Dublin

We went to Dublin last weekend. We had a nice time! On Saturday, we found the hop-on hop-off bus and took that around most of the day. We hit Dublin Castle, then to the Christ Church Cathedral, but it was actually closed for some event. From there, we walked to St Patrick's Cathedral. Jonathan Swift is buried there...someone famous, but I don't know who he is. Sorry! Got back on the bus and went to the Guiness Factory. We took the tour there, which is pretty cool. We then finished up the bus tour and ended near the shopping area, cool bridges, and Temple Bar area of town. We ate a late lunch at The Temple Bar, where they had some great sandwiches and good live music! :) Then we walked back towards the center and went to Trinity College. There they have the Book of Kells (book of gospel's from about 800 AD) and the Long Hall Library. Gene was in heaven there, as that room was the basis for the Jedi Archives in one of the Star Wars movies (Episode 2 Attack of the Clones to be exact). Plus it was a really cool looking room and was filled with extremely old books that you couldn't touch. We walked around more there in town just seeing the city. We ended the night with dinner at the Hard Rock. REALLY DISAPPOINTED! The first time ever. We got there and was told it was a 1 hr 45 min wait. When we told them we have the "All Access" card, which supposedly gets us to the front of the line, they said the wait would be 1 hr 15 min. So, we decided to wait. Did our shopping and then went and sat in the bar. It was freezing and not a good view (it was in the basement of the restaurant and Gene was looking at the front door and got a view he did not want). We noticed during this time, first - lots of open tables, second - other people getting sat before us. Gene finally complained and they sat us...we had been there at least an hour. When we sat, the waiter finally came up after quite some time. He didn't even introduce himself, say anything to us...just looked at us. We just told him our orders. I ordered a fruit drink that I normally get and it came out and the glass was not full - I'm paying for a full glass, I want a full glass, so I complained. I'm sure he just filled it up with sprite or water, but still. Our dinners took quite some time to come out. My nachos were missing the chicken and the guy never came by to ask how the food was, refills, etc. When he finally came after we were done and put our plates on the edge of the table, Gene mentioned the chicken and the guy said "you wanted guacamole, not chicken"...I wanted BOTH! Our ticket took forever to get, too. Never did get any refills. Needless to say, not a good dinner and definitly not recommended to go back there. The worst Hard Rock EVER...and I haven't been to a bad one yet.

Sunday was another bus tour. We took a tour to Malahide Castle and Howth (on the coast line). The tour guide was quite fun. Howth was pretty...just wish it had been a bit warmer or less windy. Got some good pictures of the coast. Malahide...I had "been" there on my first time to Dublin...but only got within about 5 minutes or so from the castle...close enough to take a far away picture and turn around to leave for the airport. The tour was nice, just was a bit longer than planned because some people did not return to the bus after the first stop. We had to walk swiftly back to the hotel and then back to the Trinity College area to catch the airport bus. The return to home was quite stressful, too. We flew in/out of Zurich and the flight was tight on catching the train back. We made it, but it was some good teamwork to do it. We made it home around midnight. Then, I had to pack for a trip to Hamburg...luckily it was a short trip so I only had to pack for 1 day. Went to bed around 1 am, then had to get up at 4 so I could catch a 7 am flight. Slept quite a bit on my two flights on Monday!