Day 23

Today is our last full day in Ireland and will mark the end of this blog. It has taken me almost 9 months to finish a blog that only covered 24 days (yes...I lost a day somewhere out there on this version). Thanks for bearing with me as I have dragged my feet finishing the story.

We want to visit by far more places today than we actually have time. We decide to check out the red DublinTours buses that stop right in front of our apartment on St. Stephen's Green.

We ask the first driver to stop what we need to do and he tells us to hop on and which stop to get off at so that we can buy our tickets. We can buy one ticket and can get on and off the bus as many times as we want all day long. This seems perfect for us. There is a tour guide on each bus and they hit all the things that we want to see with the tour guide describing interesting things along the way. They are quite humorous actually.



Our first stop is Dublinea at Christ Church. This is a children's play area/museum which takes you on a "hands-on" tour through Dublin's history.





Eamon has a blast, actually we all do. Eamon and I decide to go down into the crypt below the church to see the treasures and the tombs below. It is a little bit dark and Eamon gets somewhat uncomfortable but it is pretty interesting. When we come back up we can explore the church a little more, now that the morning service is over. There are a mummified cat and rat that were found to have died in the pipes of the gigantic organ of the church. They are now on display in a glass case. We end up spending most of the day here before we get really hungry. We don't find any good spots, so we decide to get on the next bus.
Our next stop is the Guinness brewery at St. James Gate. They have converted the old brewery into a museum which is encased in the world's largest pint glass. At the end of the self guided tour you are served a pint of Guinness in the clear lip of glass above the stout's famous tan, foamy head. We head right to the restaurant for lunch and a pint. The food is fine, but the Guinness is tremendous. It is definitely the best we have had on the trip. The museum is fascinating, with lots of tidbits and facts about the beer and the process. Eamon's favorite section is the advertising section which has posters from every campaign, and some really funny old commercials. Other than the restaurant, we spend most of our time here. After lots of trolling, we finally grab some seats at the top of the pint to sit and have our beers. The 360 degree view is stunning but hard to capture with the camera.



We manage to catch the very last bus of the night and ride the tour to its end. Unfortunately this means it ends at the main tour location, and does not travel past St. Stephen's Green again. This means a VERY long walk or a cab ride. The driver kindly offers to drop us off at a better location on his way back to the garage. He tells a great story about the Jameson's distillery and makes me wish that I could have fit that in on this trip. Ah, well, we will go there next time! We walk back to the apartment, and we are all exhausted. We make sure to spend the evening packing while Eamon (who has stayed on GREEN the whole day, somehow) watches television.
There is no doubt that this trip with the kids has been tough. We know now that future trips with the kids work best with one or very few home bases from which we can launch multiple day trips. The constant motion of our drive from Connemara to Dublin was the hardest part of the trip. All in all, though, it was well worth it, and, taking some of our newly earned wisdom, we will do more trips like this, planning them a little better next time.