Dublin 2004 - Hayley's Birthday Weekend
In April 2004 Hayley got a surprise when Steve took her to Dublin for her birthday. The trip was planned in secret, even requiring covert emails to her new boss to get time off work. And all that time she thought Steve was looking for gadgets on the Internet was actually spent trying to book a hotel, as there was a big rugby game in the city that weekend! In the end we stayed at the Ripley Court hotel just off O'Connell Street near Dublin's newest monument - a 120 metre tall sculpture called "The Spire".
Our weekend's itinerary included:
- the Literary Pub Crawl where actors guide you around a number of Dublin pubs, recounting tales of Irish writers who drank there and enacting some of the scenes from their works;
- a visit to Dublin's oldest university Trinity College where the Book of Kells is housed;
- listening to traditional Irish musicians in O Donohue's pub where traditional Irish band "The Dubliners" first played (and where - as the Lonely Planet guide book puts it - "the craic is mighty");
- sampling Dublin's best coffee in Bewley's cafe on Grafton Street;
- a trip to the Guinness Storehouse to travel up through seven floors demonstrating how Guinness is brewed with a free pint of it awaiting us in the Gravity Bar on the top floor looking out over Dublin;
- and of course those of you who know Hayley well will know she always loves an open-top bus tour.
To see some of the photos from the trip click here.