The previous weekend the weather was so beautiful my better half and I decided to go to Dun Laoghaire.
Dun Laoghaire is a port town to the south of Dublin. It's a Gaelic name and pronounced Dun Leary as in O'Leary. When arriving in Dublin over eleven years ago it was a real tongue twister. We confused a few Irish by pronouncing it the way it is spelled. Our Gaelic hasn't improved much, it's very difficult to learn, but now we know how to pronounce the most common words.
Back to Dun Laoghaire. There are different options how to get there. Of course you can go by car. There is also public transport, like the DART, a light rail, or the bus 7 and 46A. The DART is probably the most scenic, because it runs along the coast line for most of the time. You have beautiful views over the sea. You can get it at Conolly Train Station or Tara DART Station.
Both buses 7 and 46A have stops on O'Connell Street or near Trinity College. On this occasion we used the bus, having prepaid tickets already.
The stops for both DART and bus are at the Dun Laoghaire Train Station, not far from the Stena Lines Ferry Terminal, going on to Holyhead in Wales and other destinations.
We walked to the East Pier to take in some fresh air and sea breeze. Even though it was sunny the wind was blowing cold. We enjoyed the stroll, seeing sailing boats, of course other people waling or sitting on benches,dogs and small kids We took the opportunity to shoot photographs. Suddenly the weather turned and it started to rain. We were hungry by now and decided to look for a restaurant. On the promenade are a few choices, like It's a... (sandwiches, soups, bagels, etc.), Mao or an Italian restaurant. We went to Mao's. It serves pan Asian cuisine from China to Malaysia. My better half had honey sesame chicken with rice and a cocktail, I Thai Chicken with cashew nuts, peppers and rice and orange juice. All freshly prepared in the open kitchen. What we both liked were the quality of the products and the price. Unusual for this type of restaurant the portions were just right. Normally there is too much rice. It was filling, but didn't make us feel over eaten or bloated. We had room for dessert and coffee. We had the same, banana fritters with vanilla ice cream and cappuccino. The banana fritters were really hot and I nearly burned my tongue, so be careful. The total bill came just under forty Euros.
Our needs fulfilled and the sun shining again we went to the Royal Marine Hotel, now independently owned, but a couple of years ago it belonged to the Gresham Hotel Group. It's a four star plus and a classic hotel with modern features. There is a restaurant, bar, lounge, spa, fitness and business centre and meeting rooms. There was a free wedding show going on, so we decided to use the chance to make us a picture of the hotel.
It started with the Mercedes Benz S-Class outside and continued inside the hotel with brochures.
It was not clear where the wedding show was, so we asked the friendly receptionist, who guided us the right way.
We were greeted by a waitress and offered free champagne, martinis or alcohol free options. We went for the champagne. We were now in the bar area. The bar island near the window with views over the sea was Art Deco style, while the rest of the room was kept in a clubby atmosphere with a lot of brown, white and green. Riding scene paintings added additional atmosphere.
We moved then to on through a corridor and saw signs for the toilets down the stairs.
The ladies toilets were spacious. Unfortunately there are no induvidual trash cans in the cubicles, so if you have to deal with "womanly issues" it could get embarrassing.
The coat hangers are placed slightly too high for my flavor. I liked, that there were many sinks and mirrors. There were Gilchrist & Soames hand wash and cream at four corners. I like the company, but thought it would have been better, if each sink would have had it's own hand wash and cream. It invites to simply wash your hands with water, especially when it's busy.
One of my pet peaves is people, who don't wash hands after a visit to the rest rooms.
There are only hand dryers available. It's not a problem, because they are fast.
Overall the toilets were spotless clean and had a sleek modern design. The reason for too few toiletries could be to leave the room uncluttered or it could be also a cost cutting measure.
On we went to the main event. The largest meeting room was transformed into a wedding function. We were offered a brochure with all the wedding packages and prices available. Tables and chairs were decorated as if there was already a wedding planned for the day. There was already a set up, what the proposed menu items looked like. It looked gorgeous, but unfortunately I'm not abig fan of tradtional cuisine.
If you like you can choose a wedding cake, including cup cakes, from the international award winning company Cake Box, also based in Dun Laoghaire. They offer a choice of over 300.
The hotel can organize a live band or a DJ.
We could have had a tour of the hotel and seen different room types, but decided against it, because we wanted to keep the surprise for a later overnight stay. We strolled along Main Street before returning home.
©2011
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