Fair city, Strumpet City, Dirty Old Dublin

Or so they say! But Dublin was lovely to us. After a noisy Aer Lingus experience, we arrived, ate and drank late outside then landed back for the first of four nights at the swishest hotel i've ever stayed in and my first taste of a bellini cocktail.

Friday saw us grab breakfast in a pavement cafe, grin at hearing a local shout the immortal"yer a feckin' eejit" phrase down his mobile phone, then on to loll about in the natural history museum....i couldn't take my eyes off the extinct gigantic deer and old Irish wolfhounds; if either of them had your back you'd be the King or Queen of Ireland...then we did some hopping on and hopping off across the City's live commentary busses, grab a couple hair of the dogs at the Guinness Storehouse (as modelled in blur-o-vision here by Dave), listen to the stories of the Easter Rising at Kilmainham Gail, followed by the obligatory Irish live Music in bars beside the Liffey (although they included Scotland''s tourist fave, Wild Mountain Thyme???), finally on to food and more drink as night fell.

Pretty much a perfect first day of our first time away together in too many years.