When the Dollar is High ...

One weekend morning, I saw back-to-back stories about Irish tourism and the rising dollar. A light went off: "We should go to Ireland for Thanksgiving," I said to Ned. And, by the end of the day, we were booked--because ... us.

So, here we are, a few months and about seven hours on a red-eye from Dulles later, having used the Chase points we earned over the summer to arrange lovely accommodations in Dublin, Waterford, Valentia, and Galway, nearing the Emerald Isle. (more on those plans later)

  

 

We grabbed our bags from the supermod and sparsely decorated Dublin airport ...

and found our way to the gracious but not-yet-ready to check-in Morrison Hotel on the Liffey River. Penn and I had slept some on the plane; Ned and Harper had sleep not-at-all. The front desk held our bags and directed us around the corner to a breakfast place, Jay Kay's, so we could eat our jet lag off. We snagged a table just before brunch rush. 

It is here that I must address an issue brought forward by my children, who insist that I consistently post unflattering pictures of them on IG and in this blog, especially when they are eating. As their mother, I insist that they always look beautiful and what kind of mother would think otherwise. Matter settled. Let's move on with photos of my beautiful children eating their delicious first Irish brekky. Aren't they adorable!

Fueled by exhaustion and a truly great brunch, we set off to see a bit of Dublin. As you look at these gorgeous unfiltered photos of the Liffey, I'll make a note of the changeable Irish weather. In the span of time it took us to eat breakfast it went from grey to grey and rainy to grey to blindingly bright sun. This would be a pattern that seems to have influenced the locals: we noticed fewer umbrellas in Dublin than hooded jackets--a cue we took for ourselves.

 

Our hotel was just across the Liffey from the Temple Bar district--within about 15 minutes walk to everything we wanted to see. This morning, still without beds in which to collapse, we wandered the charming, rain slick cobblestones, getting our footing as we passed the legendary bar, itself, and kept walking on toward Trinity College taking in the color.

     

We stopped by the Aran Sweater Market, and I was just on the verge of trying on a cute cardi when everyone started to fall out. We walked back to the Morrison to plead for at least one of our two rooms--and did get the twin room. Harper and Penn were asleep before the door closed. I ceded the small sofa to Ned, grabbed a pillow off Harper's twin bed and (seriously) crawled into the suddenly appealing bathtub for a nap.

About an hour later, Ned got a call that our room was available, and we fell into our heavenly bed, not waking until early evening. Precious, precious sleep. Over the years, we've learned to add a day to the front end of our trips to accommodate jet lag and plane no-sleepers--well worth it!

Upon waking, I discovered this super-helpful map of Dublin on our bathroom wall--hits all the highlights!

Penn was still out cold, so it was three for dinner. We discovered that the Millennium Bridge just outside our hotel becomes an IG-ready rainbow at night. 

I had no trouble finding a good array of gf restaurants in Dublin, and we grabbed a table at The Millstone for dinner. We thought we were dining at a reasonable time (6:45), but the place was empty--then completely filled up at 8. Lively, friendly, and delicious! 

 

Our walk back revealed the beginnings of Christmas lights and decorations filling the center city.

 

Dublin is super-walkable--a compact city that felt very safe and welcoming. It's clearly still coming back from the pandemic--there are empty storefronts and lots of "hiring" signs. I'm guessing that if we were visiting at Thanksgiving 2019, we'd find the streets and sights much more crowded. We could also feel the impact of the EU on the city in a way that made it feel vibrant and wonderfully diverse--we heard conversations in French, Italian, Spanish, and more; and many of our servers were from the same countries. Almost everyone asked us where we were from--with a true curiosity. We were liking Dublin.

I grabbed an Irish coffee gelato from a cute shop next to the Temple Bar and a few more photos of the temple, itself.

Then, it was across the bridge and back to our beds after a long first day. 

Oíche mhaith, Dublin!