
In Dublin's Fair City. The song tells of a beautiful fish monger (Molly) who sold her wares on the streets of Dublin during the day and... possibly other things at night. The song is unofficially Dublin's anthem. Molly here is affectionately known as the "tart with the cart." After seeing Molly we walked on to see the River Liffey.
Beautiful, right? We then walked past the major shopping district (all closed but also free of people). It was so nice to walk around so early in the morning because the sun was out (it seems to get cloudy every day around noon) and the streets were empty. We saw some lovely houses and parks. We walked by St. Patrick's Cathedral
and up to the Church of Christ, the two most famous cathedrals in Ireland. We then saw Dublin castle and the old medieval wall that once surrounded the city (built in 1240 AD).
We then walked back along to the River Liffy and onto our hotel. On the way back we spotted this sign.
Connelly is spelled only with an o in Ireland. Our last name is actually Scottish though.
After a quick diaper change we headed out to the hop on hop off tour bus. Jay loved the bus by the way.
We usually got a spot on the top of the bus at the front since we were able to get on at the first stop. We drove around seeing many of the famous parts of the city and finally got off at Phoenix Park.
Phoenix Park is the largest fenced park in Europe. Within Phoenix Park sits Áras an Uachtaráin, the Irish President's home.
The current President is Mary MacAleese. The flag was flying, which meant she was in residence. The American-Irish Ambassador also lives within Phoenix park in the Deerfield Residence. His name is Dan Rooney. He was appointed by President Obama and is also an NFL Steelers chair. The Wellington Monument (a huge obelisk) can also be found in Phoenix Park.
It commemorates the victories of the Duke of Wellington, especially those defeating Napoleon. It's 210 feet tall and would have been taller had funds not run out. There were also plenty of fields to play cricket and polo.
The most exciting part of all in Phoenix Park (according to Jay) is the Dublin Zoo.
It's the 2nd oldest zoo in the world (oldest is in London) and Jay loved it! It actually was pretty impressive. We saw tigers, monkeys, gorillas, snow leopards, hippopotamus, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, red pandas and more.
We had a really good time. Jay even got to play on a little playground. Here are some more pictures from the zoo.
Needless to say, it was Jay's favorite part of the trip.
When I let him choose anything from the zoo store to buy he chose this little truck that came with 2 farm animals, a dog, and a stack of hay that fit in back. Go figure.
After the zoo we went back to our hotel and I looked at a brochure I had found on Christ's Church Cathedral.
It stated there was going to be a choir performance at 3:30 so I asked Jay if he wanted to watch a movie or go hear music. Surprisingly he told me he wanted to go hear some music, so off we went. We got there about 4 pm and asked the Priest if we could enter to listen to the choir. He told us we had to stay for the rest of mass which would last about half an hour, so I said sure. It was
amazing. Oh my goodness I was SOOOOO impressed! The choir was seriously incredible. The choir had about 20 people in it and they either sang a capella or with the organ. I cannot express how wonderful it was to hear them perform, especially in such a beautiful cathedral with perfect acoustics. I loved every minute of it. Jay did surprisingly well too. It was
so quiet in there (only about 30 people were in the audience), so luckily he was a very good boy and listened or played quietly until it was over. I am so glad he said he wanted to go hear some music! We headed back to the hotel that point and fell asleep around 7 pm.
We slept all night again until 6:30 am the next morning and then we got up to go again.
After getting breakfast we went over to the shopping district and walked around and bought a few souvenirs. Then we got back on the bus and saw more of Dublin.
Here's U2's hotel in Dublin, right on the River Liffey. They own it and have performed concerts from the roof. We also saw this interesting building.
I'm not sure if you can read the words but they say,"Sick and Incident Roomkeepers. Society founded AD 1790." Random. We ended back up at our hotel around 2. We were both pretty tired and we'd seen most of Dublin so we decided to go see a movie, Ice Age 3. It was very relaxing and we had a nice time just hanging out. We went to bed early again that night and woke up at 5 am to catch our flight out to Sevilla. Jay was a good boy on our flight again and before we knew it we were back with daddy again. We had a great trip and I'm so glad I had such a sweet little traveling companion. I'm sure had I been there with an adult I would have toured the museums and such, but I didn't mind missing them this time. I just love my Jay bug so much!
