Dublin 17th-19th July, 2009

It was Rupesh's birthday weekend even though his birthday wasn't until Monday! Rupesh hadn't been to Dublin before so we decided to spend the weekend there. We did plan a couple of things except how long it was going to take us to get there! I don't have a great history with Ryanair and now the history seems to be growing. We had a great flight booked on Friday night at 6.30pm so we thought we'd get to the B & B in Dublin about 8.30pm then go and have some dinner. Our flight was delayed by 5 hours. I was having visions back to St. Patrick's Day 2006 when Bern and I were to fly to Dublin and our Ryanair flight was cancelled after we were already sitting on the plane! Fortunately this time our flight did leave but we didn't get to Dublin until the early hours of the morning.

"Top o the morning to you!" Rupesh loved saying this in his best Irish accent and he invented a new one - "Bottom o the evening to you!"

It turned out to be a cold and rainy weekend for the middle of

The Hairy Lemon Pub - Dublin

Summer! Nevertheless we did a lot of wandering between showers and in between my stomach not feeling so great. The cooked breakfast at the B & B didn't quite agreee with me. The B & B wasn't as homely and quaint as some we have stayed in across England.

We did discover a great little pub called the Hairy Lemon which had loads of character and very friendly staff. We ended up visiting it a couple of times.

We had pre-purchased tickets to Riverdance and it was absolutely fantastic particularly from the front row. An incredibly lively performance with great music.

The Guinness Brewery was great too and Rupesh particularly enjoyed his pint of guinness at the bar on the top floor of the brewery overlooking Dublin.

We were back in London on Sunday night and on the Monday (Rupesh's birthday) evening I managed to get a cheap lastminute.com booking at the Kensington Roof Top Gardens for dinner. It wasn't quite warm enough to sit outside on their balcony but we did enjoy a drink outside before dining inside. The gardens are impressive and there are flamingos wandering around!

Additional photos below

Photos: 23, Displayed: 23