Thursday, July 2

Eric drove us to JFK airport in the late afternoon. We checked in and relaxed in the Delta business class lounge. We boarded at 7:00 PM, took our seats and had a relatively comfortable and uneventful flight. The food and wine were fine, just not as good as on Air France.

Friday, July 3

Upon landing at Dublin airport we easily found a cab that quickly took us to our hotel, Buswells, on Molesworth Street, across from the national museums and the entrance to the Dáil Éireann (Irish Parliament). We arrived at 8:30 A.M. and when we checked in at the front desk, we were told that the room wasn't ready yet - check in was 2 PM, but that they would have our room ready about 11 A.M.

To while away the time, we went for a walk around the immediate area, which we remembered from the last time we stayed in Dublin (2003). We walked up Dawson Street (restaurants and book stores) and down Grafton Street (pedestrian mall with clothing stores and fast food stores) until we reached the top of St. Stephen's Green, a charming middle-sized park with a lake and water fowl. We walked around the park, sat and watched the birds and the people. We were jet-lagged and thirsty, so we went to the St. Stephen's Green shopping mall (at the corner of Grafton Street and the northern edge of the Green), bought bottles of orange juice (8 oz. for 2.30 euros each) and sat down and drank them in the food court at a table by a window overlooking the park. We went back to the hotel, but our room wasn't ready until noon. When we finally got into the room, we unpacked and then zonked out for a 4 hour nap. It was a large, bright room, but it didn't have nearly enough storage space - they never do !

We were up early enough to be able to stop by the Tourist Information Center and pick up maps and brochures. We had dinner at a restaurant called 'The Farm' on Dawson Street. Al had a salmon steak and I had a goat cheese pie, both with Murphy's stout and cappuccinos after.

Saturday, July 4

We went down to the hotel's restaurant for the breakfast that was included in our hotel room rate. Al had the full Irish breakfast (Sunnyside egg, sausage, ham, baked beans, sautéed mushrooms, fried tomatoes and black and white pudding) and I had scrambled eggs, sausage and mushrooms. This also came with fruit juice, toast, a pot of coffee (for Al), a pot of tea (for me) and pastries. It was more than enough to hold us all day until dinner.

It was raining, so we put on our raincoats and walked back to the Tourist Information Center to get some more info. After that we went to the Temple Bar, which is not a bar, but an area of Dublin on the south bank of the river Liffey, with restaurants, pubs and shops. Al was looking for a specific comic-book store where he thought that he could sell the British comics that he had brought with us. He was able to sell them at a reasonable price.

Since it was still raining, we decided to see if we could get tickets for that afternoon's performance of the play 'Benefactors' by Michael Frayn at the Samuel Beckett Theatre in Trinity College. We were able to locate the theater and the box office and bought two tickets for the matinee performance. We had some time before the play, so we left the campus by the Nassau Street gate and went to the nearest Starbucks on Dawson Street, where Al used his comic book money to buy us coffee and scones. We made it back in time for the play. The theater was half empty and it was open seating. It was theater in the round, (but really a triangle) with a triangular shaped pit in the center that served as a stage. The play was enjoyable, very well written and acted.

When we came out of the theater the sun was shining, so we took a walk along the boardwalk on the northern bank of the Liffey.

We went back to the hotel and had dinner in the hotel's bar. Al had lamb's liver and mash (mashed potatoes) and I had fried scampi (shrimp) and chips (fries). We both had Murphy's ale. For dessert Al had apple pie and I had a dish of ice cream.

Sunday, July 5

After having the same breakfast as the day before, we took a walk over to Merrion Square to see the outdoor art exhibit. The sun was shining and it was quite pleasant. The paintings were uniformly of a high quality - more like what we were used to seeing in galleries in Cape Cod than what we've seen in the Washington Square exhibit. The subject matter was mostly Dublin and the surrounding countryside and there were a lot of pleasant, calming pastel colors.

We took a long walk to the nearest Luas station on the other side of the Liffey. The Luas (Irish for speed) is the new light rail system in Dublin - nicknamed the 'Daniel Day'. We took the Luas to the station nearest to the Guinness Storehouse, but it wasn't all that close. We followed the map, but after getting a bit lost, we had to ask some local boys for directions. Apparently, the people living in this area are accustomed to giving these directions to tourists.

At the Guinness Storehouse we paid the senior citizens discount rate of 11 euros (13 euros for adults). This included a map of the building with tour information and a ticket for a pint of Guinness in one of the two top floor bars. The 'tour' is a self-guided walk through 5 floors showing the history of Guinness beer and is really just a big advertisement ending in a beer tasting area. We came on Sunday because there was supposed to be live traditional music playing in the fifth floor bar. We first went up to the top floor glass walled bar because that's where we could see the view over Dublin. Of course not only was this bar packed to the gills, but what we could see of the view was blocked by the rain that had started while we were inside touring. We went down to the fifth floor bar to pick up the pints that were included with admission and to listen to the music. I noticed a food stand where they were selling foot-long hot dogs for 4 euros a piece, so we shared a very bland hot dog with sauerkraut and drank our pints while listening to some traditional Irish music played by three unsmiling musicians who only seemed to come to life when they took a break to drink their pints.

We stopped by the gigantic gift shop and picked up a few gift items, including a ceramic and a glass mug. Then the cashier packed the mugs in bubble wrap and tested his work by bouncing them on the counter. We left the building and despite the heavy rain and our lack of raincoats, we decided to walk back across Dublin to our hotel. Al was carrying our purchases in the paper Guinness shopping bag, which proceeded to fall apart within two blocks, disgorging the mugs onto the sidewalk. They survived intact thanks to the bubble wrap. About half way across town it finally stopped raining, but the rest of the walk wasn't that much more comfortable because we were still soaking wet ! We stopped by the Costas Coffee shop two blocks from our hotel and warmed up a little with lattés.

After changing into dry clothing and resting in our hotel room, we had dinner in the hotel bar again. Al had the salmon fillet with zucchini and I had bangers and mash. We both drank Smithwick's ale. We skipped dessert.

Monday, July 6

After the usual breakfast in the hotel, we took a walk on Dawson Street and headed straight for the Hodges and Figgis bookstore. Each of us had lists of British and Irish books that weren't available as yet in the U.S. and we wound up buying quite a few. We brought our books back to the hotel and then headed for the Alliance Française a few blocks away, where we went to the 'Café des amis' and had lackluster cups of coffee and apple tartelettes.

From there we walked the few blocks to the National Gallery. The building itself is quite strange, being made up of three different connected buildings with floors on different levels. There are elevators in the different parts, but if you want to see all the art on a single floor, you wind up walking up and down stairs and not being quite sure what floor you're on. We headed straight (as straight as possible) to the European paintings, which were wonderful. I particularly liked the paintings by Eva Gonzales (a Manet model), Eduard Detaille, Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier, Rosa Bonheur and Leon L'Hermitte.

We went back to the hotel to rest and then went to dinner at Bocca's Italian restaurant, which has taken the place of Spacco's Italian restaurant where we had eaten back in 2003. Both the food and the service were excellent ! Al had spaghetti Bolognese and I had spaghetti with meatballs, both with glasses of Merlot. We finished with cappuccinos.

Tuesday, July 7

After breakfast, we stopped by the tourist office and bought tickets for a bus tour of the Wicklow Mountains for the next day.

We walked over to the Chester Beatty Library, which is behind Dublin Castle. The first thing we saw was a film about Chester Beatty. He was an Irish American who made his fortune in mining. He lived in London for many years, but moved to Dublin during World War II. He loved Dublin so much that he decided to build a library there and leave his vast collection of books and manuscripts to the city. The main exhibit open to the public is one dedicated to the great religions of the world. There are sections for Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Christianity - we couldn't help noticing the almost total absence of Judaism, which appeared merely as a footnote to Christianity. There was some interesting information here and we learned some new things, but couldn't help wondering about the possibility of anti-semitism on the part of Chester Beatty. We met two young Israeli women who asked a guard about the lack of Jewish artifacts and they were told that there weren't a lot of Jewish artifacts available for purchase. This didn't satifsy them (or us) - even without artifacts, they could have displaid text explaining the origins and beliefs of Judaism, as they had with the other religions.

We went back to the hotel and I napped, while Al went out and bought a supply of better hangers for the room. We had dinner in the hotel bar again. Al had fish and chips with Smithwick's and I had a tomato, mozzarella and pesto grilled panini with tea - I had a sore throat. I had hot apple pie and Al had coffee.

Wednesday, July 8

After breakfast, we headed straight for the bus stop outside the tourist office to wait for the tour bus. The driver was very amusing and told jokes (and sang songs) most of the way there and back. It was a gray, drizzly day and the views weren't that spectacular. The drive to Powerscourt Estates (in the Wicklow Mountains) took a long time because he drove along the seashore pointing out places of interest. Out of the five hours for the trip, we only had an hour and a half to grab a bite in the cafeteria (Al had coffee and a scone and I had soup and OJ for my sore throat) and take a short walk around the grounds. The return ride to Dublin (on highways) was much quicker, but it ended at the main bus station, a few blocks north of the Liffey and we had a long walk back to the hotel.

After resting in the room, we walked over to our favorite Dublin French restaurant, La Cave (which is in a basement). The food was as delicious as last time, but much more pricey ! Al had pâté de campagne and lamb cotelettes (cutlets) with a glass of Bordeaux and I had the warm goat cheese salad and a confit de canard (duck) with a glass of Pinot Noir. We had our coffee and pastries at Costas on the way back to the hotel.

Thursday, July 9

After breakfast, we walked over to Trinity College and bought tickets for the walking tour of the campus, which included admission to the Library (with the Book of Kells). The good-looking young graduate student who gave us the tour was full of information and told some very humorous anecdotes. The college, established during the reign of Elizabeth I, was originally built to educate rich, Protestant males and has only recently opened it's admission to Catholics, women and scholarship students. The Book of Kells exhibit was in almost complete darkness (to protect the pages) and wasn't that interesting, but the special exhibit 'Napoleon, Emperor of the French' in the Long Hall was much more to our liking - for Al because he's a follower of the Napoleonic wars and for me because of the French (and Parisian) history and the French documents and pictures. The contents of library itself is interesting because the ancient volumes are arranged on their shelves neither alphabetically by subject nor by author, but by size, with the largest volumes on the lowest shelves. There is another (modern) library for the use of the students.

We planned on going on the musical pub crawl this evening, which was supposed to meet upstairs in Oliver St. Gogarty's pub in the Temple Bar area at 7:30. On the way there we stopped by Leon's café for a light dinner of ham and cheese baguettes and lattés. We arrived early for the pub crawl and after scoping out the meeting place, we strolled around the Temple Bar, watching the early evening night life and looking at all the stuff in the souvenir shops.

We went to the meeting place for the pub crawl, bought our tickets, bought our first half pints of the evening and found seats for ourselves with a view of the stage. The two musician-guides appeared on time, introduced themselves and started playing their instruments. The two of them played guitars, banjos and the Bodhrán (a traditional Irish goatskin covered drum). They were both amicable young men, who told amusing anecdotes and sang both funny and serious songs. They told us that the Irish don't sing drinking songs, at least in the traditional sense of drinking songs - 'drink, drink, drink'. They sing anti-drinking songs telling about all the horrible things that can befall you when you drink !

We had thought that we would be going from pub to pub and hearing whatever music was available in each of these places, but the way these tours are organized, the group spent an hour in a private room in each of three different pubs, with the same two musician-guides playing and discussing various types of Irish music. They were very entertaining fellows and this really didn't bother us, but the only reason that we could see for walking the distance between the three pubs, was to give each pub owner a chance to sell us drinks. Most people were drinking Guinness, but a few of the women were drinking Bulmer's Irish cider, which came in gigantic bottles. At the last pub (which was north of the Liffey), they asked people to volunteer to sing songs from their native lands. Al and I abstained, but a few people did give it a go, some of them were even good singers.

It was pretty late at night (for us) when we left the last pub and we were both hungry. On the long walk back to the hotel, we searched for places to find food, but other than drinking places and all night stores that only had candy and cookies, we wound up in a McCafé (an offshoot of McDonald's). It really wasn't that bad (considering that it was McDonald's) - we had lattés and shared a grilled ham and cheese panini.

Friday, July 10

After breakfast we walked over to the International bar, which was the meeting place for the 1916 Rebellion walking tour. The tour guide was very informative and we got a play-by-play (shot-by-shot) description of every battle as we walked by the all the sites where they took place. We ended up in the (rebuilt) main Post Office building north of the Liffey, where the last stand occurred.

We walked back to the hotel area on the south side and stopped by Costa's for coffees and pastries. After that we walked in a drizzle a few blocks south of St. Stephen's Green to find the (almost hidden) entrance to a little gem of a park called Iveagh Gardens. I'm sure it would have been much more enjoyable on a sunny day, but we enjoyed both the child-sized maze and the waterfall.

After resting in the room, we went to dinner at Bocca's Italian restaurant again. The food was really good. Al had tagliatelle con pollo with a Tribiano wine and I had tagliatelle carbonara with a Pino Grigio. Al had a latté and apple pie à la mode and I had a cappuccino and tiramisu.

Saturday, July 11

After breakfast we walked across the street to the National Museum of Archeology, which we had visited before in 2003. Unfortunately I found it just as tiring and boring as the last time. Maybe we learned a little more about the history of Ireland (the Viking invasion and the Anglo-Norman invasion), but not much. We had tea and scones in the museum café and returned to the hotel in the rain. Al went out shopping for souvenirs and cough drops while I napped in the room. We had dinner again in the hotel bar. We shared a Ceasar salad for starters. Al had salmon and mash with a glass of Smithwick's ale and I had scampi and chips with a pint of Guinness. We both had ice cream for dessert.

Sunday, July 12

After breakfast, as it was sunny out, we walked over to the Merrion Square outdoor art exhibit (a weekly occurrence) and looked at the paintings that we hadn't seen the previous week. Then we walked over to the National Art Gallery to see the British and Irish art. My favorite Irish artists were Joseph Malachy Kavanaugh and Walter Osbourne.

We stopped by Costa's for our traditional (for us) coffees and pastries and by that time it had started raining. There was supposed to be a band concert in St. Stephen's Green that afternoon and we really wanted to be there, so we tried to wait out the rain. When there was a break in the weather we walked to the bandstand in the Green and the musicians were already playing. There were families on the lawn surrounding the (covered) bandstand and everyone seemed to be enjoying the music. A lot of them either had umbrellas or raincoats, but we didn't, so as soon as it started raining again we returned to the hotel, where we sat having our last drinks in the bar. Al had a pint of Guinness and I made the mistake of ordering a Bailey's Irish Cream on the rocks. The last time that we were in Dublin I had ordered Bailey's on the rocks a few times and it arrived in a relatively full, normal size drinking glass. Apparently the price of Bailey's has gone up astronomically in the past six years, because my drink (including the ice) occupied only the bottom inch of the glass and I quickly downed it in two delicious mouthfuls, left wanting more.

After resting, we went to dinner at Bocca's Italian restaurant for a last time. Al had spaghetti Bolognese (again) and I had spaghetti with meatballs (again) and we shared a bottle of Gato Negra Cabernet Sauvignon, a very tasty wine from Chile. Al had a latté and apple pie à la mode (again) and I had a cappuccino and tiramisu (again).

We returned to the hotel room and packed for the next day's journey home (including our new hangers).

Monday, July 13

The hotel had arranged to have the breakfast room open early (6:30 AM) for us and after breakfast our taxi driver was waiting to take us to the airport. Both the ride to the airport and the flight home were uneventful and even pleasant. Eric was waiting for us when we arrived at JFK.