Friday 26th June Day 39
It was off to Dublin’s fair city today and it’s probably the hottest day we have had so far, excellent timing or what but we did have an easy way to get there, foot, train, foot and that was it job done although our feet did do a lot more walking when we got there, the station was a ten minute walk from the harbour and we got there just in time to pay for our tickets, get on and 3 minutes later off we went, perfect timing, now anyone would think we had planned that but obviously they don’t know us as it was just good luck, we thought that the tickets were good value at €10.40 return for both of us. Forty five minutes later, well we were but we had got off at the wrong stop, we had stayed on for one too many, then we had an option of walking back to where we wanted to be or to change platforms and wait for the next train going back, as it was stinking hot, we waited for the next train, which arrived about 10 minutes later and we were at O’Connell Street 5 minutes after that. Today was the only day that we could arrange to come into the city and unfortunately it was the hottest day of our trip so far which made it the worst day to go into a city when we should have been relaxing in the sunshine, but hey we were there. Cities aren’t really our thing unless it’s a weekend break somewhere but as we were only a short train ride away it would have been rude not to visit Dublin even though it was hot, sticky, has lots of shops and was full of people probably more than a usual Friday as it was the Cities Pride event on Saturday. Our visit to the city was not planned to be a long one as we had no interest in the shops apart from one which was Weir & Sons jewellers which was established in 1869 and we visited some time ago, it wasn’t just the jewellery or really the watches they sold that we had gone to see but the building itself and its interior displays. The shop in Grafton street was opened in 1905 and occupies a corner position with a striking period shopfront with a curved glass entrance leading to the ornate entrance doors which invite you inside with excitement of what will be inside and on our first visit it didn’t disappoint, apart from the exquisite individual hand crafted expensive jewellery and an array of expensive watches, never forget the watch department, then you have the shop itself. Once inside it is like stepping back into a more graceful era which is rich in character, with beautiful hand carved woodwork accompanied by curved glass glass display cabinets housing a fine collection of silverware created by the companies craftsman dating back through the years, its unique interior was preserved to reflect the charm and character of a bygone time it was like magnificent museum and it’s elegance reminded me of our visit to the Patek Phillipe museum we visited in Geneva, every detail evoked a sense of timeless sophistication. Anyone would think that I like this place and hey guess who helped write that little lot. Anyway back to today and after a little problem with Goggle maps and some gaps in our memory of the shops location, it comes into view the magnificent shop front was still as I remembered and as we approached I was excited to enter and revisit our first experience. Well that was where my excitement ended as at sometime between now and our last visit the shop had undergone a refit, gone are ornate glass display cabinets that were antiques themselves had gone along with the silverware they used to contain, gone is most of the beautiful hand crafted woodwork and has been replaced with modern pretend wood displays and cabinets that I expect suppliers of certain watches have requested so as to keep their corporate identity throughout their network. Well they and the owners were in my opinion Wrong as the shop has now lost its sole and its unique experience, I fully understand that time moves on and things have to change but they should have found afta way of retaining the history and sole of the business. The moving to this new image was also reflected in the knowledge of the staff, again I fully understand that younger staff need to be employed, but they should be trained and possibly chaperoned by an experienced member of staff until they have a bloody clue as to what they are talking about, I am not talking about anything complicated, I am talking about their basic knowledge about the precious stones they sell or even knowing what it is, our experience was made worse as while we were waiting for the young lady who had scarpered off to find out what Tanzanite is, there were 5 or 6 older and I guess more experienced staff were having a good old gab about the previous nights World Cup match, one did finally approach us only to scoot off when we mentioned that the younger lady had gone to ask someone else the question. In my opinion the customer service was seriously lacking, our whole experience was ruined and it’s a good job we weren’t mystery shoppers as the score would not have been very high. Usually revisiting places you like is a good experience but sometimes you should not revisit places and instead keep the memories you have and this is what we should have done on this occasion, we certainly will not be heading back any time soon, ok moan and disappointment over. Next stop was obviously Temple bar for a bit of Irish craic, it was its usual self, busy with stag and hen parties, American tourists on coach trips drinking pints of Guinness that they don’t really like, people jumping in the air doing star jumps while their friends try and capture a photo while they are in the air, it was also busy as tomorrow was Pride day and preparations were being made for the celebrations and you could tell by the various languages being spoken that people had come from far and wide to be part of the celebrations. We had gone to find a specific bar that had a fantastic interior and gives you one of those wow moments but again our memories were struggling to remember which one it was as there are a fair few to choose from and that meant that we had to visit a few to try and find it. Now Mr Wetherspoon has not made an appearance here and that was well obvious by the prices, there was none of that let’s start in first gear it was straight in 6th and top gear, which as we visited a different hostelry 6th gear was not top gear, a this one had an 8 speed box. We weren't having any success finding the bar that we were hunting but perhaps we had and that had also had a refit, so we tried one more and I had forgotten that modern automatic gearboxes far more than 8 speeds and this was one of the ones with 10 if not 11. I tell you what I wouldn’t like to be in a large round here as it would do serious damage to your bank account, I guess that’s why it cheaper to go to Thailand for a stag doo. Well that was enough of that it was time to get the train back to Glo, we got to the station and again our timing was impeccable as the train was standing there waiting for us, anyone would think that we knew what we were doing but obviously we didn’t it was a pure fluke. Hot tired and footsore we arrived back at Glo who was not exactly the coolest place to be, every window was soon open as was the side door, the roof skylights and the extractor fan was on full. We did have thoughts of going for a walk along the promenade but that idea was soon forgotten and that was about it for the rest of the evening, now to pre warn you, the next couple of days are not going to be around as we are going to visit one of Barb’s cousins and that will be family time and none of your business, well I suppose you can have a bit of the morning as that will be travel time with a couple of stops along the way…
Same as last nigh