Dublin - 愛爾蘭的首都 Capital of Ireland

愛爾蘭環島遊(第6-7天) Round Tour in Ireland (6-7th Day) - 都柏林Dublin

在Cobh遊覽車了半天，我們便向北走，前往都柏林。車程約差不多3小時，所以我們選擇在兩小時車程的Kildare Outlet Mall休息，吃午餐並且血拼一番。
After spending the whole morning at Cobh, we started to drive north to Dublin which would take almost three hours.  Hence, we stopped by the Kildare Outlet Mall after driving for two hours to have a late lunch as well as a shopping spree.

Kildare Outlet Mall現不算很大，但都有不少香港人或亞洲遊客喜愛的品牌，如NorthFace、Asics、Samsonite、Crabtree & Evelyn、Furla等等；大部份的店舖都可提供表格或電腦咭讓遊客在離境時於機場安排退稅。這Outlet Mall正進行擴建工程，不久的將來會有更多品牌進駐。
Kildare Outlet Mall was not very large, but it consisted of many brands which people from Hong Kong or Asia loved, eg. NorthFace, Asics, Samsonite, Crabtree & Evelyn, Furla, etc.  Many of the shops could offer tax refund forms or record cards for tourists to submit tax refund at the airport upon leaving Ireland.  The mall was undergoing expansion and more brands would be moving in soon.

St Patrick's Cathedral

然後再開車大半小時，我們便到達都柏林，並在市內觀光一番。都柏林很熱鬧，有不少道路是單程，好彩跟GPS走都挺可靠。我們先前往St Patrick's Cathedral，然後向更中心的地方前進，但可能是時近5點才到市中心，人較多，找到車位後我們便徒步往部份距離不遠的景點，並走訪了Trinity College、市府廳、酒吧區等。

Continuing the drive for almost an hour, we arrived Dublin and grab the chance to tour around the city.  Dublin is a crowded city, many of the roads are one-way.  Luckily, the GPS was helpful and reliable.  We first went to St Patrick's Cathedral.  Then, when moving towards more centre of the city, it started to have many people as it was already 5pm.  Once we found a place to park the car, we visited some of the nearby tourist spots on foot, eg. Trinity College, City Hall, the bars area, etc.

Trinity College

Bewleys Hotel

由於第二天早上要乘早機離開，我們預訂了機場附近的Bewleys Hotel(現改名為Clayton Hotel)。酒店距機場只幾分鐘車程，並每20分鐘有免費巴士前往機場。 酒店房間很寬敞且設備齊全，Check-in之後，我們先到酒店旁加油站的餐廳吃晚餐，點了的wrap和漢堡都美味，然而製作需時，落單後要等大約10分鐘，但勝在新鮮炮製。

As we needed to take an early flight on the next day, we have booked the Bewleys Hotel near the airport (now named Clayton Hotel).  The hotel is just a few minutes of drive from the airport and it has shuttle bus every 20mins.  The rooms were spacious and fully equipped.  After checking in, we went to the gas station next to it and have a quick dinner at the cafe there.  The wraps and burgers were delicious though we needed to wait for about 10mins after placing orders.  But, the good point was they were fresh made.

晚餐後，部份人回酒店先梳洗，另外，其中兩人就駕車到機場還車，然後坐租車公司的穿梳小巴回酒店。Then, some of us went back to hotel for shower first and two drove to the airport to return the car.  After this, the car rental company sent us back to the hotel in their van.

在第七天的清早，我們乘坐穿梳巴士到達都柏林機場，辦理登機手續及寄行李，通過出境櫃檯後，我們便找尋辦理退稅的櫃檯，由於機場有部份地方正在翻新，有些地方被圍板遮蓋，我們還是邊行邊問，好快使找到櫃檯，有別於很多其他地方的機場要排長龍待官員蓋章，在這裡我們只需填妥表格，連同發票投入收集箱便可，或者，如果商戶是把可退稅交易儲於智能咭上，只要把咭在這裡的自動退稅機一掃，並輸入資料，連表格都不用填，之後，退稅款項便會存到登記的信用咭賬戶內。In the early morning of the seventh day, we went to the Dublin Airport by the shuttle bus.  After checking-in the luggage and passing through immigration, we looked for the tax refund counter.  As parts of the airport were under renovation, some of the places were covered with hoarding boards.  After asking a few staff, we had quickly located the refund counter.  Unlike many airports elsewhere at which people need to queue up for the duty stamp, we only needed to fill in the form and submited it together with the invoices into the collection box.  For transactions that were stored on smart card, we just needed to swipe the card at the self-helped machine and entered the relevant information without the need to fill in a paper form.  After that, the refunded tax would be deposited to the registered credit card.


一切辦妥，我們在機場店舖瀏覽一番後，登上飛機，完結了一星期的愛爾蘭之旅。
With all the things done, we browsed around some of the shops in the airport and then, boarded onto the plane to end our one-week Ireland tour.

有用網址 Useful websites:
Kildare Outlet Mall - http://www.kildarevillage.com/
Visiting Dublin - http://www.visitdublin.com/
St Patrick's Cathedral - http://www.stpatrickscathedral.ie/
Trinity College - http://www.tcd.ie/
Clayton Hotel (formerly Bewleys Hotel) - http://www.claytonhoteldublinairport.com/