Dublin, Ireland

These pictures were taken in Dulin in November of 2003 while I was on a company trip with Sematech International. The weather co-operated with an unseasonable warm and ry spell (mid-50s F). Obviously old architecture abounds in the city. Most of the shots below are within a half mile of the city center and I took them on an early morning walk. You'll notice that there are not many people in those shots. In Germany, the shops closed down early and you could get breakfast (fresh pastries) at 5:30 in the morning. In Dublin, the streets (and bars) were open until (at least) 2:00am and we had trouble finding a place that would serve breakfast before 10:00am. This city just starts to really come alive after dark. When we headed into Temple Bar it looked like a pro football stadium had just let out onto the streets. Dublin is an extremely colorful and friendly city. The people all have a great sense of humor. Here are some of my favorite lines from the trip. While visiting Jameson Distillery ... "It's said that God Himself gave the Irish whiskey ... to keep them from taking over the world." When taking the city tour bus (which I highly recommend) the driver pointed out the house doors being painted different colors. Obviously all of the brickwork is similiar so if the doors were the same also it would be hard to tell one from another and it would be easy to accidentally enter the wrong house. So the wives painted the doors different colors to take away any excuses from men coming home from the pub because "When we Irish start seeing double, we start thinking we're single." Places I saw or visited included: Trinity College (houses the book of Kells), St. Patrick's Cathedral (reputed site of his holy well), ChristChurch, St. Catherine's Church, St. Ann's Church, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin Castle, Jonathan Swift's House, Oscar Wilde's House, Jameson's Distillery (I am an official Whiskey taster for them), Temple Bar (the party district), and the Guinness Brewery. For the record, Guinness in Dublin is wonderful stuff. The stuff we get in the states doesn't rate high on my list of drinkable beverages at all. In Ireland, it's almost like a beer flavored milk shake ... smooth, not bitter, and a clean after-taste. Click on any thumbnail below for a bigger picture or use the Slide Show viewer.