This is our first view of Ireland!
When we landed in Dublin, we got right in line to catch a cab!
Dad is "confirming" that the cab driver is taking us the right way.
We got to our BEAUTIFUL hotel in Dublin...
and then we were off to our first meal in Dublin at a local pub!
After lunch we headed to tour St. Patrick's Cathedral. I was excited, but I didn't realize how excited I should be!! St. Patrick's Cathedral is where Handel's "Messiah" was FIRST PERFORMED!!
WHAT?!
WHAT?!
HOLY COW! I seriously stood in the place where THE MESSIAH was first performed. (You need to remember that I am a music teacher....or was a music teacher....I have a thing for music.) And apparently this was the trip of all things Handel. And for anyone wondering (and there probably aren't many), I actually did know back in the files of my brain that "Messiah" was first performed here (thank you "Handel's Last Chance"--- a movie I'd show in class every once in a while), but I didn't exactly make the connection until I saw an original manuscript of the score!!! In any case, I was loving it!!
And although all I needed was the Handel memorabilia, there actually was more going on at St. Patrick's than "Messiah." PS....I have no idea what my dad is doing in this picture.
There was also this thing called the Door of Reconciliation. My sister (who graduated as a high school history teacher) will hate me for this explanation but here goes. Apparently a couple of guys in Ireland were mad at each other. There was a door in St. Patrick's?? and they cut a whole in the middle and shook hands through it and made up. Remember, I'm a music teacher, not history teacher. So Meredith and I re-enacted what I'm sure the moment looked like. Ha!!
Okay, so after St. Patrick's we headed to the Guinness Brewery to check out a tour. I do not like beer (YUCK!!), but it was interesting to see how it's made. It is a SERIOUS process.
After the Guinness tour (we were busy in Dublin!), we headed to Kilmainham Gaol -- a jail. Weird, right. But it was actually very cool. It was a super old jail that was used during Ireland's campaign for independence. Don't ask me anymore....because I don't really remember. But it was cool!
After Kilmainham, we were on our way back to the hotel. Unfortunately, the double-decker bus that we were taking around town got stuck in a serious traffic jam and it took us FOREVER (almost two hours!) to get back to our hotel. Needless to say, I was exhausted. But we persevered through the exhaustion, freshened up for dinner and headed down the street to a restaurant that was much too nice for the way I was dressed. So we had our delicious meal and headed back to our room to CRASH!
Although this hotel was gorgeous(!) we were all stuck in the same hotel room with two little itty beds. Thankfully, the hotel brought up a couple of roll aways for me and sis. My mom thought it was adorable and felt the need to capture the moment forever. My makeup-less self opted out of the pic. :-)
Another crazy day.
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