Dublin

J had a call up this morning from HO to ask if he would fly to Crete this afternoon to which he agreed so it left Mrs J, Mr T and I to enjoy a pre-planned visit to Dublin's fair city. We took the train from Malahide to Dublin and then hopped on a 'Do Dublin, hop on hop off' open topped bus tour. On the first one we sat on the top deck right at the back and in the sunshine to start with and then there was a cloudburst, so we all scuttled down onto the lower deck, and for the first part of the day we found ourselves doing that quite often, but by Mid-afternoon the weather settled and we enjoyed all the wonderful sights and atmosphere which is Dublin, beautifully and often wittily recounted by our excellent drivers. Can't add extras on my old IPad so have just done a little collage of my favourites: the beautiful Samuel Beckett Signature Bridge, shaped like a harp, the Famine Memorial, the smallest pub possibly in the world and which only has seating capacity for 26 people, and the cheapest pint of Guinness in the city and the replica of Jeannie Johnston, the tall ship which transported emigrant passengers to North America during the Irish Famine, returning with timbers bound for the ports of Europe. Ooooh I do love a bit of history and Ireland's full of it and we saw and heard so much more of it. Didn't have time to do the Guinness tour but did walk in Trinity College grounds, had lunch in Flanagans, saw the American Ambassador's White House look-alike residence in the beautiful Phoenix Park, Facebook's HQ, Oscar Wilde's house and statue, an awful lot of pubs and soooo much more.
Back home to Malahide late, we've done a lot of walking and we're all ready to hit the hay. Poor J won't get in 'til 2.30am, or later.