Ireland day 1437. Thursday 04 September 2025- Dublin Decathlon

Today’s summary	In the morning, took Val to the airport for a short trip to London. Then did some shopping and odd jobs around Malahide. Had a light lunch then went into Dublin to pick up some click-and-collect clothing from Decathlon. Had a brief wander round the city centre then caught a DART back to Malahide. Beef casserole again for dinner, then travel videos
Today’s weather	Showery but quite a lot of sun too. Light westerly wind. Appx 16c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The blue 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): Dublin Decathlon

Commentary

Ok I’ll be honest. I haven’t been competing in an Olympic sport today. I have been shopping. But that was later. Let’s start at the beginning.

We had porridge (with blackberry jelly, obviously) for breakfast then it was down to the garage to jump into the Trusty Yaris. Val was returning to London for a short trip, so my first job was to deliver her to the airport for her lunchtime flight.

I was soon back in the flat, ready to tackle the chores. First was the recycling – and a trip to SuperValu to collect the deposits. I cannily combined this with a visit to Oxfam to donate some old clothes, a brief buying spree in the menswear shop to get a tie, and a walk to the Laundry to collect a duvet that we’d just had washed.

By the time I’d finished, I was getting hungry again so I had a light lunch (mostly it seemed to be composed of some grapes I found in the fridge, a few oatcakes and a Nespresso coffee).

Suitably nourished, I walked down to the station to catch a train into Dublin. Just like yesterday, the trains were disrupted by a power cut – this time in Dun Laoghaire. Anyway eventually a diesel turned up and (slowly) delivered me to Connolly.

It’s been showery all day but fortunately I dodged most of them as I strolled down Earl Street to O’Connell Street and the Decathlon shop. The walk was incidentally productive as I ducked into Eurogiant along the way and was able to buy some Barkeepers Friend. It’s brilliant for cleaning sinks and is surprisingly hard to find in Ireland.

Once at Decathlon I went down into the basement to the click and collect department. They had everything I’d ordered, and it fitted perfectly, so I came out pleased. Especially as it wasn’t too expensive either.

From there I crossed the road to Easons to get an opaque white glass marker pen for labelling my jam jars. By this time I needed refreshment so afterwards I treated myself to a cappuccino and croissant (nice but a bit soggy) from Café Crema.

By this stage I’d successfully got everything I came in for, so I started to make my way back to Malahide. But as I don’t particularly like Connolly station, I decided to walk over to Pearse instead, which is much pleasanter.

This meant walking past Dublin’s latest flagship store – “Arket” (what happened to the M) – so I just had to go in and have a look. It was OK and had some interesting looking hardware as well as clothes. The shower gel smelled nice but was expensive so perhaps it will be on my Christmas list.

I got a busy DART from Pearse after a short wait, and was back in the flat just before 7pm. I’m having beef casserole again for dinner (it’s very nice) then as a special treat since Val is away, I’m going to watch some travel videos on YouTube. Woo hoo I know how to live.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


On the way to the laundry through Malahide’s green. In-between the rain, it was a vivid day	Afternoon delight in Café Crema, Abbey Street. It was OK but the croissant could have done with being reheated. In an air-fryer, not a microwave, obviously(!)

Arket – Dublin’s latest must-visit clothes (and homewares) shop. It only opened this week	Modelling the 2025 summer season. Ooops. Six months late



I took a shortcut up to Nassau street through Trinity College. I like the view through the entrance arch onto the green