Delicious Dublin.

I was so excited to be visiting Ireland at last, even if for such a short time. I don't know why we never came when we lived in London.

There was a shuttle to take us into the city. Usual price - $7 each way. As it turned out we could have shared a taxi for less but you don't know these things until you've done them and it's too late. Never mind.

We were dropped off just around the corner from Nassau Street. From there we took our favourite mode of transport, a hop on, hop off bus. Did you know that if you can produce your ticket from any other country where the company operates, you get a discount? We always forgot to save ours for the next port, of course.

We climbed to the top unconcerned about rain this time as it was clear blue skies and sunshine all the way but still cool enough for a woolly.

Dublin was a surprise, a very pleasant surprise. It is a beautiful city and it looked its best with hanging baskets and large pots of colour everywhere. The buildings are elegant and if not elegant are quaint but it doesn't matter which adjective you apply for they are all attractive. I particularly loved the Georgian part of the city with its tall, well-proportioned town houses. They all have commercial use nowadays but are all beautifully maintained.

I noticed that the windows on each storey were smaller than the ones on the floor below. That was done for two reasons. Firstly, it gave an impression of greater height as it was more prestigious to have a larger house. The other reason is that it saved on window tax the smaller the window, the less the tax.

The commentary was excellent and had liberal doses of humour, as you'd expect. The Irish have such a strong awareness of their history. Maybe it's because it is so tragic.

I didn't know that another of the problems the Irish had, besides the despotic British, the potato famine and just plain old poverty, were the Vikings. They had invaded Ireland prior to the Normans and recently, during excavations for a new building, over 2000 Viking relics were discovered. They are on display in the Natural History Museum in Dublin but sadly there was no time to visit it. There is also the recreation of an early village called Dublinia which is worth a visit.

As we progressed further along the route we became aware of a strange smell in the air which grew more and more pungent. Then we saw the source - the Guiness factory! I don't like Guiness and I wasn't tempted to hop off by the promise of a free drink for those who do the factory tour.

We did hop off, though, near the statue of Molly Malone and wandered along, looking in every window and exploring interesting alleys and side streets. Eventually we came across O'Neill's, a pub we'd passed earlier while on the bus.

Being time for a drink, in we went. It was dark inside with one tiny room after another. We ordered beers and settled down to look around. It was well patronised but disappointingly, mostly with tourists. There was hardly an Irish accent to be heard, to be sure.

The luck of the Irish was with us, however. Well, to be honest, with me only because I was the only one of the four of us interested, for on the wall nearby was a huge screen showing the Wallabies v Springboks match live and we were way ahead. With the victory ours and our beer drunk, Alan and I went off to Clark's (the shoe shop) as there was a 70% off sale and the others headed back to the shuttle.

Time was running out so, loaded up to the gunnels with bargains, we got a taxi back to the last shuttle and made it on board just in time.

Off to Cobh in County Cork.