lmwong1977

Intro

Having pretty much emptying my air miles accounts with last year's trip to Hong Kong/Sydney last year, I had to either pony up the money or skip a trip this year. But I had that yearly free Hyatt cert I had to use by March and a Club Carlson apology cert that expired at the end of the year. No point in throwing away free hotel nights if I could swing it.

Dublin had been dipping to $350 which was cheap for a summer flight to Europe and there were a couple Radissons I could redeem my free certificate. So with a bit of googling flights got SFO-IAD-DUB-ORD-SEA. With taxes and E+ for the overnight leg, it was just under $500. It was cheaper to book an open jaw and add the SEA-SFO with my left over miles.

Interestingly, Chase let me apply for the United Explorer card - I had one before the Continental merger and had the Continental card that became a United card that was downgraded to the no fee version. So that gave me $50 credit off my booking plus 50,000 miles to come. Yay more money saved.

Hotels were like a tour of brands. Booked the Radisson Blu Royal Dublin with the cert and my points for night 2. Hilton points were a bit tight, so went with the regular Hilton Dublin (Charlemont) for 30k/night x3. Then the final night at the HI at the airport for my morning flight back stateside plus the Grand Hyatt in Seattle.

I only had two things I really wanted to do and that was a Game of Thrones tour and The National Stud Farm. Weather being what it was I didn't book the tour until I was in Ireland.

This is basically what I ended up doing for the week:

Itinerary
Day 1: UA Y/Y+ - SFO-IAD-DUB - Radisson Blu Royal Dublin + Dublin Castle
Day 2: City Hall, Trinity College tour, St. Stephen's Green, National Museum of Archeology
Day 3: Howth
Day 4: Game of Thrones bus tour

• Part 1 - Belfast
• Part 2 - Dark Hedges, Bushmills & Dunluce Castle
• Part 3 - Giant's Causeway
• Part 4 - Ballintoy Harbour
• Part 5 - Larrybane
• Part 6 - Cushendun Caves

Day 5: Irish National Stud Farm
Day 6: Phoenix Park & Kilmainham Gaol
Day 7: DUB-ORD-SEA - Grand Hyatt Seattle
Day 8: Seattle

lmwong1977

United coach is is what it is. Planes were pretty full and no frills. Due to the credit card I did get Group 2 boarding which was handy for getting overhead space on a full flight. I totally forgot the club passes though as they came a few weeks before. I bought a sandwich at the airport with me for the flight since no food unless you buy it.



E+ on my IAD-DUB was OK, at first the middle seat was empty, but then 2 minutes before they finished closing the door, they had a kid (think he was 14) come sit in the middle seat, but then a flight attendant came to do the talk about the exit door and switched him with his father (who was sitting with his wife in bulkhead seats). So the nice uncrowded seat was back to regular E+. Food was nothing special, guess it was good I had ate a salad earlier at the airport.



With only carry-on it was off to immigration line, a bit crowded but went pretty fast once past a group of 6 Chinese tourists (they spoke mandarin which I don't understand) luckily there was one person in the group who spoke English. Once through that, hit a shop to grab a sim and a bus pass.

Airport bus was pretty fast, was dropped off near Trinity and made my way to the Raddison. One gripe I have is the street signs unlike London seem to be only pasted on one side of a building so if you're not walking the same way as cars, it's difficult to read what street you're on.

As stated in the Club Carlson forum, I was upgraded to a business class room which includes breakfast! I will note I had trouble with the keycards reading at this hotel (and the Hilton). They were fine for the rooms, but the elevators took at least two tries to work.



The room was a very nice size, there were bottles of still and sparkling water. The main windows faced an building, but there was a bit of a view as well.



After dropping my suitcase, freshening up and checking email, I headed out to walk a bit. I decided to find Dublin Castle as a quick tour to intro myself to the city. So head the opposite way than I came and saw Christ Church Cathedral, Temple Bar and City Hall on my way.



Luckily not very crowded and got a ticket for the next guided tour. There were self-guided tours, but I prefer live people. It was pretty cool, you can see some of the original Viking-built walls and also the state apartments with a guide. Our guide let us know that due to the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, admissions to City Hall would be free.



Returned from the tour to find my welcome gift: Besides a small cup of warm melted chocolate sauce was a mini-chinese takeout-like box with a raspberry jam-filled Italian doughnut. Dinner before desert, so decided to try the restaurant and got a burger and fries.



Doughnut and the chocolate was still warm when I came back. A great end to day one.

offerendum

Nice start, looking forward to the GoT tour😉

DanielW

Great to see some more pics of Dublin. Looking forward to some more.

lmwong1977

Thanks!

Day two started with breakfast at the hotel. It was a nice spread with hot items near the kitchen window - you could order made to order eggs from one of the cooks there. Waffle, bread and cereal on another table. Fruit, yogurt and cold cuts on another.



First stop was City Hall, where in addition to free admission, I also got two free postcards. There were exhibits about the fire fighters during the Easter Rising as well as a copy of the proclamation (the first of three I saw during the trip). Below is the sword of the city and the Mace of Dublin. Plus the Rotunda and a painting in the entrance hall.




Then it was over to Trinity College for the tour done by students (cash only) which includes a ticket to see the Book of Kells (no cameras allowed) and the Long Library which holds another copy of the proclamation. Dark fact: That gigantic tree is so large because under it is a burial ground. Thought it was cool they had a Sphere Within Sphere sculpture at their Berkeley Library which is similar to the one at UC Berkeley (and the de Young museum). The building with blue door is a dorm and the doors lead to the restrooms. Yes students have to go outside to enter the restroom in that building! I thought dorm community bathrooms were bad!



After that it was lunch time, I went to the shipping centre and grabbed a huge Turkey and bacon sandwich for 6 Euros to eat in St. Stephen's Green.





Walking through the park, I ended up near the national museums, so stopped in the Archeology one. There's a ton of stuff to see including lots of Bronze age items like the balls of gold necklace and several bog bodies which are pretty creepy with full heads of hair and skin. I think I was in there for three hours looking at the three floors of items.




After that I stopped in the National Library where they had a mini exhibit about Keats. Out of batteries by that point and I was starving so went back to the hotel to drop things off and charge the phone a bit. I went down the street and had food at this restaurant that had a nautical theme.

lmwong1977

Day three is moving from the Raddison to the Hilton (Charlemont). But first is breakfast/brunch:



Oh look I got the bowl of fruit in frame that day. ;p By the way, what is the difference between the tan black pudding and the black ones? Different kind of meat?

Then it was time to pack up and head to St Stephen's Green to catch the tram to the Charlemont station. It was only like 4 stops/10 minutes and is right in front of the hotel. I had to book my night separately which turned out to be a slight issue and a slight positive.

One my key card kept deactivating, at first the desk clerk admonished me about having it near my cell phone. I know not to do that, but I soon figured it had to do with how I booked things after I got home.

I had forgotten to take my Hilton Reserve card so used my United card for the hold charge - which I'm guessing was applied only to the first night. But since I had dinner in the restaurant the next day, it ended up charging my Hilton card I used to reserve things in the first place.

No upgrade and the internet was only usable because it also had a hard line. The wi-fi was weak. I did notice there was cookies and fruit set out on the 3rd floor - guess that was the executive floor? I smelled fresh paint in the elevator/hall. I also overheard they would soon be adding more rooms in the back of the hotel - not sure when, but there was a lot of construction next door as well (I didn't hear any as I was in the middle inner courtyard area). Oh and the second night one of the two elevators broke. It was still broken when I left. Still can't beat having the tram right there.



Once slightly unpacked, it was back on the tram. I was thinking of doing Phoenix park, but decided to go to Howth since it was such a nice day. So off to the train station for the about hour ride to the seaside town.

There's a couple trails and I decided to take the "easy" trail which is basically going right, but I didn't manage to get to the bend to go down and around as it's really not a non-trail walker trail. The beginning was fine, but then you're in residential areas (there was a house where Yeats lived in) before you hit some rocky "stairs" then to where I ended my hike. I didn't see very many signs, it was basically following and seeing where those heading back came from. I was huffing and puffing and guzzling water as it has some elevation. Makes one wonder what the hard trail is like.






The trail is down toward the water and around the big rock cropping. It got pretty crowded as it's pretty level up there. So I ended up with lots of deleted pictures.


After walking back and looking at the harbor and lighthouse, it was food time. I was going to get some fish and chips but it was already 4pm. Decided to get a dinner-sized meal instead. Seems lots of people had the same idea so ended up at The Oar House.



Then it was back to the Hilton sleep as I had to get up super early for my Game of Thrones bus tour!

lmwong1977

I'm going to break this tour up as we hit a bunch of spots including Giant's Causeway which is not a GoT filming location, but was included.

Day 4 began at the crack of dawn. I had bought tickets online from Finn McCools the day before for €55.00. There was another company I looked at but it wouldn't let me buy tickets that close to travel. Oh the other PITA about the Hilton was there is no business center. You have to email the front desk what you want to print and attachments don't seem to work on their system.

The dominate app seemed to be Hailo from what I could tell from the conversation I over heard the concierge had with the drivers to figure out which guest he had to call. I pulled up uber and a car came by about five minutes after I requested it. The meeting place was in the northern side of Dublin, not much traffic at ~5am.

Luckily it wasn't a very full bus, about 20-25 in a full size bus so plenty of room to have the seats to oneself. The driver was from Belfast and the bus came about 20 minutes before scheduled take off at 6:45am.

First stop was Belfast where we picked up an additional ten or so passengers. There was enough time for me to use the restroom and pick up a McMuffin at McDonalds. I know, how could I buy from an American chain (there was a lot of American chains including Burger King)? But it was non-busy unlike the other spots full of the other tour bus travelers and the bladder demanded no waiting.



Bladder emptied and 4 bites later, I wandered around City Hall. There's a rededicated plaque from when President Clinton visited (plus a monument to the USAEF (United States of America Expeditionary Force) .



The Titanic Memorial is off to the left and the tour guide said this one has all of names unlike other Titanic memorials.


Ulster Hall, the shopping area with a two cops keeping an eye on all of the tourists, and the infamous black cabs.


Time to get back on the bus and onto the first filming location! The Dark Hedges.

lmwong1977

The tour continues to see the Dark Hedges. There's actually two stands of them. We were told they were dying so they're not going to be there forever as they're already really old. There was already another bus load ahead of us (and another behind us), but I managed an almost people free shot in the second grouping of trees as I'm a super fast walker.



Non-GoT stop: As usual for these bus tours, there's an alcohol stop. This was a quick stop to get some free shots of whiskey from Bushmills (plus another bathroom stop). We were told what makes it special is that they distill it 3 times (so less hangover) and they put it in barrels used to make French sherry which gives it a slight sweetness.



Then there was a quick photo stop of the ruins of Dunluce Castle which inspired the look of Castle Pyke (House Greyjoy) and the Riverlands' Harrenhal.

lmwong1977

The other major stop was Giant's Causeway which is not a Game of Thrones filming location, but it probably could be one and the tour company is named after the giant who supposedly built the stacks of rocks. Also its the name of a champion Thoroughbred stallion standing at Coolmore Stud.

My camera fogged up while I was there, didn't notice until the next day when I uploaded these pics. Our guide said it was best to take the top trail and come back on the low road. As if you do it the opposite way, you end up climbing some very steep steps vs going down them. I did about half of the red trail, down the Shepherd's steps and back to the visitor centre where our bus awaited. It's labeled difficult but it was not at all, the stairs are a bit steep but there's a handrail - compared to my walk over at Howth, it was easy.

nequine

Great pics on your GoT tour.

How long was the bus journey from Dublin to Belfast?

lmwong1977

Thanks! It was about 2 hours I think. Our driver was pretty quiet for the first half of the ride so those still half-asleep could doze a bit.

lmwong1977

Back on the bus for more GoT stops. We stop off to drop off those who were doing the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge to catch a mini-bus there while the rest of us head over to Ballintoy Harbour. Below's 20x zoom, it was a good bit father away.



We then headed to the next town and down a really twisty road so we had to changed to a smaller bus. Being the fast walker group, the guide told us we could walk toward the church and he'd pick us up near there. We of course made it all the way to the church and saw lots of sheep.



The GoT production company paid to upgrade the road down to the harbour as they needed big trucks that just couldn't go down the then existing road. The harbor is the setting where Theon returns to the Iron Islands.




They also trucked tons of sand to the beach, but only 3 seconds of the burning scene filmed there was in the final cut. The rest of the scene was filmed elsewhere. They really scored some free infrastructure upgrades and the sand guy made a killing as they also needed sand for the next location we went to.



So it was time to go back to the mini-bus, up the road and on the main bus to the next GoT location: Larrybane.

offerendum

Nice places at GoT-tour. Honestly I would prefer to explore them by myself instead of an organized bus-tour.

lmwong1977

Oh yeah, I generally like to go on my own too but I'm not a driver. The tour was like having a helpful chatty taxi driver. There was a few minutes of showing images or clips from the show to refresh the memory or introduce the location to the partners who got taken along to the tour, but after that he gave us a time to meet the bus and we were free to wander. That was a bit dangerous in the later points of the trip starting at this point as people began being lazy about being on time. Lucky we were a smaller group and the driver had a loud voice to catch people's attention before he closed the bus door.

lmwong1977

Back on the main bus where we go to the next GoT location: Larrybane. We actually went there before we went to Ballintoy to drop off the folks doing the bridge. Ah there's the non-zoomed pic, the V you see out where Carrick Island is, is the rope bridge area.



The quarry there stood in for Renley's camp. In real life, the location is the extended parking lot for bridge goers.


Sheep Island


Stackaboy Island with Carrick Island and Rathlin Island in the background


Soon it was time to get back on the bus to pick up the bridge walkers at the main lot and go see the final GoT location: Cushendun Caves