We arrived in Dublin on Sunday morning. There was a tourist information (TI) booth right there, so we got in line to purchase a ticket to take the bus into town.
Here I am, on the bus, waiting to go!
We were dropped off a few blocks from our hotel, so we walked there, hoping they might have a room available even though it wasn't yet check-in time.
No such luck, so we left our bags and headed out to explore Dublin a bit. We decided to go with a hotel rather than an apartment this time for several reasons; among them, we found a great deal on this hotel,
Maldron Cardiff Lane, that had a nice fitness area, including a swimming pool and hot tub.
Although the hotel claimed to be in the city center, we found that to not exactly be true; however, we don't mind walking!
This was one of the store fronts we passed walking into the real city center:
We happened upon
Trinity College, so we went in and walked around a bit.
These pictures were taken only minutes apart; isn't the difference in the sky striking?
Tired from our trip and a bit out of sorts since we hadn't yet been able to shower, Brian took a short rest while we contemplated what to do next:
A funny sight:
We decided to go to the restaurant on campus for visitors, but it was not yet open.
Ravenous by this point, we walked around until we found an
open cafe:
We just had coffee and scones, expecting to eat lunch later. Sadly, we didn't remember to stop for lunch, so this ended up being it:
Reenergized, we continued our wandering. We stumbled on
St. Stephen's Mall and walked around. We almost never go to malls in America, but we seem to find our way to those overseas; go figure!
The roof:
Descending the stairs:
Our guidebook mentioned a
park nearby, so we headed outside. We walked around, soaking in the sun and watching the wildlife.
We found another nearby park, a bit more secluded, for some relaxation.
Resting...
...while listening to the sound of this waterfall:
Unlike London, trashcans were everywhere!
By this time, we had reached check-in time for our hotel, so we returned. This pub was located on the corner of the street our hotel was on and the quai (we never went in here, though):
An outside view of our hotel:
And an inside view of the room:
We went downstairs and into the hot tub, steam room, and sauna, which were nice after a day of travel! Despite the fact that we had chosen the hotel partly for its fitness facilities and had brought clothes to work out in, this would prove our only visit here. We just couldn't find the time!
We walked to dinner at
Gruel, where we split our entrees -- we just couldn't decide what to get.
A somewhat blurry, but still beautiful, shot of the area near the
River Liffey, en route back to our hotel.
Back at the hotel, we fell asleep, exhausted.
Down the other way, towards Spuistraat: 
We walked to Centraal Station and bought our ticket to the airport: 
On the train:
Our trip back home was uneventful. My dad picked us up at the airport, and it was great to see him again and catch up on things.
An interesting street light:
Pigeon-watching (this guy has some string wrapped around his leg. I hope he made it OK. I kind of wanted Brian to capture him -- he has caught pigeons before when we did wildlife rescue -- but didn't want to cause a scene):
In a park:
When we went to the T to take it to the airport, there was a sign saying that the Blue Line was closed! So we had to get on a bus that took us to another bus that took us to another bus that took us to the airport. I wasn't sure we'd make it, but we did!
Dropped off at the airport:
And with that, we got on our plane (which was on time) and headed home. As always, we had a wonderful trip.
Here's our plane, getting loaded:
The actual travel was uneventful. The plane did not have TV screens in the back of the seats in front of us, so we listened to music and read instead. And tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to sleep.
Here I am, on the bus, waiting to go!
We were dropped off a few blocks from our hotel, so we walked there, hoping they might have a room available even though it wasn't yet check-in time.
No such luck, so we left our bags and headed out to explore Dublin a bit. We decided to go with a hotel rather than an apartment this time for several reasons; among them, we found a great deal on this hotel, Maldron Cardiff Lane, that had a nice fitness area, including a swimming pool and hot tub.
We happened upon Trinity College, so we went in and walked around a bit.
These pictures were taken only minutes apart; isn't the difference in the sky striking?
Tired from our trip and a bit out of sorts since we hadn't yet been able to shower, Brian took a short rest while we contemplated what to do next:
A funny sight:
We decided to go to the restaurant on campus for visitors, but it was not yet open.
Ravenous by this point, we walked around until we found an open cafe:
We just had coffee and scones, expecting to eat lunch later. Sadly, we didn't remember to stop for lunch, so this ended up being it:
Reenergized, we continued our wandering. We stumbled on St. Stephen's Mall and walked around. We almost never go to malls in America, but we seem to find our way to those overseas; go figure!
Descending the stairs:
Our guidebook mentioned a park nearby, so we headed outside. We walked around, soaking in the sun and watching the wildlife.
We found another nearby park, a bit more secluded, for some relaxation.
...while listening to the sound of this waterfall:
Unlike London, trashcans were everywhere!
By this time, we had reached check-in time for our hotel, so we returned. This pub was located on the corner of the street our hotel was on and the quai (we never went in here, though):
An outside view of our hotel:
And an inside view of the room:
We went downstairs and into the hot tub, steam room, and sauna, which were nice after a day of travel! Despite the fact that we had chosen the hotel partly for its fitness facilities and had brought clothes to work out in, this would prove our only visit here. We just couldn't find the time!
A somewhat blurry, but still beautiful, shot of the area near the River Liffey, en route back to our hotel.
Back at the hotel, we fell asleep, exhausted.
And then caught a glimpse of the Famine Memorial:
As we had done to enter the city, we took the Airlink bus to exit.
Since we had to check our luggage, we decided to put our coats in there once we got to the airport since we wouldn't need them on the plane:
The flight back was relaxing (and thankfully direct) and my dad was right there waiting for us to exit -- we were home before we knew it!
As we've done on past trips, we rented an apartment instead of getting a hotel. The owner sent us the keys ahead of time, so we were all set when we arrived just around midnight.
