I woke to discover that Rory had finally completed the Golf grand slam which was very pleasing. We discussed whether he would be a shoe in for Sports Personality of the Year or whether he would fit under the international award. Although proud of his Northern Irish roots we thought that he would consider himself more Irish than British and seemed to recollect he opted to play for them in the Olympics.
There were no moans or groans from Karen as she did her ‘log roll’ out of bed this morning which was a good sign. In fact, I almost seemed to be in more difficulty with my lower back caused by a much softer bed and carrying a heavy rucksack through the airport. A hot shower soon eased some of the pain away.
Breakfast was very busy, but we found somewhere to sit. The full Irish breakfast was very welcome, and I may have gone back for seconds. When in Ireland and all that.
The plan today was to ride the Hop on bus to try and minimise the walking for Karen and I bought the tickets at a discount from Reception. The first stop was not far from the Hotel entrance, and we got on the already waiting bus. The commentary was live, amusing, and informative. We rode around to stop 14 after the route took us around Trinity College three times which seemed an ‘Irish’ thing to do to pad out the ride and cost.
Stop 14 was St Patricks Cathedral. I got as far as the entrance lobby, saw the entry fee and aborted. I have a problem paying to go in churches unless there was something specific, I wanted to see or do. Usually I do go in for Karen’s sake as she is more interested in the religious artifacts and stories but as she had Kevin with her, this time it wasn’t a problem. I think the buildings look better from the outside anyhow and so I spent the time walking around St Patricks Park outside and found a nice chair to while away the time and check that St Patrick had indeed removed all the adders form the vicinity. I also kept my eye open for any little folk from Lilliput and wondered about their connection to Leprechauns (a reference to Jonathan Swift who was the Dean of the Cathedral and was buried inside it).
After about 45 minutes Karen & Kevin emerged and seemed happy enough with the guided tour they had been given. Karen was now in need though of a coffee and a sit down and we found a small local café in a converted cutlery shop.
We then walked back to the Molly Malone statue and were respectable in our viewing of the ‘Tart with the Cart ‘after the recent controversy over people rubbing her chest for good luck. Apparently, the plan is to either put her on a higher plinth or give her a security officer for protection. Perhaps people will rub their chest for luck instead.
From here we walked along the bustling Grafton Street and decided to have a lunchtime snack and drink on the rooftop terrace of the grand looking M&S. Following this short break, we walked up to College Green where we got back on the Bus Tour.
This time we went completed the tour back to the Hotel. It took us to pats of Dublin that we had never visited before and were interesting to see.
There seemed to be hundreds of people queuing for the Guinness Storehouse tour as we rode past. We had done this previously and Kevin had already decided he wasn’t that bothered to do it so we grateful not to have to join a long queue.
We then went back to our rooms for a short rest before setting off out again on foot to Temple Bar. We had a very expensive drink on the ground floor of the Oliver St John Gogerty Pub. We found a stool for Karen to perch on and listened to the ubiquitous pub act for a while. They mixed up normal music with fiddly dee music that all seemed to be about someone’s starving dog being killed by a tractor whilst digging for potatoes. We seemed to be treated to the 12-inch version of those songs.
After a while we wandered across to Milano’s which is the Irish name for the Pizza Express chain. We had a short wait for a table and enjoyed the usual choices from the menu. Sadly, though our app didn’t work meaning we had to pay for all our food and drink. Don’t they know who we are?
Back at the hotel we had a drink at the Hotel bar before retiring for the night.
So far Dublin has been better and more affable than I remembered. I have been here a few times before including for work and never been that enamoured by it. I had always felt it had a bit of a ‘woe is me edge’ to it, but not this time. It still felt more like a medium sized city rather than a capital one.
Many things had pleased me including to see that the word for Taxi in Irish was Tacsai which seemed phonetically and poetically Irish. Still hadn’t passed anyone famous on the streets with no name though or been able to persuade Kevin that he really needed to buy himself a Leprechaun Hat and beard.
