Dublin

Our last day in Ireland we spent in Dublin. We went from spending a week of one lane country road driving into the overly crowded downtown Dublin with a bad map. Not only can you not find a decent road sign, the maps may or may not show all the available roads. After a few stressful interactions with my husband, rating to about 5 marriage counseling sessions, we found our holiday rental. Our rental was in the Temple Bar area. Temple Bar has preserved its medieval street patten, with many narrow cobbled streets. Did I mention how difficult it was to drive around in?

So, we walked many miles enjoying the sites. Finally when we were tired of the kids complaining so much about walking, we hopped on the Red Tour Bus.

Many areas host plaques of Dublin's famous writers ranging from Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett and James Joyce. The city is full of literary landmarks.

The Wellington Testimonial was built to commemorate the victories of Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington. A Dublin legend suggests that a fund-raising dinner was held in the vault under the pillar in 1820, after which the vault was sealed up, leaving the dining tables and chairs behind. Several weeks later it was noticed that a butler had not been seen since the dinner, and it was assumed that he had drunk too much wine and remained unconscious and unnoticed behind a screen while the room was being sealed.

The bridge is called the Ha'Penny Bridge, officially the Liffey Bridge. There was a toll charged to anyone crossing the bridge of a total of half a penny coining the name of the bridge.

So we're still in Ireland, thus more on and off rain showers. A little shopping in the Stephens Green Shopping Centre.