Dublin

Our flight home wasn't until late this evening, so we had a whole day to do what we wanted, which started, naturally enough, with finding somewhere for breakfast, coffee and a read of our books. After that, we made our way to the Guinness factory.

There are a lot of interesting things to do and see in Dublin but what swayed us was the Gravity Bar at the top of the visitor centre, which seemed a good spot for the Minx to take some photos on which to base the Dublin drawing in her series of cityscapes.

The most interesting part for me was watching the film of the coopers at work, making the barrels in which the Guinness would ultimately be shipped out of the factory. The work was incredibly skillful with so much of the work done by eye and also very physical. I can't imagine working that hard all day. (I found the video on YouTube, if you're interested: it's here.)

You gradually follow the tour up the building, floor by floor, until you reach the Gravity Bar where we enjoyed a pint of Guinness and took some photos. It was fascinating seeing the city from up here: it seemed so much more dense than it did on the streets.

Our next stop was lunch in an American-style bar on the way to the Irish Museum of Modern Art and then we went on to the museum itself. It was brilliantly sunny, as I think you can tell from this photo, which features my favourite exhibit.

When we arrived in Dublin, yesterday, I posted this photo, which my Twitter friend Luci commented on. Luci was one of my first friends on Twitter - we bonded over a mutual love of Booths' cheese counter - and today presented an opportunity for us to finally meet up, which we did at a pub near her house. It was a splendid end to our visit; Luci proved to be lovely in person and the three of us spent a delightful hour or so sitting in the sunny pub garden until the Minx's alarm went off to remind us to catch the bus back to the airport.

And so we made our farewell to Dublin and enjoyed a remarkably pleasant flight home. As far as I could tell, even the Minx was relaxed and as happy as I think she'll ever be on an aeroplane.