Guinness Storehouse

Today I toured the Guinness Storehouse.  The place was packed.  The buildings themselves take up a couple of blocks.  There is a museum plus restaurants and gift shops. Your  entrance fee included a free pint of Guinness ale.  I had the "small pint" and gave the other away to a young man.  A nice man took my photo in the Guinness Poster. My colours were perfect!

On the top floor there was a bar surrounded with glass so I took a photo.  If you look carefully in approximately the centre of the photo you will see a tall needle.  They call in the Spire.  That is where I walked from.  It didn't seem that far when I was walking.  You see so much when you walk. Yesterday my seat mate on the  tour bus was a woman from Arizona. She cabs and buses everywhere. She hadn't seen half the things I had.

Today I passed several churches I hadn't come across before.  It is
always difficult to get the whole building in the photo.  This church
was a city block deep.

There are so many attractive store fronts.

Isaac's Hostel

This is the hostel I stayed at.  It had everything one needed including a nice fully equipped kitchen and a quiet room where one could plug in their computer or read.  I was in a room on the 3rd floor.

It will be sad to say goodbye to beautiful Ireland.  Tonight I may take in the Celtic Dance down the street as a farewell to The Emerald Isle.

Tomorrow I fly to Toronto and then on to Calgary where my daughter will pick me up.

Cliffs of Moher

Yesterday I did a bus tour.  We left Dublin at 7 am and arrived back at 9:30 pm so it was a long day. My phone was out of power so did not get as many photos as I would have liked.

Our first stop was Galway where we did a walking tour.  Galway was a beautiful town with a rich history.  There were quaint little shops and buskers on every corner.  We visited the little stone church that Jane Eyre attended.  Yes, there was a real Jane Eyre who was well known for her acts of kindness and there is a plaque dedicated to her on the interior church wall.  There was a statue of D.H. Lawrence in the shopping area.  I would have enjoyed a stay of a couple of days in Galway, but there isn't time.

Church  of Jane Eyre

D.H. Lawrence 

We continued on to Doolin for lunch at O'Connells.  This restaurant had many rooms and was packed when we arrived.  Several busloads of tourists had stopped for lunch.  You were to find a table, then go to the counter to order and give the counter girl your table number.  Since I was alone I sat at the bar and ordered the salmon dish.  It was brought to me piping hot in about 5 min. and was the best prepared salmon I have ever had in my life!

We continued on our journey passing several castles.  Our tour guide was great and pointed out various sights and explained the history of each.  Ireland is rightly called The Emerald Isle as all is green.  We passed the largest limestone hills in Europe.  On these hills were miles of stone fences that served no purpose.  During the infamous potato famine the government supplied food to those who worked.  Since there were no jobs to be had the gov't had people build useless fences to earn their rations as they did not believe in giving something for nothing.

We passed through villages with thatched roof cottages and stone enclosed fields of sheep or cows.  We drove up the coast line to the Cliffs of Moher and were given 2 hours to hike the trails and take photos.  It was a gorgeous sunny day.  The cliffs are a sight to behold.

Castle at the Cliffs

As you can see I took photos of the castle from different directions.  I bet it was cold in that castle when the winds were blowing!

I was fortunate to be able to get a few photos as my phone was powered way down.  For some reason it has begun to act strangely.  I had plugged in before retiring for the night and it was fully charged when I went to bed.  By morning I only had 50% left and only 23% left when I arrived at the tour bus stop.  No apps were running and I have lots of memory so I figure it must be a battery problem. It is a good thing I will be home soon and can have it checked out.

It is very busy with tourists as this is the Easter break so there are many youth visiting here from Spain, France and Germany.  The hostel is full and the main area gets quite loud in the evenings but my room is quiet at night.  There are 14 beds in my room and I am one of the first abed, but I never hear the others come in.  There is a quiet lounge in the basement for those who want to read or blog or whatever.  This is my first hostel experience and so far it has been very pleasant.