Dublin

Made it home from Ireland Friday evening. Great trip. The tour started in Dublin, so the first order of business was a little bit of a walk and a pint - actually the first of several over the course of the trip.

The middle photo is of a bunch of tough guys staying at the hotel. I saw several guys with cauliflower ears and noses bent a bit askew and figured they had to be some sort of scrappers. Seems there was a MMA tournament that evening near the hotel. I had a nice chat with a couple of the guys. Like in the amateur boxing I'm familiar with, seems the tougher they are, the nicer they are.

Bottom photo was taken out the window of the Guinness plant while we were dining there. We got the guided tour and then we went up to the Gravity Bar at the top of the facility for a pint, came down to a lower level for dinner and another pint. The dinner was very good. Salad/soup course, choice of several entrees, and then dessert. I sampled the bacon and cabbage as well as the beef dinner but stayed away from too much meat on the trip. I had a creamy vegetable soup at three different places. Always good - made from root vegetables.

Had a couple of days in Dublin allowing us to sight see, shop, visit museums, etc. I managed to find Dublin's smallest pub. You have to go down to a basement level through a door that opens onto Dawson Street. The barkeep said it's supposed to have a maximum capacity of 26. I'm thinking that would be pretty crowded, however. I didn't spend all of my time in Dublin eating and drinking. I did make it into the National Library and I walked around the campus of Trinity College. I also did some souvenir shopping. Actually put a lot of miles in while on the trip. I should have taken my pedometer to see just how far I did walk while there.

I adjusted to the six hour time difference pretty well when the trip started. Not so much when I got home. I had to get up at 5:00 Friday morning, which was 11:00 pm at home. I went to bed at about 10:00 pm Friday night so I was up for a while. I woke up at a little after 3:00 am Saturday morning which would have been 9:00 am in Ireland. Except I was no longer in Ireland but I was wide awake. I tossed and turned a bit then finally got up, started a load of clothes and did a couple of other chores, went back to bed but never did go back to sleep. About the time I get back on an even keel it'll be back to Daylight Savings Time and that'll keep me off balance for a bit. Or maybe it won't have too much effect this year due to my having been on the Irish time. We'll see.