After three days on the road we had an easy morning. Up a bit later we went down for breakfast and then headed off to the Post Office to get some cardboard boxes for the parcels Neil and I would need to send home. Speaking to the man in the post office he said that the largest box would cost approx. 60 euro to send home with 5 kilos in it. But you could tape two of the boxes together and send them as one parcel for 85 euro. It was the same deal as I had used three years ago, although I am sure the price has gone up since then.
Neil needed some bubble wrap to use on his items but they did not have any in stock so he had to go to a shop down the main street to get some.
While we were doing this Dave went off on another search for the elusive craft scissors for Jan. He is travelling a lot of ground to get the right ones so I am sure he will be in the good books when he gets home. He came back with three different types!
We then ventured into a souvenir shop called Carroll’s which has many shops around Dublin. This one is two complete shops joined into one. One side has Irish logo clothing, Irish sport supporters clothing and Guinness Clothing and other Guinness items. The other side has glassware, jewellery, ornaments and all other imaginable types of souvenirs.
We all bought items at the shop with Neil winning the cash register challenge. I arranged with him to ship our purchases home together as the shop did a pack and post service through DHL to freight them to your door. It will take a week to get them back to Aussie and I will then have to wait form my items till I am next in Echuca.
It was getting near lunchtime by then so we decided to head back to the Woolshed Baa for lunch as it was only three blocks from where we were. Once again Emma was working but Tineke was on her day off, but a quick phone call and she came in and talked with us for quite a while.
Once there the boys started collecting a few extra Heineken bottles with the Heineken Cup rugby plastic shrink wraps on them. There are three different bottles each having the trophy, the two teams and the date of the game on the front and an image of a rugby match on the back.
Several other items were also collected and we had a good lunch. I headed back to the room with our bits and pieces and then had to return the hire car to the rental company which was on the other side of the city to our hotel. There were no problems with the car and I was quickly out of there, stopping at The Lombard, a pub across the road for the rental place. I was able to pick up some Coors coasters for my collection. From there I caught a taxi back to the Woolshed and caught back up with the others.
We stayed in the Woolshed till about 5.30pm and then headed back to our hotel to pack up some items to post tomorrow morning. The boys picked up the 5 litre keg of Heineken they had left in the hotel kitchen refrigerator and set about emptying it so Neil could post it home.
It was then time for our end of tour Dinner. I had arranged for us to have a dinner to end the tour and had picked a local hotel called the Belvedere Hotel which was just a short distance from where we were staying.
We had a nice dinner and then I presented awards to each tourist. The Best Rookie Tourist Award was too close to split and the judges therefor declared joint winners with both Dave Rial and Neil Thomas winning the award. Luckily this was anticipated and two trophies had been made for this award. Keith Bennett was then presented with the Luckiest Tourist Award for his winning of the contest that financed this trip. The final award was the Most Outstanding Tourist award and after deliberations with all the judges this award was presented to Barry Rhall.
Following the dinner we walked two blocks to Mayes Hotel, which was a hotel that I had been to in 2008. It is a corner pub on one of the busiest intersections on the main road leading into Dublin from the Airport. It has a great Guinness sign on the intersection corner of the Pub.
From there we caught a taxi to the The Cobblestone Pub, which is a pub that has live traditional Irish music playing each night and in the main bar there is a musicians corner, which is where and musician can come and sit and play music. It is a great impromptu area for musicians to sit and jam with others.
We had been told about this pub by Tineke who works at the Woolshed and she had planned on meeting us there that night. She was there when we arrived with one of her work mates.
We listened to some great music and had a good time. Dave managed to get a couple of pint glasses from a micro brewer from Galway, the beer was called the Happy Hooker.
At the end of the night we said our goodbyes to Tineke and thanked her for her hospitality at the pub and showing us a good night at the Cobblestone.
We made our way by taxi back to the hotel and did some final packing for the parcels that are being posted tomorrow before it was lights out for the last time in Ireland.
Neil needed some bubble wrap to use on his items but they did not have any in stock so he had to go to a shop down the main street to get some.
While we were doing this Dave went off on another search for the elusive craft scissors for Jan. He is travelling a lot of ground to get the right ones so I am sure he will be in the good books when he gets home. He came back with three different types!
We then ventured into a souvenir shop called Carroll’s which has many shops around Dublin. This one is two complete shops joined into one. One side has Irish logo clothing, Irish sport supporters clothing and Guinness Clothing and other Guinness items. The other side has glassware, jewellery, ornaments and all other imaginable types of souvenirs.
We all bought items at the shop with Neil winning the cash register challenge. I arranged with him to ship our purchases home together as the shop did a pack and post service through DHL to freight them to your door. It will take a week to get them back to Aussie and I will then have to wait form my items till I am next in Echuca.
It was getting near lunchtime by then so we decided to head back to the Woolshed Baa for lunch as it was only three blocks from where we were. Once again Emma was working but Tineke was on her day off, but a quick phone call and she came in and talked with us for quite a while.
Once there the boys started collecting a few extra Heineken bottles with the Heineken Cup rugby plastic shrink wraps on them. There are three different bottles each having the trophy, the two teams and the date of the game on the front and an image of a rugby match on the back.
Several other items were also collected and we had a good lunch. I headed back to the room with our bits and pieces and then had to return the hire car to the rental company which was on the other side of the city to our hotel. There were no problems with the car and I was quickly out of there, stopping at The Lombard, a pub across the road for the rental place. I was able to pick up some Coors coasters for my collection. From there I caught a taxi back to the Woolshed and caught back up with the others.
We stayed in the Woolshed till about 5.30pm and then headed back to our hotel to pack up some items to post tomorrow morning. The boys picked up the 5 litre keg of Heineken they had left in the hotel kitchen refrigerator and set about emptying it so Neil could post it home.
It was then time for our end of tour Dinner. I had arranged for us to have a dinner to end the tour and had picked a local hotel called the Belvedere Hotel which was just a short distance from where we were staying.
We had a nice dinner and then I presented awards to each tourist. The Best Rookie Tourist Award was too close to split and the judges therefor declared joint winners with both Dave Rial and Neil Thomas winning the award. Luckily this was anticipated and two trophies had been made for this award. Keith Bennett was then presented with the Luckiest Tourist Award for his winning of the contest that financed this trip. The final award was the Most Outstanding Tourist award and after deliberations with all the judges this award was presented to Barry Rhall.
Following the dinner we walked two blocks to Mayes Hotel, which was a hotel that I had been to in 2008. It is a corner pub on one of the busiest intersections on the main road leading into Dublin from the Airport. It has a great Guinness sign on the intersection corner of the Pub.
From there we caught a taxi to the The Cobblestone Pub, which is a pub that has live traditional Irish music playing each night and in the main bar there is a musicians corner, which is where and musician can come and sit and play music. It is a great impromptu area for musicians to sit and jam with others.
We had been told about this pub by Tineke who works at the Woolshed and she had planned on meeting us there that night. She was there when we arrived with one of her work mates.
We listened to some great music and had a good time. Dave managed to get a couple of pint glasses from a micro brewer from Galway, the beer was called the Happy Hooker.
At the end of the night we said our goodbyes to Tineke and thanked her for her hospitality at the pub and showing us a good night at the Cobblestone.
We made our way by taxi back to the hotel and did some final packing for the parcels that are being posted tomorrow before it was lights out for the last time in Ireland.
No comments:
Post a Comment