Day Off in Dublin

Made it to our Dublin hotel around 4pm after an uneventful flight from the London City Airport, an airport I'd never flown into or out of before. Not sure I'd ever even heard of it. Most flights are into/out of Heathrow or Gatwick or sometimes even Stansted (another airport I've never flown to/from).

After a quick lobby chat, several of us agreed to meet in the lobby bar at 5pm for a beer, following by a drinking/dining excursion. My singular goal today was to have a few pints of Guinness at Temple Bar (the pub) in Temple Bar (the neighborhood). Temple Bar is my favorite pub here in Dublin, and Dublin is one of the few places I'll drink Guinness. It's made here, and it tastes so much better when it's fresh from the brewery instead of shipped to the US.

I was in the bar promptly at 5 (imagine that!), and Spragoo joined me a few minutes later. Took until almost 6 before all had assembled. Off we went, first stopping at Hogan's for several rounds. After about my 4th Guinness, I had to give up and switch to Buds, the Guinness being a bit heavy. What's funny is now that Anheuser-Busch is owned by a European company, you can find Bud on tap at almost every pub. Was hard as hell to find before, and even if you did find it, it was only in bottles.

Off again, this time to the Temple Bar…

Temple Bar is one of the larger pubs around, and has a cool courtyard in the center of it, with an elevated roof covering that allows plenty of fresh air IN, and cigarette smoke OUT. That's where we proceeded to camp out for the next 90 minutes or so.


Da Gang…L to R: Spragoo, Molly, Murph, Andy, Robert, Bob

Off to dinner next, at a nearby "steakhouse" I can't remember the name of. Dinner was courtesy of Sound Image, the company Spragoo works for - he's the Director of Touring there. Lots of eating, drinking and being merry before we stuffed ourselves into a taxi for the short ride back to the hotel…