We arrived on schedule in Dublin, picked up our checked bags, and went through customs without incident. However, when we went out through the exit, we couldn’t find a person holding a Pilgrim Tours sign, as we had been told to expect. After checking once more, we went out to the street area where we could flag down a taxi. We got information that it was totally impossible to walk to our hotel. A taxi was available almost immediately and took us on the 20-30 minute drive to the Hilton Garden Inn Dublin Custom House. Luckily, Verle had brought along the 40 Euros that we found in the drawer at home from our 10 year ago trip to Europe (the taxi driver would only take Euros), and the driver’s charge was 35 Euros, so Verle paid him including a tip. The taxi driver gave us a receipt so Pilgrim Tours could re-imburse us.
Our guide for the whole Pilgrim Tour, Patrick Doyle, said someone from the tour had been at the airport but we hadn’t seen him, nor he us, even though we were wearing our name tag and had the Pilgrim tour tag on our bags. We connected at 1:10 p.m. Our room wasn’t ready yet, but he told us that there were 14 people registered for our tour. When our room #303 was ready, Patrick helped us find it (the room # was mostly behind a door and we couldn’t find it at first.) Patrick invited us to go with him on a walking tour at 2 p.m. He left to pick up some other people from the airport.
At 2, Susan and Roger Guilmain from Rhode Island joined us on a LONG walking tour of Dublin – fun but tiring – and I hadn’t taken my cane. An Emigration Museum is next to our hotel but we didn’t visit there – it tells about the 1845 famine in Ireland and the emigration that started then and continued into the next century, The British also shipped rebels to the Caribbean.
As far as I can tell, Celtics controlled Ireland in the 7th century, then Vikings, then the Roman invasion, Britain later took control, and now they are an independent country, but as part to the British Isles, they get financing for roads and such things, which is a great boost to tourism.
The Liffey River runs through town just outside our hotel. Dublin is a port, and cruise ships stand nearby. We walked by many things of interest including the Custom Quay Museum, the customs house, Trinity College founded in 1519 by the Queen, who was Protestant – no Catholics were allowed to attend there at first. Nora had said to be sure to visit there. It is a magnificent campus, still busy with students even in the summer time. The library has on display the Book of Kells, a famous hand-copied and decorated copy of the Bible. The line was long, and we didn’t go in the library to view the famous book. Patrick told us that it hadn’t rained for two weeks in Ireland and that the grass was turning brown. At first no women were allowed to attend. Now the student body is more than half women.
In one area, Georgian houses surrounded a private park – a common building style here. Patrick took us farther and farther from the hotel; I was glad that I had been aggressively exercising by right leg, which is still weak and somewhat unsteady since my hip replacement almost 2 years ago. It was the hottest day of the summer here, although the air still felt cool in the shade. After our long walk, we were glad to get back to the hotel. We had known that we had free time to explore Dublin on our own and had planned to join a free walking tour that I’d found on the Internet, but it was much more informative and interesting with Patrick as our guide.
We walked back across the Ha’ Penny Bridge just outside our hotel and had time to clean up before our Irish Welcome Dinner time at the hotel together with the 14 members who will be part of the tour in addition to the guide and the bus driver, Chris.
The Welcome Dinner was wonderful, but unfortunately there was no formal sharing or introductions. We did begin to meet our tour companions on our own.