After a pleasant English breakfast, JP and I headed out for the day. He was heading to the records office, and I decided to tag along so that I could get in a good view of St. Stephen's Green, which was on the way. It's a beautiful park, with fountains and gazebos, a tranquil pond, as well as a few statues, like the one of Francis, Duke of Bedford. And it has a fairly nice entrance gate, Fusilier's Arch, on its northwest corner.

We parted company there, and I decided to stop by the St. Stephen's Green Mall to look for a souvenir for my brother, a glass tankard. (I'd purchased one with 'Ireland' and some shamrocks on it the previous night, but I wanted a more classic, plain one.) I didn't have much luck, as they had pretty much the same souvenirs I found in Temple Bar the night before, and the glasswares stores didn't have anything so common. I did, however, have an interesting experience with the restroom there - I had to pay 15p for the privilege of using it. It was worth it, too - the stalls were all blacklit and exceedingly clean.

From there I made my way over to my main stop for the morning, Dublin Castle.

On the way back from the Castle I had time to stop by St. Patrick's Cathedral and snap a few pix, as well:
rear three-quarter view
side of the steeple, close up
side view with garden (flying buttress visible)

I met up with JP for lunch across the street from Trinity College, and we wandered around a bit, mostly up and down the bank of the River Liffey. Somewhere near the statue of O'Connell, we popped into a souvenir store to continue the hunt for a plain tankard. It was fruitless, but it did give me an opportunity to get a picture with a Guinness Bicentennial Sign.

We had lunch at a neat little sandwich shop/bookstore, called The Winding Stair. The banana and nutella crepe I got for dessert was decadent...

Then we were off again along the River Liffey. There we got a couple pictures of the Four Courts building, traditional home of Ireland's judiciary.

Our destination for the afternoon was the Guinness Storehouse, the "home, heart and soul" of the Guinness brand of stout.

Heading back toward Temple bar from the there, we snapped a few more pics:
the facade of St. Audoen's church, the only remaining medieval parish church in Dublin
Christ Church Cathedral
Dublinia, Dublin's medieval heritage center

After that, it was about time for dinner. JP wanted to unload all the goodies we'd bought at the Storehouse gift shop, so he went back to the bed & breakfast while I camped out in Grogan's Pub and had myself a pint. When he got back, he grabbed a cuppa, and we split a toasted cheese sandwich, traditional pub fare. That wasn't enough, though, so we set off in search of a decent Irish restaurant. None that we could find really sounded very appealing (or vegetarian-friendly, for JP), so we ended up at Yamamori, a rather popular Japanese place.