Our days in "Dublin's fair city" are limited, so we've had to plan carefully. As one of us is an artist, we start at the Hugh Lane Gallery (also known as the Dublin City Gallery), where Renoir's Blue Umbrellas is on display. This is a stroke of luck, as the painting moves back and forth between this one and the National Gallery in London. Hugh Lane is light and spacious, with pale wooden floors, and Blue Umbrellas has a wall to itself facing a bench.
We sit quietly for a while, drinking it in, while our expert explains how the painting's special importance is that it illustrates Renoir's changing styles. Originally planned as a modern art gallery, we find the Hugh Lane houses art from various periods and after a couple of hours we visit the coffee shop on the top floor and indulge in cream scones with strawberry jam. Yum!
The National Botanic Gardens (one of us is a gardener) is crammed with flowers and squirrels. The gardens were established in 1795 by the Royal Dublin Society to conserve and share the importance of plants, and boast over 15,000 species from all over the world. We stroll between emerald lawns to the imposing glass and iron greenhouse, restored for the bicentenary of the gardens in 1995. Inside, exotic, large-leafed plants jostle each other and crowd the space.Outside again, we walk along avenues of trees to the Rose Garden which is in profuse, perfumed bloom. We pause on our way out to admire a bed of succulents, each part of an intricate circular design. A living mandala in the heart of Ireland.
Later we walk across St Stephen's green to the Café en Seine, touted as Dublin's "finest", for lunch. The art-nouveau interior is in opulent style, recalling 19th-century Paris.
Huge, embellished urns stand on tables held aloft by elaborate figurines and gold is everywhere.
The light fittings are fascinating and varied. Chandeliers with individual fabric lampshades hang from the ceiling and sprout from the walls; black, iron streetlights support glowing lanterns; and there are lamps and lanterns of every imaginable design. It's like stepping into a bygone era.Our next stop is St Patrick's Cathedral. Having just read Ken Follet's fascinating book, Pillars of the Earth, about the building of cathedrals in ancient Britain, I am intrigued to learn that this church was founded in 1191, and that writer Jonathan Swift was once dean.
From the outside, the cathedral looks grey and forbidding, especially under gloomy skies. The tower looms over the street below and only the tall, slender spire suggests something not entirely earthbound.We are unprepared for the beauty inside. The tiled floors, patterned in mosaic in soft tones of green, mustard and brown, are exquisite. The striking original pulpit is embellished with stone figures on thin reddish marble pillars. Swift apparently insisted on a plain wooden pulpit, still there. The Lady Chapel, added in 1270, reduces us to awed silence.
A low surround of small Gothic arches traces the perimeter of the room, and a series of fluted pillars culminates in graceful arches that curve up to support the magnificent vaulted ceiling.
The altar is covered in a heavily embossed and embroidered cloth in green and gold.That evening we trawl the streets in search of a "real" Irish pub. They are legion and all packed, but in our chosen one we manage to slide into a small space on a heavy black oak settle with space on the table for our Guinness. The couple beside me are straight out of Dickens - her lugubrious expression emphasised by uneven strands of yellow-grey hair dangling round her ears, his cheeks still full and rosy above ample chins. Close by, a man with a guitar is mournfully singing:
"O Grace, just take me in your arms and let the moment linger, for tomorrow I go out and I must die."
People of all ages laugh and talk around us. As the guitarist starts on Danny Boy, people join in with various degrees of heartiness (and tunefulness). We sip our ale and relax into our last night in Ireland.
WRITE IN & WIN!
Share your travel experiences with us in Readers' World and you could win R1,000. Send your photos - at least 500KB - and a story of no more than 800 words. Include a recent photo of yourself. Please note that stories should not have been published in print or online. E-mail travelmag@sundaytimes.co.za with the words 'Readers' World' in the subject line...