After spending the evening trying to make each of our bags function like Dr Who’s Tardis and knowing we had to be up and at breakfast by 6.30 am neither of us slept very well. Luckily the breakfast at the Crowne Plaza Aberdeen Airport was a good one and the hotel is within easy walking distance of the airport, so getting to the airport and getting checked in was no problem. We’d accomplished the luggage situation by wearing 2 jackets each and stuffing our pockets with several heavy items like our camera lenses, Neil though he was bound to get called over for a security check because he looked suspiciously like a man with a bomb strapped to his body under his coat!. At the gate we watched anxiously as the gate agent asked random people to weigh their carry on bags before they passed through but we made it past him with no issues. The plane was a bit small for my liking but it did the job!
We landed at Dublin airport by 10.15 and had an extremely quick run through immigration, so we were in a taxi and heading into town by 10.30ish. as we drove into the city the cabbie told us the traffic was very busy because we’d arrived on the same day as the All Ireland (Gaelic) Football Final, being played at Croke Park only a few blocks from our hotel! Dubln were defending the title against Tyrone and every pub in the city was decorated in the blue of the Dublin colours and the red and white of Tyrone.
Lucky our room was ready when we arrived so we could strip off our layers and dress more appropriately for the surprisingly warm Dublin day. We set off for the 20 minute walk to Jameson Irish Whiskey Distillery in Bow Street. They no longer distil the whiskey here but they have a tour that tells you all about the (long) history of the company. It was an outstanding tour because the guide was fantastic, he truly had the classic Irish gift of the gab and he was passionate about Jamesons. As in our previous tour in Scotland, this one also ended with a tasting, but this time we compared Jamesons to the best selling American whisky ( Jack Daniels) and the best selling 12 year old Scotch Whisky ( Johnny Walker Black Label) . It was an interesting comparison , but I didn’t tell the guide that my own personal preference was the Black Label!
The tour ticket also gave us a free drink at their bar, Neil chose to have his Jamesons straight but I opted for the mixed drink, having it mixed with ginger ale and lime, very refreshing!
Walking back to the hotel we wandered through the Temple Bar area, which is pub-and-nightlife central in Dublin. It was pretty busy even in the middle of the day.
We were hungry by now and at around 3.30pm we decided to have a late lunch/early dinner at “The Church” , a well reviewed and lovely cafe/bar/restaurant in the (former) St Mary’ Church of Ireland. They were doing a special Sunday Roast Beef which I thought was delicious! There was a great ambiance, especially once the football final started and the crowd began getting excited watching on the screen under the old church organ.
We didn’t wait to watch the finish but went back to our hotel to put it on the Tv and for a bit of a rest before heading out again later on for our evenings entertainment. I’d booked us on a Traditional Irish Music Pub Crawl which began in a pub in the Temple bar area with the great name of “Oliver St John Gogartys”. It was run by two excellent musicians who spent the evening entertaining us with some wonderful Irish music played on a variety of instruments and with an interesting spiel about the traditional Irish music “sessions” that happen in pubs all over Ireland. We only stayed briefly at the first pub before heading to Halfpenny Bridge Inn, where we had a private room and bar. It was a popular tour, there were about 50 people in all. Unfortunately there was one group of about 5 drunk American women who seemed more interested in getting more drunk than in listening to the music but the majority of the crowd were interested and thoroughly enjoyed the performances.
It was lucky we had a private room in this pub and the final pub ( Brannagan’s) as almost every pub in Dublin was packed solid with celebrating Dubliners last night wearing blue shirts – the Dublin side had one the final for the 4th year in a row!
It was a great night, lots of fun and I certainly know a lot more about Irish music now than I did the day before.
