Saturday, April 16

This morning we started the day with another gigantic breakfast, and then walked down O’Connell Street to find a bus to Howth. I had spent ages finding the best way to get there by train but on the way out of the guesthouse Irma had asked about Howth and the woman on the desk had suggested we should go by bus. This turned out ot be a much better option.

We sat on the top deck of the bus and watched Dublin change into suburbs, and then villages of the kind where the farmers have been replaced by advertising executives. If we had got the train we would have ended up in Howth, where we intended. On the bus we went through the village and up the steep hill to Howth Summit, something we would never have walked.

We are walking from Howth Summit down to the village by what we believed to be the coastal path. This is a six kilometre walk. At some point we must have missed a turning (there was no turning) because we are now on a road going through a little village that may or may not have a name of its own. We are walking into it now and in a few minutes we will see a village shop and a pub. We will stop at both.

Three hundred metres further down the hill is the “world famous” Abbey Inn. There we will stop for food and have the best prawn cocktails we can remember. We will order them as a joke but they will turn out to be made from huge local prawns and the best food we will eat in Ireland.

I will also have corned beef and cabbage, but the corned beef will be the chef’s homemade corning and nothing at all to do with Fray Bentos. I will not be sure if I am glad about this or not.