I know Dublin town is crowded and bustlin’ at most hours, but who cannot appreciate the cobbled stones, the cathedrals and pubs, the River Liffey with its Ha’penny Bridge, its viking origins, and the beautiful, friendly people. Walking the winding streets for two plus days was enough to start the love affair, and here are some of the reasons why!

Our Georgian accommodations where we had to read instructions on how to open the room door with an actual key and how to flush the loo with “gusto”!

Faces of Dublin: Devlyn Taylor – Our Irish Elvis – drove the “hop-on/hop off” tour bus and he broke out in song whenever the mood struck him or the traffic jammed. He had a great voice, and he really could sound like Elvis! He belted out “All Shook Up” and “Danny Boy” among others. And when his voice tired a bit, Devlyn loaded the CD player so we could hear his original compositions recorded in a studio. My favorite was a lullaby he wrote for a grandson who passed away in January. Intermingled amongst his songs, he shared an occasional historical tidbit, but I especially liked his tales of growing up as a “true blue Dubliner.”

FOOD! GLORIOUS FOOD! I RELISHED the food and tried different sorts of yummies in all kinds of pubs where folks don’t just stop in for a pint, but they eat and chat and play games and listen AND dance to Irish bands when they can. We enjoyed the BEST FISH & CHIPS EVER at Leo Burdocks, est. 1913. And Keith and Cedric (if that’s their real names) kept us laughing. You can see their pics on the Leo Burdock website, but these poses were just for me!

Temple Bar is the “happenin’ place” when it comes to the “Traditional Irish Music Pub Crawl”. G.E. and I dropped into a few to hear Irish tenors, guitars, and fiddles and watch a little Irish 2-step. Gogarty’s was the most festive pub we visited as guests sang along with the performers and one husky patron finally convinced a visiting miss to join him in dance. It was delightful. And one more thing – “Temple Bar”, a seemingly oxymoron to people of faith, refers to Sir William Temple, Provost of Trinity College in the 1600s. who owned a home in the area back in the day. The “bar”could be a play on words as the district is located on the Liffey River, thus referring to a sand bar as well as the pubs themselves. But there is nary a fact to back that theory as it’s my own.