ireland - day 1 and 2

Here is a travelog of our trip to ireland. I'll do it day by day and hopefully get everything in. First, day 1. Pretty easy to talk about this day. We left Hyrum at 8:30am in time to check in and catch an 11:30 flight. Then, off to Chicago and a two-hour layover. Then, a seven-hour flight later and we were in Ireland! Yup. That is what happened that day. There is a seven hour time difference so, when we landed in Dublin at 8:30am, it was 1:30am Utah time and since we didn't sleep much, we were TIRED!!!

I told the kids we needed to stay up and not just nap so that, hopefully, we could get on Ireland time and not miss out on too much. So, we got our rental car and after a harrowing drive to the hotel (I burned out the clutch and clipped the passenger mirror...yes it broke), we were able to check in and then walk to downtown Dublin.

Here's the kicker, we should not make decisions when we are tired or hungry. We went the wrong way, we walked around Trinity College and almost totally missed it. Not a good start to our trip. FINALLY, we found an entry to Trinity College and found the Book of Kells exhibit. Wow!! The exhibit prior to the book was very well done. The book itself was very interesting. I really, really, really wanted to pick it up and flip through the pages. Sad. We then walked upstairs to the Long Room. Ok, that is impressive. Thousands of books. You could smell the history. I wanted to walk through them also, sadly we were not allowed. We lost Wells in the Long Room. He thought we were leaving and so left and went outside the library. Kaitlyn and I thought he was right behind us and then we couldn't find him. After we successfully reunited, we decided it was time to eat!

The plan was to walk to Temple Bar and find a place to eat but we got lost again and ended up backtracking to a Subway. For some reason (probably just the stress) my stomach was in knots and I couldn't eat anything. At least the kids were happier after we ate. We then walked in the general direction of the Medieval section of Dublin and ran into the Dublin Castle (pics below), we walked through the grounds of the ChristChurch Cathedral but didn't go inside (my one regret on the trip), found the Dublin wall and gates (more pics below), and then walked back to the hotel. It was about 3pm. So, the kids napped while I made arrangements to get a new car. Then snacks, shower, and bed. We were ready for some solid sleep.

 At the SLC airport and bored. 

We thought it was cool that our plane had clovers on its tail and wingtips. We almost bought a model just cuz it was so CUTE!! :)

 The east side of the cathedral at Dublin Castle. The castle is now used as government buildings. You can't walk through much of it. Would be pretty boring if you did as it would just be offices. There are some parts that are open but it was a bright sunny day and the grounds were amazing so we walked around them and enjoyed the sun.

 Kiddos with Dublin Castle tower and cathedral behind them. You can see part of the grounds. Beautiful.

 A holly tree! I've seen holly bushes but never a tree. I wanted to bring it home and use it from my holiday tree. It was very cool, had berries on it and everything.

 Scrolls on the gates. This is a typical art design in Ireland. We saw it everywhere. Comes from the monolithic art that can be found throughout the island. Loved it. Kaitlyn wanted to bring these gates home. Forget the holly tree!

 Feeling epic in Dublin!

 Feeling tired in Dublin!

 Save me! But....I....can't....reach.

 One of the most amazing doors I have ever seen. Why settle for plain ol' hinges when you can have something like this!

 The gates in the Dublin City wall. Date below. The kiddos talked about how hard it would be to storm this city. The steps are uneven and placed at irregular intervals. The slant of them differs. Just when you think you can charge up, something changes! I didn't understand half of what they were talking about.