Copenhagen

I was able to make a quick visit to Copenhagen, my stay in the city was just over 24 hours, I did not even have enough time to visit neighboring Malmo, Sweden.  I never saw this before but Copenhagen has outdoor foosball tables all over.  Since I saw these outdoor pitches, I have noticed them in other cities too, like Zurich.  I guess you need to bring your own ball.

 The Christianborg Palace, the royal horse stables are here too.  The large area in front of the palace is a show grounds and riding school for horses.

 You can get around with a boat.

 The Stork Fountain in the center of the main shopping street in Copenhagen.  This is actually not a good time to visit this city.  They are installing a new subway system (or something) and at most of the major intersections is construction.  The construction also blocks walking paths though out the city.

 Another palace in the city is the Amalienborg, this palace has guards.

 It's a large open area with four building of the same shape in each corner.

 In the center of the open space is another house monument.

 By chance, I visited during changing of the guards, they must do this daily.  If you are going to visit, it would be good to find a formal schedule for this event.

 Nyhavn Street is a small canal lined by restaurants and shops.

 The buildings along the canal are very colorful, looks very dutch.  This was by view during lunch, fish-n-chips.

 Another part of town is the Copenhagen City Hall, this area is notable because of a bunch of crazy statues.

 Not sure what this is.

 The city hall is on the right, it is also a great open space but much of this area is heavy construction right now.

 I thought this was an outdoor photo gallery, but it turns out it's just advertising for Slovenia.

 Bikes are a very popular form of transportation in Copenhagen and much of central and northern Europe.  Some bikes had yellow tape on the rear wheel, I assume this is like a boot, maybe these bike are illegally parked or abandon.

 Fountain of the Golden Apples.

 The main station is very easy to use and right in center of the city.

 The correct spelling of Copenhagen.

Dublin

This was the view from my hotel room at the Shelbourne, a historical hotel that dates back to 1928, located in the center of Dublin.

 I ended up not spending as much time in Dublin as I expected too, this was a result of traveling outside of Dublin in Galway and the areas south of Dublin like Greystones.

 This is the exit of Dublin from Heuston Station the morning I traveled to Galway.  The next morning I returned to the same spot, checked my luggage into locker and went to the Guinness storehouse and museum which is almost across the street from Heuston Station.

 The tour offered by Guinness is rather amazing, it's a really thorough account of the history of Guinness and the process to make Guinness. The tour also includes the 9000 year long lease signed by Mr. Guinness for the land the factory sits on.

 A few fermentation tanks.

 The museum part of the tour had really cool model boats, used at one time to export Guinness.

 The end of the tour includes a pint.  As she poured these beers she made the point that these were the freshest two Guinness' in the world.

 The bar is the top floor of the factory, the view looking over Dublin is very nice.  Very relaxing.

 You can see rain off in the distance, almost in every direction.

 Good-bye Guinness factory, thanks for the tour!

 Outside of the factory is Dublin.  This is the Spire of Dublin.  It's a 121.2 meter tall spire in the city center.  A previous monument called Nelson's Pillar was here until it was destroyed by the IRA in 1962.

 You can also see the spire from the O'Connell St. Bridge.  This bridge is notable because it is called the only bridge in Europe that is wider than it is long.

 Daily protest, Dublin says No to almost everything.

 Trinity College campus.

 This is a good place to find shelter when strong rains hits without warring.

 I also made an effort to visit St. Patrick's church.

 The interior is amazing, dates back to 1191.

 Nice stain glass too.

 A statue of St. Patrick.

 A view of the outside of my hotel, the Shelbourne.

Dún Laoghaire and Greystones, Ireland

South of Dublin is the towns of Dún Laoghaire and Greystones, it's easy to reach these areas along the coast using the DART train from central Dublin.  Never considered this, but hey, might be fun career change.  But I don't think Irish language uses the word 'fancy' very often, that sounds more like British.

 Dún Laoghaire must be Irelands first line defense against England.  Cannons ready.

 There is a long pier that runs out from the mainland at Dún Laoghaire.

 You can walk to the end of the pier and visit the base of a lighthouse.  It takes about 20 minutes or so to walk out to the end of the pier, along the route you can get some ice cream and other snacks.

 This is the tunnel to the lighthouse.  It started to rain as I approached the lighthouse so I took shelter under here with a couple of other people who did not have an umbrella.

 Good place to park a boat.

 This is kind of the understatement of the year.

 A nice quote from Samuel Beckett, I assume he was writing about this area.

 South of Dún Laoghaire is the town of Greystones.

 A DART train departing from Greystones station.  You really need to watch the schedule, only one or  two trains per hour leave from here.

 Greystones is a small beach community too.  There is also a town along the back side of the beach with restaurants and shops.

 You can see the danger in the painting of surfers below, look at that strong sun, those kids better be Sunning Smart.

 Sun Smart!  I think this is a really important sign for local people.

 Another thing I learned during this trip, the body of water between Ireland and the United Kingdom is called the Irish Sea.  I guess it's not that I did not know what the name of this body of water was I just never thought about it before.