Day 3

After the 9 euro ($10) hotel breakfast, set off about 10:45 down O’Connell Street to the River Liffey. I wanted to check out the Gibson Hotel where I have a future stay planned. It’s the very last stop on the Luas (tram) line out to the Docklands area where the ferries to Wales depart. I walked down from O’Connell Street and it was 27 minutes and a lot of traffic lights. Won’t be doing that again.

Along the way down to the river:







Dublin Spire:



Gibson Hotel:



View of the area around the hotel (still needs some work, and one tall building frame on the right has been like that for years now since the building bust here):



Bought an all day Luas pass down there for 6.8 euros ($7.75), hopped on the tram, and went to the National Museum of Ireland at Michael Collins Barracks. Collins was one of 90 executed after the 1916 Irish Rising. The barracks housed British soldiers from the 1700s, when first built, until Ireland was granted independence in 1922. They have displays inside showing details of the defense of positions in Dublin by Irish soldiers and the surrender letter given to a British general. Pretty interesting material. There is also a display covering WWI and Irish participation.









Irish rocket factory during WWI:



Back on the tram a couple stations further out to take a look, passing the Guinness Brewery.



Turned back around and got off at Smithfield, a place I’ve always meant to check out, and home to Jamesons Distillery, as well as another Maldron hotel (chain I frequently stay with). You’d need a daily tram pass to make this location work. Rain started coming down around 2pm and had some light rain on and off the rest of the day (so much for rain due in late at night on the morning news).





This side of the Jamesons building has been converted to cafes and a hostel:







Tram ride again to Jervis Street, where I got off and walked across the River Liffey to the Grafton Street shopping area, then St Stephens Green, a prominent park.





A different tram line, now, and off to Dundrum which has a deli I like inside Ireland’s largest shopping mall. My lunch there was 11 euros ($12.50) and had to be one of the biggest carved turkey sandwiches I’ve ever had. You don’t see these in the U.S. This one was topped with stuffing, cole slaw, and salami. Not sure they really needed the salami.





Back into Dublin and a walk to my hotel, arriving after 6pm. After lunch not much of an appetite for dinner, so just ran down to a nearby Tesco around 8pm for some milk and snacks and went to bed early. Had to be up at 5:30 in the morning for my flights to Athens.

Dublin photos for this segment start here: http://tom911.smugmug.com/Travel-Ire...land/i-sfkV54G