A building in Dublin
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We arrived in Dublin shortly before mid-day and jumped on the Aircoach shuttle bus straight to the city centre. From there it was a short walk to the Parliament Hotel which we'd pre-booked. Although we were early our room was ready so we dumped our stuff and headed out into the city to have a look around.
A building in Dublin
It didn't take us too long to get our bearings. The hotel was directly opposite Dublin Castle and just on the edge of the Temple Bar region. Dublin's not that big a city (not when you come from London anyway!) so after an hour or two we'd had a quick look around the city centre and decided what we wanted to go and have a closer look at.
The River Liffey, crossed by the Ha'penny Bridge
A direct view of the Ha'penny Bridge
The Ha'penny bridge is one of the more attractive of the many that cross that Liffey. One of the things that struck me about Dublin (and which was to be noticed throughout all of Ireland) is that huge lorries go thundering right through the city centre, along the quays on both banks of the river. This is noticeably different to the UK, where almost all towns and cities that were once on main roads have now had bypasses built to direct the traffic around them.
A little later we wandered down towards Grafton Street, one of the main pedestrianised shopping streets in the city. Heading here from the Bank of Ireland / Trinity College you go right past the statue of Molly Malone but as it was totally surrounded by other tourists having their picture taken we saved taking a photograph till later.
St. Anne's Church from the outside ...
... and from the inside
At the south end of Grafton Street is St. Stephen's Green, surrounded by university and government buildings. It's also a very attractive park in its own right, with lots of statues and sculptures.
Lord Ardilaum (better known as Sir Arthur Guinness) who gave St. Stephen's Green to the public
A very modern sculpture of a hare and a greyhound embracing
A detail from the same sculpture -- for some unfathomable reason it's of Harry Potter
We carried on wandering around the city until it started getting too dark to take pictures. Below are a few photographs that came out particularly well.
Not sure which building this is, but it reminds me of the Prudential Building in Holborn
Part of Dublin castle
No matter how many times I see this, I still read it as "Sick and Indecent Roomkeepers"!
Dublin courthouse