Main Entrance

One of the many Irish Sweets Shops that we had to visit

The usurped cemetery and gravestones

Friday was Halloween and the partying started early.  People were already dressed when we left the hotel in the morning.  The Irish take their festivities very seriously.  The day was dedicated to the justifiably famous Dublin Zoo.  It was great.   The zoo is located in Phoenix Park, one of  the largest urban parks in Europe.  We saw rhinos arguing, giraffes chewing their tongues and lions doing things that should only be done behind closed doors.  Grace didn't think it was amusing when I yelled, "Cover the children's eyes!".  I thought it was very funny as did the various Irish parents with their 5 children each.  Man these people are prolific!  The park is a couple miles from the center of Dublin and the zoo itself is so big it takes a few hours of walking to see it, so with all that exercising we were ready for an afternoon rest.  We had lunch in a lovely little restaurant where GP and I the best Irish Stew and Grace a leek and goat cheese tart.  I'm hungry just thinking about it.  When we went in it was sunny, when we went out it was pouring.  That seems to be Irish weather.  They say you get all 4 seasons in one day and how right they are.  We were alternating between hot sunshine, autumn winds and pouring rain; either too warm or too cold.  That night we wandered the center and people watched.  We saw lots of naughty nurses and maids and an enormous number of vikings.  I had wanted to visit a famous cemetery where many Irish writers were buried, (it seemed so Halloween-y),  but it has become a skater's park and the church beside it is an Italian restaurant.  The gravestones are now all piled up against a wall of the park.  Seems very disrespectful to me and not very Catholic!  I do wonder where the bodies have been moved to?
Saturday, our last day, we went to a little local craft market and then headed out to see Ireland's shining star, the Guinness Brewery.  It covers something like 65 acres of the city.  We didn't go in the museum but just wandered around the perimeters, (for ages), and breathed in that lovely scent of beer belch.  By this time Grace had given up on us and was happily ensconced in the hotel and refused to walk another mile.  So we compromised  and spent the late afternoon in the main shopping district.
We flew out early Sunday morning and were back in time to do 3 loads of laundry and go to bed early.  Dublin was fun and definitely worth a visit but, unlike so many places, I won't feel the need to return.  Next time I go to Ireland I want to see the countryside and the sea.  In April maybe?  xxoo me