I got to Dublin OK earlier after a bus trip from Gormanston which took longer than it should have done due to traffic caused by a Gaelic football match due to take place at Croke Park. It was very hot and humid on the bus, but at least I had good company - a colleague of mine who was going into Dublin for the afternoon to visit her grandmother.
I got to my hostel (Kinlay House) at 2pm and didn't do much for the rest of the day apart from wander round both north and south of the River Liffey. I crossed the historic, white-painted cast-iron Ha'penny Bridge, bought a hot three cheese filled bagel for a late lunch (it also had crispy bacon and fried egg in it - delicious!) and walked over to O'Connell Street, the main street in Dublin and the site of the GPO, a historic building in more ways than one - it was the last major Georgian public building to be built in Dublin, and acted as the headquarters of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising.
Near the GPO I admired The Spire, a 120m tall stainless steel tapered column built in 2003 on the site of where Dublin's Nelson's Pillar used to be before it was blown up by Irish republicans in the 1960s.
My feet were hurting quite a lot by then (that'll teach me for getting new ultra-cheapo supermarket trainers for the first time - I got what I paid for...) so I headed back to the hostel for a rest, passing the famous Temple Bar on the way.
Later on I walked round the corner to Christ Church Cathedral. I didn't go inside, as it was pretty late in the afternoon and was probably going to close before too long, so I settled for some photos of the outside at this stage.
I also took some pictures of the road in front - Christchurch Place. Modern and pretty nondescript in appearance nowadays, it nonetheless holds some significance for my family, because my 5x great-grandfather was a goldsmith/banker here in the 18th/ early 19th centuries, when it was still known as Skinners' Row. None of the buildings from then survive now, but I could still picture how it might have looked then.
This featured blog entry was written by 3Traveller from the blog Teaching and Travelling Abroad.
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