Late afternoon and early evening were spent exploring the town centre, especially Temple Bar.  This is an unusually energetic area, with trendy shops, cafes, restaurants and the odd street performer, all within a few cobblestone lanes.

The range of menus is amazing.  You can get anything from a take-out burger and fries to an exotic sit-down dinner at a Persian restaurant, as long as you like goat.  There were actually two Persian restaurants, though one served Persian/Italian fair--goat and feta cheese pizza, perhaps.  We also saw Monty's of Katmandu as well as a Mongolian Barbeque.  We took a peek at the latter's menu but, as it didn't specify which part of the Mongolian was on the spit that evening, we opted for Milano's Italian Restaurant instead. 

The atmosphere was cosmopolitan, the waiters efficient, the table setting homey, yet chic, and the menu . . . strangely familiar.  A closer look at the fine print on the back revealed that Milano's Italian Restaurant is actually Pizza Express in disguise; we spent 50 euros for a meal we could have gotten just down the street from our flat for 20 quid. 

But it was good pizza.  I had the American Style.  Not quite as on the money as the Johnny Rocket Cheeseburger, but close enough. 

There were two things we had wanted to do that afternoon, and we were shut out of both.  I wanted to walk by the Liffey and my wife wanted to go up The Flue with the View.

The Liffey is a river in Ireland--you've probably heard of it--and the Flue with the View is an old smoke stack from a long-abandoned factory complex which has recently been converted into flats, hotels and gift shops (the factory complex, not the smokestack).  During all this redevelopment, someone had the foresight to keep the smokestack upright and build a glass room at the top of it.  From the ground, it looked as if it afforded a grand view of the city, and it was such a nice day we decided to give it a try.

Finding it wasn't as easy as it should have been.  We could see it, but getting to it involved zigzagging around building sites and dodging construction vehicles and Dublin Drives, who seem to think they are in some sort of urban road race.  At length, we arrived safely at the base of the structure and inquired at the gift shop about tickets. 

"The last tour just went up," the young woman told us, "and after that it's going to be closed for repairs." 

Perfect. 

The only thing to do was continue on to the hotel.  When we arrived at the main street, I convinced my wife to make the treacherous crossing so we could walk on the side that overlooked the Liffey.  But when we got there, the only thing we saw was a sign saying, "Walkway closed due to construction."