On the road to somewhere: On to Ireland - Dublin at first blush....

Heading out of Scotland and South to make connection with the Ferry that will carry me to Dublin, Ireland.
The embarkation point was from Holyhead...a quick ferry ride across....here is the embarkation point...

And here is one of the ferry boats that make the crossing....

The crossing is most uneventful....nothing by sea....

....and before you know it....land....Ireland....

The thing that surprised me the most...the ferry docked and a short taxi ride and I was at my hotel in Dublin....I was expecting to probably have to take a shuttle or metro train into the city.

Dublin has a population of around 1.2 million people...Ireland as a whole...around 4.3 million. The thing that struck me first was the Liffey river that comes thru the center...and the number of bridges. However, one has to consider that getting from one side to another in such a small area requires a number of bridges....but I have saved pictures of those bridges as well as the vast amount of sculpture
in the city for a separate blog....

The first thing that caught my eye...was this 400 ft spire or needle in the middle of the busiest street in Dublin...at a cost of several million dollars...it is called the millenium ...opps I did say I would have sculpture elsewhere...sorry....but I just wanted you to see what I saw after being here only about 20 minutes.

Dublin also has number of beautiful churches......in of course the Cathedral District.....first the Christ Church Cathedral....

A "wow" factor for sure....but then just down the road is another even larger church...St Patrick's Cathedral....

Yes, I did like it...sorry!! And the weather? Could not be more perfect...I have been very fortunate in all my travel thus far...only in Phuket, Thailand did I have a complete wash out...where it rained for 5 days in a row....so I do consider being very lucky..especially while I see some of the weather reports from the United States.

Okay...back on tour....the biggest thing in Dublin...well the one drawing the most visitors...over 1 million a year. Guinness and the Guinness brewery which covers some 60 acres producing over 3 million pints a day...not all consumed here of course, but exported around the world. Here are just some of the pictures I have of this vast empire...and money maker for Dublin.

A little fact on Mr. Guinness...he had 21 children...so you can expect he wanted this brewery business to be successful in order to support his huge family. One more shot of the vast brewery empire...from a distance on the other side of the city....

Another area of the city that covers a vast amount of space is Phoenix Park...dating back to 1662...it is twice the size of Central Park...and among other things is the home of the Dublin Zoo which began in 1831 with just a wild boar....and over the years grew into a large zoo park...and just 2 weeks ago the latest edition arrived...a baby boy gorilla!!

Upon entry into the park I passed the namesake ...the Phoenix itself....

Interesting other things were a cricket game in progress through the trees....

The roadway in the park is illuminated at night by city maintained gas lamp lights....they not longer have to be lit individually...now they are automated to illuminate at dusk...but still powered by gas....

President Obama will be visiting in Dublin next month, and when he does he will be staying at the Ambassador's residence which is also located in Phoenix Park....

Queen Elizabeth will also be making a historic visit to Dublin....and when she is here one of the places she will pay tribute to is the Garden of Remembrance. I found this to be a beautiful memorial to the war veterans....

Now Dublin does not exist without pubs....all the Guinness...are you kidding? Well I found one that was my namesake....really my paternal grandmother's maiden name....Doyle....

Oh...almost forgot....Jameson is also very prominent in Dublin...while no longer is the whiskey brewed here...it is still home to their corporate offices...