We were up early but not quite as early as the day before. I think everyone slept better than they did the first night. We headed down and had breakfast at the hotel restaurant again. We decided to do a few more things in Dublin before moving down to County Cork for our last five nights of the trip.
After breakfast we packed up our stuff and left it all with the concierge to hold until we were ready to leave the city. We mapped out our plan on Google Maps and headed to the bus stop, this was a different bus stop that we hadn't been to before. Our walk took us by a river that flows by the stadium, the path was not the cleanest. There was quite a bit of litter on the path, maybe they were left overs from the Saint Patrick's day celebration!
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| Not so lovely path we walked on |
We made it to the bus stop and caught a bus to take us to Dublin Castle. We arrived and signed up for the tour that was included with the Heritage card we'd bought the day before. Dublin Castle isn't actually a castle but more of a ceremonial government building. The site was once was a castle that was built in the 1100's it burned in the late 1600's being replaced by a Georgian palace. It pales in contrast to the great palaces of Europe but was interesting to tour nonetheless. The tour starts out underground where you can see the ruins of the castle walls and other structures. There is a beautiful church on site that was once used by the English Viceroys, in 1943 it was reconsecrated as a Catholic church. The tour was fine but paled in comparison to the two tours we'd done the day before. If you have a couple of extra hours in Dublin then it is a fine place to visit but I wouldn't put it at the top of the list.
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| Dublin Castle |
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| Outside of the Chapel |
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| Beautiful Interior |
After our visit to Dublin Castle we headed to Grafton Street for some shopping. One they way we stopped at Gino's Gelato for a snack. It was excellent and everyone enjoyed the stop! We did some window shopping on Grafton Street and stopped in a couple of shops. Ali and I picked up a few things. We headed to Wagamama for lunch, it is under the mall at St. Stephen's green. We needed a little help finding it because you have to go outside the mall to find the door. Lunch was good, everyone got at least one thing they liked. It wasn't as good as our favorite Japanese restaurant at home but everyone was full and ready to head out of Dublin. After lunch both kids wanted to go back to the mall and get cupcakes from a shop they'd seen.
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| My happy family eating gelato |
We took a cab back to the hotel because our 24 hour bus pass had expired. The cab ride was easy and it only cost 12 Euros. That was money well spent, nobody was in the mood to walk 2.5 miles back to the hotel. We got our bags from the concierge and headed to the car to get on the road to County Cork. Well.... Things didn't quite go as planned. As we walked up to the car I complained to Dan that the remote didn't seem to be working to unlock the door. We wondered for a minute if we had the wrong car but then Dan tried the key and it opened the door. Then a light bulb went off and Dan said "I bet the battery is dead." Now this is the 3rd time we've had a dead car battery since Christmas! I was not amused. Luckily I knew since we were at a hotel that they'd have someone who could help us. I learned this little fun fact at a cheer competition a couple of weeks ago when my battery died. I now have a new battery in my car at home. Dan went to the front desk and Ali and I found a comfortable place to sit in the lobby. The concierge headed down to help Dan with the car. The whole process took quite a bit longer than I expected and I was getting worried that something more serious was wrong! After what seemed like forever, Connor came up and told us the car was on and we could go. I found out later that diesel cars take longer to charge. Dan found that a switch for the running lights was switched to the on position instead of being where they turn off when you shut off the car. I wonder if that happened when they were cleaning the interior of the car before we picked it up?
Finally we were on our way! The 3 hour drive to our Airbnb rental in County Cork was easy and uneventful. We arrived at the house a little later than we'd hoped but it was still light out. I think it was around 5:30. This is the second time we've done a rental through Airbnb, we had great luck the first time and decided to use it again. When we walked in the house we knew we'd made the right decision! The house was even better than the pictures online. It is small but the space is used well with 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The kids were thrilled to have their own rooms! We get tired of hotel rooms pretty quick so we tend to prefer condos or house rentals. We like having a kitchen to do some cooking and more space to spread out. We check out the house and unloaded our stuff before we headed to the grocery store.
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| Our home for the next 5 nights! |
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| The view from the family room |
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| So happy to have a kitchen |
The house is out in the country so it is about a 15 min drive to the store. We found the store easily and bought the food we'd need for the next couple of days. I was pleasantly surprised with how low the food prices were! I'd say the prices were similar to or even a little lower than the prices at home. My kids love grocery shopping in other countries, it is always fun to see the differences in products and to try new things.
We thought about going out to dinner but everyone opted for an easy dinner back at the house. We grabbed a few pizzas and cooked them when we got back. Nothing fancy but everyone was happy with simple after our long travel day! We headed to bed later than I'd hoped but it took a little longer than I'd thought to get settled. We were all happy to settle into our rooms and head to bed!
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