Unfortunately our last day in lovely Ireland had already arrived, much too soon to my liking. As we hadn’t really planned a lot, we slept in a bit before checking out of our hostel. Luckily we were once again allowed to leave our luggage in the storage room of the hostel, so we didn’t have to drag them behind us the entire day.
First we headed to Elephants and Castle, for a pleasant breakfast. This restaurant is situated on Temple Bar and it’s a great place to have breakfast or any other meal basically. I had the pancakes, which were really delicious. The hot chocolate wasn’t that great as it didn’t have enough chocolate taste in my opinion. The marshmallows did make up for that though.
And then we headed for Dublin Castle. Most of this castle dates back to the 18th century but before that many castles stood on the same site. The Record tower is one of the oldest parts of the castle, it being from 1228.
First we headed for the State Apartments. This is the only part of the castle that has an entrance fee. For 6,5 euros, you can discover the rooms on your own. For a bit extra you can get the guided tour. Since there wasn’t a guided tour starting soon, we decided to visit it on our own. There were plenty of signs with extra information, so I didn’t really miss a guide. The room were all really beautiful, so I do recommend visiting these while you’re there. It’s definitely the best part of Dublin Castle.
Aside from the State Apartments, you can also take a walk around the grounds, or visit the Chester Beatty Library. This is all for free so if you have the time it’s worth it to take a quick look.
And then we headed for Christ Church Cathedral. We had already passed this on our first day, but hadn’t gone inside as we didn’t know whether we’d have enough time then. Now we still had some time, so we thought it would be nice to visit this cathedral. It is the oldest one of Dublin, dating back to around 1030 so we couldn’t exactly ignore it. For the fans of The Tudors, many scenes of this show have been shot there and in the basement you can also find a few costumes on display
Still some time left, so we headed for O’Connell Street and Henry street for some shopping. We ended up in Pennys again and just did some souvenir shopping as well.
And then it was back to the hotel to pick up our luggage, head for the Airlink Busstop and back to Belgium.
While I really enjoyed Dublin and it’s amazing atmosphere, I mostly fell in love with rural Ireland, so I’m sure that I will return one day to discover more of this beautiful country.
Until next time,
With love, Ellen
Ellen's Travel Stories 