We recently made our first weekend trip via plane to Ireland. We learned a fair share about the Republic of Ireland such as Éire being the official name of Ireland in Gaelic. We stayed near St. Stephen's Green- a beautiful park in the center of Dublin, that is filled with people having picnics and just relaxing throughout the day. We walked all around Dublin, exploring the main shopping streets, Trinity College, and Temple Bar area. Overall we had amazing weather and a great time.
One excursion we (okay Nils) have been looking forward to is going to the original Guinness Brewery. Thanks to a great tip from friends, we booked the tour on line. For anyone else interested in taking the tour, you need to do this to avoid waiting in any of the lines. The tour was actually very informative and unique, especially the advertising area. Nils lost his concentration in the testing room, so he had to sample the test batch twice. The Guinness definitely is better from the source, and the view from the observation deck is the best in Dublin.
We wanted to explore the greater Dublin area in order to get a taste of the uniqueness of the country. We took the DART (yes, they borrowed the idea from BART) out to Howth, which is a fun little fishing village on the north side of Dublin Bay. We were lucky to go when the market was open, and of course we had to try the local pastries.
Random fact: The island behind the boat in the bottom picture is named Ireland's Eye, where Vikings had built watch towers.
