We’d been to Dublin twice before when we’d toured inside most of the historic sites, so this visit was to use it as a base for a day trip and to revisit a favorite pub, the Brazen Head, that’s existed since 1198. Somehow that pint of Guinness just tastes better there especially with live traditional Irish music playing in the background. Naturally it’s popular with tourists yet they have managed  “to retain the original features that tell the story of our deep history within Dublin city” as their website says. We went there for dinner and to plot out our strategy for walking around town and for visiting a castle outside the city that was one family’s home for 800 years.

When Queen Elizabeth II went to Cork on her first state visit to the Republic of Ireland, guess where she wanted to go? To the English Market, of course, that’s been in operation since 1788. I couldn’t find out if she got a coffee and some chocolates as we did, but I’m certain she enjoyed seeing all of the breads, fruits, vegetables, and seafood temptingly on display. This city, the second largest in the country and with ferry connections to France, was going to be our first stop as well when we were planning this trip before Covid arrived but then things changed, as much has in the last two years. We ended up using Dublin as our port of entry and departure (next week’s post) yet we still wanted to spend at least a day here in this culinary capital of the Emerald Isle.

Before moving to France we had made a lot of vacation trips here, sometimes with two other couples and twice with them we had rented a castle for a week. Upon arrival at these ancient buildings we were all like little kids suddenly set loose in an amusement park running around to discover the towers, dungeons, banqueting halls, and multiple bedrooms. On a tour of western Ireland with this same group we found a 4-bedroom tower castle (photo to the left) in County Clare near Doolin. That was such a fun experience that on this visit to the same area we wanted to see if there was something similar. By chance we had seen a BBC program called “Amazing Hotels—Life Beyond the Lobby” where the two hosts take on different jobs around the hotels to give the viewers a behind-the-scenes look at these beautiful properties. Once we saw the episode that featured Ashford Castle, about an hour north of Galway, we knew where we would be going.