Thursday June 22 Touristy Stuff

One thing I didn't get at the airport was the LEAP VISITOR CARD. It can be purchased for 1, 3, or 7 days, but only at the airport or official visitor centers. It entitles you to unlimited travel on any mode of transportation in Dublin or the area. The regular LEAP card I bought is set up that you put a certain amount of money on it and each time you ride, they delete the amount of that ride, but it is not unlimited.

There are many  transportation systems in this area. There are buses, trains, trams, rapid transit, all operated by different companies. With this Visitor Card, you can have unlimited riding for the period of time you buy it for. Since we were going to be taking the train and the bus and who knows what else I got rather consumed with buying us LEAP VISITOR CARDS. I had done so much research online before we got here about getting the "best deal" that I was determined to get these. I didn't get one at the airport, because I forgot or whatever, so now before our day of sightseeing I got up early and took the bus to one of the 3 Visitor Centers in Dublin not at the airport and bought 3 passes. For some reason this thrilled me!

I may have spent more money getting a good deal than paying full price. :-).

Once I got back to the apartment, we were running a little behind for our 10:45 appointment at the Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced jail) so we took mytaxi (Dublin's Uber) rather than the bus. That is not covered by the Leap Visitor Card!

This tour was interesting though a little bleak. This is what I gleaned through clogged up ears and an Irish tour guide's accent. The jail was built to allow separation from other prisoners, surveillance, and silence. It was apparently a humanistic concept aimed at rehabilitation, which was modern

for the time. Every prisoner was to have his own space and not be mixed with other types of criminals. But with the famine came arrests for stealing food and other such nonviolent crimes, then later political prisoners, the jail got very overcrowded. And as many as five men could have been together in one very small cell. It's now open as a museum.We learned much history from the guide. And much history, but I won't mangle that for you. I've got a lot of Googling to do. I figure I'll read more about Dublin being home than I ever did before I went. Some of these photos were taken by my son in law, Karl who is an excellent photographer.

I thought this was interesting. They built this open skyway to remind the prisoners of God.

From there we walked across the street to the Irish Museum of Modern Art on the grounds of the Royal Hospital, which had beautiful gardens and a lovely cafe where we ate lunch.  Ramona had this travel book with her that always told us the most interesting things we needed to see in the area we were in.  Good job, Mona!

We never figured out what all these signs meant. But we thought they were cool.

 We then proceeded on a 17 minute walk (per Google maps) to Guinness Storehouse. For me it was a 30-45 minute walk. At Guinness we saw why Guinness is so awesome. Water, hops, barley, etc. The grand finale was the gravity bar on the 7th floor where we got a free pint and looked out a 360 degree window with views of London.

The taste testing

The view

 

From there it was a 5-minute walk to the bus (yeah! used our LEAP VISTOR CARDS!) When we got off the bus it was a 5-minute walk to the Tara Street train station. 5 minute walk is a Google Maps figure of speech.

By now it was 5 pm and we were on a train to Balbriggan to Figueriedo's home for fellowship. That deserves a separate post. So this is all for now.

Some interesting signs of Dublin.  Most things were written in both Irish and English.