In Dublin's Fair City …….

Where the maids are so pretty:

One of our first (and last!!) attempts at a selfie! But we did laugh our heads off at our pathetic attempts.
It must be a generational thing to take selfies and we just don't get it!

Last Monday morning we headed to our local airport to catch an early flight to Dublin, Ireland. A hop, skip and a 50 minute flight away from Nottingham:

And on my most favourite airline in the world:

Efficient, on time, great staff, clean planes and, best of all, I can fly to Dublin return for the price of a taxi fare from North Bay to Callander!! It's a no-brainer. I think it's about time Air Canada and West Jet had  some stiff competition in the Canadian flying stakes!

                       Our mission was to see the sights of Dublin:

                                 The National Gallery

Trinity College, founded in the 16th century, with an extensive list of notable alumni: Jonathan Swift, Oliver Goldsmith,  Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, Bram Stoker and that's just the famous authors!

The grounds were teeming with students and visitors:

We headed over to St. Stephens's Green, a much beloved park in the centre of the city:

Look at the colour of the grass!

Lots of people out and about and enjoying the sun and (brief!) warmth!

Spring was in the air ……….

A fountain representing the Three Fates and given as a gift from the German people in thanks for Irish help to refugee German children following World War II. Up to 500 children found foster-homes in Ireland in a project called Operation Shamrock. Until this visit I didn't realize that Ireland was a neutral country during World War II. The longer we stayed in Dublin, the more we realized our ignorance of the people and the country and then it dawned on us that we were never taught ANY Irish history in school (or even geography for that matter.) Which is pretty amazing but, also, on reflection, a sign of the political times.

We stopped off at St. Stephen's Shopping Centre, a beautiful glass building with great shops, before heading up O'Connell Street:

Does this look familiar?

The  Castle Hotel on Great Denmark Street, a lovely Georgian building with an interesting history. That's our room above the big lamp post.

One of the many sitting rooms

The Vaults - the cellar dining room with escape tunnels used by the IRA

Lovely artwork all over the place ………..

Including this good-looking fellow standing guard outside our bedroom door  - more on him later!!

And of course this:

Which is where I got the inspiration for today's blog title!! I'm not THAT clever!!!

Talk soon 

Zoe