Day 8: Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Day 8 will be our first full day in Dublin. We met in the lobby at 8 am for a full Irish breakfast plus more of an American or standard international breakfast like you would find in a Holiday Inn Express in the US. After breakfast we assembled at 9 am to make a short walk down the street to our coach to transport us to Phoenix Park and the Papal Cross. 

Phoenix Park is a 2000 acre park that was established in 1662 as a royal hunting park to this day it still contains pheasants and wild deer. In 1979, 15 acres on the edge of the park were used for a outdoor mass celebrated there by Pope John Paul II. The Papal Cross was constructed as a back drop to the mass for the first papal visit to Ireland. 

Our coach dropped us off in the park close to the Wellington Testimonial, Phoenix Park Tea Room, and the entrance of Dublin Zoo. We walked to the Wellington Testimonial the tallest obelisk in Europe at just over sixty-two meters tall. Wellington Testimonial was built in 1862 to honor the Duke of Wellington. There are four bronze plaques cast from cannons captured at Waterloo; three of which have pictorial representations while the fourth has an inscription at the base of the obelisk. 

We walked from Welling Testimonial to the Papal Cross from the Papal Cross to the Dublin Zoo.     Our stay at the zoo was enough time to get some lunch and see the animals. We had some change in plans because of a errors made in scheduling our local bus charter. Instead of heading to Patrick Pearse Museum the bus picked us 1:45pm to take us back to the hotel. From the hotel the group walked to the National Museum of Ireland for a quick visit and a small tour of the Temple Bar. 

National Museum of Ireland was constructed in 1856 and the building itself is jewel of Ireland. Our tour guide’s, Joe, daughter works at the museum. Joe was able to show the group show some highlights of the museum, the “Bog People” being one of the memorable. The museum has a strong emphasis on national and some international archaeology, Irish history, Irish art, culture, and natural history.

The group walked back to hotel through Temple Bar to meet up back in the lobby at 4:30 pm. The hotel lobby and the city were starting to go Taylor Swift crazy. Taylor was scheduled to perform in Dublin in two days and the city was filling up with concert goers from all over the world. 

We bored the bus with instruments to be dropped off just outside of St. Stephens Green and walk to dinner Wagamama. Wagamama is a restaurant with a taste of Asia, our choices for dinner were a ramen set with chicken or Kare burosu, a noodle set with chicken & prawn or yasai soba edamame, rice set with chicken teriyaki donburi or yasai cha han three chicken gyoza, or a curry set with chicken cats or yasai gyoza. 

After dinner the we walked over to Christ Church Cathedral for our final performance. The Cathedral was built of stone in the late 12th century under the Norman potentate Strongbow, and considerably enlarged in the early 13th century, using Somerset stones and craftsmen. A partial collapse in the 16th century left it in poor shape and the building was extensively renovated and rebuilt in the late 19th century, giving it the form it has today. 

The performance was well attended because the performance was well advertised and many of the local news outlets, like the Irish Star.

Another venue with amazing acoustics, history, and a beautiful church. 

Facebook Live link to the performance

After the performance the bus took us back to the hotel for the night. Everyone was ready to call it a night for much needed rest after a full day of walking and another full day tomorrow.