Day 1: Dublin

I was happy to get upgraded to Business Class and to score one of the cabin's only four "Thrown Seats", giving me the ability to lay completely flat and sleep during the overnight with lots of room, storage, and privacy. It was by far the best air travel experience I ever had. Big KUDOS to Aer Lingus!

After arrival at DUB I took advantage of the Aer Lingus "Rejuvenation Lounge" where you can shower, freshen up, and have a bite to eat. Then I took one of the Air Coach buses to Trinity College. The comfortable and short ride is a mere €11.50 round trip and gave me my first view of the City Centre. I arrived in sunshine and about 68 degrees.

It is hard to imagine that this clean and vibrant city was the biggest slum in Europe when my grandfather was born in County Galway in 1900. At that time, 26,000 Dublin families were living in tenements, often three generations to a single room.

Today, Dublin is ranked as the most expensive city in the eurozone in terms of the cost of living. Dublin had the highest occupancy rate for hotels among major European cities last year and the third highest increase in average room rates after Kiev and St Petersburg. It is estimated that new hotels and extensions to existing ones will provide almost 6,000 additional bedrooms in the city by 2020. At the start of last December, there were 69 projects in the pipeline in the city which will provide an additional capacity of 5,964 bedrooms.

Trinity College is situated just off Dublin's main downtown shopping area, Grafton Street in the heart of the City. Trinity, the University of Dublin, boasts over 600 guest rooms and apartments on its historical university campus. I have a nice guest room and full bath on the first floor of one of the many historic buildings. It is an oasis of calm in the centre of this bustling city. The 42 acre campus is almost dead center in the city and perfectly located for me to explore the city on foot with the help of a Hop On/Hop Off Bus.

Trinity College is home to some of Ireland’s greatest cultural treasures: the Book of Kells, the Old Library and the Science Gallery.

The que at the Book of Kells seemed to go for blocks. I knew in advance that this would likely be the case because my brother, Glenn, attempted to tour it when he visited Dublin, but the line was

too long to wait. Fortunately, I was able to reserve a specific time online months ago and walked right in with an advance ticket. I also toured the "Long Room" of the Old Library which is quite impressive.

I took a stroll and crossed the O'Connell Bridge (built in 1794 and originally named the Carlisle Bridge) over the River Liffey and I returned over the famous Ha' Penny Bridge (built in 1896 and known also as the Liffey Bridge but originally named the Wellington Bridge). The clean looking Liffey River flows right through the centre of Dublin.

Before the Ha'penny Bridge was built there were seven ferries, operated by a William Walsh, across the Liffey. The ferries were in bad condition and Walsh was informed that he had to either fix them or build a bridge. Walsh chose the latter option and was granted the right to extract a ha'penny toll from anyone crossing it for 100 years.

As I was walking back to Trinity from dinner, I "stumbled" into a cozy Irish pub called The Green Hen. Not only does the barman look like Jesus, but they have a vegan menu that includes a vegan brownie topped with vegan ice cream and chocolate sauce! And, they have Guinness' newly released non-alcoholic beer!

Guinness introduced the non-alcoholic craft lager in Ireland as it looks to cash in on a growing consumer trend for cutting back or giving up on drinking altogether. Alcohol consumption levels in Ireland have fallen by 25 per cent over the past decade, according to figures compiled by the Alcohol Beverage Foundation of Ireland. The trend is particularly noticeable among young people, where drinking levels have plummeted in recent years. And they claim that seven out of ten drinkers couldn’t tell that Pure Brew contained no alcohol in blind tests with normal beers. They believe the new NA brew could prove a timely lifeline for Ireland’s pub trade.

The crackdown on drunk-driving has been blamed, in part, for forcing huge numbers of boozers to call time over the past decade. And vintner groups have warned that new proposals could be the death knell for pubs in rural areas, where punters have no option but to travel by car. Ireland's new Road Traffic Bill proposes an automatic three-month ban on drivers with 51mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood — equivalent of drinking less than a pint! I've never been much of a beer drinker, but must admit, it is pretty good!

So far, Dublin reminds me of San Francisco in many ways. For one thing, I look around at the majority of people here and I feel really old!

People are very friendly and I wish I had a Euro for every time someone said today "watch your step, sir!"

St. Anne's is known as "The Church In The Heart Of The City." And, it is surrounded by pub after pub with mostly young professionals spilling into the streets with their pints in hand having a grand time!