Road Scholars

An Afternoon in Dublin

After finding our hotel in central Dublin, we set out to do some exploring.  We saw double decker tourist buses running in front our our hotel and decided to hop on one of them to get a quick tour of the area.  I think it's my favorite way to orient myself in new areas.  Then you can go back to the areas you want to explore some more.

We hopped off at the Guinness Brewery stop and explored the brewery's museum.  It was the kids' Father's Day present to Les - trust me...it will be a long time favorite Papa's Day gift for him.  

Les is getting a lesson on how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness

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We got back on the bus after the brewery tour and saw more of Dublin.  Unfortunately, shortly after we boarded the bus, it was done for the day and the driver dropped us off about a mile away from our hotel.  A mile isn't bad at all except when you have sleep deprived kids.  It quickly turned into a very, very long mile.  We stopped at a pub on the walk back to the hotel and had a wonderful Irish dinner before finishing our trek to our comfy beds.  

Trinity College was only a short distance from our hotel.  The Book of Kells is on display here.  We studied about it during this past school year.  The manuscript is an illustrated version of the Four Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  Each of the kids had a Book of Kells coloring book and colored several pages from it.  For all the kids, it was an art, history, and religion lesson.  Additionally for Niki, it was a fun little activity to give her a better appreciation of how much work went into making the manuscript.  For the boys, it helped with their fine motor skills as they used the colored pencils to color in the small shapes on the pages.  Even though the exhibit for the Book of Kells was closed as we walked by Trinity College, we were still able to see the outside of the building, take a couple of pictures, and talk with the kids about it before finishing our walk back to the hotel.

Trinity College 

 

 

Squished in Dublin

We checked in at the car rental counter and then set off for the parking lot to get our rental car.  There's 7 of us on this trip with one carry on and one suitcase for each of us.  There's a lot of luggage despite packing lightly.  We walked up to our assigned number parking spot to a car obviously too small for all of us with only five seats in the car.  Les then walked over to the rental booth in the parking lot to find out if there was some confusion.  

Not long after, Les comes walking back with the Irish attendant along side of him.  The attendant walks over and opens the trunk.  He pops up seats in the back revealing two more spots.  Um wow.  Okay...there's 7 spots now but there's absolutely no room for luggage.  It was the biggest vehicle he had though (and he did apologize to us) so we'd have to make it work.  We put the kids in the car and then began piling luggage on and around them.  Whatever didn't fit in with the kids went under my feet and on my lap.  Here we go.

On to driving on the opposite side of the road, on the the opposite side of the car, with the manual gear shift in your left hand.  I'm so happy my husband has the ability to flip to the other side of the car with relatively little trouble.  I attribute it to him being a pilot since he has flown in both the right and left seats of the airplane.  

I'm so happy we got a GPS for the drive despite my ability to navigate really well.  (There are few things in life that I claim I can do well - reading maps is one of them.)  It made the drive so much easier as the two of us are constantly trying to get used to driving on the opposite side of the road.  It's really weird sitting in the driver side and not having any controls!!!  I'll be giving Les and myself a Driving/Passenger Report Card and posting it on the blog later on the trip.  Les and I were joking about it yesterday. 

This is the morning we're returning to the Dublin Airport

Our rental car in front of our hotel in Dublin