Sunday July 20, 2014

After breakfast we headed out to downtown Dublin, which is less than 5 minutes walk from Sarah and Baptiste’s apartment.  After crossing over the River Liffey we passed Trinity College and Temple Bar. There appeared to be a church on every corner.  We passed them all and headed down to the Guinness Storehouse.

On our route we noticed an entrance way – we went through it and discovered Dublin Castle.

Dublin has a great network of cycle routes and as in most large cities now, their are rental bikes.  We have noticed that most of these rental bikes are for residents and not for tourists.  For a tourist to \’rent\’ one I think you have to name your children after the City you are in.  The payment system is designed in such a way to confuse you so that you get a taxi instead or walk, as we have done throughout the City\’s that have these bikes.

Of course you can always transport your kids in a wheelbarrow.

The Guinness brewery is located on James Street, Dublin and the visitors centre is huge.

We spent about two hours looking at all the exhibits, including the original lease that Arthur Guinness signed for the brewery on James Street.  A 9,000 year lease, now there is optimism for you.  The visitors centre is shaped like a Guinness glass and if filled with Guinness would hold 14.3 million pints of Guinness.  The visitors centre was quite expensive, 18 EU each, but it was very interesting and a lot of fun – we got a certificate for pulling the perfect pint.  Which we were then allowed to drink.  You receive a pint of Guinness included in your entrance fee anyway so this was our complementary Guinness.

After the storehouse we walked along the promenade alongside the river for a while and then into the commercial area of Dublin.  It was very busy for a Sunday.

In 1994 to 1997 what was known as the Celtic Tiger was born.  Ireland\’s economy grew, people were moving there in great numbers and employment grew.  Ireland experienced what can only be described as a jobs miracle; investment in education increased the overall skills profile of the workforce, active state policies encouraged productive investment and balanced fiscal policies avoided the over-heating of the economy.

Then in 2008 the bust happened, Ireland is still recovering from this global event.

The collapse, when it came, was quick and brutal.  The Irish banking system having overlent wildly for overinflated property deals,  had to be rescued by the taxpayer.
All over the country there are ghost villages, schemes of new houses, half occupied or half finished.   Unemployment is high, although we did see recovery and optimism.  As in most major City\’s (Edinbugh and Dublin) we saw beggars and homeless people.

The millenium spire was evidence of the boom times.  Do not refer to it as the needle the Dubliners do not like that.

Today we were providing dessert at our warmshowers host, strawberries and cream – lovely.  Baptiste made a lovely lasagna for dinner with an Italian salad of mozzarella and tomatoes.

We played a board game with them after dinner, which was a lot of fun.  It appeared to be a very complicated game to start of with, but it was very easy to play once you got going.  However, I came last – Ralf came second.

It was a late night, but we have to be up early tomorrow as both Sarah and Baptiste leave for work around 8:30.  We are also planning on a hilly ride through the Wicklow mountains so we need to be up and cycling early.