Ireland day 1418. Saturday 16 August 2025- Table 45

Today’s summary	We needed to buy a couple of things in the National Gallery shop in Dublin today. So after breakfast we went into town but before going to the Gallery, we stopped at the Table 45 restaurant in Hogan Place for an excellent spontaneous tapas lunch. Afterwards, went to the shop and then got a Dart back to Malahide. Watched a James Bond film in the evening – one that neither of us had seen before.
Today’s weather	Warm and dry again, with sun but a cool breeze in the afternoon. Easterly breeze. Appx 20c

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): Table 45 and National Gallery

Commentary

We’re meeting up with a couple of friends over the next few weeks and want to take them some small gifts with an Irish slant. Lately we have found that the National Gallery shop has a reasonable range suitable items at affordable prices. Accordingly, we decided to make full use of a free day today to go into town to do some shopping. After all, with my senior travel card, the journey doesn’t cost us anything so what’s not to like!

We set off after breakfast – which today was leftover porridge from yesterday (much nicer than it sounds) with raspberries and a cup of Nespresso coffee. Once at the station, we didn’t have long to wait for a train so we were soon trundling on our way to Dublin.

We got off at Pearse and largely by accident we left the station via an exit at the southern end of the platform. This meant that we ended up in a part of Dublin that I’d never been to before and it took me a few moments to work out how to get from there to the Gallery.

Eventually I figured it out and realised that our route would take us close to the “Table 45” restaurant. It’s a tapas bar run by a Chilean couple, and was recommended by my Cervantes Spanish tutor. So, on the spur of the minute, we temporarily diverted away from the National Gallery and went in for lunch.

It was an excellent meal. Quite expensive at €85 for two, although that did include drinks. But totally worth it as the atmosphere was good and the food was excellent.

After lingering over our lunch and coffees, we eventually made it back out into the daylight and found our way to the shop.

Eventually, our purchases were secured and we were ready to return to Malahide. So we boarded a Dart at Pearse – thronged with hundreds of music fans heading to Croke Park to see Oasis in concert – and were back at the flat by about 5:30pm.

We didn’t feel like having dinner until quite late, because we’d had a very substantial lunch at Table 45. But when we eventually did eat, we just finished off the leftover Thai food from yesterday, which was easy, tasty and quick.

The rest of the evening was spent watching Timothy Dalton starring in a James Bond film we hadn’t seen before. Easy and fairly low key viewing.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Leaving Pearse by the back entrance onto Sandwich Street Upper. You have to double back under the railway lines to get to the National Gallery and the attractions of central Dublin	Fascinating boot-scraper built into the wall of one of the houses on Sandwich Street. In fact several of the houses had them. A relic of the days when the streets really were mucky – probably from horse-drawn traffic

OK so it’s probably just a disused petrol station – but it was a rather fine example of art deco architecture (and currently to let as office space) – on the corner of Sandwich and Fenian streets [Subsequent researched revealed a fascinating story – this was originally Archer’s Garage built in Art Deco style in 1946. It housed Ireland’s first Ford car dealership. It was a listed building but was illegally demolished on bank holiday weekend in 1999. The developer who did it was forced by Dublin council to reinstate the garage – which duly happened in 2004 – in order to avoid a €1m fine, and three years in prison]	Today’s tapas menu at Table 45

A quick peek into the National Gallery and the shop	Brand-new looking pantograph on the Dart at Pearse station. How exciting!

Cocktails at lunchtime. How decadent! This was a Pisco Sour – I should note that it was Val that ordered it. I had a much more manly glass of red wine