Saturday 14 April Dublin 2007

We got up and Jeremy cooked us poached eggs on toast with smoked salmon and mushrooms, very yummy. Susie and Jeremy were off to view 3 houses as they are hoping to move soon. Andrew and I decided that we'd find a tour bus and do some exploring. It's a beautiful morning, the sun is shining and it feels like summer has arrived early. We walked into Dublin centre and found a place selling fresh fruit smoothies, had one each and found the tour bus by Trinity College. We enjoy these bus tours, it's a great way to see new cities and work out which bits you want to spend time exploring. The driver was a great joker and we drove up Grafton Street - Dublin's poshest shopping street - passed the National Gallery, the National History Museum, Temple Bar the area of restaurants, clubs and pubs, Dublin Castle and the Christ Church Cathedral. We disembarked at St. Patricks Cathedral for a look around it. It is a gorgeous building, the stained glass is lovely. Jonathan Swift of Gulliver's Travels fame is buried here, he was the Dean of the Cathedral from 1713 to 1745. We walked around admiring this lovely Cathedral, then went out to wait for the next bus. Just after we'd boarded the bus the driver pointed out a Malteser man walking down the road with two girls, the driver stopped the bus and the girls boarded and handed packs of Maltesers to all the passengers, cool! We saw the Stiffy on the Liffy and the Tart with a Heart or Cart depending on how you view Molly Malone. The Floozy is apparently in a crate in storage while they decide what to do with her! We got off at the Guinness Storehouse for a saunter round, the queues were unbelievable to take the trip around the brewery, so this time we settled for buying some Guinness fudge and continuing our bus trip. This didn't happen as the queue was so long to catch a bus we decided to walk back into the centre of town instead. We wandered back into town and went to the famous Burdocks fish and chip shop (it has a list of famous singers/actors etc. who have visited up on the wall) and bought sausage in batter and chips for lunch. We crossed the road and sat in the garden of the Christ Church Cathedral to eat them in the sunshine. Walking on we found a pretty little square with a market, bought coffee and cake and walked around the market. Jeremy phoned and we arranged to meet up at the Trinity College bar for a drink in the gardens. Trinity College is a beautiful building with lovely gardens, the Book of Kells is on exhibit in it's library. We relaxed in the gardens with a beer and chatted about our day. We went to the Fallon & Byrne wine bar/shop later on. This is a brilliant place where you can go and look through their wine warehouse and choose wines to drink there with a snack or just buy the wines of your choice. There are comfy armchairs and papers to read, so you can relax as long as you like. Upstairs is an excellent deli and fresh fish shop, I was most impressed with this place. We found a bottle of Henscheke and ordered a cheese and bread platter to share. Later we bought more wine to take back to the apartment, we strolled back to the apartment via Merrion Square Park and stopped there to see the statue of Oscar Wilde. Having dropped off the shopping we went off out for dinner at Mocha Monday Bistro not far from Susie and Jeremy's apartment. We had an excellent meal with a lovely bottle of wine there, then returned to chez Susie & Jeremy where Susie opened a bottle of Veuve Clicquot to celebrate our recent marriage. We spent the rest of the evening as yesterday, chatting, laughing and drinking.