Day1/2

 

Day 1/2 Dublin 5/28,29/2024

Easy ride to LAX, no traffic.  Airport lounge food was surprisingly good.  Great flight on Aer Lingus. A taxi ride from airport to Hotel (Intercontinental) took about 30 minutes. We chatted with the very friendly cab driver (native of north Dublin) the whole time. He gave us a lot og good information about the city an places to eat. The hotel is very good, and although it’s not in the city center, the location is very convenient – in a lovely area,  a 5-minute walk from a bus stop and train station.  We found out that in order to use public transportation without having to worry about exact change, we need to buy a “leap card” that can be use on all busses, trains and trams. So after checking into the hotel, we walked to a Spar store (sort of like 7/11)  and bought one. You can “load” as many euros on it as you want.  One-way bus or train ticket from the hotel area to city center is 1.3 euro.  Then, we took a bus to the center.  It as about 5 pm so all the buses were pretty crowded, and there were many of them, and lots of traffic. The buses are very pretty – double-deckers in bright colors, most either yellow and blue or yellow and green. We  got off at Trinity College because we thought we’d start with some place relaxing. The campus is immense (40 acres) and impressive.  It was established in 1592, but most buildings are from the 18th century. Bo wanted to see the Old Library building and the famous Long Hall, but to do that you have to buy a ticket for the Book of Kells experience so we did. It’s not really worth the E20 price – a lot of projected images, a glimpse at the actual medieval manuscript and a visit to the Long Hall, which unfortunately has empty shelves because the books are being restored. After walking around in search for a restaurant for dinner, we walked into one we liked (Hawksmoor), but it had no tables until 8:30. Walking towards the train station, we asked a local guy for a restaurant recommendation and he suggested a small Italian place  nearby. Unfortunately, it had no tables available either,  but we found a table at the bar and we had a very good meal. We met a couple from Santa Monica there and had a nice chat. Then we took a train back to hotel.  Mileage walked 6.5 miles.






 

 

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