Drove to Dublin Friday night.  It takes about 1-1/2 hours to get there. Stayed at Bewleys Hotel in Dublin - a little further  out but a lot cheaper!  It was about a 20 minute walk to Grafton Street, which is the walking plaza in downtown Dublin.  The plaza is a lot like downtown Boulder being all cobblestones and shops.  There are street performers - lots of singers, people preaching, people trying to help those who are having alcohol issues, homeless people, and lots of tourists.  There are a lot of bicyclers and you have to be wary because they tend to go VERY FAST!

We walked around Friday night, and then did some tours on Saturday and Sunday.

First up was the historical tour where we walked around and listened to a lot of history of Ireland.  Interestingly they told us that recent DNA research indicates that the Irish are  NOT descendants of the Celts.  Still, the Irish have certainly embraced a lot of Celtic traditions and such regardless of ancestry.

To start our tour, we had to meet at Trinity University which is large and lovely.  We bought our tour tickets online and didn't bring our receipt but the guide said "No problem, you're great!"  Gotta love it here - they are so easy to work with!

On our tour of the city we visited a Catholic Church that was very large but essentially hidden from the street, as was required under English rule, when Catholics faced large scale discrimination and persecution.  The church survived, both physically and metaphorically, and  mass was being said while we were learning about it.  We also went to Dublin Castle which is also,very old.  There is a tower still standing that was built in medieval times.

We dined at a pub where we chatted with  a man from Limerick who identified himself as an amateur historian.  (emphasis was his)  His wife and grandkids were at the zoo and he was taking a respite. He was interesting to talk to and told about how he had actually met Bill Clinton!  My experience thus  far tells me a lot of folks here have met our former president.

After lunch we took a bus tour and ended at the Guinness Factory.   Tickets were a bit pricey but you get free pints (or water or soda or whatever you want to drink) at the end.   We were pretty tired after that (well,  Steve and I  were anyway) but we ate at an Italian restaurant and then found a cab to  take us back to the hotel. It was a lovely day!