Trip to Dublin

Karen wanted to visit the National Botanical Gardens in Glasnevin so we had breakfast at the hotel then got a bus to the Gardens. Even though the Gardens weren't at their best at this time of years, there were several large greenhouses including a reasonable imitation of a rain forest with humid heat and fine spray from nozzles high in the roof! We had a good walk around the various parts of the Gardens and were amused by the very tame squirrels scampering around who would come right up to an outstretched hand to investigate. After lunch in the very well-stocked cafeteria, we visited remaining parts of the Gardens then got a bus back to the hotel.

We spent a couple of hours snoozing or reading or watching the television in our room and then in the evening headed towards the Temple Bar area at around 8pm again searching for Traditional Music. We found the Temple Bar area very lively with crowds thronging among the many pubs and restaurants and clubs. We found a leaflet in the hotel advertising a pub crawl around music pubs which started at a particular pub: "The Oliver St. John Gogarty". When we found this pub, there was a sign saying "Traditional Music" on the first floor and no mention of cover fees or anything so we headed up. We found a large bar with a noisy crowd and a band playing with a guitarist/lead singer, a banjo player, an older accordion played (whose photo was on the wall behind them) and they were playing really well especially the banjo player who was fantastic. So we bought some Guinness and stayed until the finished the first half which stopped at 11pm and the band which had been playing started packing up. we bought 2 CDs they were offering for sale. There was a break for half an hour then another lot would start playing until 2:40am, and we headed back to the hotel.