Back from Ireland! Some Dublin Doors

Hello everyone! I am back from our combination vacation and husband's three-day business audit in Dublin, Ireland!

We had a wonderful time and great weather. Most days were between 55 to 68 degrees, with some misty mornings that burned off to sunny afternoons.

The scenery and lore of Ireland is so beautiful, and the people are friendly and delightful. It really is a wonderful place to visit, and I'm so happy we were able to go back again so soon after our last vacation.

The only present "drawback" right now is that the American dollar is very weak in the exchange with the European Union Euro currency, as it takes approximately 1.58 U.S. dollars to equal one Euro, which makes everything, all goods, and services, more expensive as they are a half more in cost! Prices in Ireland and especially Dublin, are not low to begin with as they are comparable with prices for hotels and restaurants in New York City, so that fact made us a little mindful of budgeting as much as we were able to this time.

Dublin is a fascinating city full of history, art and culture. It is very walkable and there is the wonderful "hop on and hop off buses" that I described last time I visited, which makes sightseeing very easy.

We stayed in a few different hotels in the city center, so we were able to walk to our destinations most of the time, and I enjoyed snapping photos of all the colorful Georgian doors that are prolific in that area. The 18 century was called Dublin's "Age of Elegance," a time of prosperity where elegant townhomes were built by Irish gentry. Luckily, many of these buildings still survive, especially around Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square.

They have become quite popular as tourist attractions, and there are posters and postcards available everywhere in Dublin that depict the most colorful ones.

I thought it would be fun to show you some of my favorites! I think they would make pretty note cards, so feel free to print my photos if you'd like to make some.

I tried to find as many different colors as I could!

One very ornately painted door:

This door, which is located on Fitzwilliam Square, is a favorite for the tour buses to stop in front of to allow the tourists to take photos of it. We were told it is one of the few double doors and was made this way as the King of England once visited and there was a rule at the time that he would not enter through a single door.






There were also many pretty window boxes full of flowers attached to many of the Georgian homes. I thought this one was particularly pretty:


We took rail/bus day tours from Dublin to Northern Ireland and South Eastern Ireland, and west to Newgrange. I'll show some of my photos from all our excursions in the next few blogs, and more from Dublin too!

Now to catch up on as many blogs as I can .... glad to be home! I missed you all!