And so ended our last few hours in Dublin.  To think, we’d hardly used our umbrellas and raincoats throughout the last fifteen days – how lucky were we?

We wanted to get some fresh air this morning before setting off home though, so got all that hardly-used wet weather gear on and set off to explore a corner of the city we’d not visited previously.  This former market area had been regenerated, but sadly, progress has halted and what remains is a half hearted development awaiting new energy and presumably, new investment.

To one side was the Jameson’s distillery, which drew us in to use the facilities but on this rainy Sunday morning was of little interest to us.

We returned to the hotel through the Temple Bar, mostly quiet but with some brave souls starting the day early (or maybe finishing the night late?) 

We bade Daniel O’Connell farewell thinking we’d get a coffee somewhere nearby, but with the football supporters arriving for the match things were getting pretty busy.

Still, we walked up as far as the Post Office

took a look up the Spire before returning to pack up, jump in the car and head towards the airport.

Our flight is supposed to leave at 3.20pm, but currently there’s a delay of at least an hour and we’re sitting in the lounge watching the match.  The rain hasn’t stopped since it started and we think that it’s time to go home.

What a great trip, though!