(D) Our first (and only) full day in Dublin Liane and I both woke up around 3.30am, partly because of body clocks I guess but also because we’d both gone to sleep so early and slept well.

We did some blogging, emailing and general faffing about whilst waiting for the sun to almost rise and then went out to take some photos and enjoy walking along the Liffey without the crowds. We managed to snap some lovely shots of the Ha'penny Bridge at sunrise and then wandered through the Temple Bar area all the while noticing fabulous doors, buildings, lanes & wall art etc and taking photos with no people getting in the way! We enjoyed strolling in the crisp morning air before finding a café across the river and having a fabulous cup of coffee that I thoroughly enjoyed.

After a quick sojourn back home, to drop some of the warmer clothes not needed once the sun came out, we set out for our day’s excursions. Our basic plan was Trinity College for the Long Room and the Book of Kells and St Stephens Green for the Little Museum of Dublin and then we had quite a few potential “maybes” depending on time, weather and inclination. As it turned out we ended up achieving everything including the maybes so we had a full but wonderful day!

Firstly we checked out where to get on the Airport Link bus tomorrow morning and visited a tourist shop for the regulatory magnets, postcards & keychains etc, before crossing the road to jump on one of the hop on hop off buses to make our way to Trinity College. 

I’ve seen the Book of Kells before and it was lovely to see one of them again – it is truly amazing how intricate they are and how they’ve survived so well - but the real buzz for me was a return visit to the Long Room. I seriously could move in there – to me it is the most perfectly decorated room ever created…… just wood and arches and tiers and walls and walls of brown/orange/red covered books. Total and utter heaven, the beauty of which stunned me anew in the flesh – honestly I could just cry taking in the sight. Pure, unadulterated bliss is how I would describe being there!

Once Liane managed to drag me away we went to a pub for a coffee, and I do mean a coffee; it’s a lovely thing in both England and Ireland that the pubs are not just for the drinkers. They are also a family place and somewhere you can pop in for a hot drink which I think is fabulous.

After that we made our way towards St Stephen’s Green, taking our time of course as we had to keep stopping to take photos of doorways, columns, gates and all the myriad of things that draw our fancy. The Green itself should be a must see for Dublin I reckon (says the woman who didn’t make it there last time!). With all shades of green and yellow leaves on the trees, the gorgeous autumn leaves on the ground, the bridges beckoning and the water shimmering, it was just a beautiful, restful space to meander through.

Liane encouraged me to have a go at the “famous” autumn leaf toss; we’d seen a photo of Cassie doing this when she was in Europe and our attempts in Greece to replicate it were unsuccessful. This time – victory! I think the photo turned out really well, mainly because it looks as if I was having as much fun as I actually was…… I recommend regular autumn leaf tossing as a mood enhancer – great fun!

We had a quick snack and drink in a pub nearby whilst waiting for our tour at the Little Museum of Dublin. This is truly a hidden gem and I would highly suggest any and everyone who comes here to visit this fabulous “social” museum. Our guide, Justine, was a natural at the job – interesting and informative, amusing and sincere AND she had a beautiful singing voice, entertaining us with a great rendition of “Dublin Saunter”.

From there we strolled down Grafton Street, us and about ten thousand others; it probably wasn’t actually that many but neither Liane nor I really “do” crowds so it seemed like a cast of at least tens of thousands…..I don’t know how anyone can bear to be a tourist in high season – I’m a really big fan of off season travel!

We visited Dublin Castle, well the grounds anyway, on our way to the Chester Beatty Library as Liane had heard the Library was somewhere worth a visit. They have a fabulous permanent collection of all things books….. as in the history of paper and binding and inks and….. well everything you can possibly think of! I think both of us appreciated it more than we expected so we were happy we’d gone to see it.

Even though we’d been out for hours and hours and were starting to wilt slightly we decided we’d squeeze in a visit to the Guinness Factory “on our way home”. Inverted commas as it was on the hop on hop off bus route home but really if we’d just walked across the river we’d have been home in no time at all! We second guessed our visit a few times: there was a huge line up, and once inside we felt there was WAY too many people barging around the place and also Liane was starting to feel really hungry (we realized that we had barely nibbled all day) but we kept finding solutions and pep talking ourselves out of leaving.

One of our solutions would not be acceptable to many a tourist: I call it “doing a Winston Churchill tour”. The title is in honour of Liane, Gwendoline and my visit to Blenheim Palace where we totally whistle-stopped the exhibitions of his life as we just couldn’t handle the sheer number of people. Whilst we definitely "did a Winston" at the Guinness Storehouse, the visit to the Gravity Bar with it's 360 degree views and the drinking of the “free” pint of Guinness you get with your ticket, WAS however completed so I think that’s the most important thing!

Exhausted, though happy, by this stage after our jam packed day we decided on the hop on hop off bus on the way home to the Arlington that we’d have dinner downstairs in the hotel. We didn’t even go upstairs first, just stopped, had dinner then made our way to our room where we’ve been happily packing, blogging and drinking red wine. Tomorrow is the beginning of our Irish road trip – out of the city and into the countryside…..yay!!!

(L) We were both wide awake just after 3 so had hours and hours to get organised for the day and start doing some blogging. There was a few technical glitches as we tried transferring photos to all the various places we wanted to save them and working out how best to get both our photos into the blog. At one stage my external hard drive refused to let me save as had somehow become a "read only" drive so Deb consulted trusty Google and before long we had the problem sorted. So many little time wasting problems but we did get a fair bit done before heading out into the icy cold morning for a pre crowds wander and photo taking followed by a quick coffee and back to the Hotel to get sorted and ready for a full day in Dublin.

The plan was to head out up O'Connell Street to find the Airlink stop so that in the morning we aren't wandering around looking for it whilst lugging our backpacks and all the other bits and pieces! We managed to find that easily so jumped on the Green bus to go see the Book of Kells and the Long Library. €11 each and a short line to wait in and we're standing in front of the Book of Kells - pretty amazing given how old it is. Next to the Long Library where Debra was in absolute rapture oohing and aahing all over the place. It is an impressive sight certainly but I have never seen anyone so totally mesmerised and in love with a room! 

Once we left there we were both ready for a coffee and toilet break and as luck would have it there was a pub on the corner as we were heading in the direction of our next stop - St Stephens Green and the Little Museum of Dublin.

We ordered our coffee and sat drinking and chatting for about 10 minutes, a group of guys came in to play pool and one of them had a pretty sparkly green dress on so I asked if it was a Bucks Party which sure enough it was. I congratulated him and said "There's still time to change your mind" which evoked a round of cheers and laughter - we said goodbye and I hugged the groom and we went on our merry way. Later that day when Deb and I were chatting about the days events we came to the embarrassing and quite frankly mortifying conclusion that we had "skipped out" without paying for our coffee!! Needless to say since then we have been very conscious of making sure it doesn't happen again.

Next stop - St Stephens Green we spent a lovely half hour or so wandering around taking photos, it's gorgeous! Then as Deb has already said on to the Little Museum of Dublin where we got free entry with our Freedom Pass tickets - this was great, the tour only lasted about half an hour but it was Dublin's history in an interesting and entertaining tour.

We certainly covered some ground today getting lots of things "ticked off" the list as next we wandered down Grafton St and decided to make our way over to Dublin Castle and Chester Beatty Library. Along the way I said I would like to see the Molly Malone statue and as luck would have it as we rounded the next corner there it was! Note on the picture how much lighter her "chest" is - comes from years of affectionate attention in an effort to shoot the perfect holiday snap!

Deb has really covered the rest of the day however I did just want to mention something that happened whilst we were at the Guinness Storehouse. We had done a lot of walking already today and are feeling a tad fatigued so decided to get the lift up to get our free pint of Guinness... there were so many people there and we'd already been in the lift a couple of times and everyone had just squeezed together so more could get on. This particular time there happened to be a staff member at the lift and after a few lifts had come that were full or going in the wrong direction one finally stopped with only 4 guys in it - we waited for the doors to open but after a brief stop the lift just continued on upwards. We all looked at each other and said "what"... the staff member said he had seen one of the guys repeatedly pushing the close door button so as to stop the door from opening ... .what an absolute dick!! Not one of them had looked up or made eye contact with us in the short time the lift was stopped - pigs! FYI we paid €20 each for this tour but I think if you book online it is only €14.

Once we got back to the Hotel we had a lovely meal in the restaurant downstairs which was around €44 and yes I would recommend eating there. They also have a Celtic Night with dinner in a separate area each night which we didn't get to see but I'm sure that would also be very good. 

Upstairs we started working on the blog and sorting photos, which I might say is almost a full time job!! We did intend to have an early night and at one stage when we looked at the clock it was only 8pm but the next minute it was 11.30!! 

Oh well... one of these days we'll stick to the plan (not tomorrow though it seems!!)