We took the coach up to Dublin on Wednesday (31 Oct) - 3 hours of numb posteriors and a reminder of why we don't fly in Coach/Economy class these days. Put simply, we are soft. We met our new hosts and had a look around the apartment and got a set of keys. We proceeded with just our cabin bags to the Holiday Inn Express (on our IHG points). The Holiday Inn was experimenting and had live music in the bar - incredible fun for a couple of hours and even had a Guinness (so ticked that off the 'To Do' list). We also enjoyed their massive breakfast buffet the following morning (Irish cooked breakfast - tick). Eventually, utilising our 2 pm late checkout and having gone for a post breakfast snooze, we trundled back to the apartment. The kittens were starvin' Marvins by this point and squealing like there was no tomorrow. How quickly did we learn not to prepare their food with them in the room - the ginger (of course) had his head jammed in the cat food can faster than we could say 'you little b*****!'. So that's us, ensconced in Dublin for our two adorable, ratbag-adjacent 6 month old kittens. Settling in.

Now a fun month strolling about in Dublin as their Winter Festival begins tonight. People. And I know full well we added 2 people to the 'People' but sheesh that was one busy evening at the Winter Festival. Just one person needed to fall at one point and it would have been a crowd crush. Not at all pleasant, but popular with everyone else and very pretty lights to start the wintry, festive season. I can be bought with lots of twinkly lights.

It's been a long time coming, but we figured we were in Ireland long enough to warrant a Heritage Card from the Office of Public Works (it's the National Trust type thing for monuments in Ireland). We had cards years ago on one of our long road trips and it was a small investment to make in order to pop into any of the OPW properties scattered across the country (if for no other reason than the use of a loo). This time around we bought our cards and immediately booked to go and have a guided tour of Kilmainham Gaol - just an outstanding experience all together and we are now both boffed up on all things Victorian and prison related and have learned some more Irish history.

The jail visit was awesome and we picked our day and trotted in to Dublin Castle for our first ever tour of the interior. It was a fascinating visit - particularly the excavated ruins of the powder tower, visiting the interior of the Chapel Royal with the stunning stained glass windows and finally the State Apartments. It was even more special as they were starting to get the Christmas trees and decorations up. We are not fond of self guided tours, audio guides etc, even without the card the guided tour for €12 would beat the 'self-guided' for €8. But who am I kidding - we've never done it because of the cost. We're more happy to spend money - €40 each for a year long Heritage Card - than we are to cough up for individual visits. Between the Castle and the Gaol, we're half way to recouping our pass cost and we're off to Customs House next week - another place we've walked past often, but never visited.

Dublin is not a cheap city to visit, so we know how lucky we are to be here. They do however have an excellent online resource of Free Things to do in Dublin. This time around, being based on the north side of the Liffey for the first time, we have done some serious exploring - walked a section of the Royal Canal out to its confluence with the Liffey, visited Dublin's 'other' public art gallery (the Hugh Lane Gallery), even visited the Garden of Remembrance and, a highlight, The Blessington Basin. Having spent time out in Blessington over the years, we were really impressed with this gorgeous walled garden which was once a reservoir bringing drinking water to Dubliners. It has really made a difference to where we explore being over this side - aside from anything else it meant we could access the Kilmainham Gaol very easily on the Red Line LUAS. We walked a third of the way just to enjoy Bull's Acre by night and pop out on the other side of the Old Hospital. We stayed in an apartment a few years back in Dublin 8 that overlooked the Old Hospital and park - just on the opposite side. Life may be like a box of chocolates - but it's also a jigsaw - we don't see everything the first time we visit a place, but build the picture of our experience up over the years. then we were able to jump on the Red Line again and it was only a 3 minute walk to home. Brilliant.

Finally, over half way through November, Autumn is baring its teeth and we're getting some actually cold weather - it has been a very long and Spring like Autumn for sure compared to past Novembers in Ireland when the frost has been permanently on the ground. We are getting up a head of steam with our Heritage Cards and finally got all the way out to the far side of Phoenix Park to visit Farmleigh House. Much, much posher than it sounds this was once owned by the Guinness family (motza money like) and was gorgeous. Now it's used for visiting heads of state - we even had our photo taken in front of the lobby fire place when the celebrities are photographed - reasonably recently, King Charles and Camilla. It was the first frost of the season today and as we were the only two on the tour, the guide didn't spend too long outside in the chill and instead gave a private (private) tour including parts of the upstairs of the house - even the room where Kofi Annan slept. Very special experience indeed and very lucky to have it.

We took a day off on the Thursday and Friday morning (already up to 22 November - hard to believe) we went down Abbey Road to an absolute gem of a spot we had no idea even existed. The last remnant of the once hugely powerful and massive St Mary's Abbey. There is only the Chapter House left and it only survived after the reformation because the flour mill that took over kept it as a basement to store flour. This is quite possibly the best, free experience we've ever had in Dublin - the history, the atmosphere, not to mention the prayer sung in latin by a man with an incredible voice. We must admit to never having previously heard of the Chapter House of St Mary's Abbey. We've been up and down Abbey Street over the years and finally found out this gem was there due to the OPW map we received when we bought our latest Heritage Card. Nevertheless the photos looked fabulous and it's free to visit with a guided tour. Outstanding! Tours are run a couple of days a week and pre-booking was necessary. We met the superb OPW guide Ralph at the door down the tiny Meeting House Lane and our first word when he opened that nondescript door was 'Wow!' It is an obscenely overused word but we honestly couldn't have said much else. Funnily enough a local Dubliner was walking past to visit an art supplies shop at the end of the lane and poked her head in for a look prior to the start of the tour - also astounded as she never knew the Chapter House was there. This is a one room tour and lasts one hour. That it is just the one room might bother some people (not sure how but still) - there are seats available but the tour is an amazing spoken insight of the Chapter House, it's life and times and how this tiny fragment of medieval Dublin has managed to survive to this day. We were both fascinated - the hour flew by and the conclusion of the tour was a short song by Ralph - a latin prayer - echoing into the vaulted ceiling and sending chills up our spines - A stunning voice and a privilege and blessing to hear it.

That afternoon we visited the Customs House and took the guided tour - just so much history is being jammed into us this visit. We can't believe the end of our Dublin time is almost upon us. 25 November (… a month to Christmas - eek), a Sunday, we thought we'd go to the market at the Digital Hub - it was a gorgeous, blue sky and sunshine day - however - when we arrived (and we weren't the only ones) there was no market to be seen. Unfortunately due to a weather warning that turned into a fizzer, they had cancelled the market and failed to tell all the customers. But it was a lovely walk and we headed home via the Christ Church Cathedral. We heard the choir and music and crept in very quietly to listen to the last 15 minutes of Sunday mass. Just stunning.

Monday 26th we were really starting to feel the cold and James took the chance for an afternoon off and I wandered around the corner to join the architectural tour of the exterior of the Customs House (we'd booked it a week or so back and it would have been rude to cancel). It has always looked stunning - but there was just so much more to it than met the eye. I almost froze - and I was rugged up with shearling, fur hat, gloves, scarf - the works. I survived, but my phone battery wasn't as tough as me - a shame as there were so many photos left untaken. Took a while to warm up that evening - thank god for the bathtub.

We have been past the National Museum of Ireland in the barracks in Dublin 8 so many times it's actually been a bit of a crime that we've not been in - it's even free. We gave ourselves a treat and took the LUAS down and then enjoyed the decorative arts displayed in the museum - phenomenal furniture, art and even a jewellery collection - OMG - in my element. The Christmas Markets are getting set up around Dublin now and we walked home via a couple. Everything is very expensive and commercialised - can barely hear the spirit of Christmas over the ringing of the tills! But it was very Christmassy and we still enjoyed ourselves.

The highlight of the end of our Dublin stay was visiting the Christmas market at the Castle - really, really good. Not actually cheap and nasty tat - lots of local vendors, handmade products and things to look at - very much like some of the local Christmas markets we've visited in Europe in years gone by. Also a Spiegeltent! We've never actually been inside one and it was so pretty, live music and lots of sparkling lights. We even ran into the guy who did the architectural tour of the Customs House. We know we've been in town long enough when we start to run into people we've met before. Obviously time to be moving on - countryside, here we come!