No problem with the flight to Dublin even though for the first time in many years I had a bag in the hold. I waited by the bit where the bags come out on to the carousel and wonder of wonders my bag popped out first! Happy days.. This was followed by a smooth journey into town on the Aircoach. My hotel, the Temple Bar Inn, was nice and I was happy to find that I had a fridge in my room, which I think has become a bit of a rarity. The reason for the fridge was to keep the Raclette cheese, that I’d bought in Toulouse, cold.
Raclette is a classic French meal, where you have an electric grill on the table and cook the slices of cheese underneath, while all the different charcuterie, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms etc are cooked (or not) on the top part. Served with lots of jacket potatoes, you pour your melted cheese on top and repeat until stuffed full!
The window ledge was slightly sloped and narrow and I was on the 4th floor, so I have no doubt the cheese wouldn’t have survived the night chilling outside without falling off and causing an international incident. I can just see the headline now ‘Mysterious flying French cheeses flatten local resident’.
I rang a Nepalese restaurant, Montys of Kathmandu, to book a table for dinner only to be informed that from today all bars and restaurants have to close at 8pm due to Covid. Well that’s my plans ruined. I was intending to go for a meal at 8pm and then catch some live music afterwards.
So I booked instead for 7pm and immediately went out in search of beer and music. Luckily I found a place nearby, The Old Storehouse, that I managed to just about squeeze into as it was heaving. I got a great seat at the bar and pint of ale in hand enjoyed the live music, which was a solo singer/songwriter Sean Coffey with his guitar. He had a great range of songs and I spent a nice hour listening before going off for my Nepalese curry, which was tasty, even if the main course resembled green goo.
However I was back in my room by 8.20pm with nothing to do thanks to the latest pointless rules! Poor old Dublin indeed.
