Day 2 - Newgrange / Hill of Tara

Today we took the Mary Gibbons Newgrange and Hill of Tara tour (link).

We were picked up by the tour bus at Berkeley Court hotel at 1:45AM PST (9:45AM Ireland time).

The whole day was great and I took many pictures at the Hill of Tara (wikipedia), the outside of Newgrange (wikipedia), and the surrounding countryside of both. We were not allowed to take pictures inside Newgrange.

Dinner
This night we had dinner at a restaurant called Milano (review) in Dublin (38 Dawson Street Dublin 2).
Kristin ate Fungotto, an appetizer (or 'starter' in local parlance)
For my dinner, I ate a very tasty Tortellini.

My beer was Birra Peroni Gran Riserva (link), Birra Doppio Malto Chiara - very good! This was the high octane version of this beer. They had a "normal" proof version, and a "near bear" version, but I did not try either. I will definitely look for this beer in the states.

Pub
The Fodor's (link) guide suggested several pubs. One which sounded very interesting was called Kehoe's (or John Kehoe) (link to review). The book stated that the upstairs is basically John's living room, which he happily shares with patrons who want to bring their drinks upstairs.

As a bonus, they were right around the corner from the restaurant we ate at. Unfortunately, however, they were ludicrously crowded! The patrons spilled out not only onto the sidewalk, but into the street. Cars had a trouble driving by. Seeing no easy way in to get a drink without elbowing our way forcefully, we wandered around a bit.

Our waiter from Milano's had two suggestions, but both were also overly crowded (although not quite as obscenely crowded as Kehoe's living room). We then walked to a pub called O'neill's (link), and I tried a Bulmer's vintage cider (link). I doubt I will drink this again, it was too sweet!

After that, we headed to another pub, who's name I do not recall, for a Guinness and some interesting conversation (locally known as Craic (wikipedia)) with the bartender. He very patiently and happily answered our newbie-to-Ireland type questions.

[Pictures of Hill of Tara tour] [Pictures of Newgrange tour] [Pictures of Scenery] [All Ireland photos]

Ireland, Day 1

Our plane arrived in Ireland around 3:00am subjective (California) time, which is 11:00am Ireland time. We are at Dublin Airport.

At 4:20am (12:20pm Ireland time) we are on the bus on the highway heading towards our first hotel. It's 17 degrees (Celsius) here.

Hotel
We are staying for three nights at a place called Ariel House (Ariel House site). We enjoyed the hotel. Breakfast there was good every day. Internet in the hotel room. Less than two miles to Trinity College and Dublin Castle and other sites, so we were able to walk to our destinations every day.

Dinner
After arriving in our hotel and settling in, we headed to our first meal. We dined at The Steps of Rome (link to a review) at 1:00pm PST, 9:00pm Ireland time.

I had a shredded beef with baby potatoes and salad, and Kristin had a margherita pizza. I also had my first taste of Messina, an Italian beer. We shared a Tiramisu for dessert. The Tiramisu has some coffee-ish substance in it and a strong flavor.

Pub hunting
After dinner, we went to a pub called The Oliver St. John Gogarty. The first floor was filled with revellers listening to modern day rock and dance on CD. Upstairs we found a traditional folk band playing a bunch of tunes. I had another first taste tonight of a draft called Kilkenny, which was thick and creamy like a Guinness, but much lighter. (Kristin tasted both brews and liked neither - but she's not a beer drinker by nature...)

From what I can tell, the band performs folk music (locally known as Trad or Traditional Irish) performed by themselves and other bands who play at the same pub. I got their CD, Gogarty's Music II, a collection of 18 tracks, as a gift for Ron Glass. I also had one of the band members, one Noreen Leech, to sign the CD - she even drew a little happy face (or something) in it. She was playing violin at the time we watched the band (for about 10 songs). She can be seen in this picture here on the far right.

Tomorrow is a tour of Newgrange, and we have to wake up in a short time for that.

Back to the hotel!

[First photos in Dublin] [All Ireland photos]