So, how to start the morning?   Climb aboard a big green bus with a bunch of strangers and ride in the open air and sunshine of a special Dublin day.

Here’s the route, click to enlarge (if you are patient and really want to see it), there is no better way to get a sense of the city and the relation of streets, alleys, parks, and the history that binds.

We took the ride completely around the loop and then before starting on our second roundtrip disembarked at Dawson St.  for a bite to eat.  Sat street side and  let the sites and sounds of the street accompany lunch.

I took a jaunt around the sidewalk corner and found this treasure.

Then we walked off lunch in  St. Stephens Green, true, gem in the city.

Is it just me, the angle of light, the local flora, but do these not seem like the most intense begonias on earth?

Ancient cities have ancient churches and Dublin is no exception with Christ Church Cathedral from the Norman period and St. Patrick’s Cathedral founded in 1191.

Christ Church

St. Patrick’s

And how it may have looked to eyes of history.

Across the street a school of songs hundreds of years old.

And up the street, their library.

On the walk between the two churches we explored some housing.

This obviously was for the workers.

This one for the more artistic.

And what of the Working Girls?

An Irish lace curtain caught in the wind.

And a very old door still opens to the air.

Then we wound around the alleys and roads amid the 70-acre Guinness Storehouse where they ferment 3.5 billion “pints” each year.  Embedded in the first floor entrance floor is the 9,000 year lease signed by Arthur Guinness in 1795.

Calatrava’s fingerprints seem worldwide.

And we’ve all heard about the tech boom in Ireland.  Here’s what a tiny 12.5% corporate tax rate will do for your city.  All cranes, glass and steel claiming the dockside for business.

Meanwhile, we made it back to the ranch with a good dose of sun -kissed vitamin D warming our foreheads.