Guess it’s about time I made a blog entry. Nobody seems to be blogging lately and I suppose the lack of activity rubs off on me.

Work has been very busy, especially with the summer holidays, plus some new services and the move into Victoria Coach Station in London.

Things are going great with Nicola, we have so much in common and get along brilliantly. Someone like that is just really good for me, and vice versa I believe.

Just been away together for a few days in the Lake District, staying in Ambleside at a B&B called Lakes Lodge. The lodge was lovely, think of a hotel set in a guest house atmosphere, right in the centre of Ambleside which is a lovely little town. Plus we had a four poster bed which wasn’t expected at all.

Highlights were drives out along mountain passes, wandering around Bowness-on-Windermere, cruising on Windermere, seeing Beatrix Potter’s house, spending time in Carlisle and having a meal at the stunning Kirkstone Pass Inn.

Made the most of the drive there too, driving through Birmingham, the Wirral and Liverpool with a nice stop at Southport, then through Preston on the way up, returning through Lancaster, Manchester, Stockport and stopping at Buxton, then through Lichfield on the way back home. No point in rushing is there!

Of course, I have plenty of photos. Might even put some up here when I get chance.

I’ll try and post again soon, hope you are all well.

The next part.

Wednesday
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After all the walking I’ve been doing the last few days my calves feel like lead and I have an annoying blister on my foot which has been bugging me the past few days. Today I decided to take it easy…well that was the plan…there aren’t many enjoyable things to do on holiday anywhere which involve sitting down all day.
Got up about 9am after a good nights kip. Been a little bit cooler so it’s easier to sleep but still too warm to use the duvet.

1030: After breakfast I thought I would do the City Tour, which involves plenty of sitting! Shame that this morning it had started raining lightly, which is not ideal on the upper deck of an open top tour bus, but bearable. Obviously the covered front few rows were taken when I joined at stop No.1, and sitting downstairs on a tour is not right. I would have thought that the presence of rain meant the tour would be generally quiet but no, the bus soon filled right up! Bearing in mind the tours are ever 10 minutes (for Dublin Bus’s City Tour alone, there is also a City Sightseeing one which run about every 10 minutes also!) they must have carried millions of passengers today. OK maybe I exaggerated a little, but you get the idea. Needless to say, about two-thirds of the passengers got off at Guinness, and as it was early few got on, so after that was pretty quiet.
The driver does live commentary throughout, which was very interesting and light hearted, and very well done considering he has to fight the Dublin traffic at the same time.

1115: Decided to get off the tour bus at stop No.16 (it’s a hop-on hop-off service), which is for Phoenix Park. I wanted to visit the zoo while i was in Dublin as I love animals. Again, I decided to do the zoo mid-week as sunday would have probably been packed. Probably a mistake; it was full of kids on school trips! Must have been at least half a dozen groups. You can probably picture the scene, each and every viewing area where you can see the animals, kids were there. Kids were running around everywhere in between. If one group moved on, another would move in. They sometime clash - two groups getting in the way together! They are noisy (although seemed pretty much well behaved, you know what kids are like). Shouting ‘wake up hippo’ will NOT actually wake the hippo. I should not hear kids in the birdhouse - from their footsteps in the next room.
Otherwise, it was a nice zoo. Not as big as Twycross (my ‘local’) but with a good variety. There was a free-flight aviary, this would be great with more birds! They will be putting bats in here but they aren’t there yet. If they are, they were hiding. The elephants could only be seen through holes in a fence, as they are working on creating some mega elephant enclosure. There was a ‘city farm’ but most of the animals couldn’t be stroked which was a shame as most were in full size cages (Twycross has pens you can reach into!), apart from one pony. The few others which did have reachable pens, the animals weren’t close enough (can’t blame them for keeping back with all those kids around!). Plus the zoo contains the usual; tigers, lions, penguins, sea-lions, flamingoes, mara, chimps, gorillas, reptiles, zebras, giraffes, meerkats (didn’t see any, must have been hiding) and lots of duckies, etc. But no owls. Twycross has owls…
You can probably guess, the zoo involved plenty of walking! Not just that, but half way round the spitting rain turned into a downpour. All doorways and indoor areas were…yes…full of kids! So whipped out my jumper and hat (still had shorts and sandals on, always optimistic! Well, not always…) and braved it. It wasn’t all that cold so was actually quite nice and refreshing.
Had lunch at the zoo which tasted terrible, so won’t eat there again! Back to the bus stop (not actually a bus stop, but the ‘first lamp post after the roundabout’ the driver informed us as they aren’t allowed to put a sign up in Phoenix Park). A bus came straight away which was nice, although the rain had pretty much stopped by this point. Either way, back on top deck and got a covered seat. The problem wasn’t the rain now, but who’d want to sit on an already wet seat! Most people were on lower deck. Bless. By the time we were back in O’Connell Street top deck was otherwise empty. Of course I stayed on board until it returned to stop No.1 as to complete the full tour. I’d recommend the tour to any visitor.

By now the rain had started heavily again, and it was time to walk round town. My sun hat was soaked through so just chucked it in my bag and managed without. When you’ve been walking in heavy rain so much it’s running down your face it doesn’t seem to make any difference any more! Still, it was a good excuse to hit the shops, as I hadn’t really done any yet. Is it wrong that the first bit of shopping I did in Ireland was from the um most Irish of stores…um…Gap. OK it was a branch within an actual Irish department store (Arnotts) so that makes it OK. But after that I really had no excuse to go to Debenhams did I! Except they might sell umbrellas, and I needed an umbrellas, and they had umbrellas, so again, perfectly acceptable. Then went to Topman…just for a browse really, and there were two top girls on the tills…so again all is good. I did pop into a couple of other British shops but balanced it out by visiting Irish ones too. I even refrained from going to Costa and went to a proper Irish coffee shop. No, not ‘Irish coffee’. I saved the alcohol for Temple Bar a bit afterwards. Temple Bar pubs are better visited in the afternoon, as in the evenings they get totally packed. The whole area does.

I’ll probably do most of my shopping on Friday, or even at the airport on Saturday (after the weight checks!). I also wanted to return to Bray, to finish off my sunbathing. And possibly see if Katie O’Holmes is still around (ok maybe not!). But the forecast is rain for the rest of the week. But as long as I get to the beach somewhere before I go back, even if it’s chucking it down, I’ll be happy. I don’t know what it is but there’s a certain magic of being by the sea.

1930: With plenty of time left, and my foot and legs easing off to make the act of walking less of a chore, I went to Dun Laoghaire for a bit. Public transport in Dublin is great, reliable and frequent, so it’s possible to just go off somewhere without worrying about getting back. But I only stayed in DL for about an hour, as it was now getting nippy, especially that sea breeze, my jumper had been left in the hotel room a couple of hours ago (when it stopped raining and I’d got the brolly). So returned to Dublin, changed into jumper/trousers and went into town for dinner. I’m trying my hardest to leave my coat on it’s hanger for the whole week! I even carried my coat before leaving Birmingham Airport, carried it on the plane and not worn it at all since. I can carry it back then it’ll be good. Yes I am very odd!

I know I should have posted this ages ago… but… there you go. The next two parts I’ll write now and schedule them for other times in the week, get it finished!

Monday
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0930: Needed a lie in this morning. Finding it very difficult to sleep at night, it’s so hot and humid 24 hours a day, even the open window doesn’t help. If I knew the forecast I’d have payed extra and booked a hotel with air conditioning. Went the other way up the coastline today, to Howth (rhymes with ‘both’). Nice hillside fishing village, bustling harbour. Took a walk to the top of the hill, Howth Summit. It didn’t look far but about 4o minutes later I was there. Gorgeous views but a lot of haze again. Returned along the cliff path, a bit longer but nicer than the road. Wanted to take a boat ride out to an island just off the coast, Ireland’s Eye. But where the boat leaves from, there was nothing. Never mind.

1230: Time to move on round the coast to another harbour town. 45 minutes or so on the DART straight into Dun Laoghaire (read: Dun Leary). Most people know this town as where-the-HSS-ferry-goes-from. But there’s more to it. Lots and lots of boats, an old red lightship, very long piers giving nice views out into the bay, ships passing by. Popular with fishermen sitting on the rocks. Quite a surprisingly large shopping area too considering how small the town is. Scampi and chips while sitting in the middle of the harbour watching people learning to sail (must be, a bunch of little yachts going round in circles) was lovely.

1615: Back into Dublin pausing for a break at the hotel, the had a wander round the Docklands which is being heavily regenerated. Walked through to the East bridge then back on the north side of the Liffey, past Trinity College to Pearse station.

2000: Back to the room early tonight as I’m up early tomorrow, nice to just relax for a couple of hours.

Tuesday
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0600: Up early as my mum is coming over for the day, as she’s never been to Ireland before and fancied a day out. She arrived about 0700 so took her for a quick walk around while everywhere was still shut. Then for breakky at my favourite Lemon seeing as I’d miss the hotel’s.

0900: A quick tram ride over to the Guinness Storehouse exhibition. I’ve been there a few years ago so knew what to expect. Still a great place. Worth it for the complimentary pint in the Gravity Bar alone! Spent about 3 hours in there I reckon then straight back into Connolley then onto Sandycove which lies on the southern coast of Dublin Bay. That’s the location of the James Joyce museum, housed in an old circular Martello tower. Only a little place but quite charming.

1530: Returned to central Dublin for lunch, then a couple of pints in Temple Bar. Well as it was my mum’s first time in Ireland I had to show her a traditional Irish pub, with live music. The pubs over here are great, so friendly and interesting with plenty of character and charm. Unlike the majority of English ones which are basically just places which sell booze, seen one seen them all. Then a short time shopping before seeing her off at Busaras at 8pm.

2000: Back to the room as I was kerrrnackered. Put the telly on, lay on bed, started falling asleep. Thought ’sod it’, turn telly off and actually go to sleep. was so tired I didn’t even get chance to offload the days photos from my camera and do the journal entry (I’m writing this bit at 11pm on Wednesday).

Sunday
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0930: No rush to get up as breakfast is served a little later during weekends. Was the usual continental style ‘help yourself’ affair. Anything you may want was on offer; cereals, croissants, toast, fry-up, tea, coffee, orange juice, yogurts. Needless to say I didn’t take advantage, I rarely eat much in the morning. Breakfast is served in the very ornate on-site Italian Restaurant, very pretty with natural stone, polished wood, church style interior dome things with embossed leaves. Almost like being there, especially with this glorious weather!
Yes, bright and hot again so only one thing for it.1030: Yes, to make the most of the weather while it’s here I took the short walk round the corner to the station. I was having a day at the seaside! Jumped on a DART to Bray, a lovely little seaside town. Guess I arrived there around 1115. Nice stroll around the harbour and prom, then a visit to Bray Sea Life Centre. Quite small compared to the English ones, but very good all the same. They even had an octopus in there which I swear came over to the side of it’s tank where I was standing to say hello. Also there were little jellyfish, seahorses, little sharks, tropical fish, anemones, carp, piranhas, you get the idea.
After that it was a little stroll on the beach. Mostly pebbles and shingle but a nice stretch of wet sand is where the tide was. It didn’t feel extremely hot but I could sea a fine but distinct mist forming where water was evaporating from the beach.

1230: Time to move on. I fancied doing a walk which I read about before I left home. It’s from Bray to Greystones, the next town down. The path goes around Bray Head, raising high and following the jagged coastline beyond, curving above the railway line, past rocks and ruined stone buildings, through leafy tracks, past fields, stunning views all the way and finally lowering into Greystones towards the harbour. Got to Greystones about 1430 or thereabouts. First job there was to get a train ticket back to Dublin and see how long I had there, being a Sunday service. So opted for 2 hours, ample time.

Greystones is smaller than Bray, more like a village, but a very popular place. It’s easy to see why, with long beaches and coastal rocks (hence the town’s name, from the big grey stones), small harbour, grassy cliff tops, handful of shops and stunning views. After a stroll round, had a wander on the beach but the ‘dry’ sand was actually too hot to walk on for more than a few minutes, and the paved areas weren’t much better! I’ve experienced this in the Med, but never in this corner of Europe or Britain. Needed to find a place for lunch, came across a funky little place called Nosh & Coffee, or something like that. Very modern little place, leather sofas and young staff. Very strange though when you see a Chinese looking member of staff with a strong Irish accent. They did a beautiful tomato and mozzarella panini with pesto and fair trade cappuccino and not ridiculously priced. Yum! Again, just like being in the Med!

1515: Spent the last hour or so sunbathing, found a nice grassy spot above the rocks that was fit for the job looking out to sea so I could watch the speedboats, a man showing off in his jet-ski, people on an inflatable banana and various yachts (near and distant). Also think there was a large ferry coming in to Dublin in the distance but it was very hazy and hard to tell. It was hazy when I left Birmingham yesterday and it’s still the same. Not too great when it comes to the views but nothing can be done about it!

1645: Time to get the train home. Wow, there was a stunning girl at Greystones station standing nearby on platform 1, who ate a banana and had water in a big blue bottle in a ‘Tesco Ireland’ non-disposable bag (yeah, she ain’t gonna be reading this…!). Looked quite like Katie Holmes (that alone is good enough) but with that nice Irish touch, you know, extra freckles and those deep sexy Irish eyes! I don’t know what it is, but there’s something special about Irish girls eyes that I can’t explain. Deep, piercing and sultry. I see it often round here. Has the effect of mascara and eye shadow without the need for them to even wear any, they draw you in. Sort of like Kirsten Dunst’s. Sort of. Anyway we all had to change to platform 2 and she was there again, standing close…(on purpose? Yeah right who am I kidding…) hair tied up and back, dark sunglasses, mildly tanned, simple summer wear, light blue flip flops… very cute!
The ‘Commuter’ train was packed when it arrived so it was a case of all squeeze into the doorway. She was in the same doorway, but after 10 minutes, she departed at Bray. Never mind, it’d never have worked anyway! A long distance relationship is one thing but international would be pushing it. Of course, more people got on so I was left squashed against the opposite door all the way to Dublin. Not a great thing when I’ve been walking for hours. The train had emptied by half by Tara Street but decided there was no point finding a seat for the last couple of minutes over the Liffey and round the back of my hotel into Connolley. I love long interesting walks but I don’t do it often enough, something I should start working on when I return.

I must just mention that the train ride between Connolley and Greystones is one of the nicest there is. It crosses the Liffey and passes through south-east Dublin, Grand Canal Docks and underneath part of Lansdowne Road Stadium (which I noticed is being gutted, are they knocking it down), then along the Dublin Bay coastline through places like Blackrock, Dun Laoghaire (major ferry port), Sandycove, Dalkey (where Bono has a house) and Bray, past wide beaches, beautiful buildings, tunnels and cuttings, lots of nature, harbours and old monuments. A must if you’re ever in the area. Especially on a sunny day like today.

1730: By the time the train got in I was desperate to sit down! So desperate in fact that I even took a LUAS tram to get me around the corner by one stop to the hotel. Only it’s typical that the tram was almost full so I found a strange perch-type seat, better than nothing. I was so so glad just to get into the hotel room and be able to collapse onto the bed! Went into the bathroom to freshen up, looked in the mirror…oh…is my face really that red?!! One word of advice, never judge the rate of sunburn by what’s showing on your arms! Although they have now come up rosy. I should have taken a mirror! The redness shouldn’t last too long.

1915: Back into town, now the sun is dying down (although it’s daylight until about 2230 here, and at the time of writing it’s 2308 and still a bit of light left in the sky!). Besides I had a tram ticket to make use out of and I needed food. Still nice and warm out, as it was last night (t-shirt at midnight!). Wandered nowhere in particular to find somewhere to eat, stumbled across a Persian restaurant on the edge of Temple Bar so decided that would do. Had a chicken kebab, done properly - prepared open, fresh and generous, puts chippy’s ones to shame. The place began with a Z but can’t remember what it was. Then stopped at the shop for a Club Orange (think orange Tango, but made in Ireland with 10 times more flavour and deliciousness), and finally the Haagen Dazs shop for what should have been a 3 scoop tub but the feller pretty much had it overflowing, good work on his part, so my snack-like dessert was like another full course. After that hearty kebab I was struggling…but I won. Two scoops of mango & passion fruit (the tub was almost overflowing by this point) with a scoop lemon sorbet on top. One happy customer = one returning customer!!

So strolled the Liffey while forcing that down then called it a day, back to the room about 2130. After all that walking I deserved an relaxing evening. Sh…ugar this entry is possibly longer than yesterday’s…!