The next morning we went out in search of breakfast before coming back to pack up and check out of our apartment. Our flight didn't leave until later in the evening, which gave us most of the day to tour around. I had booked us a tour to Malahide Castle for the morning. Our bus drove us to Malahide, which is a suburb of Dublin, about a half hour drive (which where the band U2 is originally from). We were some of the first people to the castle, and I was grateful it wasn't crowded. We took a guided tour of the castle.
Unlike some of the castles we have been to, this castle has been renovated many times and was lived in until the 1950s. This means parts of the interior of the castle is quite modern and don't look the way you think a castle would. I thought this castle had beautiful wood work, and I liked the way the rooms were decorated.
After our tour of the castle we had time to tour the castle grounds and garden. We spent most of our time walking through the garden. Fall had arrived with cool temperatures, so there weren't many flowers and nothing was blooming. However, I can tell this garden would be beautiful in the spring and summer.
Our tour then took us to another suburb of Dublin on the coast, basically directly across Dublin Bay from Dublin city. We had time to walk around the harbor area and have lunch. Josh and I took a few pictures, then ordered fish and chips from a local shop that was recommended by our bus driver. The fish and chips ended up being disgusting (the batter was still oozing on the inside as it wasn't fully cooked). We entertained ourselves by feeding bits of our fish and chips to a cluster of birds who had gathered to watch us eat.
Our tour took us back into Dublin in the later afternoon. We had a few hours to kill before we had to leave for the airport. The one place we had not yet visited was Kilmainham Gaol, which is an old prison in Dublin. I had been told by a patient this was a really cool tour to take, and it was something we were interested in, we just hadn't had time on our first two days in Dublin. Kilmainham Gaol is one of the sights which is on the farther side of Dublin, so we took a tram out there instead of walking. It was still a bit of a walk from the tram stop to the jail. Once we got there, you had to sign up on a list for a tour. The next available tour was in an hour, and the tour lasted for two hours. As much as we wanted to go, we were afraid we wouldn't have enough time to get from the jail back to our apartment to get our bags, then to the airport. We decided not to risk it. I was a little bummed. Instead we had a few Guinness at a pub before making our way to the airport. We had time to sit around at the airport, but it was better than being late and missing our flight. Our flight from Dublin was in the later evening, and we didn't land at the airport in Germany until 11:30 p.m, and we didn't get back to our house until 12:30 a.m. It was a long day and a short night.
I had travel plans in place for the next morning, so it was an incredibly short night for me...
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