Day Four (Wednesday May-30)
Wednesday:
Breakfast was at the hotel and was not that good. I have never had someone mess up scrambled eggs before. However, Riley enjoyed his sausages and white/black pudding - which was very odd looking item. We decided to head on to Dublin Castle, the main castle of the area.
We misread the map and started off in the wrong way. But that was okay since we saw the St. Patricks Cathedral and toured the St. Audean Church. This church was beautiful and had a lot of history. It is still being used today including the use of a pipe organ and marble baptismal.
While there, we asked where the Dublin Castle was and received directions to go back to where we started. After leaving there, were came to the conclusion that we did not "hear" the same thing and promptly got lost again! LOL! The town is so interesting and we were not in a hurry so we just took our time. We finally asked a local where is was and we were directed a couple of blocks up the street. After we left Dublin Castle and started to head back to the hotel, we realized that we were only 2-3 blocks away from it originally! LOL!
Anyways, back to Dublin Castle. It is a huge castle and only 1/4 of it is still remaining. We first toured the living quarters where the king lived very lavishly. The kings bedroom now actually resides a huge dining room table which is still used for dinners and political matters. We went through other bedrooms and parlors. The main dining hall was huge and incorporated curved mirrors so you can see behind the person sitting across from you. Next to that was the dancing hall. They tried to keep everything looking like the original colors and settings that it would have been during the peak of the castle.
Outside, they had a tower that we were able to tour as well. It showed where the moat was and how someone would enter the castle with goods, etc.
After the castle, we headed on to the National Gallery of Ireland. On the way there, we stopped and ate at The Bank. It used to be the main bank in Dublin but it was converted to a restaurant. It still had the old safes downstairs near the bathrooms. The food was excellent. Riley had irish stew which he enjoyed. I had a chicken wrap.
With our hunger quenched, we trekked onwards to the gallery. Unfortunately, the gallery does not allow any photographs. BUMMER! It was nice...kinda boring. The egyptian exhibit was sparse but i think i have been spoiled with the gallery in New York and the HUGE exhibit it had.
We had reservations for the Musical Pub Crawl so we headed back to the hotel to rest for a few minutes then headed out to get dinner. Since we had to meet up at O'Gaffertys, we decided to just eat there. However, the food for me was not that good. I just opted for 2 appetizers which were not that good and Riley had the corn beef and cabbage. I was able to get some fries later on.
The Musical Pub Crawl was great and we have some video and audio footage of it. We only had to go to 2 other pubs so most of the time was listening to the two musicians.