Since Belfast we had promised Number 3 a ride in a cool bus. We were thinking about the red double-decker sightseeing busses for Dublin, in the end we decided to take the easy route and buy tickets for BigBus Dublin, a company with slightly less red open-top double-decker busses. They started from our campground at 9.30am which seemed to make it the logical choice.

Dublin had overwhelmed me the second I started reading about it. We’ve been tourists in big cities before but somehow, after driving the Wild Atlantic Way for almost its entire length, Dublin seemed daunting. Most of the “must see”s and “top things to do” didn’t feel very kid-friendly, at least not with small kids. Trinity Collage seems amazing…we skipped it altogether as it felt like it would bore the kids to walk around university. The pub scene…Flo’s and my heart bled but there was no good way of making it work with the kids.

So here’s what we did DO. We bought 48 hour hop on-hop off tickets for the BigBus Dublin. Starting at 9.30am, we left for town from our campground. I was anxious we’d miss it, the online tickets didn’t really come through on time, everybody got stressed…in the end, our camera fell down. Pretty spectacularly as well. Luckily, it was only slightly damaged. The battery which was missing a lid already before the trip now stopped staying inside its casing. Flo managed to wedge it in with tape for now…it will need lots of TLC once we’re back home. There’s probably more minor damage but at least it worked for the rest of the day.

The bus drove on the motorway for about 30 minutes without a stop. It was rather quick compared to the 45 minutes regular buses take to get to town. Stopping at “Stop Number 1” of the tour, we had to switch buses but left for real this time within 4 minutes for the 90 minutes sightseeing tour. That is the first thing we did: Get a feeling of the lay of the land, see some sights, have the kids enjoy an open-top bus ride.

It gave us an idea of what we could do later in the afternoon or even tomorrow. Driving by the Guinness Storehouse, a very popular stop of the tour, we decided that we’d get tickets for tomorrow for this attraction. Arriving back in the midst of Dublin’s center, we got off at the northern side of the river Liffey at lunch time. The restaurant we’d picked for lunch was closed unfortunately (no lunch on Mon-Weds) so we ended up in a very different location: A small Korean eatery in the back of a Korean supermarket. A very unlikely thing to stumble upon but lucky for us as the food was delicious and even the kids tugged in properly which is always a concern.

From here, we explored the city on foot. The Temple Bar District was just over there, on the other side of the river, so we crossed Ha’Penny Bridge. While admiring the bridge and the river, we noticed a person floating in the river realizing a second later that this person needed to be saved which happened in form of a bystander shedding his cloths and jumping into the river. Many rings were thrown, most of them poorly. A minute or so later, the fire fighters arrived and they were professionals at throwing lifesaving devices into the river. Two of them joined the bystander in the water by which point we left as it looked like a successful save already. Number 3 was rattled by the situation and the loud noises of fire fighters and ambulance.

The Temple Bar district looked pretty epic, thus adding to our heartache. Checking which sights were near, Flo picked the Chester Beatty Library. It turned out to be a really cool place. The Agent of Entropy slept through most of it (again) but Number 3 was pretty engaged with what was on display.

Time for coffee! Going to Clement & Pekoe didn’t take too long and their sweet treats were absolutely lovely. Plus, they had a whole wall full of different teas on display. I actually bought some to give my sister when we’re back home. There was time for one more thing this afternoon before dinner and it was my time to pick. The kids had picked the bus, Flo had picked the library, now it was my go. Fair and square, right? Unfortunately, Number 3 made quite the fuss that he wasn’t allowed to pick but we stuck to St Patrick’s cathedral for the afternoon.

Walking there was a chore not because it was far away but my kid made it pretty damn exhausting. And then we were there, bought tickets and the amazing lady at the counter gave him crayons and a booklet “Explore St Patrick’s with Millie the Mouse”. He was all in for that, looking at things, discovering flags and bells, creating his own flag and generally loving it. Flo got to listen to most of the audio guide while Millie the Mouse taught me a couple of things as well. XD

After a ten minute break in the park right next to St Patrick’s, we went for dinner. The kids were tired, we were tired and a fancy restaurant would probably end in a disaster. So we decided to have pizza, enthusiastically agreed to by our 2 year old. A nine minute walk through a more and more residential looking neighbourhood later, we walked through a pub to get to a back yard with a pizza place. It was a little piece of heaven in form of a woodfired pizza oven. I shared my “Smoked Magherita” daily special pizza with the Agent who ate two whole slices of it. That is A LOT for such a tiny human. It was so good! The tomatoes had been smoked over applewood chips, giving the whole pizza a smoky flavour. Yum yum yum.

Alright, time to get the bus back to our car and the tent at the campground. Oh, the buses back only run once an hour…we better get going. Number 3 was an utter champion running in front while we hustled through the streets to the bus stop. It was getting late and another hour in the city seemed daunting with the tired kids. The bus was late as seems to be a usual occurrence in Dublin so we even had to wait for it. Then a 45 minutes bus ride and finally, we were back at the tent and put the kids to bed.