The place was an old mansion and we were lucky enough to be upgraded to a suite that had a huge four poster bed in a room bigger than our own bedroom in Ottawa. It was immense with antique furniture and beautiful decor.
Our room was the large bay window to the left of the door.
Sandra had booked an evening of Irish music, food and stories at Ireland's oldest pub. So as soon as we were settled we headed out to explore. Our first stop was to find something to eat. We had read about a famous pub in one of Dublin's old churches so we headed downtown. The pub was called "The Church". Aurthur Guinness from the brewery had been married there when it was still a church.
The pub "The Church"
As Mr Guinness was so famous I thought this would be an appropriate place for me to have my first Guinness in Ireland.
That evening we went out to the Irish dinner and story telling, the pubs name was the "Brazen Head". We were brought upstairs to a small room that had about 40 people. We were placed at a table with 6 other couples, after introductions it turned out two of the couples were from Toronto and another were from Calgary. We had two American couples sitting with us, they definitely felt outnumbered.
Pictures of the Brazen Head Pub
The evening was very interesting with a combination of stories and Irish music. The gentleman telling the stories described life in Ireland before, during and after the Irish potato famine. During this famine we in Canada saw a lot of Irish immigrate to Toronto and area. He also talked about Irish superstitions such as Goblins and Leprechauns. He was a phenomenal story teller we really enjoyed the evening.
The next day we were up early and out to visit. We went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells an ancient set of books dating back to the 9th century. The books were interesting but we also took a tour of the college with a young student guide and really enjoyed his commentary and description of life at the college from the earlier centuries right up to present day.
Young man who gave us our tour of Trinity College
Part of the Trinity College campus
In the afternoon we went on a tour of the Guinness plant. It was a bit disappointing as it was more of a tourist thing than an actual working beer plant so we never did see beer being made.
Entrance to the Guinness plant
One of the better known advertisements from Guinness.
That evening we had reservations just down the rode from our B&B to see an Irish House Party in a local hotel. We were again brought to a room with large tables and were seated with other couples. The two ladies to my left were sisters celebrating the 50th birthday of the eldest. It turns out they were from Ottawa and lived in Westboro (small world). The evening was centered on the idea of a house party where everyone ate and then the entertainment would start. The group playing were strangely enough called the "Irish House Party" and they really had all of us singing and stomping our feet within minutes of their start. We had a really good time, they had a young lady with the group that played the accordion but it turns out she was also a champion Irish jig dancer and she put on quite a show. I don't think I have ever seen even a professional athlete move their feet as fast as she was going.
This was the band "The Irish House Party" the young lady in the picture with the accordion was also the dancer.
The next morning we were scheduled to leave Dublin to travel around Ireland so I went off to pick up the rental car and then return to the B&B to get Sam and the luggage. What an experience driving a right hand drive car. The shifter (standard) was in the left, the rear view mirror was on the left and of course you drove on the left side. Before I was allowed to leave with the car I had to take a written test to prove I knew Ireland drove on the left. I passed that with flying colours and they set me loose. BOY!!!if they only knew within in ten minutes I had an accident. I brushed a car in the parking lot of the B&B, nothing too serious and the insurance companies are working it out. It was amazing when I reported it to the management of the B&B, they acted like it was an everyday occurrence which in hindsight seems to be the case. They anticipate tourists driving rental cars to have an accident. I believe that is why you don't get new rental cars in Ireland. The car I had was a Kia Rio that had 125,000kms on it and had been in a few scrapes previously.
Damage to the rental car.
After everything was settled we started on our trip to Doolin on the west coast of Ireland. Sandra was understandably nervous and she could not get used to everything being so close to her. Most of the roads in Ireland have no shoulders and stone walls right on the edge of the road. I often heard her taken in her breath and let out a few squeaks as it appeared we were going to hit something. In many cases the bushes on the side of the car rubbed against her side.
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