Walking Our Way to Guinness & Fish & Chips

There's nothing like arriving at your destination at 5am to help you get a full day of exploring in.  We landed in Dublin just after 5am and were checked in at our hotel by 6:30am.  After a quick rinse and change, we were out the door.  Thanks to a Trip Adviser review on our hotel, we had breakfast at a lovely little cafe down the street, Voila - what an aptly named establishment for our first morning.  Voila - here it is (very very very loosely translated)!

Before joining up with our 11am free walking tour of Dublin, we headed over to Trinity College to explore the grounds and see the Book of Kells.  While we were walking around the College, trying to find a open gate, we were surrounded by the loud noises and hectic pace of morning rush hour.  Once through the gates, it seemed as though all of that disappeared.  Students were on their way to classes, and life within the College gates seems to be calm and quiet.  After a walk around the campus, we queued up with the other tourists to see the Book of Kells and the Old Library.

The Book of Kells is a lavishly and intricately decorated book of the four gospel done by some monks a long, long time ago, around 800 AD.  Although we weren't allowed to take pictures, but I've posted some pictures I found online of some of the illustrations.

After hitting another cafe for another hit of espresso, we met up with the free New Dublin Tour offered by Sandeman's Tours.  The tour is free, and all you have to do, if you'd like is to tip the guide at the end of the tour.  The tour last 3.5 hours, which was a bit long for these two tired travelers, but we had a good time learning a bit of history of Dublin.  Below are just a few photos from our walk around town.

Inside Dublin City Hall

Part of Dublin Castle

More of Dublin Castle including the chapel where many scenes from 'The Tudors' were filmed

Trinity College

Some random Guinness-making machinery

From the tour, we beat feet (my feet were so beat!) over to the Guinness Storehouse to see where the magic happens.  Admission includes a free pint in the bar at the top of the factory, and we were ready to kick back with a pint!  While you don't actually see Guinness getting made, you see how it's made, how they get it around the world for all of us to enjoy, their advertising history, etc. etc. 

Guinness Tasting Room

A few degrees of the 360 degree view of Dublin from the Gravity Bar

After taking a minute to sit and drink and rest our tired feet, we hit up Leo Burdock's Traditional Fish & Chips for, what we hoped would be, a meal reminiscent of our days in New Zealand.  While these Dublin fish and chips were pretty good, NZ fish and chips still win...and are much cheaper.  Fish and chips for two in New Zealand: $10 Kiwi dollars.  Fish and chips for two in Dublin: $18 Euros.  Whatever.  It was worth it.

By then, it was...6pm, and after only a few catnaps on the overnight flight, this girl had to go to bed.  Todd made up until 8pm.  Twelve hours of sleep later, we're ready for our tour to Newgrange and Tara today and hitting a pub tonight!