The Day we Went to Greystones and Back

 Having failed to find a cafe that served breakfast in the immediate neighbourhood, we reluctantly ended up at the Buttery (the student cafeteria) for breakfast again. I dared to have fruit and yoghurt on my cereal and was told if I did it again tomorrow, I would have to pay twice because it is two different prices. Huh?!

Anyway Wallsy and I headed out after breakfast to catch the commuter train from Tara street to explore the coastal line to the south, with views of Dublin Bay and the coast, while Julie and Mark set off in the opposite direction to spend more time in the city. 

We got a lucky break and walked onto the train that goes south through to Rosslaire Aeroport, stopping at Greystones which was the end of the commuter line and as far as we wanted to go, but it got as there in half the time as, unlike the Dart, it didn’t stop at all stations. The sun was shining (worth a mention!) and the ocean was glistening as we glided past. Spectacular! 






We had time for a quick coffee and croissant in Greystones before hopping on the Dart which would take us back in the direction of Dublin but with options for hopping on and off at any of the many coastal stations along the way. 

We didn’t go far before we jumped off again - the first stop in fact - to see the magnificent tiled murals we had noticed on the platform at Bray. Depicting each decade since the Bray station had opened, these were wonderful records of history and ran the length of platform 2. 


There was a waiting train on platform 1 when we had finished examining these, so we hopped back on and continued the scenic journey. 

We chose to ‘detrain’ at Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leery!), where we took advantage of the amazing weather and walked the 2kms along the seaside promenade to the Martello Tower made famous by James Joyce in Ulysses. This proved to be a real gem. The free entry gave us an introductory talk from an enthusiastic volunteer, which detailed the link between Joyce and the tower, an explanation of much of the material on display, and, when we managed to extract ourselves, a climb up the tower, through the room Joyce and his friends famously stayed in, and out onto the top for views back to Dublin, the coastline and the Wicklow mountains. 





As we were thanking them and leaving, we were asked to sign the visitors book, and given a brochure, a bookmark each and a date-stamped ink drawing of the tower. As Wallsy said, ‘Well, that was worth every cent!’ 

After walking back to the station we decided to jump on the next train to ensure we were back in Dublin in plenty of time for the afternoon’s activities. Back at Trinity, we visited the Perch Cafe and I had the most delicious Ciabatta with mozarella, fresh tomato, spinach and basil pesto.  I thought I was back in Italy. The iced coffee from the cute coffee truck in the square was great too. 

Refreshed and nourished we set about getting ready for the afternoon and evening as our designated time to meet up with Julie and Mark was approaching. 

At 3 o’clock precisely, the knock came on the door and all dressed in our glad rags, (we haven’t had an occasion, or the weather to dress up since we have been in Ireland!), we set out for our tour at The Little Museum of Ireland. 


It was a quirky museum tour, to say the least, but it was a quirky museum, so it fitted the bill. We were very well entertained by our guide Emma, who was both a talented actor, singer and guide, with a wealth of knowledge which she passed on in an entertaining way. We were able to wander some areas at our leisure and the huge Georgian dolls house was my favourite display. 


When we had finished at the museum, we moved on to find dinner. We tried Milano on Dawson street, but they were already booked out, despite telling us when we rang yesterday that they only took walk-ins up until 7pm … it was just after 5! Turning into Anne st sth, we came across Dolce Sicily. They were very happy to accommodate us upstairs, so we duly followed the waiter up many flights of narrow stairs to our table. The food was magnifico!  

Happily satisfied, we walked along into Grafton st, almost feeling like locals, these streets becoming so familiar, and turned into King street where we quickly found the Gaiety Theatre, the venue for tonight’s entertainment. 

I was the only one in our group to have never seen Riverdance performed and I enjoyed it very much from our dress circle seats. 30 years on, the dancing and the music has not lost its appeal. 




We check out tomorrow but not before a final fling here at Trinity College. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Exploring the Emerald Isle

Image
And so the story begins before we have even left home… Bounding out of bed to the sound of the 06:30 alarm, my mind already running through the checklist of things to be achieved before our arranged pick up time of 11:00 am, the first task was to strip the bed of our sheets, get them washed and (hopefully) dried, and the bed made up with fresh linen ready for the arrival of the second of our two teams of housesitters in ten days time. Next, was to do the same with the towels, but as I was pressing ‘start’ on the washing machine full of sheets, Stephen wandered out, phone in hand, saying ‘don’t hurry, we have plenty of time!’ Singapore Airlines had helpfully ‘retimed’ our flight ex Melbourne to 20:05, from the original time of 15:20, according to an email sent at 01:38. Going back to bed was obviously not an option, although of our fellow travellers M & J, J wisely reported taking the decision to grab a couple more hours sleep in lieu of the delay!  We instead, went ahead with o...
Read more

The Day we Walked from Dunquin to Ballyferriter

Image
 We had a later start to the day today, with breakfast at 8:30 am, before setting off for the Blasket Centre; a heritage and cultural museum dealing with the history of the stunning islands that had dominated so much of our view during yesterday’s walk.  The people who had lived there until the islands were abandoned in 1953, had been isolated, not so much by distance from the mainland, but by the harshness of the environment and the often impassable seas. They existed on subsistence farming and fishing, speaking only the Irish language.  When all the young people eventually left for a life of opportunity in other countries however, there were no men to man the fishing boats, and those remaining were forced to admit they could not survive there any longer.  It was a moving story told through comprehensive interactive displays, and we spent a couple of hours immersed in the experience.  After a coffee, we finally set out for today’s leg of the walk to Ballyferrit...
Read more

Robin’s Birthday Surprise - Christchurch

Image
 In the series of birthday surprises, the first was that we got to fly Business Class in a very empty plane (30 passengers!) from Melbourne to Christchurch. Apparently the stars had aligned - a Qantas sale (who can pass that up? Certainly not Wallsy!) and an event, still to be revealed, in NZ. I was also presented with sweet treats, champagne, a qantas cap, qantas keyring and a birthday card. How’s that for a series of surprises!?  The second surprise was that we are staying at the gorgeous Adina Heritage Hotel which I had admired last time we were here and staying over the road from this impressive old Government building that is now the Adina. Not only do I get to see inside this time, I get to sleep in one of its spacious studio apartments for two nights. But that was not the only surprise, it was more importantly the fact that we actually managed to get into the hotel at 12:30am!  Initially faced with a locked door, no response to the intercom and our taxi driving off...
Read more