This was our first visit to Ireland, and we like art, scenery, and Irish music. We planned a week in each location, without car, and an extra day at the end since our flight was to leave at 1100, and you can’t get from Dingle to the Dublin Airport in time to catch a flight that early.

We flew Continental Business/first with the lie flat seats, which made the trip very comfortable, but for some reason Continental routed us to London Heathrow, then back to Dublin. So we earned a few extra miles.

On arrival we took a taxi from the airport to our lodgings; they had recommended a bus, then walking to our lodging (O-neil’s Victorian pub and lodgings on Pearse street) but I opted for the taxi because we are getting older and carry too much luggage. I later saw the bus (we moved from Dublin to Dingle on the bus) and they have a large hold under the passenger compartment for luggage, so the bus would be a good option and less expensive.

The lodgings are in an old building (two hooked together, I think) and was clean and spacious, but not modern. The shower head, for example, came out of the ceiling about twelve feet up and you had to be pretty agile to get the temperature in the shower stall right, since it was spraying on you the whole time. But there was no lack of hot water. We were about three blocks from the DART tracks, and Pearse is a busy street, so it was not a quiet location, but it was not as raucous as Temple Bar and was withing walking distance of almost every thing we wanted to see. The breakfast was prepared to order and was good but plain.

We arrived in the late afternoon, so we just walked around the neighborhood, then ate in the pub. Pubs have a greater variety of food than one would find in an American bar.

We started the next day (I think the Irish have a late breakfast, so you don’t get to see a lot in the morning) on the North side walking up O’Connel street to see the General Post Office, the Millennium Spire, and the Dublin City Gallery (the Hugh Lane). We arrived before the gallery opened, so spent some time across the street in a memorial park that was very nice. The gallery was quite good. Out side it was a stop for the step on step off busses. There are competing companies, but we opted for the green one, because your ticket with them was good for the day you bought it and the next day. We rode the whole route, and it was a useful way to get oriented, and very informative (some busses have a tape, but this one the driver did the explanation and even some singing).

We then walked along the river to see the coffin ship, but it was apparently not open at the time we were there. There are some very interesting modern bridges over the river in that area. We then walked up to St. Steven’s Green, a very pleasant park; they had a community bank playing that drew a very good crowd.

For dinner we went to the Winding Stair, as I had spotted it from the hop on hop off bus ride. The food was quite good, but it was not inexpensive. For two starters, two mains, one desert, and a very nice bottle of wine we paid about 127 Euro. It had been a very full day, so we retired early.

The next day, armed with the second half of our hop on hop off ticket, we caught the bus by the university, planning to see the farthest points of interest. We started with Iveagh gardens, which took quite a while because it really is hard to find. My suggestion would be to walk east on St. Stephen’s Green South (the border of St. Stephen’s Green) to Earlsfort Terrace at the corner, turn right (south) and walk past the National Concert hall, turn right onto Hatch Street Upper and about 200 meters down you will find an entrance; there are other entrances (perhaps one on the north side of the National Concert hall), but there are not many signs and the one I gave worked well for us after about an hour of wandering on Harcourt street. Anyway, the park is very quiet and attractive. We walked down Grafton Street (crowded, but pleasant, with many buskers to entertain you. In fact, we returned often to Grafton street; one man had a marionette that was very entertaining.

We hopped on the bus and went to Dublin castle. We didn’t go inside but enjoyed the sand sculptures they had in the courtyard.

The next stop was the Gluiness warehouse; everyone goes here and they were all there on that day. It was very crowded. I suppose if you know nothing about the brewing process, it would be interesting, but we had been to other breweries, and the glass room at the top was so crowded it was hard to see the view and, worse, harder to get your Gluiness. The brew was good, but no better than one you would get in a pub, with music. Ever the heretic, I would suggest you consider skipping this site, as well as the book of Kells, which was similarly crowded.

Back onto the bus and a visit to Kilmainham Gaol. An excellent site full of history, and guides that are very good. A must see in my book.

Back onto the bus which passed the war memorial gardens; we asked to be let off and the driver accommodated us. I didn’t realize it wasn’t a stop, and it was only after enjoying the gardens, which are lovely, that I realized we had no way back onto the bus. We decided the best option was to walk back to Kilmainham Gaol, but were unsure of the route. I was glad the Irish are so friendly and helpful, as strangers set us on the right path.

We had intended to dine at Lord Edward’s (using the last of our hop on hop off ticket) but they had had some kind of emergency and were closed. As we walked back toward home, we came upon Toscana’s which had very good Italian cuisine at very reasonable prices.

Afterward we walked through Temple Bar and stopped in a couple of pubs that had music, but the patrons were already in their cups so we moved on.

We started the next day with a visit to the Book of Kells; we were there early so we were about 150th in line. It was crowded. The rooms where they explained the book were interesting, but the room where they displayed the actual book were very crowded. The book itself is opened on a table enclosed with glass, so you get to see only two pages, and because of the crowding, even that is difficult. We then went to Merrion Square. As pleasant and attractive as all the guidebooks say, and not crowded at all. The preserved home at 29 Lower Fitzwilliam street was very interesting. We also visited the National Gallery, which was very nice. When I asked where the Vermeer (one of my favorite artists) was, they said it was being displayed in Japan. Sometimes you just have no luck. I was able to get a nice print.

We spent more time on Grafton street enjoying the entertainment. That evening we ate at L’Gueuleton. They don’t take reservations so the guidebooks say get there early or prepare to wait. We got there early and it was not at all crowded. The cuisine is French, and quite good and not terribly expensive. We liked it so much we returned a couple of nights later. As Americans, we’re used to eating fairly early and we never saw this place so crowded that people could not be seated; perhaps late diners would not be so lucky. But they had no lack of patrons.

The next day we took the DART to Howth, a little port on the north outskirts of Dublin. We had a nice sunny day spent walking the streets and docks and watching the fishermen. We had lunch at the Oar House and dinner at Aqua. Both had excellent seafood; I’d give a tiny edge to the Oar House based on their seafood chowder, but it’s a close call. Prices were very reasonable.

Our last days in Dublin were busy. We visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral (lovely outside, not so much inside) and Marsh’s Library, so uncrowded that they give you a lot of personal attention.
We revisited the National Gallery (the Vermeer was not back yet). We enjoyed the Chester Beatty Library, behind Dublin Castle, (very interesting and exhaustive displays of Asian artifacts and religious history and practices), We spent some afternoon time in pubs in temple bar that had music (Irish musicians, guitars, and too many Johnny Cash songs). We ate at Lord Edward’s, a pleasant old room above a pub with a good view, but the heavy sauces on the fish dishes detracted from the food.

They have a tour called the traditional music pub crawl, where working musicians play for you, discuss the music and the musical scene, and take you to two or three places to hear them play. I recall it costs 12 Euro a ticket, and lasts two or three hours. It starts upstairs at Oliver St. John Gogarty pub in temple bar. Now all the venues describe their product as traditional music, but the musicians who led our tour, which was well worth it, distinguished between tourist traditional music and true traditional music. I think you don’t find Johnny Cash or the Beatles in the true traditional music venues, and the musicians are perhaps less concerned with entertaining the audience than with making their music. The true traditional music is played late, often starting at 2130 or later. If you want to hear the true traditional music, you almost have to ask a musician, as it moves around. Its pretty obvious that I am a fan of true traditional music, and my greatest mistake of this trip was in taking the pub crawl on one of our last days; one of our first days would have been far better, and we would have gotten some good information on where to hear this type of music. So if you are interested in this type of music, take the pub crawl as soon as you arrive.

We now depart for Dingle. Since I don’t drive, our choices were train or train/bus (there is no train service to Dingle itself. I spent a lot of time researching this, and couldn’t be sure we would make connections if we started on the train and finished on the bus. But the stations in both Limerick and Tralee are right together, so making a connection would be no problem. When I found out the busses had luggage holds, I opted for a round trip ticket, which you can buy on the internet at a favorable price. It’s a long but scenic bus ride with two transfers (Limerick and Tralee). We left Dublin at 0830 and didn’t get to Dingle until 1730 because the bus may stop at every little town on the way.

We stayed at Emlagh Lodge B&B, distinguished from the larger and apparently posher Emlagh House. We’ve only stayed in B&Bs a couple of times, but it is hard to think of how one could be better than Emlagh Lodge. It is located right at the edge of town and right on the waterfront. The views from all windows in our large room were beautiful. It is very well kept and quiet (they have only four rooms to let) and the hostess is a gem. Breakfasts are made to your order, and very good. The yogurt/fruit cup looked and tasted like something from a fine restaurant. The hostess picked us up at the bus station and drove us there when we left. She threw our laundry, which we had drying in the shower, in with the bedclothes to dry. She knew who gave the best tours, and would call and make an appointment for you. One day she suggested we would like to see the Blasket Island center, which is a fifteen or twenty minute drive, and drove us there and picked us up, and wouldn’t take money for gas. We were spoiled, and if I go back I’ll stay there, and recommend it to anyone else.

Dingle is a lovely sight and a working fishing village, and apparently a lot of traditional musicians are drawn there. We were there in the middle of tourist season, and there were many of us, but not to the point of feeling crowded. There are quite a few excellent restaurants. Seafood is king there, and they do it well. The best restaurants we found were the half door, and out of the blue, but there were many more. Fenton’s and Ashe’s were good. The Old Smokehouse was good, as was the Chart House (close to our B&B).

As we arrived late in the day, we had time only for a short orientation and dinner.

Blasket Island is a popular site, reachable only by boat. It had been an old isolated community, but the kids kept leaving and eventuality the town was closed. Because of the geography, multiple islands and shoals and tricky currents, it was not possible to get to the Island for four months each winter, hence the isolation. They have a boat service in Dingle that offers a variety of tours, two of them being the Blasket Island tour, and the ECO tour. They use the same boat, with the Blasket Island tourers getting off at Blasket Island, and the boat then continuing around some of the outer islands, then returning to Dingle (I guess they have a second boat that picks up the Island visitors; we didn’t). I like taking local boat tours, so we packed a lunch and signed on. As we sat at the pier, a very quiet man came around asking people information about their homes. He turned out to be the guide and tied in our homes to his presentation. The Irish are, of course, well spoken, and he was no exception. His talk included recent and ancient history, geological history of how the area had been formed, and details of the animals and birds we saw. I had not realized it, but some ships from the Spanish Armada came to grief trying to pass between Blasket Island and the mainland.

It was the most comprehensive and entertaining tour I’ve been on, and I’m glad our hostess recommended that one.

We were all looking for Fungie, the dolphin, as we left and reentered the harbor, but he didn’t make an appearance. There were about ten boats waiting outside the harbor, including a cruise ship, but no one seemed to see him that day.

We sat around the dock watching the activity; there were a lot of what appeared to be sailing schools and kayaking tours. We then were off to see the Trinity Tree. As you face the church, it is on the left and in the back, down what looks like a private drive. We also enjoyed the stained glass windows at the cultural center on the right side of the church (in what was the convent).

The next day I said we were interested in seeing Connor Pass (I had planned on walking based on the map in a guidebook; it was farther than that map indicated). Our hostess called and arranged another guide for us. It’s a pretty view, especially if the weather is clear. He also took us to a couple of small villages on the other side of the peninsula. He knew quite a bit about everywhere he took us, and revealed he was a musician, so I got a lot of good information on traditional music (some of the songs I like turn out to have hidden meanings; apparently when the British ruled and said you can’t sing about this, the Irish just substituted new words as a code for the forbidden words).

The Blasket Island cultural center is out of town (on a bluff overlooking the island) but is well worth a visit, with lot of implements and information on the island. Apparently, the families on the island all had a story teller, and that was their entertainment. In more recent years, many of the story tellers wrote books, or had books written if they were not literate, and those books became very popular. They had a good selection in the gift shop, as there had been in An Café Liteartha in Dingle, a delightful combined bookstore and café.

Dingle has a very active traditional music tradition. Our hostess told us about a series of concerts at St. James Church Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 1930 to 2130. We went to one Monday and it was excellent; they offered a free cd to anyone who danced to one of their jigs, and no one took them up, but I noticed my wife was doing some pretty serious toe tapping. We went to another on Friday and it was just as good. The musician vary from day to day, but they are all good. After the concert Monday we stopped at An Droichead Beag which was nearby, but the musicians and customers were all watching a football game. We went down the road to O’Flaherty’s and they had the music really going; I liked this pub best because it has one room and you can see the musicians. Many of the others have a series of rooms and you may end up far from the music. John Benny’s pub had been recommended by one of our guides, but he warned us to get there early and ask for a table in the main room and eat dinner, then stay for the music. It worked. The music there was excellent also. It was not uncommon to see a musician in one pub one night, and another the next, and they all have a real facility to play together.

OHOH

I had return bus tickets to Dublin Saturday to catch a flight Sunday. I got an email saying our flight had been cancelled because of the impending hurricane; call them to make arrangements. I called repeatedly but a tape kept saying they had so many calls they couldn’t handle all of them, then hanging up. I called the elite desk (one of the benefits of achieving status in a frequent flyer program is that they give you a secret number to get help), but I was in queue for forty minutes when my cell phone battery ran down. So we left Dingle not knowing how soon we would get a flight. We stayed at the Hilton Airport hotel, which is no really at the airport, nor within walking distance of anything interesting, but I was finally able to get through to Continental which put us on a Tuesday flight on US Air. So we had a couple of extra days. We spent one resting (we had walked quite a bit around Dingle and our feet were happy for a day off), and the next we went to Malahide castle and the village. The castle and park were interesting, and we enjoyed walking around the village.

Tuesday we had a nice flight home; it was my first experience with US customs before your flight. We had a few hours to wait and we spent them in an airline lounge; luckily I had asked before we went through customs, as the lounges are before customs, so you lose access once you go through customs.

We had pretty good weather everywhere we went in Ireland, which is apparently not the rule. People kept saying we were lucky not to be there the week before, when it rained constantly. We only got a little drizzle, but there were often threatening clouds on the horizon. And the Irish people we met were exceptionally civil and friendly.

Thanks for your report. I enjoyed reading it! So glad you had great weather.

I enjoyed your travel tale. Thanks for sharing!