Dublin Castle

Saturday, and a full day in Dublin is ahead of us, but first we need to get this phone organised. We were up late and hit the road at about 11am. Not hard to find a Vodafone shop- but when we did, the shop assistant had no idea - just wanted to hand the phone back to me “I don't know about iPhones?” she said. We went to an apple store - they looked up Vodafone’s details on the web, put them into Mary’s phone and we were away.

I had looked for Aussie pubs in Dublin and the Woolshed Baa was mentioned. We went there on the off chance that we could see the Geelong game - good news, it was on and we watched the last quarter - a great win over GWS by Geelong, things are turning out okay.

It was nearly 2pm and so we went looking for a half day tour. Decided to go around the northern coast of Dublin on a double decker bus with tour guide for Malahide Castle and Howth. The guide was excellent. There was a Tasmanian link as the last descendent of the Tabots could not afford to inherit the castle and sold it to the government and moved to a sheep farm in Tasmania. It was great looking through the Castle as it was not overly restored and so you could see how they lived in it.

The northern heads of Dublin bay are where many of the wealthy live - grand houses and brilliant views of the coast. We stopped for fish and chips and a walk around the market.

At night we were picked up by long time friend Floyd Jackson thinking we were going to a restaurant with him and wife Mary. We ended up at his home with a huge spread of food and the whole family joining us. They sang happy birthday to Mary and gave her a lovely Waterford Crystal Vase. What an enjoyable night.

We expected another noisy night back at the hotel - perhaps we are getting used to the music and shouting, anyway it wasn't as bad as Friday night, oh and the guy on the reverse bike out front was still pulling in heaps of money …

Tomorrow we head for Achill Island and Ireland’s rugged West Coast.

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