Day 16 ~ We Are Tourists!

Nothing good happens at 3 am. Liam was up puking at this time. At this point we were feeling very discouraged. We cleaned him up and managed to sleep until 7 am. Liam was feverish but ate his breakfast okay. Little did we know that was the last thing he was interested in eating all day. It was only bottles after that. Poor little mite. Chad was feeling well but Nate was still not feeling good. We dragged them down to the lobby, checked out and met up with Cormac for breakfast. We walked to Arnott's Department store to have a bagel in the sidewalk cafe. The boys managed to eat enough to give them a bit of energy.

Keith and Cormac with their coffee, enjoying the beautiful sunshine. I have to say that Sinead and all her siblings (she has five brothers and sisters!) are some of the kindest and friendliest people you will ever meet. We consider ourselves most blessed to be able to be a part of their lives.

After we had filled our bellies, we headed over to Christ Church Cathedral. We wanted to tour the Viking Dublinia exhibit and the cathedral itself. The Viking exhibit was good with lots of interesting displays, interactive stuff for the kids and plenty of history. The kids especially enjoyed the gift shop where they bought Viking swords!


This archway connects the Synod to the Cathedral. We got to cross it to get from the Viking exhibit to the church.

The boys posing inside the walkway.

Here are the kids inside the cathedral. I had to over expose the photo since it was a bit dim in there. The 'lads' were asked to remove their baseball caps out of respect. It was a beautiful place with many interesting corners to explore.

One can even go downstairs to visit the crypt! Most fascinating!!!

A very ancient ruin of the Chapterhouse of the Augustinian Canons that stood from 1163AD-1537AD.

Posing...me and my flu-ish babies.

Keith loved the architecture and we let him stand and absorb it all for a short time while we rested and listened to the church bells.

Just another pretty Dublin street.

City Council

We then headed out to find us some lunch. We really had wanted to eat at an old church that had been converted into a restaurant. We got there and there weren't any seats for us so we had to move to plan B. Shopping for souvenirs! There is a chain store called 'Carrolls' that sells every Irish trinket you could possibly imagine. These stores are massive and do a pretty good business as far as I could see. We stocked up on a few things to take home and went to find our car.

At this point it was late afternoon and we decided that instead of fighting rush hour traffic to go home we would stay a bit longer to do the Guinness Storehouse tour. This was something that Keith really wanted to do...so we did! The grounds of the Guinness plant are massive and take up blocks and blocks of the city.

The tour was super! All displays were interactive and kept the kids quite interested. Here is Chad running his hands through the barley. Next stop Nathan got to have a taste of roasted barley. Each 'level' of the tour was on a different floor and the pinnacle was the 7th floor (head of the pint) where you hit the Gravity Bar for your complimentary pint.

This display was all about the pure water from the Wicklow Mtns that they use to make the ale.

Learning all about being a cooper and making barrels.

One floor was dedicated to all the worldwide advertising that has been done over the years.

Ah yes....we finally made it to the top. There was an unobstructed 360 degree view of Dublin. It was fantastic! It was loud and crowded up there and everyone was enjoying themselves very much.

Keith having his pint. I swapped my voucher for a Coke. I couldn't let Keith have two beers before driving us home to Letterkenny! The kids also had some Cokes which helped with their unsettled tummies.

After having our drinks we went back down to the third floor and had a bite to eat in their cafe. We had some yummy sandwiches and decadent pieces of dessert...Guinness inspired of course! Off to the massive gift shop to get a memento and then we were off. We got in our car, set the GPS for Donegal and started our long drive back home. Aside from the sickness we loved our time in Dublin. We didn't eat much but it was all a feast for the eyes!

We were happy to arrive back 'home' to Letterkenny and ready for a good night's rest as another long day was ahead of us!

Just a quick video of the Gravity Bar. Just to show the amount of people in there. It's a bit fast so try not to get queasy :)