The Arrival and Wandering Around Dublin

The Great Ireland Voyage, 2011. I went to Ireland, from October 24 - November 2, 2011. I attended a conference in Dublin, and then had some vacation days in Dublin and elsewhere, including Galway. I took a good number of pictures.

This first part covers the arrival into Dublin and some wanderings around the city.

Click on the thumbnail images to get larger ones (around 100-300K). Click on the "huge" link to get the full size pictures (around 3M). Almost 45 pictures included.

The Trip to Dublin

I flew at night from Ithaca to Philadelphia, and then Philadelphia to Dublin, arriving around 8am. Here are a few photo highlights of the trip.

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Three shots of the arrival into Philadelphia at night.

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A few hours into the flight the pilot mentioned that those on the left side of the plane could see The Northern Lights. I was on the right side of the plane and saw no such thing. However, there was a nice crescent moon as we were on top of an overcast cloud layer, at 39,000 feet.

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Several minutes later, it started to get lighter, as dawn was approaching. I got a few pictures of the beginnings of the boiling orange colors coming up from the cloud deck with the moon above.

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Homer (the Greek one) wrote of the "rosy-fingered dawn" and this really looked like it. A close-up of the moon shows that the entire disc is visible. And every minute, it gets brighter as dawn rapidly approaches.

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Finally, the sun peaks out from below the cloud deck. Yes, the middle picture is actually before the one to its left. And quickly, the cloud deck takes on a more familiar appearance. We had about an hour or less left in the flight, though we had not started our descent.

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And finally, a few pictures as we got close to Dublin, having passed through the overcast cloud layer. I'm not sure exactly where we are, since the airport is on the north side of town. I imagine it's the Irish Sea, but that's a bit of a guess. The last picture is right after touchdown, since the spoilers are deployed.

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The airport had a cool sculpture in the terminal, so I took a few pictures of it and stitched them together. This is straight out of Photoshop. It has a few visual artifacts. I don't care.

Dublin Visitor's Centre

Getting to the hotel by cab required taking an alternate route, as the previous day had seen a month's worth of rain in 6 hours. Once I had checked in, I went to the Dublin Visitor's Center (Centre, I guess) to get some maps and ideas about where to go and what to do. It was in a building that had been a church and there was a coffee shop upstairs.

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A few pictures of the stained glass windows from the upstairs coffee shop.

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A couple pictures of the rest of the visitor's center from above. The second shot is of the windows in the first picture.

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And a stitched together shot of the stained glass window that was by the coffee shop. The stitching job isn't great, but you get the idea.

Dublin City Centre

After that, my next stop was the City Centre, to wander around the area a bit.

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The Occupy Wall Street movement had a sister branch in Dublin, called Occupy Dame Street, which is where the Bank of Ireland is located. The bank is the building right behind the tents and signs.

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Behind Dame street (to the north) it switches back to small streets with lots of shops. In the first picture, the Bank of Ireland is the big building in the background (so I'm facing south). The second shot is looking down the street, to the north.

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The River Liffey seperates Dublin into northern and southern halves. There are a number of bridges that cross the river, though only two of them are pedestrian-only. The first picture shows the Ha'Penny Bridge from across the street. The second is looking east down the river at the Ha'Penny Bridge.

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Another shot of the Ha'Penny Bridge, facing north. It used to be the only pedestrian bridge over the river. And "back in the day" it would cost a half-penny ("ha'penny") toll to cross it. The second picture is of the plaque by the bridge and a shot of the river from the south side, looking west. The "Digital Hub" and smokestack from the Guiness Factory are visible on the horizon above the bridge, as is the domed building that appears in the next shot.

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This is the Four Courts, which houses the Supreme Court, the High Court, and the Dublin Circuit Court and used to hold the Central Criminal Court. It was named because it originally housed the four courts of Chancery, King's Bench, Exchequer, and Common Pleas.

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Next stop was St. Audeon's Park and St. Audeon's Church. The park is a small open grassy area next to the church. Here are two shots of the church and a marker for the park.

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The first picture is of the medieval church, which is part of the Church of Ireland. The second picture is of the Roman Catholic church that is now a Polish church. Both pictures are stitched from multiple pictures.
The words along the top of the second church read:
DEO . OPTIMO . MAXIMO . SVB . INVOC . S. AVDOENI
which translates to: To God the best and greatest under the prayer of Saint Ouen.

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A few pictures from the courtyard around St. Audeon's Church (the older one).

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An amphibious tour bus drove by. I managed to get two "action shots" as it passed. It's part of "Viking Tours" and either caters to Vikings or provides the riders with horned hats.

This page last modified Dec 16, 2011.
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