Ireland '23 - Day 16 - Malahide Castle & Back to Dublin

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After breakfast & packing, we drove an hour south from Carlingford on the M1 and arrived at Malahide Castle in time for a 10:30 am tour. The town of Malahide is NE of Dublin, just outside the City limits & near the airport.  

Malahide Castle is one of the oldest castles in Ireland, inhabited by the Talbot family from 1185 until 1976, when it was sold to the local County Council. The grounds are enormous, with more than 5,000 species of trees & shrubs, collected from around the world. Visitors don't have to pay to wander the grounds, so the place is a family park and we saw plenty of people out & about from inside the castle.    

We only had time for the 45 minute Castle tour, which was informative & entertaining.

note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again (with some exceptions). 

	the Castle is undergoing  restoration		1400s furniture		room of the ancestors
		exquisite Italian marble		more ancestors
	view of grounds from 2nd floor		dining room w/tourists on first floor		(I don't see any ghosts)
		large dining room w/more ancestors		stacked up high ancestors
			ruined church by the Castle

note - after eight centuries of habitation here, I can see how a family could accumulate a lot of ancestors. 

Afterwards, Mary & Roger dropped Doris and I off at the nearby Malahide Irish Rail Station, for a train back to Dublin, but a rail worker informed us that all local rail lines were out of service the entire weekend, for general maintenance. 

So here we were, Doris and I, with our luggage. Maybe take a bus ? the guy said. 

Just then, Mary noticed a cab parked across the lot, and the driver told her he'd be happy to convey Doris and I to the City, so Mary & Roger said a quick goodbye to us & were off for Belfast and a few days later for Galway, to attend the reknown (outsized) Halloween parade. 

Once we were on the road, the cabbie said he had dropped passengers off at Dublin airport, and since he lives in Malahide, just across the freeway, he dropped by the rail station to make a few calls & grab a smoke. It was our lucky day ! 

The cab took us from Malahide into the heart of Dublin on surprisingly uncrowded streets, every one with a dedicated taxi/bus lane, so the cab kept getting the right of way over stopped cars. Doris & I were both amazed at how quickly we were at the crossing of the Liffey.    

Once again we checked into Camden Court Hotel, this time for two nights. It was crowded, because of an international marathon in Dublin on Sunday, the next day.   

We walked to Iveagh Garden & then a few more blocks away to St. Stephen's Green in the afternoon, and checked out many of the historical monuments at both parks. 

	falls in Iveagh Garden
		St. Stephen's Green

As Doris predicted, the Marathon crowd captured all dining tables in the Camden Court lobby, long before 5 pm, and the more formal hotel restaurant was also packed.  I called Iveagh Garden Hotel and they were not busy. We walked there in 10 minutes and had a quiet 6 pm dinner. 

Having had three dinners here when I first arrived, I was happy to be back, and recognized some staff.

It was a good outcome, that Doris had a chance to check out this restaurant, with a great menu, service & small-hotel ambience.   

Go to next page - last day in Dublin 

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