Dublin Delights

This is a regular stop for me - between the Luas stop at St Stephen’s Green and Trinity College on Grafton Street I walk past it quite often. It has become favoured place for to stop for breakfast as it opens at 8am, with a fairly varied range of items for breakfast from the traditional Irish breakfast to porridge or pancakes, or a fresh crisp almond croissant. There is a great selection of different teas and coffees, which were the start of the Bewley's business in 1840, and of course to bring home they sell Bewley’s Irish Breakfast tea.

This cafe on Grafton Street was opened in 1927 as one of several Oriental cafes, and stands out on Grafton Street in its ornate styling. As such it has become a Dublin institution with its richly decorated interior with its dark wood and stained glass, and marble-topped tables. It’s not exactly trendy but its great for people watching right on the busy Grafton Street – especially the mezzanine floor at the front of the building. The downstairs section of the café closest to the front door can sometimes be a little draught and a little busy as they do have a takeaway coffee counter at the door, which lots of people take advantage of on the way to work. The menu has a reasonable selection and the food is fairly average - not terrible but not something you are going to rave about either, but that's not really why anyone visits this place. Service is generally good as its table service throughout the building – even in the busy downstairs café at the front door- and is quite prompt normally. Any problems we have had have been handled extremely well - one order that was got wrong was quickly replaced with the right order and taken off the bill - good going for a cafe in Dublin as we didn't even complain!

This is an experience not to be missed if you are in Dublin, even if it’s just for a cup of tea and a scone, as it is the atmosphere that you come for.

I ended up in this hotel when Aer Lingus put all the passengers of a cancelled flight here. The hotel is large, with a great many facilities, including bars, restaurants, golf course and leisure centre. Its often used for conferences and large functions as it has so many guest rooms.
My room was spacious, but with dark stained wood and dim lighting, the room seemed dark and dull. The bed though looking lovely was not the most comfortable I have ever slept in, and there was alot of noise of people in the corridor right into the wee hours of the morning. The bathroom was lovely, with jacuzzi bath and a powerful shower, though if I had been tall, I may have had trouble with the shower.
Breakfast, was less than ideal with large shared tables and a breakfast buffet. The staff seemed to struggle with keeping up with the demand for crockery and cultery, as well as the food. There was a long queue waiting to get breakfast in both dining rooms, less than ideal.

The hotel though in a quiet location out of the city, is only well located for the neighbouring business park. To reach the city centre, means negioting a main route into the city centre, and the notorious Red Cow roundabout. It would take most of an hour to reach the city centre and much longer during rush hours.

If I was visiting Dublin, this would not be the hotel I would choose. The location is not great, the service was less than perfect, and as a large hotel with lots of functions can be very noisy at night.

The Saint Patrick's parade on March 17 in Dublin, is one of the largest in the world, (the American's pip them to the post in size, however, they can't beat the real thing!). This is a great family day out, especially as it is free! Traffic grinds to a halt across the city as the city centre is shut down for several hours. The city is packed out with people on the route, if you want a good spot you would need to be at least an hour earlier than the start of the parade at noon. A common alternative of some of the locals is to bring stepladders and be heads above everyone else. The crowd can get at least 10 rows deep and even deeper in places - and being at the back of it reduces your view dramatically.

Many of the shops in the city centre are closed during the morning, then opening in the afternoon, but there are lots of stalls selling green 'tat' to wear and flags and the usual small corner shops to buy snacks. However, most restaurants and cafes are open for lunch, and of course the pubs!

It takes quite a long time for the parade to make its way along the route from Parnell Square to St Patrick's cathedral, so be prepared to wait. The atmosphere is great, introduce yourselves to some of the people around you, people tend to be in a great mood. There was a group of Italians in front of me, one, via signing managed to get a date with a girl on the third floor of an office building opposite. I have to say my feet got sore standing in one place so long, as there wasn't any room to move at all.

The parade starts with some of the bands of Irish army, police and so on, and then the carriage with the mayor in it. Then there was a mix of mainly American marching bands and various Irish creative groups with floats and costumes. Some of the groups had very intriguing themes to their displays, for example in 2008 the overall theme was Energy - all performing arts groups were all colourful and entertaining with floats, music and performers - but I'm not sure how one of the groups who had a flock of different insects and flowers fitted the theme. There were allsorts of performers from dancers, flag-wavers, fire-breathing and drummers, so there was quite a variety, and it doesn't get boring. Of course there needed to be a St Patrick float- which was a little freaky looking and certainly not a traditional view, as Patrick looked a bit scary, but very cool on his motorbike. It can take about two hours for the entire parade to pass by from start to finish.

There is a great buzz to the whole day in the city centre, with a funfair and various other events happening the rest of the day. Its well worth the visit! Details of all the official events, including details of the parade route can be found on the festival's website at www.stpatricksday.ie. Some of the events connected with the festival sometimes need free tickets which can be obtained via the website.

This was my first attempt at the Dublin St Patrick's Day parade, I used to avoid the equivalent in Belfast which was a little too political in nature, but I have been at the one in Downpatrick, which is were St Patrick is supposedly buried- which is smaller. I have to say I really enjoyed the couple of hours I spent in the city centre, I did make the mistake of not wearing warm enough clothes and so I was glad to get inside having stood out for three hours. But its definitely a fun time in Dublin for St Patrick's Day, and I would recommend it to anyone!

Glendalough is in the Wicklow mountains, a short drive from the city of Dublin. Its name comes from the Irish - Gleann dá locha which tranlated means the ‘Glen of the two lakes’. And yes there are two lakes, known as the upper and lower lakes. The scenery is beautiful, but Glendalough is known because it is the site of an ancient monastic community, with its distinctive round tower.

Glendalough wasn't chosen for its beauty, but rather its remoteness meaning solitude and a lack of comforts. The monks came here to commit to an ascetic life of prayer, firstly Saint Kevin and a few monks who followed him built temporary dwellings. Given the martyrdom of many of the saints much earlier, such as in the Roman empire, the Irish had a problem, as there was not this sort of persecution. So in their creativeness they came up with the concept of green martyrdom, were you didn't die but gave up life in a different sense. Saint Kevin was probably not the most successful green martyr or hermit, as a monastic community developed around him.

The earliest part of the monastic community is at the upper lake, but as the community grew, a new community was built at the lower lake, which was built with greater permenance in mind than the original huts that the first monks lived in. The monastic village is quite a site with the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Paul with its ruined romanseque arches and the distinctive round tower. Ruins also remain of a guest house, as Glendalough became an important pilgrammage site, and several churches but the most intact church can only be viewed from the exterior for safety reasons, the numbers of churches reveal the communities commitment to prayer and the number of visiting pilgrams, as well as many patrons of the community to give money. The round tower is still complete, but its purpose has been debated between a watchtower, a place of safety to escape trouble below, to store items of value or to be used as a 'bell tower'. To divide such uses as separate is difficult, but it seems to have been a common feature of many monastic communities, with trouble being taken to construct in the circular shape. There is also St Kevins Cross, which is a celtic cross, with the distinctive circle added, in this case a circle and not a ring. It should be noted that in the monastic village grounds is now a graveyard. At the upper lake are the remains of another church, Reefert church which is the oldest church of the site, were Saint Kevin was buried. There are also several stone circles, which have been suggested as being aids to prayer for the monks.

In terms of practicalities, this is a short drive by car from Dublin. There are also several options with bus tours and so on to reach Glendalough. There are two car parks one at the upper lake and one close to the monastic village site, which also has an information centre, were leftlets, maps and so on can be acquired. Its quite feasible to walk between the two lakes, though the path is quite stony, so sandals and high heels are not probably the best option here. There are also miles of walks into the hills above which are clearly marked, if you are feeling energetic. At the upper lake carpark there is a small kiosk selling a small menu of fast food, and snacks and drinks, but there are quite a few pubs and resturants around the village.

I love coming here, as an insight into the history of Ireland and the scenery is simply stunning with mountains, lakes and river as a backdrop, but also for the atmosphere. There is a spiritual dimension to the place - you can almost hear the prayers of the monastic community that were here still reverberating hundreds of years later. This is a great trip out of Dublin to see some of the countryside, and I would recommend it highly.

This is not quite the standard hop-on hop-off tour bus, of which there are several options in Dublin. Rather this is a trip around Dublin in a vintage WWII amphibious vehicle, with part of the tour on the water. Ladder-like steps are lowered down at the back to climb aboard, with bus seats then to sit on inside. If the weather is good - it is open-air, but there is a retractable roof if it is raining.

There are two possible start points - one close to St Patricks Cathedral, the other is on St Stephens Green opposite Dawson Street which is the one we started at. We pre-booked our tickets for this - details of all the options - internet, phone, Dublin tourist offices and at departure points - can be found on their website - http://www.vikingsplash.ie/.
Tickets cost 20euro for adults and 10euro for children - there are also discounts for students and groups. There are set departure times from each of the points, with up to nine possible times from 10am in the morning to 5pm at night.

Now I am a Dublin resident, and don't really need a tour around the city sights, but this was more for a bit of craic - ie fun. Being the end of the term, we booked a tour to get some of the madness out of our systems. I should explain, that once you get on the vehicle, you are a Viking, and all the people on the street are Celts. Plastic viking helmets are provided, and at fairly frequent intervals, the tour guide will encourage you to yell at people standing at traffic lights and so on.

Now, it does hit most of the main sights around the city centre - cathedrals, Trinity College and so on, and thus gives you the lay of the land. Our tour guide was fairly knowledgable, and asked us for responses to questions, and made the tour quite interactive.

The water part is quite disappointing in one sense - it is quite cool to don lifejackets and experience driving the vehicle into water. However, its not the River Liffey or anything exciting, but rather part of the Grand Canal basin, which was used for unloading ships. Yes you'll see the U2 recording studios, but not much else. Though note, the vehicles have retractable roofs which must be open when on the water, so if its raining, you will get wet!

For us this was more a bit of fun, and it defintely is not a serious tour of Dublin (though there are several good walking tours which are very detailed). If you have kids this is a great fun way to see the sights around Dublin, or if you are feeling a little mad, especially if you have had a little 'dutch courage' in the pub, this can be a fun way to spend about an hour and 15 minutes.

Avondale House was the estate of the Parnell family but it has been owned by the Irish forestry commission. The house was built in 1777 but the Forestry Commission has returned the house to what it would have looked like in the 1850s.

This was the birthplace and home of Charles Stewart Parnell who is a key figure of Irish history in the nineteenth century. He was born here in 1846, before becoming an important player in Irish politics including in land reform and home rule. He was instrumental in setting up the Irish Parliamentary Party, which was the first modern party of the British parliament in London with a different structure, organisation and rules. He wasn't without scandal - he was accused of being involved in the murder of two government officials in Phoenix park in Dublin, but the accusations were made on the basis of forged letters. However, it was his involvement with Mrs Kitty O'Shea, a married woman that did harm to his reputation and Parnell was named in her divorce, and then they later married. He died at just 45, but his funeral in Dublin gathered crowds of over 200,000. Parnell was an important figure in Irish politics at the time but has had a lasting influence.

The house can be toured with several exhibits about the Parnell family, Charles Stewart Parnell was not the only influencial figure of the family, though he is the most famed. It costs about 6euro to tour the house.

The grounds of the house stretch to 500 acres with lots of woodland. There are an interwoven set of trails through woodland to satisfy a short stroll or longer trails of a couple of hours. There is also a playpark close to the house, as it is a popular place for families to come for a walk.

There is also a cafe in the basement of the main house which has a separate entrance at the side. I had lunch there - a lovely bowl of soup and wheaten bread, which was very tasty, and well-priced. The menu isn't huge but there is a good selection and the staff were friendly and helpful. The cafe dining area is made up of several rooms but as its in the basement, the lighting is not the brightest, and it seems a little dark with dark furniture.

Unless you are a Parnell fan, the drive of about an hour from Dublin city centre is probably a bit of a stretch. However, if you are in the area, this place is probably an interesting stop to make for an hour or two.