Dublin, like most of the big cities around the world that we have visited, offers a variety of sightseeing options. We chose the City Sightseeing Dublin Company because they had double-decker buses of the hop on/ off variety, they stopped at 30 major landmarks around the city, and let’s see, what else? Oh yeah, one of their bus stops is right in front of our hotel!
The gang in front of the Hilton Garden Inn waiting for our sightseeing bus.
Click on any photo to see a larger version of that photo.
Approaching the Samuel Beckett Bridge.
The top of the harp — from the middle of the bridge.
St Andrew’s Church, Westland Row.
The Davenport Hotel on Fenian Street.
American College Dublin on Merrion Street Lower.
Oscar Wilde monument in Merrion Square.
Dept of the Teoseach (prime minister) on Merrion Street.
Georgians on Hume Street.
Georgian doors.
Wolf Tone statue on northeast corner of St Stephen’s Green. The statue was sculpted by Edward Delaney in 1967.
Wolf Tone was a founder of the United Irishmen and a leader of the 1798 Rebellion.
The Shelbourne Hotel, St Stephen’s Green N
Sightseeing bus in front of us.
The Mansion House (1715) on Dawson Street is the home of the Lord Mayor of Dublin.
Main entrance to St Ann’s Church (Anglican), Dawson St.
Royal Sun Alliance House, Dawson St.
Duke Street between Dawson and Grafton.
Hodges and Figgis : The bookstore, Dawson Street, mentioned in Ulysses — Ireland’s oldest bookshop
Passing the main entrance to Trinity College.
A couple of days later we came back to this area to tour Trinity College and see the Book of Kells.
Hustle and bustle across from Trinity College entrance.
Old Bank of Ireland, now Ireland’s House of Parliament.
Passing glass buildings with interesting reflections.
Bowe’s Lounge, Fleet Street.
D’Olier Chambers, D’Olier Street at Fleet.
D’Olier Street and Westmoreland Street converge at the south end of O’Connell Bridge. Our Temple Bar walk on the previous day was just a couple of blocks from here.
Oliver Goldsmith statue, Trinity College Green — entrance to Trinity College.
Our bus made a complete loop and we passed Oliver for the second time. Goldsmith was a poet (The Deserted Village), playwright (She Stoops to Conquer) and novelist (The Vicar of Wakefield) who graduated from Trinity College in 1849.
Centre of English Studies, Dame Street.
1916 Memorial faces, Mercantile Hotel, Dame Street.
Notice the death dates for all the males. They were leaders of the 1916 Easter Uprising who took over the GPO on O’Connell Street and were executed a couple days after surrendering.
Dublin office building on Dame Street (Barnardo Square) next to city hall, rated an abomination by many Dubliners.
Barnardo Square — outside City Hall .
Dublin City Hall.
Bedford Tower, Dublin Castle.
English / British administrative personnel ruled Ireland for 800 years from Dublin Castle. Today the government of Ireland’s Office of Public Works manages the castle.
Approaching Christchurch Cathedral.
The girls say goodbye.
My wife, daughters and granddaughters decided to hop off and visit the two cathedrals (Christchurch and St Patrick’s) and to catch up with us later after the boys toured the Guinness Storeroom.
My next post will cover Part Two of our sightseeing bus tour.
Irish Music Bonus — I Wish I Had Someone to Love Me — Barney McKenna and The Dubliners
Barney McKenna was the sloppy, funny and lovable banjo player who played for the Dubliners for 50 years. He also sang sometimes, usually the same song when the crowd would yell “Come on, Barney!” I guarantee the song will bring a tear to your eye.
Barney died half-way through the Dubliner’s 50 Years tour in April, 2012. The group completed the tour and then John Sheahan, the fiddle player in the video who was the only original member left, disbanded the group at the end of the year.
The clip goes on for eight minutes. Believe me, it’s worth it!
Crow Canyon Journal 
The bridge looks less like a harp and more like a sail to me, but striking either way.
I had to look up the Book of Kell and a few other references, but overall, an informative tour.
I think I would like an open deck bus tour (my main gripe with enclosed vehicles is the difficulty — if not outright impossibility — of snapping decent photos).
Nice post and photos.
Thanks, Disperser! I will have more about the Book of Kells in my post on our tour of Trinity College in a couple of days.
I agree with you on the open decks. As I recall, the only big city we ever visited that didn’t have buses with open decks was Auckland, NZ. There are some hazards with this type of sightseeing, however. On one windy day in Paris I lost my favorite baseball cap!
I imagine rain or oppressive sun/humidity/heat might also make it uncomfortable.