Dublin, day 1

For me it was my third time in Dublin for Mrs B, her first. We were visiting in order to get what had originally been the last gig of Roger Waters' Wall Tour. We had been secretly hoping for the special appearance by David Gilmour on Comfortably Numb, but he'd already been to London to do that. To boot, a second (subsequent) date had been added in Dublin, and a host more in Europe.

But still we were looking forward to it! But first, some fun!

What you cannot fail to see these days is the Spire. It's 400 feet high, and dominates O'Connell Street. When the clouds rush by, it can make you feel giddy just looking up at it - more interestingly (for us) it's higher then some of the RAF planes that fly over Corylus Towers occasionally!!


This just tickled me, as you may have spotted, I like buildings that record in stone, bricks and mortar an expectation of continued occupation and use - this is one of the most unusual I've seen in a while!


On Grafton Street is the inimitable Bewley's. We stopped here a number of times for the best coffee we could find in town, and admire the architecture. To a degree it's a bit of a cross between Betty's of Harrogate, and Fortnum and Mason's. But it's definitely it's own thing!


Trinity College was heaving generally., and quite tied up with security preparations just outside for Obama's speech in a few days (preceded by Jedward and Westlife we were told - even more reason to leave the town centre!). It was good to see 'normal' life going on too. As well as the wedding there was some kind of treasure hunt going on, with students rushing around the grounds and the surrounding streets all day. We never found out what for,


St Stephen's shopping centre is reminiscent of the Crystal Palace, and has free wifi to boot. Useful for catching up and researching some shopping - I'd taken a fancy to a watch (subsequently not bought) around the corner - with the WiFi I was able to confirm it was no particular bargain!!


That evening, the Heineken final between Leinster (the local team) and Northampton Saints (my nearest team) took place. We rested here, The Bachelor Inn) and had a Kilkenny or 3 watching the game. My cheers for the Saints try on 7 minutes raised a few eyebrows, but there was a good atmosphere, and no-one came to harm!!! Despite the result, it was a cracking match.