British Isles Cruise 2015 - Chapter 3: Dublin – the Best City

What makes a great city?   My answer; you will know one when you see one.  Dublin is a great city!

I’ve had enough travel experience to know. I’ve been to New York and I’ve been to London.  I’ve been to Paris, Copenhagen, Rome, Athens, Brussels, Stockholm, Oslo, Hamburg, Munich, Beirut, Montreal, Ho Chi Min City, Da Nang, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Anchorage, Toronto, Milan, Istanbul, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Jerusalem, Auckland, Sydney, Cairo, Tangier, Casablanca, Barcelona, Siem Reap, Madrid, Lisbon, Dallas, Bangkok, San Jose, San Antonio, Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jackson, New Orleans, San Francisco, Budapest, Tucson, Bergen, Amsterdam, Florence, Salzburg, Dubrovnik, Vienna, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, San Diego, Quito, Lima, Helsinki, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Rio De Janeiro, Charleston, St Louis, Salt Lake City, Prague, Phoenix, Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Nara, Kyoto, Beijing, Shanghai, Durham, Columbus, Pittsburg, Washington DC, Baltimore………and these are only the ones I could think of in the first five minutes.

I wasn’t all that impressed with Dublin on day one of our stay.  Navigating in a clunky tourist bus amid the congested traffic and stopping for a few minutes to quickly view a few sights was unsatisfactory and unsettling.  Even posing next to Oscar Wilde was rushed and felt inconsequential.  We drove to one of the most beautiful places on earth and took some pictures (Wicklow Mountains and St Kevin’s monastery preceding back to the 6^th Century).  Still the fatigue from the long curvy drive neutralized the benefit of the journey while rendering my knees and ankles frozen from the lack of movement of the long drive.  And then there was the vibratory torture from the bus’s pulsations transmitted from the road, which battered my leg muscles lifeless and intensely burning as if they had been slapped repetitively for 90 minutes with a wooden stick.

The next day was much better.  The city is divided into zones or quarters: Creative, Georgian, Shopping, Temple Bar, Antique, Historic, and Viking & Medieval Quarter.  We only got to see a smidgen during our second-day outing.

The weather was uncharacteristically sunny and cool, perfect for a walking tour.  The commentary from the tour guide was energetic, engaging and even funny.  The city was easy to walk, just enough to enthrall the senses, but not overwhelming or suffocating.  You were able to focus on the subject at hand. The city was fluid and had something for everyone.  Shopping in a beautifully crafted glass and iron shopping center just off of the walking street was pleasant and comfortable………although the shops were not as interesting as the shopping center structure.

If it was a museum you were looking for, the Natural History Museum or the National Gallery of Ireland were wonderful, free of charge (true of many museums in Dublin) and an easy to enter and begin to browse.  There were many that we didn’t go to that we wished we had (Irish Whisky Museum, National Wax Museum). Without all of the security clearance devices and ticket purchase booths and other roadblocks that are typical of well known attractions, it felt so easy wonder on the street one moment, and into the museum the next with virtually no down time or obstructive deterrents.  No one was looking at you or over your shoulder. It was indeed a pleasurable experience to navigate anywhere in the city without feeling like you were a foreigner, a tourist, a revenue source, or a potential terrorist. 

Trinity College was a lovely college filled with bright youth, and long lines of visitors waiting to see the Book of Kells.  We also ventured into the National Library, a historic building what was filled with displays of James Joyce, and WB Yeats. 

A dozen or more parks were found everywhere in the city (parks in Dublin were purposefully situated every so many blocks!), like the one that housed the statue of Oscar Wilde.  Some were large (St. Stephen’s Green) and some were small but all provided a friendly green and calming backdrop to a vibrant city filled with young people and not some not so young like us. 

A German woman asked our tour guide why no pedestrians in Dublin heed the traffic signals.  The tour guide responded with a lighthearted response……….  In Dublin, traffic signals are considered guidelines, not required legal commandments. 

Then our tour guide stopped at a curious statue of a fictitious Molly Malone and told an odd story that spawned a song which became the unofficial anthem of Dublin City.

There were many walking streets lined with curious shops and outdoor cafes (Grafton Street).  Everywhere there were musicians playing music and looking for handouts and maybe to be discovered.  The Temple Bar area was also a must for party enthusiasts with bar after bar filled with tourists and probably some locals drinking a pint of Guinness beer, chatting and laughing and pretending there was no tomorrow.

The Irish are an exceedingly friendly people who have no qualms about striking up a conversation anywhere anytime.  The city filled with the new and the old (buildings and landmarks) and the young and old (locals and tourists) all blending into a lovely community that was easy to navigate, friendly and inviting.  Indeed, each street corner included a multidirectional sign that pointed you in the proper direction of the most popular tourist attractions and important landmarks.  Even if you didn’t sport a map of Dublin, you could find your way around using these directional indicators without difficulty.  Signs were everywhere in Dublin; nobody got lost if you could read English.

And of course, directions were clearly marked to find the one landmark no one visiting Dublin should miss; the Guinness Brewery that commands a large block of land in downtown Dublin!

Dublin is truly a great city!  One of my most favorites - belonging to the highest category that includes: Prague, Florence, Copenhagen, Vancouver and San Francisco.