Today we had scheduled a walking tour from the James Joyce Centre as we continue to view Dublin through Joyce-coloured glasses. After a substantial breakfast we took a taxi here, on the north side of the Liffey.
It is in a Georgian part of the city, with rows of red brick homes, gaily painted doors with columns and lovely lead light above, and spilling flower boxes.
Our tour guide arrived bearing extremely well thumbed, post-it noted and highlighted copies of Ulysses and Dubliners. John has a PhD in literature and was both informative and entertaining. He obviously loves Joyce and conveyed his enthusiasm to us. We walked around Joycean locales. It was more of a standing-around tour than a walking tour, so our step count was not high. When we returned from the tour we took the time to go through the Centre. What a lovely home it must have been, with its wide polished floorboards, decorative plasterwork, ornate ceilings, and lovely light-filled rooms. I seem to be continuing my door theme of a trip to Italy years ago, but these doors truly are lovely.
This door is the original door of 7 Eccles Street, relocated to the Centre as No. 7 is no longer there:
Our tour took us past the Gresham Hotel, where sister Gwen and I stayed for one night all those years ago, so we went in and looked around. As I remember, our room was not very grand at all.
The whole of Dublin is a construction zone. The roads are all dug up everywhere, buildings all over the city are shrouded in scaffolding and netting. The economy must be picking up.
There are some lovely old buildings, so it is great that they are being restored.
At the end of our tour we walked back to the Mackintosh shop where we each persuaded the other to buy a coat. Thank heavens for the Irish economy and our reputations as consumers. We bought some sandwiches at M&S for eats, and went back to our room to relax. I did some drawing - a colourful view of rom our room, and some knitting.
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