Ireland day 1392. Monday 21 July 2025- Gallery Shop

Today’s summary	Another relatively quiet day. Went into Dublin to get a couple of items from the National Gallery gift shop. Had lunch there and looked round the Gallery, as it was raining outside. Returned to the flat by 6pm and had red wine and ham from yesterday for dinner. Watched some light TV in the evening.
Today’s weather	Rained all last night and most of today too. Dried up a little in the evening but still heavily overcast and very humid. Light north easterly wind. Appx 18c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Short walk to the National Gallery

Commentary

Today was the latest instalment in our “low key living” programme. Accordingly, we didn’t have anything specific in mind for the day. But we haven’t quite descended to the level of watching daytime TV yet, so felt the need to fill the day more productively.

The incessant rain ruled out most outdoor activities. So in the end, when Val realised she wanted to pick up a couple of items from the National Gallery shop, we decided to make full use of my free travel card, and enjoy a spontaneous shopping trip (if including “enjoy” and “shopping” in the same sentence doesn’t create an oxymoron).

We arrived at the gallery at about 1:30pm and it was fairly busy. Probably with people like us, who were seeking a refuge from the rain. Val found the things that she wanted from the shop straight away, which was an enormous relief all round. That left us with plenty of time to drop into the café to get a light lunch, before contemplating our return journey.

But by the time we’d finished lunch, it was still raining, and we didn’t have any particular enthusiasm for going back out into it. So instead we decided on the spur of the moment to have a look at the exhibits themselves.

Although I’m really not much of a fan of the arts (I am bit of a Philistine, of truth be told), it’s quite a big gallery and there is always something to see. We discovered a whole new gallery that neither of us had ever noticed before, tucked away in one of the dusty corners of the building.

By the time we emerged blinking into the day, the rain had almost stopped, so we didn’t get soaked on our short walk to Pearse station. As luck would have it, we only had three minutes to wait for a Drogheda diesel to come along, so we were back in the flat in no time at all. (Mind you, to be fair, at peak hours Malahide is exceptionally well served by train – and bus – services from central Dublin, so you rarely have to wait more than 15 minutes anyway for transport).

We’re back in the flat now and considering the best way of prolonging the day’s relaxing theme. First up, I think a cup of tea and a glass of Malbec beckons. Then there’s roast ham from yesterday to finish off – and easy and tasty dinner. Finally, we’ve both been wanting to watch the last episode of the political mockumentary “The Thick Of It” for some time, so I’ll do a bit of trawling through Netflix and Amazon to see if I can find it, while the dinner heats up.

Really loving this lifestyle!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Cruising the galleries, like everyone else who was seeking shelter from the elements	I really like the spiral staircase which leads down from the upper floors to the entrance on Merrion Street. It appears to be suspended on steel cables, hanging from the ceiling

A Sarah Purser sketch – we’d never seen this one before and it was lurking in a hidden corner of the Gallery which was previously unvisited by us. We have a particular interest in Ms Purser because one of our friends is a distant relative of hers	View into one of the main halls of the National Gallery, from the balcony outside the room where we found Sarah Purser’s sketch



An interesting view of the rear of a newly re-framed painting (it was “Saint Joseph with the Christ child” by Guercino and painted around 1637). It shows the “latest modern state of the art tensioning springs” used to ensure the canvas remains flat. Also featuring a perfectly-centred reflection of the photographer