Ireland day 0709. Thursday 07 September 2023- Docklands *

Ireland day 0709. Thursday 07 September 2023- Docklands

Today’s summary	Accompanied our guest into Dublin where she spent the day researching Sarah Purser in the National Gallery and the National Library while we walked round the Docklands. Drove her to the airport in the evening
Today’s weather	Warm and dry but mostly overcast. Light easterly breeze. Appx 22c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange 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): Docklands explorer

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

Today wasn’t quite as warm as yesterday, mainly because the sun wasn’t shining as much. But nevertheless it was very comfortable and a perfect day for doing a little more exploration of Dublin.

We accompanied our guest into town for an early restart to her research work, which today began with a 10:00 meeting in the National Gallery. We left her to it and arranged to meet up again outside the National Library at 4pm. So that gave Val and I six hours to go off exploring.

But before starting we really needed to get some breakfast, so we returned to our “go to on a nice day” café in the basement of the MoLi. We sat under the Arbutus tree and enjoyed breakfast blaas and then took a quick look round the museum itself.

Suitably nourished in body and mind, we decided at that point to begin our explorations proper. We realised some time ago that even though we had been living in Ireland for nearly two years, we still hadn’t been out to the east of the Liffey estuary, to have a look at the Docklands. We decided to rectify that today.

So from the MoLi, we walked more or less east until we hit the Grand Canal, at which point we turned left and headed north along the towpath until we reached the Grand Canal Dock. Along the way, we passed by the The Tower – a converted sugar factory and now part of the Trinity College Technology and Enterprise campus. They run a lecture series there on Wednesday afternoons, which looks quite interesting. I think we could probably find lectures to go to in Dublin practically every day of the year, if we put our minds to it.

We paused near Docklands Square to have a look at the the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre and enquire about their forthcoming events programme, then walked a little further to find a café where we stopped again get some mid afternoon sustenance. The next step in our journey was to cross the Liffey via the Tom Clarke toll bridge. But not before first pausing briefly at the Ringsend and Irishtown Community Centre (RICC) where we were kindly invited in to admire their allotment beds. Very enjoyable.

Once across the river, we headed back to the town centre along the north embankment and along the way, happened upon the Central Bank of Ireland. Val spotted that they had an exhibition running so of course we dropped in to have a look. Really interesting – and it was free and, even better, there was nobody else around to interrupt our inspection of the exhibits.

Back on the road, we made one final stop – at the Cervantes Institute in Lincoln Place – to learn about their Spanish courses. On their recommendation we paid a call on the International Bookshop on South Frederick Street to buy an elementary Spanish textbook, which I will study with great enthusiasm at least until my great enthusiasm wanes.

After that, we collected our guest and dashed for the train (which we just caught) at Pearse Station. All of us reflected on the day and we agreed that in our different ways, we had all really enjoyed Dublin and in particular the friendly welcomes we had received absolutely everywhere we went.

Back once again at the flat, a quick tea of salmon, salad and (home made) sponge cake – as ever rustled up out of seemingly nowhere by Val – was followed by a seamless run to the airport to despatch our guest back to the UK.

All in all, we felt we had enjoyed a very successful and productive few days, and are looking forward to many more of the same.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


*Val enjoying her blaa* under the fine MoLi strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo)**	Looking out over the MoLi gardens toward Iveagh gardens, from the LitLab on the fourth floor

Happy neo-Vikings enjoying their amphibious DUCK tour of Dublin	One of the many tech companies in the docklands which have helped make Ireland so rich (or at least to appear to be)

Beautiful Red Admiral on one of the allotment beds in the Ringsend and Irishtown Community Centre	In the Central Bank of Ireland North Quay. There is an interesting (and free) exhibition of Irish currency from the time of Independence, through to the adoption of the Euro, and beyond. It’s definitely worth a look

We dropped into the Cervantes [Spanish] Institute towards the end of our walk, and on their recommendation, I bought a classroom textbook for Spanish for beginners. It would be nice at least to reach Level A1 (the very most basic) in the next year or two!