Dublin

After taking our nap from our long plane ride, we decided to check out Dublin. Got a city map from the front desk and out the door we went.

We walked along the river Liffey, we saw the sights as we were coming in. We walked probably abour 4 blocks. It was pretty brisk walking, wind was blowing and it was cool. We sure woke up pretty quick. Took photos of us along the walk and we crossed a few bridges to get to the other side.

We did find a bank, but no ATM. First we walked into some financial office building, then were directed to where the bank was. We had asked at the front desk about getting money converted and was told at the desk that they can do that service for us for a fee. We decided to find an ATM first. It was beginning to look like we would need to use the service at the hotel.

On our walk we saw several statues, one was of a dock worker, the other was of the great 1845 famine. There were also plaques on the bridges saying what they were for. We made our way back to the hotel. We needed som euro so that we could get something to eat. Remember we haven't had anything real to eat since breakfast at the Billings airport.

We couldn't get euro with our cards at the front desk, they only deal with cash but we were directed to where the closest ATM was. We turned left at the corner, not right. The ATM was only a couple block down, we found it without any problems. Now we knew what to look for with the bank names. We had no problem using the our cards, but we were limited on how much we could get from the ATM. No problem, we all got the amount allowed and we could work with that.

There was a pub right on the corner from our hotel, so we stopped inside to find something to eat. This particular pub stopped serving food at 3:00 pm and by now it was 3:30 pm. The nice man directed us to where we could find some eating establishments just across from our hotel.

We made our way to the shopping center, after meandering through all the construction. We found a nice little restaurant along the water. We ate inside as the wind was cool. We all ate sandwiches, just needed something light to tide us over until morning.

After eating our sandwiches we went back to the hotel to freshen up before our welcome drink with our tour director and traveling companions. The welcome was inside the hotel bar. We all received a complimentary drink. I had a beer (American) while Mom and Jen had a glass of white wine.

We were introduced to our tour director and received copies of our itinerary and the optional excursions that are available to us. We even received a list of the names of our traveling companions, but we are on our own to get addresses. There were some Austrailians; Canadians and Americans. We were the only ones from Montana. The tour director, Bernard Creegan, gave us our instructions for the morning and how the bus seating would work. We were free to choose our seats on the first day, but then after that we are on a rotation.

After visiting a few minutes to finish our drinks, everyone left to go to bed. We were all so very tired and could hardly keep our eyes open. Went back to the room and promptly went to bed at 7:30 pm. I can't remember when the last time I went to bed that early. Went to sleep so that we could all be rested up and ready to go for a day of traveling in the morning.

Dublin was seven hours ahead of our local mountain time, so we had been up for a very long time with only a short nap.

Here are some photos of our walk along the Liffey River.