Off To Ireland! Part 1

This is the first of what will be MANY posts about my trip to Ireland, England, and Wales.  I was away for three and a half weeks making lifetime memories.

Our first part of the trip brought us to Dublin, Ireland.  We were in Dublin for maybe thirty-six hours.  Having landed on Aer Lingus at the Dublin airport, we found the correct bus that would take us to our hotel where we would meet up with the other people who were part of the bus tour.  CIE Tours was a fine company that made all the arrangements for our tour which was focused on Home Economics themes like food and fiber.  During this part of my adventure, I was traveling with a friend who teaches Home Ec classes at our local high school.

After we settled in to our very posh hotel, we were treated to a lovely dinner with our tour guides and fellow travelers.  (I'm not used to this kind of experience traveling!)

When you hear "Ireland", what do you think of?

Guinness!  Beer. Ale.

I'm not a beer drinker, but I was intrigued to see this huge Guinness warehouse.

St. Patrick's Cathedral was on our 'must see while we have free time in Dublin' list.  We were able to attend the Sunday evensong service there.  Because it is located in the middle of the city with buildings completely surrounding it, it was not easy to get a photo to show the magnificence of the cathedral. 

And tiny churches between large buildings.

The River Liffey flows through Dublin.  As we walked around to explore the city, we crossed this tidal river many times on various bridges.

Then, there were the things we didn't expect to see in Dublin.  I guess we should have since it's a large city.

Abandoned areas

Graffiti.

At least this was cute.

But even among the weeds and ruins, there was beauty.

We had a busy  day planned for the next day, so we finally headed back from our wanderings to our lovely hotel.