First night in England

Friday, 6 September 2019

We woke up to our last day in Ireland.  A bit bittersweet, but we are excited to get to England.  We packed, ate breakfast, and left the apartment.  We walked to a tourist information storefront right near the bus to the airport and checked our bags.  Our flight is at 5:45 PM, so we have some time until we need to leave.

Rick Steves highly suggested a walking tour lead by local historians.  We tried to take this tour when we first arrived in Dublin 3 weeks ago, but the group was too big so we decided to put it off till we returned.  This time the group was really big as well, but they had 2 tour guides, so they split the group in two.  Our group was still pretty large, but we decided to give it a try and if we didn't like it, we could just walk away since you pay at the end.

Our tour guide, Donal Fallon, was incredible.  He is 29 and a history professor at University College Dublin.  He kept us interested for the entire 2 hours and 15 minutes of the tour.  Here is a few highlights:

We visited the old parliament building in Dublin.  Donal explained that the tapestry depicts William of Orange winning the Battle of the Boyne and making Ireland a Protestant country.  By the way, the parliament was abolished in 1800.

We then walked to this building with a mural based on Ulysses, by James Joyce.  The artist is part of the family that is known for creating stain glass for churches.  You can definitely see the influence.

This is Dublin castle, the main Government building of Ireland.

On the side of the cathedral attached to the castle is a bust of the Johnathon Swift, the author of Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal, some of the best satire every written.

Lastly, we ended at Christ Church Cathedral.  Donal told the story that the Guinness family helped restore St Patrick's Cathedral down the road and distiller Henry Roe paid for the restoration of Christ Church.  This renovation went poorly and over budget, and Roe's distillery failed.  Guinness bought the failed distillery and  used it for brewing beer.  Donal told us that Guinness is actually going to begin making whiskey and will use the Roe name (which he bought with the building) for the name of their whiskey.

After the tour we popped into a pub for a pint and then had to make our way to the bus station.  On the way I spotted a brewery that of course we had to check out.  Here is our flight photo:

We finally made it to the bus station and had to grab something fast.  Tim was more than happy to get some Burger King.

We arrived at the airport, made our way through security, and finally boarded our Ryan Air flight.  We left 1 hour late, but the flight is only 45 minutes long to Liverpool.

We landed at the Liverpool John Lennon Airport.  There was a cool yellow submarine sculpture right in front of the arrival terminal.

We got our rental car, which is a small SUV, much larger than the car we had in Ireland.  I'm a bit worried about driving it on the small roads, but right now we just need to get to our hotel.  We are on the way to the Lake District, but will only drive 1 hour tonight to a Best Western on the side of the highway.

We arrived at the hotel around 9 PM, and was ready for bed when we got here.  Of course it is now 11:30 PM, and Tim is sleep as I finish this blog.  Until tomorrow...