Carry on up the Liffey

The bug seemed to have passed a bit, so I decided on a walk up the Liffey for today.

I started off, but then decided on an Irish breakfast. This turned out to be ok, but a bit meat-heavy. I'm a bit dubious about white pudding: kind of like sausage meat, and not what I want for breakfast. Sightly disturbing to see people drinking Guinness for breakfast.

Anyway, the lower stretches of the Liffey are a bit loud and dirty, and I popped South to Dublin Castle. It's a bit of a mix, from the original Viking fortifications through Normans and medieval to victorian and modern bits. This bit is the chapel, based on one of the original Norman towers.

Behind the Castle, there's a really nice maze garden. If you believe the guides, this was the site of the original "Dubh Lin" or black pool, which was where the Vikings landed. Looking on the medieval maps, I think that's dubious, but it's still quite pretty, and I sat in the sun for a bit watching the world go by.

Just to the right of that garden, there's the Chester Beatty Gallery, which is a really relaxed building, not old but just calm and tranquil, with one of the worlds greatest collections of ancient religious texts, including the oldest version of some bits of the bible. This water feature is in the shape of a peacock feather: the cafe next to it is well worth a lunch visit. This is where the beautiful people of Dublin come to lunch.

While I was up that end, I popped into Christ Church, one of Dublin's cathedrals. Fairly boring, except that at the front, there's a little iron heart shaped casket. Inside of it is the heart of Strongbow, the famous warrior that came over with the Normans and beat seven bells out of Ireland.

Eventually I actually got back to the Liffey, and headed upstream. It's a nice walk, and it's a shame the Liffey is so neglected by visitors. I went as far up as the Guinness factory, then headed down the other side, stopping at the other site of the National Museum (clothes and stuff), at what used to be a very majestic barracks building.

The Liffey does seem a bit dead round here: no birds, although there was a fire brigade boat.

After that, I had to move my stuff to the B&B I was moving to, which was way in the South of Dublin. It says something about Ireland that the main bit of info offered was not bus times, or local restaurants, but a list of local church services. The B&B seemd to be run by Germans. But then most of Dublin isn't run by the Irish: asking for directions can be difficult!

In the evening, I discovered Camden Street. At last, a proper area where you can eat without getting ripped off. This is a really vibrant, young area, with lots going on. After that I went to the Camden Palace Ballroom, and did an East Coast Smooth lesson, which was good fun. I'd never done it before though, so as there were only 2 or 3 steps taught, I wasn't up to much really in terms of leading anyone. Only a small class with maybe 30 people, half of them actually Irish: I resolved to come next week if I could.

written by

martin_b on April 18, 2007 from Dublin, Ireland

from the travel blog: Eastern Ireland

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