We went a nice evening of traditional Irish music and dancing in the national concert hall right across the street from our hotel. The Conrad is definitely a great location to see many sights in central Dublin.
One nice hospitality technique for intermissions is the labeled boxes for your drinks.
The concert hall had at least 4 bars for the Irish 🙂
Posted from WordPress for Windows Phone 8!
Here is a great kickoff for a tour of Ireland which we started in Dublin around St Stephen’s Green.
What a friendly atmosphere and neighborhood. Close to shopping, stores and pubs. I forgot, you are always close to a pub in Ireland…
We are staying at the Conrad Dublin hotel and what a great location. We took a walk around the park to check out the area and find some lunch.
We had to get for our upcoming half marathon race in Dublin which I posted about here.
Could not recommend a better location in the city centre.
Would you like to see some of the other great sites and adventures possible in Ireland? Check out these posts:
2019 Running and Visit Update
It was great to visit Dublin this week on business and sneak in an early morning run.
It was quite chilly 0 degrees Celsius, but the morning sun was bright and warm.
Since I was staying downtown Dublin near the Trinity College, I was able to explore some different parts of the city that I had never seen before.
I found lots of runners like to run around and near the big rugby stadium.
But you must be careful to avoid to dog poo zombies that roam near the Liffey River.
It is a great place to go running, but make sure to go early to check out the great sites when there is no traffic and lights holding up your pace. You can also find great spots for dinner like these famous places near by hotel 😉
Previously, my first time in Dublin was for the first Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Dublin in 2013.
We are headed east to run the first Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in Dublin. http://ie.competitor.com/dublin
Yes, it was a fantastic run with slightly cool weather through the rolling hills of the city. Phoenix park is a wonderful place to run even if you are not in a race!
Running around the world is always fun. Some of my other favorite spots:
I compiled a story about our running adventures and (tips) for exploring the world by running. You can find it in our local running club newsletter or the specific Word document I composed to share with others: Running is an Adventure.
Some people have asked, how many miles did we travel in the 70 day sabbatical?
I did a quick calculation this morning: we flew over 53,000 miles on flights and over 2,000 miles of travel by ships, trains, buses, cars, tuk-tuks, running and walking 🙂
The map is not 100% accurate of everything, but it provides a pretty good picture of the routes we took.
Needless to say, it was an adventure of a lifetime!
When you have a long travel layover, find a great location, and stay a full day. It reduces the stress and makes travel easier.
The hotels along the Mediterranean ocean in Tel Aviv are a great way to enjoy the sunset, walk along the beach and have a great dinner.
Only 30 minutes from the airport. Much better than the 3 feet of snow in New York at JFK airport.
I took a nice run along the boardwalk to Jaffa to build up my appetite before dinner. 🙂
We stayed in Gurgaon which is closer to the airport and near many of the high tech call centers, etc. in India. I snuck in one more run around a nearby park…the entertainment was all about the dogs tangling with the wild pigs. I think the pigs won.
When I got back to the hotel, another (Indian) was coming back from the hotel gym. He asked me if it was safe to run India any more. I educated him positively.
On the last day we all visited the tallest minaret in the world. This was erected in the 12th century and was a long time before the Mughul emperors. The oldest mosque in India is also at this site, but it is no longer used.
The mosque and minaret were built from the plethora of Hindu temples that previously existed here.
You can see the Hindu symbols, sculptures and carvings in the stones and pillars that comprise the minaret and mosque.
We missed some of these sites earlier due to the road closures for Republic Day, etc. when we first arrived in New Delhi.
One example was a close up shot of the India Gate.
Later in the morning, we visited the archeological museum and the national museum.
The archeological museum was similar to the observatories that we saw in Jaipur I believe. Nice outdoor park to visit in the diplomatic area of New Delhi.
A real highlight which was not in our tour was our second stop was the National Museum. We could not take any pictures, but we really learned a lot more about how old the history is for India. As Americans, we learn a lot about Egypt, Greece, the Romans, etc. – but there is some much older history in India that we know very little about in the US educational system. We saw pottery and tools, necklaces, etc. that were over 4,000 – 5,000 years old. Many centuries before the Romans and Egyptians. It was also fascinating to see how the language has evolved and changed for any dialects over the centuries. Lots of great exhibits and artwork to see here – and it is only 300 rupees ($6 to visit).
Although there is a lot of renovation underway, we visited the National Zoological Park. We had to educate our driver on the word “zoo” and then we finally made it there. There was some nice exhibits if some different monkeys, etc. which we had never seen before.
Never saw this before…parrots digging into the ground.
Overall, it was a nice way to spend the afternoon before heading out on a flight. The only challenge is that we had to keep refusing our driver to take us to a bazaar, emporium, shopping. It got old, but we are already used to being a tourist in India :-)
Before we left, we had a nice diner in Nepal at Krishnarpan at the Dwarkika’s hotel so I took a few pics with my Windows Phone 8 (Lumia 920) 🙂
It was a gorgeous hotel with numerous fountains, sculptures and 15th century architecture. I wonder if this place used to be a temple…
It was fortunate this hotel, like our hotel had full electrical power in the evenings. Large portion of Nepal, like India only have electricity 8-10 hours a day. After that, they must use batteries and generators. Driving through the streets at night is a little eerie as you see candles, a lot of darkness, some portable generators…a different way of life compared to the western world.
Our hotel, the Soaltee Crowne Plaza was quite unique as it housed many diplomats from many countries as well as hosted a Casino that only foreigners can visit.
I played some baccarat like James Bond which resulted in winnings to pay for a nice dinner 🙂
Back to the nice dinner at Krishnarpan…
It was an amazing 9 course meal with private menus that was complemented with the local rice wine called “raksi” (moonshine).
We of course shared food with the gods first following local tradition.
Quite a treat and food flavors. It was hard to make it through all 9 courses.
Great way to end a few days in Nepal.
Today, Nepal was like the Northwest United States and Seattle. Rainy and overcast. We wanted to take a flyover of the Himalayas and Mount Everest, but the weather just did not permit it. The mountains were not even visible today 😦
So we toured around the area a little more and saw the largest Tibetan Buddhist Stupa known as Boudhanath.
It actually took a little while to walk around. It felt like home by walking in the light rain with no umbrellas.
We then went out into the countryside a little bit more to see some more history and have some local lunch.
We went to Bhadgaon and walked through the local village above.
Bhadgaon used to be the capital of Nepal during the second half of the 15th century.
It was nice to have a local lunch in one of the old pagodas in the square
And watch a wedding procession and listen to the local band as they went by:
Last, in the afternoon, we visited the Pashupatinath Temple along the riverbank of the Bagmati river. This area was also full of monkeys that were rampant and interested in snacks visitors might share…
This holy Hindu site is where cremations are performed daily and many people visit to watch and pay respects. It is a very public experience.
The only disappointment is all the pollution that is the end result in the Bagmati river.
Nepal is known by the phrase “Never Ending Peace and Love”. We found Nepal to be a very secular country despite being a formal Hindu state. Today, we spent most of our time in the 3 cities including Kathmandu. The Kathmandu valley is approximately 1 mile above sea level, so you can feel the elevation when climbing up stairs when you are from Seattle. Interesting piece of trivia: Nepal receives more tourists than all of India and they love the foreign tourists as part of their economy.
Early morning fog like much if this northern region…
On the way to the (believed) oldest Buddhist stupa in the world, we saw a compound of the famous Gurkha commando unit that comes from Nepal. They are one of the most decorated soldiers in the world in the British Army.
Next, we went to Chabahil. We encountered dozens of Rhesus monkeys were very friendly and loved us when we had fruit to offer.
They enjoyed watching us throw coins into the memorial fountain to earn good luck 🙂
Next, we climbed up the steps to the Buddhist stupa. It is quite a climb depending on which route you take.
The top is filled with numerous memorials, shrines and also a Tibetan monastery.
Not to mention a lot of dogs and monkeys.
It is important that you walk around the stupa clockwise, and only in out numbers of circles. Never an even number of revolutions or bad luck will be the result!
Later in the day, we walked extensively around the city visiting other public squares and temples.
There are A LOT of them in the three cities in the Kathmandu valley. As a joke, we also walked by the “freak street” that made Kathmandu famous back in the 1960s…
We tried to see the living goddess in Nepal (Kumari), but she was not available.
We only got to say hello to her dog when we went into her house.
In case you missed some of my other posting when we were in Nepal:
David Cross Travel Blog 