Today we spent the morning doing a walking tour of Dublin and taking in the sites of this capital of Ireland.

We visited the City Hall, site of the Easter Uprising and the beginning of the effort to break free of British rule and have an independent Ireland. Even though Ireland gained independence, it was separated from Northern Ireland, which led to a period of civil war and later the Troubles of Northern Ireland. It was a difficult period in Irish history.

We saw the 700 year old Dublin Castle, which is under renovation and closed to the public.

St Patrick’s Cathedral is here in Dublin. We toured its park and exterior. We will visit the interior tomorrow.

We walked the Temple Bar District, which is filled with the world famous Temple Bars. The Irish avoid this district and leave it for the tourists. We tried to focus on the Pubs frequented by the locals.

The highlight of the day was our tour of the Guinness Brewery. It definitely is the Disneyland of brewery tours! It is an amazing experience, which ended at the Guinness Gravity Bar overlooking Dublin. We met 3 very polite British students on spring break and had a nice conversation over our pints of Guinness!

We ended the day doing a pub crawl to some Pubs popular with the locals, one played traditional Irish music.

It was indeed s lovely day!