Here we are in Ireland’s fair Dublin — strolling the cafe lined streets, taking in the Georgian architecture and appreciating subtleties and varieties of the colour green. Our accommodation, The Schoolhouse Hotel, sits on the edge of a small river known as the Grande Canal, lined with willows and maples. Stone bridges and locks offer pedestrians opportunity to meander from bank to bank and cyclists in Fleet Street suits weave in and out on their to who knows where. People stroll through the garden space — St. Stephen’s Green — a pastoral sanctuary away from the hubbub of traffic and construction. We are in Dublin, the seat of English control for 750 years in Ireland. Independence was hard won and evidence is everywhere.
Tomorrow we’ll take in the major sites: Trinity College, Chester Beatty Library, Kilmainham Gaol, and eat dinner at the Brazen Head Pub then finish with some Irish theatre.
First impressions? The people are friendly, the city has young vibe with its university crowd, and there is a lot to learn from one of the oldest settlements in Europe. And now for bed.
Schoolhouse Hotel
