Day 9
Sunday, September 4
On Sunday, we ate downstairs in the hotel, then caught the bus shuttle back to the hop-on-hop-off, and hopped right off at the Guinness Storehouse. Marketing geniuses that they are, the Guinness people have put together a very shiny bit of marketing, including a free pint at the 7th floor Gravity Bar.
As it was Sunday, St. Patrick’s was open restricted hours (between services). We grabbed a cab in the rain to get there in time to savor its beauty before the next service began. I was thrilled to be able to hear the organist rehearsing. The cathedral was yet another soberingly beautiful historic site.
When we had to leave there, we were starving, so hopped back on the bus and got of, again, at Guinness, were we had lunch.
We were exhausted, and it was almost time for the weekend’s second sporting event. This was the All Ireland final of hurling, a form of Irish football. The match was being held in a stadium on the north side of Dublin. The stadium held 85,000 spectators and the game was sold out!! Neighboring counties—and archrivals—Kilkenny and Tipperary had the fans in an uproar. As soon as we got back to the hotel, we settled into chairs in the Dubliner pub to watch the match on large high-def TVs.
And then dinner from the grocery store downstairs, packing, and sleep.
Monday morning we left the hotel at 7:30 to get to the airport on time, and it’s a darned good thing. What we didn’t know was that U.S.-bound passengers go through customs and passport control at the point of departure, not of arrival. That meant we went through security (but didn’t have to take off our shoes), then stood in line to have our passports checked twice, then took our shoes off for everything except our bodies to be scanned again. By the time we got through all that, we sat for only about ten minutes before boarding the plane.
Long flight. Watched several movies. Sat for two hours in Newark. Drove home from Pittsburgh in the pouring rain.
Had a wonderful time. Wish you had been there with us!