Ireland day 1156. Wednesday 27 November 2024- Chilly Dublin

Today’s summary	Val had a meeting in Dublin this morning, so I decided to join her. Very enjoyable though chilly and it did mean an early start. Later, we dropped into the Hugh Lane gallery to have a quick look at the Sarah Purser exhibition (Val hadn’t been before) and to get some lunch. Quick bit of shopping at Decathlon then train back to Malahide and a relaxing afternoon for Val while I went on a short walk. Salad for dinner
Today’s weather	Dry bright and sunny all day. Almost no wind. Appx 4c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The orange line shows where I walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Chilly Demesne evening walk

Commentary

I’d deliberately kept the day free, in case the car repairs took longer than I expected meaning that I might have had to trek out to Ashbourne today to collect it. Anyway, in the event, that was all sorted yesterday so I had an unexpectedly free day today. As things turned out, Val had a meeting in Dublin this morning, so I decided to join her, despite it meaning a perishingly early start with a train at 7:23 am. But I need to get a grip – I did this every day for 30 years in a previous life, so what is there to complain about!

It was cold when we arrived in Dublin, but the city was looking sparking. We used the time before Val’s meeting to explore a part of North Dublin we hadn’t been to before, including the faded glory of Hardwicke Place.

After the meeting, given our early start, we were starting to get hungry and in need of sustenance. So we headed across to the Hugh Lane gallery for a quick snack and cup of coffee in their rather nice basement café. Afterwards, we had a look round the Sarah purser exhibition – which I had seen before but Val hadn’t – then walked down to Decathlon on O’Connell Street. I wanted to get a couple of Merino wool t-shirts – essential when temperatures start to drop.

It’s only a short hop from there back to Connolly, so we were quickly at the station, with plenty of time to get a decent cup of tea from the on-site Pret before catching a convenient DART back to Malahide. Once back, and after another cup of tea, Val settled back to relax for the remainder of the afternoon. She’s still recovering from the shingles vaccine and needs to be on top form, ready to go Wonderlighting again tomorrow night.

While she was putting her feet up, I headed out into the afternoon and made a clockwise circuit of the demesne. Bit was cold, clear and refreshing – a perfect late autumn stroll, actually. Once back, we watched a short documentary on cybersecurity (depressing) then prepared for an on-line meeting with some colleagues back in London. And on that note, I better dash off, make our dinner (it’s salad) and do my pre-reading!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Cold and frosty morning at Malahide station	Hugh Lane Gallery – it’s a fine building

Strapline to the Sarah Purser exhibition at the Hugh Lane Gallery	Setting sun in the demesne – and it’s only 3:30

The wildflower meadow in the demesne only supports a couple of yellow flowers now – it’s dying back for the winter. I can’t wait to see what pops up in the spring!	Interesting to see where this political party’s General Election priorities lie. To be honest, all of the main Irish parties cover similar subjects, just with different emphases

St George’s Church, Hardwicke Place. It was built in 1802 and is said to be one of the two finest copies of St Martin’s in the Field, London (the other is in Chennai [formerly Madras], in India)