Nicole schreibt...

Dublin 2019

Dublin has been among the last European capitals I hadn't visited yet - not for any lack of curiosity but more because I keep thinking that I should combine trips to the British isles with catching shows on tours. So when "We Will Rock You" announced a new UK Tour and I had been very hopeful for the cast, Dublin seemed like an excellent choice. But while the ticket was decently priced nothing had prepared me for the extortionate hotel prices in the Irish capital. I ended up booking a guest room in a lovely proper Irish Pub, The Ferryman, a few minutes' walk from the theatre and right next to Santiago Calatrava's shiny new Samuel Beckett Bridge. Here's the view from the breakfast room towards the bridge and the Liffey River.
Getting TO Dublin wasn't as easy as I had thought either, so I took Eurowings from Düsseldorf as they had the most reasonable mid-day flight. It all went rather well, so I had plenty of time for a first stroll on Saturday afternoon and explore the city.

The Liffey pretty much divides Dublin into a posh southern half and (with the exception of O'Connell Street) a rather scruffy northern half. The main shopping drag is Grafton Street on the south side, which is also famous for the many buskers (immortalized in the movie "Once") that really do stand here every 20-30 metres with some of them being pretty dang good.
The street ends at St. Stephen's Green, the biggest of Dublin's many lovely parks, which also played a prominent role in the 1916 Easter Rising that eventually led to Ireland's independence as a republic. Having read up on it before the trip to not be entirely clueless about Irish history, I was chuffed to find the memorial for the Countess Markievicz, one of the female leaders of the rising, who (like so many females in history) was almost forgotten later while the men's fame lived on.

After a walk around the park I was thrilled to discover that the nearby beautiful wrought-iron facade contained a beautiful little shopping centre with a food court, where I stopped for early dinner. Funny tidbit: I thought it was at least Victorian, but turns out it was only built in the 1980s... on the site of a flea market where a young band called U2 played their earliest gigs... I was starting to feel the long day though and decided it was about time to head back to the hotel. More or less accidentally I passed by another famous Dublin landmark, the statue of Molly Malone, heroine of one of the most famous Irish songs ever, who's now parked her cart forever in front of St. Andrew's Church. Nearby is Dublin's most-photographed pub, Temple Bar, in the quarter of the same name, famous for its countless pubs and nightlife (and being Dublin's biggest tourist trap).

When people think of Ireland, it's not big cities they think of, but gorgeous nature. Just south of Dublin begin the Wicklow Mountains, famed for their natural beauty, so it was the perfect choice for a day out in the countryside. And while I had resigned myself to Irish weather meaning lots of rain, the island surprised me with incredibly blue skies and sunshine all day. We started off by coach in Dublin at 9am, having to go through some detours to avoid the road closures due to the Dublin City Marathon and finally made it south into cliche Ireland. First stop and THE must-see in the area is Glendalough, or rather the ruins of the monastery founded by St. Kevin himself in 6th century. Its heydays were the 11th and 12th centuries before it slowly faded away. And while not all that much is left of the buildings, it'S still a fascinating sight, set in a lovely valley near two lakes in the middle of the Wicklow Mountains.

Above are the remains of the Cathedral (left) and St.Kevin's Church (right). The ever so questionable-looking thing in the background is the 30-metre-tall Round Tower, used as a bell tower, storage house and refuge. I admit, I am mostly impressed by the fact that this fairly delicate structure has survived for so many centuries! Below is a bit of the ancient cemetary and a view of the gorgeous Upper Lake.

From Glendalough we continued on through Wicklow Gap, one of the two passes that cut through the mountains here. Supposedly on a clear day you can see all the way across the Irish Sea to Snowdonia in Wales, but despite the gorgeous weather we didn't stop to check this out. Instead we drove through the village of Hollywood (which hadn't missed its chance to put up a copy of THE Hollywood sign) and onwards to Kilkenny.
These days it may be best known as a beer brand, but it was an important market town in medieval days with churches, abbeys and an imposing castle. Even our guide and coach driver were surprised by the closure of all roads leading into centre because of some big food festival going on. They dumped us near the coach parking and we were left to make our own way onwards. Luckily it wasn't far and the castle is impossible to miss! It was built in 12th century as a classical Norman castle for the Earl of Pembroke and its most famous owner was everyone's favourite knight William Marshall, who married the owner's daughter and heiress Isabel. Afterwards it was owned by the Butler family for more than 500 years until they fobbed it off to the city for all of 50 Irish pounds in 1967 when maintenance got too pricey for them.

The interior dates mostly from 19th/early 20th century and was all very Downton Abbey, with the great hall of the Picture Gallery Wing by far the most impressive. Below left is the view towards St.Mary's Cathedral, one of Kilkenny's many beautiful churches. However, by that stage I was far more intrigued by the food festival directly beside the castle, so I gave up on sightseeing in favour of eating my way through the many delicious offerings!

I had purposely booked the day trip for the only day with no evening programme, because I knew I'd be wiped afterwards and so it was. Luckily a good night's sleep fortified me for the next morning when I had booked a tour through Kilmainham Gaol at the western end of Dublin. While it served as Dublin's main goal from 1796 onwards, it is now forever tied to the Irish fight for independence. Many Irish rebels were stuck there across the decades and most infamously, the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were executed in its yard by firing squad.
Seeing the dank dark draughty cells for myself, it's hard to envision to even last a single day there, much less months or even years. Many of the cells bear the names of their most famous occupants above the door including Charles Stewart Parnell, future president Eamonn de Valera, the Countess Markievicz and Grace Gifford, who married her fiancee Joseph Plunkett in the jail's chapel a few hours before his execution in 1916 and spent three months in a cell herself during the Civil War in 1923, where she painted the Madonna on her cell's wall.

I remained on the trail of the Easter Rising after the tour and took the tram back to O'Connell Street and the General Post Office, seen here with Dublin's new-fangled Spire (more grandiosely called Monument of Light) in the background. The GPO had been the rebel's headquarters during the rising and was reduced to rubble (along with most of O'Connell Street and surrounding other streets), but rebuilt looking pretty much the same. It now hosts a rather interesting (albeit overpriced) exhibition about the rising in the basement. After that I was all out of rebellion and found a lovely 50s-style-diner for lunch. I poked around the shops in Grafton Street for a while, but returned to the hotel fairly early for a break before my evening entertainment and the main reason for the whole trip: The UK Tour of We Will Rock You.

The venue was the fabulous looking Bord Gais Energy Theatre in Dublin's Docklands which received a major overhaul during the Celtic Tiger boom years of the 90s with lots of shiny new office buildings. As it was dark already by the time I got there, I couldn't really see much of the old canals in the docks, but was rewarded by this amazing display in the water, which I assume was some Halloween thing. The modern comfortable theatre was sold out and needless to say I had a great time rocking out to Queen's Greatest Hits with a cheerful Irish crowd.

On my last day in Dublin it was finally time to do the biggest tourist thing in the city and gawk at the Book of Kells, a massive gospel book from around 800 AD with incredibly beautiful illustrations. Those monks at the Abbey of Kells clearly had lots and lots of time on their hands! Pictures of the actual book weren't allowed, but here's one of the equally impressive main Library of Trinity College, which also hosts "Brian Boru's harp". While the harp most definitely did not belong to Ireland's greatest medieval king, it did become the blueprint for Ireland's national symbol.
From Trinity College I wandered on past some more beautiful parks to finally reach Dublin Castle. Not a medieval castle by any stretch of the imagination, but the English seat of power for centuries before they were chucked back across the Irish Sea. Next door is the free Chester Beatty Library, where, ironically, many medieval books not just from Christianity but also Islam and Buddhism are shown and freely available to photograph. Last stop was the castle itself, where some of the "state apartments" are open to visitors including the grand dining room and St. Patrick's Hall, which are still sometimes being used for official state visits and other grand occasions.

When I had first booked this trip, I had wanted to be sure to be able to see WWRY more than once... but as it turned out, once was quite enough, leaving me with lots of spare time. So picture my surprise and delight when I realized that Norwegian pop group a-ha would be playing in Dublin's 3Arena (also in the Docklands conveniently close to my hotel) that evening. Little 13-year old me had played their debut album "Hunting high and low" to death in 1986 along with its successors, before interest fizzled a while later and I lost track of them. Interestingly, they were now embarking on a new tour in which they would play just that full album once again along with other greatest hits. So I seized the change to grab a decently priced ticket at short notice and here was, going back to my teenage days. What an evening!

Next morning I still had a few hours to kill before going to the airport, so I decided to visit the Museum of Irish Emigration, paying homage to the countless Irish people who had sought a better life beyond their island, whether it was just across the Irish Sea to England or much further to America and Australia. The museum pointed out the Irish roots of so many famous people across the world from obvious ones like America's former president John F. Kennedy to rather surprising ones like Mariah Carey and Rihanna and the impact of Irish culture across the world. Here you could try your own luck at Irish dancing. It was all very modern with lots of eletronical displays and little to take photos of, but very interesting all the same and a fitting end to this trip before boarding my own plane to leave the Emerald Isle behind. A wonderful trip introducing me to a charming new city full of unique history and lovely people. While I doubt I will be back any time soon, there's definitely a lot to be said for combining catching musicals on tour with seeing new interesting places.