Hey Phoenix! How was your trip to Ireland?

[Porridge]

Did you and your DH enjoy Dublin?

 

[Phoenix]

Date: 1/9/2010 5:28:42 AM
Author:Porridge
Did you and your DH enjoy Dublin?

Hi Porridge, Thanks for enquiring and thanks very much again for all yr help. We did indeed go to Dublin and enjoyed it very much. I'm sorry for not having posted earlier, what with the cold both DH and I caught from the UK, my niece being here (and my playing nurse-maid

) and my class II pap smear result, I haven't really had a chance to write and post my pics from Dublin. It has been on my mind though - to post and thank everyone.

First off, we stayed at the Westbury Hotel and because we checked in late, there was no more room available in the category we'd booked (Deluxe) and after a a couple of hiccups, they eventually upgraded us to the Skyline Suite and it was AMAZING!! The room was HUGE!! It must have been about 700-800sqft and the view was fab. The best thing was the huge and very comfy four-poster bed. So that was very nice indeed!

Unfortunately, the weather was not co-operating. You know it'd snowed very heavily across the UK and most of Europe during the period running up to Xmas? Well, it got a bit better on Xmas Eve thro' to Boxing Day. We arrived in Dublin on the 28th and stayed for 3 nights/ 4 days. It was EXTREMELY cold (well, for us anyway) and it was rainy and on our last day, it started snowing! Oh man, I was wearing something like 7 layers and I was still freezing!! DH and I were also sick so we didn't go out as much as we'd have liked. Lucky we had this beautiful and warm room that we could enjoy.

We did manage to take a tour bus to go around Dublin and listened to the commentary. So we managed to see most of the sights, at least on the outside and learned a bit about Dublin history. We did try to go see the Book of Kells but Trinity College was closed due to the school holiday!

We did manage to see Kilmainham Gaol - that was VERY informative, albeit sad.

One of our highlights was the Shelbourne Hotel bar. It was beautiful and they make the best Mojito *ever*!! We'd initially tried to have high tea at the hotel but they were fully booked. But we couldn't complaiin about having drinks at the hotel bar, LOL!

We also tried to book some of the restaurants you gals had suggested but unfortunately they were either closed or fully booked. We ended up eating at a pub on Temple Bar on our first night, which had been recommended by the hotel, but the food was not so good. The Irish music and Guinness at the bar downstairs more than made up for the food though!

We also ate at One Pico. The food was very good and the atmosphere really lovely.

I'll try to post some of the few pics we took. Because it was raining most of the time, we didn't manage to take a lot of pics but we did get some.

Thanks again, everyone, for your suggestions. Dublin was a lot of fun. Next time we'll go during the summer; I'm sure it'd be even more fun then.

 

[Porridge]

Aw I'm glad to hear you had a (mostly) good time! Sending out dust for pap smear results. The weather has gotten worse Here unfortunately (well - depending on how you look at it, I love the snow!) but schools are closed, buses not running, roads treacherous etc. I was planning to visit friends in Dublin this weekend but I'm pretty much housebound it's been snowing nonstop! We've a lovely roaring fire though so I'm not complaining.

I'm glad you got to sample a pub with music and Guinness! I hope ye enjoyed it. And what a bonus that upgrade was!! Sounds fabulous.

Definitely do come back. My foolproof method for picking a time with good weather is to find out when the national school exams are on - it always seems to be sunny in the weeks tuning up to those! First week of June is usually good. Poor students

 

[Cehrabehra]

primary schools are out end of july and secondary is out end of may

I''m glad you had a good time! The summer is the best time to go to Ireland as the rest of the year is quite grey and the winter days are *very* short but the summer days go on forever

I hope I can make it back there someday