June 16, 2025
A Day in Dublin
Today was a “why we tour” day.
We only had one day to spend in Dublin. Both Dave and I had been in Dublin a few times in the past so we had no compelling need to to do any formal sightseeing (having done Book of Kells, Guinness, etc). We opted for a two hour bike tour so we could ride around Dublin without having to concentrate on the riding!
Breakfast was rushed and the very nice cook-to-order breakfast in the sun room was complicated by the fact that there were not enough tables so we had to wait ten minutes until a table was available, and then service was slow. We dashed away a few minutes after ten to ride to our meet up point for a Dublin Bike Tour.
When you cycle tour you are mostly off in the middle of nowhere. You don’t see many tourists, and certainly not many Americans. Accordingly, when you go to a capital and see how many US tourists there are it’s a bit of a shock. When we arrived at the Dublin Bike Tour office there were about 30 would-be cyclists, and all were American. Yikes. The tour started 25 minutes late because it took so long for the guides to line everyone up for bikes and helmets. The groups were split in two. Dave and I wound up with a group consisting of two family groups, both of which were from Florida. We have a bit of a prejudice against Florida - we can’t see why anyone would want to live there - but to be fair, both families were very nice and we later acknowledged the importance of not stereotyping people- there is enough of that going around these days as it is.
Gregory our guide, was a former lecturer of history at Trinity college, so he knew his history and did a good job of feeding us factoids about Dublin in a digestible way. We were not overly impressed with his bike riding directions. He told us to go ahead and run the red lights in Dublin since our group was so big. The lawyer in me wondered if we had signed a release and waiver of liability I had forgotten about. As an aside, both pedestrians and cyclists in Dublin are very lax in following the traffic signals and other directions. This is not Munich.
Once rundown and crime ridden, the Dublin waterfront was transformed into a bustling business district, replete with modern apartment buildings, upscale shopping and an abundance of restaurants. It is the city's hub of technology and pharmaceutical companies who moved in during what's now known as the era of the Celtic Tiger when Ireland successfully wooed these companies with very low taxes and minimal regulations. This era (mid 1990s to 2008) saw Ireland transform from one of Western Europe's poorest nations to one of its wealthiest only to suffer a burst of the real estate bubble, plunging the country into deep recession.
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An interesting data point: When Ireland started minting its own coinage, they wanted to use an image of the harp only to learn that Guinness brewery had prior rights. Guinness granted Ireland the right to use the image on their coins, but required the government to invert the image to keep it distinct from the one Guinness uses.
The three masted ship, the Jeanie Johnston, lies near the Beckett bridge. It is a replica of the original ship which was successfully used as a trading ship, taking Irish immigrants escaping the devastating potato famine that afflicted Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century to America. The ship returned with lumber. The ship typically carried 40 people, but its most famous captain, James Atridge, once took 254 passengers from Tralee to Quebec and didn't suffer a single death. Historians attribute this remarkable record (as opposed to the infamous "coffin ships" that carried other immigrants) to Atridge's insistence of having a doctor on board as well as his care not to overload the ship.
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The Irish Famine, 1845 - 1849, was a period of mass starvation and disease. The primary cause was a potato blight which wiped out the sole food source for millions of Irish. Much of the Irish dislike of England comes from the fact that they received very little assistance during this period which further led to Ireland falling into a deep state of deprivation with over 1M dead and more than 2M immigrating elsewhere.
Overall we got something out of the tour but we were not raving about it; maybe we are getting jaded about city bike tours having done a few recently. There were tons of coaches lined up everywhere in the center which made me cringe. I am so glad we tour by bike - not bus.
After the tour we began searching for a lunch spot. Gregory our tour guide had suggested we try for a traditional pub called Dukes, but when we got there it was crowded and the only available tables were around the side of the building looking at the trash receptacles. When you eat out every day and know you will be eating out for the next four months it kind of takes the pressure off feeling like you need to find the perfect lunch or dinner, so we're not that fussy. Still, we passed on Dukes and stopped at a cute outdoor café and had oysters and split a main - it was fine, not great.
Our big event for the day came together unexpectedly a few days ago. In a previous post I had mentioned that on the ferry we met David and Mary, a Dublin couple who were coming back from Spain after spending the winter there in a flat in the town of Moriara on the southern Spanish coast. Mary had suggested we reach out when we were in Dublin and so we did. They offered to have us for dinner, so of course we jumped at the chance.
Our hotel Ariel House, was two minutes walk from the DART, the Dublin commuter train which goes directly north into the suburb where they live. It was an easy 20 minute train ride and a ten minute walk.
Their house is situated in a tidy suburb and it was clear that they had put some serious effort into upgrading the place. Mary is a talented gardener and their backyard was lovely. We enjoyed a warm evening and sat outside which I suppose is somewhat of a rarity in Ireland. We had cocktails and soon were joined by their neighbors, Joe & Lynne. Joe had just retired from a general practice and Lynne works three days a week as a physiotherapist. Both Joe and David are avid cyclists and had returned that day from a 70km excursion together. It was clear that these four were close friends and the six of us had a great time exchanging stories and life experiences. David was the cook and prepared a lavish first course of appetizers followed by a dinner of roast chicken, haricot verts wrapped in prosciutto and boiled potatoes. Wine and conversation flowed freely and we had a marvelous time.
Why we tour: the chance to meet interesting people!
Today's ride: 8 km (5 miles)
Total: 1,582 km (982 miles)
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