Day 21 Dublin, Ireland

A long and exhausting day. David has succumbed to the cold he’s been fighting and so we headed into Westport (population 4000) at 9 am in search of breakfast and a doctor! Within a minute of ordering food at a quaint little cafe the doctor rang to say he could come right now. Alanna and I sat back and enjoyed our coffee and first scone of the trip, while he headed off thankful to be getting seen so quickly and just around the corner. He returned 45 minutes later with prescription for sinus infection and we wandered around some old fashioned shops before setting off at 11am for Dublin with me taking over the driving. The scenery was mainly uninteresting as we were on a motorway, and two hours later we detoured for lunch and a break at a terrible town called Longford- really not Ireland at it best. We went to a coffee shop which looked somewhat smart to be served cheese toasties with a side of potato chips! Back in the car the next hour or so proved stressful as I negotiated the busy road into Dublin including a 4.5 km road tunnel and 120 km speed Limit. The weather had changed dramatically and it poured with rain and had become very dark- as had our moods. We found our accomodation down by the docks which is still handy to town and dropped our bags, before driving for another 15 minutes to return our car to the city depot. We could not believe it’s unmarked back street location or the fact we had to leave again to get petrol even though we had been told not to fill it up. Finally we taxied back to the accomodation with little time to spare as we were due at our relations, Mick and Angela Griffin’s for dinner which was another 30 minutes away. The plan had been to take a bus but by now we are so tired and cross with no cash to pay for it due to the closest ATM not working, that we grabbed a taxi instead. A great idea as we were there in 30 minutes. Travelling as we are all takes so much longer than you think especially when you are in big cities. Anyway our day ended on a high note as we reunited with Mick and Angela and enjoyed a lovely dinner and much chat. Mick then drove us back into town where we fell into bed in our lovely modern apartment. We look forward to exploring Dublin some more tomorrow- but on foot!Read more