We made a slow start today since yesterday was such a long travel day. We made our way back to St Patrick's cathedral to catch the hop-on hop-off bus tour of the city. It rained a bit as we had our breakfast, but was starting to clear off as we headed out the door.
This courtyard at the church was pretty. The statue is one of the Guinness family members, I think the one that was responsible for the 22 million euro restoration. 
One of the things that was very notable around the city were all the Pride flags. It is pride month, but I highly doubt that Wesley hospital is flying an LGBTQ+ flag next to the US and Kansas flags in front of their building. (This is a local hospital). Our guide said Ireland is very accepting and proud of that status. It shows.
Sometimes you get good guides and sometimes you don't. We lucked out today and had a very interesting, chatty guide. When we got on there was standing room only, but after a few stops we were able to move up to the top of the bus where the guide was. I sat near him and even when he was not talking into the mic, he was talking to those near him. A fount of information.
Our first stop was Teeling Distillery, which David, Scott and Charelene would return to later in the day. We drove down a street where there was a Whiskey flood, literally, in 1875. There was a fire and 5000 barrels of undiluted whiskey were ignited and spilled out into the street creating a flood of whiskey that was on fire and 6 inches deep for several blocks. 315,000 gallons of whiskey was lost. 13 people died, not from the fire but from alcohol poisoning.
We drove past a small section of the historic city wall (the only remaining remanent) and then into the area of town call the Liberties (where people were free from paying taxes back in the day, but also free of protection from attacks, etc.) Many breweries and distilleries were/are located in this part of the city. Due to the potato famines in Ireland in the 1830s and prohibition in the 1920s in the US, many of these went out of business and not all recovered.
[from the web, the bus was moving too fast to get a good picture]
We discovered on our tour that this was not currently a church. Its the Pearse Lyons distillery! Wish we could have seen inside. The guide suggested it was a very weird combo of church interior and distillery.
We passed the Kilmainham Hospital and Gaol but there wasn't much to see. Apparently the gaol is very popular, but you must get tickets in advance. They only allow 10 on a tour at a time and always sell out.
I was stunned by Phoenix Park. It is twice the size of Central Park and 6x the size of Hyde Park in London. It has a herd of 600 deer that roam the park. I asked about population control and they said that once a year a huntsman culls the herd. There is also a sizeable zoo in the park. They are famous for their successful lion breeding program. Over 700 lion cubs have been born here over the years. The roar of the MGM lion is from one of the Dublin lions.
The Wellington monument is the largest obelisk in Europe at 203 ft.
The statue in the pond is a personification of the River Liffy, although the locals have a lot of funny alternate names for her. I liked "the floozy, in the jacuzzi".
We drove past a mass grave and memorial at one point. The guide said there were many across the country because of all the various battles as well as the million + people who died during the potato famine. This one had unmarked concrete squares spread across the lawn. He said he often saw people picnicking on them and one time saw a yoga class. People didn't realize they were grave markers. Yikes!
More pride flags.
The ha' penny bridge. There didn't used to be many bridges over the river. This pedestrian bridge cost a half penny to cross.
I had to laugh when our guide shared some tips about Irish slang. He said that the Irish do NOT say "Top o' the morning to ya", that it was probably invented by the US movie industry. Things they do say that could lead to trouble if misunderstood...What's the craich (said 'crack')? = where's the fun? That's craich - that's fun. When the passport control person asked why you are traveling to Ireland... I came for craich. You get the idea - LOL. In Galway they have a beer they served called Hooker. They also have a sailing vessel called a Hooker. You can have a hooker on a hooker if you want. Or you could have craich with a hooker. The variations are endless.
Here's the entrance to the park.
We walked around the shopping district for a bit and came across the statue of Molly Malone. David and I both had the sense that it was not in the same place as it was last time we were here. I looked back in my blog and it is definitely not oriented the same, and I think its actually in a slightly different location. I was glad to confirm I wasn't crazy. I've had this weird deja vu since arriving. Its been 12 years since we were here.
Although I'm not a big shopper, I really enjoy these pedestrian spaces in European cities. My favorites are always the street musicians. We saw several. I was most drawn in by the bagpiper.
This kid had a very fancy ride! Matching diaper bags, etc with the stroller.
I was so thrilled to discover a lot of art by local artists along the fences at the park. One in particular caught my eye that was in a similar style to some of the other cityscapes that I've collected. David kindly found an ATM for me and I went back and got it. Its an original and I got to visit with the artist a bit. I'm excited to bring it home and get it framed. Apparently this is not an every-weekend thing, its just a few times a year, so I really lucked out!
It was a glorious day with party sunny skies and warm temperatures. At the end of the day, the foggy rain that had kicked off the morning started to return.
The river Liffy in Temple Bar district.
We wrapped up the day with dinner and Celtic music and dance. The four musicians were great. The dancers were also good, but were challenged by a very low ceilinged venue where they could not really show off their vertical jumps in their dancing. They could not even raise their hands above their heads without touching the ceiling.
The lead vocalist was very engaging. He had people around the room call out where they were from. A very large group was from Australia, but it included the UK, Netherlands, France, Ukraine (which drew applause from the room), New Zealand, Wisconsin, Texas, CA, and another group from Kansas. The lady in the band clicked her heals together when we said we were from Kansas, then asked the other group if we knew each other - ha. He would make remarks for each place "nice, beautiful" etc. When someone said they were from London he said "very posh!"
It was group seating at the tables and we were right next to the stage sitting with a lady from NC who was celebrating her 50th b-day and a friend of hers from Dublin. They were fun to visit with during dinner.
The musicians were very engaging. The audience was invited to sing and clap along throughout, and even come dance with the professionals once. There was one song where you had to stop clapping right at the end and he challenged everyone to not 'over clap' beyond the end or he would have to start giving out 'yellow [penalty] cards'! There were still a few who couldn't manage. It was pretty funny.
Dinner was classic Irish fare, served by a french waiter we chose to call Pierre.
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