Day 08, Friday, Dublin

The wifi here at the Leeson Bridge is stellar, and it’s easy to add photos, probably too many photos. It’s quiet too, as long as the windows facing the back lane are closed. We thought €12 per person was a bit steep for breakfast, and went in search of a cafe.

Bedroom has this array of devices, plus a constellation of lights, 10 in all, in a 3.5m square room.

The bathroom basin has hot, cold, and an extra cold tap.

A stained glass window between kitchen/lounge and bedroom.

Another feature is the bathroom, where the shower screen ends 300mm short of the floor. It had one of those electric water heaters that needs a minimum torrent to stabilise at a constant flow and temperature, using about a megawatt of electricity. This left the entire bathroom floor wet and slippery. The hotel is generous with the heat though, and it dries before too long.

We found a bookstore with a cafe, had breakfast there, and noted a couple of book titles I’ll get from Amazon. I have several books on the iPad I haven’t found time to read.

Knowing how things turned out for Dorian Grey, I hope Dorian Black has a better ending.

Stained glass window in St Annes’s church.

Anne paid €7 to see St Patrick’s Church while I sat in the park and booked a room in Belfast.

We wondered why a Catholic cathedral would charge entry. Usually the C of E charges entry in the UK, but not Catholic churches. Turns out this one is C of E too.

So does this restored grandmother clock that caught Anne’s eye. Nice marquetry, movement hand built in about 1920. Just €4950. It won’t fit in our luggage.

Restaurant in the street where GF Handel’s “Messiah” was first performed.

They charged €7 too. I went in with Anne this time. This cathedral is Church of England too. At least the money goes on maintenance. Looks newish from a 19th century restoration.

This raised the question of where the Catholic cathedral is in this capital of a nominally Catholic country. I had to Google it. It’s north of the Liffey, tourist buses don’t go by there.

St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral. Interesting architecture for a church.

Grand interior, with a dome very reminiscent of the Pantheon in Rome.

The answer appears to be simply that the Catholic cathedrals became C of E in Ireland at the same time as they did in England during the reign of Henry VIII. The English didn’t see the need for a grand Catholic cathedral in Dublin during all the years they ran Ireland.

We met Anne’s thesis supervisor Phil and partner Jane in Bewsley’s for coffee. Newly restored, and a Dublin landmark.

After that we spent an hour looking at early artefacts at the museum, until they kicked us out at 5pm, without letting me go to the men’s before I left.

It seemed like a good time to complete our interrupted circuit of Dublin by bus before finding dinner somewhere. We found the stop we alighted at yesterday and boarded the next bus to come along. He was finishing too, but took us around the corner to where another yellow bus picked us up.