A few words about Dublin (three stars in the Michelin Guide). It is a modern, grimy city. Not terrible, just not a place that lends itself to random wandering. I booked an unimpressive hotel, sight unseen, at the airport -- but at least its location was very good.
My first tourist stop was Dublin Castle. Michelin recommended it highly (and I sneaked a peek at Time Out Dublin, who also liked it). I was underwhelmed. The decorations, furnishings, and architecture are too modern for my taste (or rather, not old enough or modern enough), as the castle proper was apparently mostly destroyed when someone had the bright idea of storing all of the gunpowder in one of the turrets for fire safety (apparently, they thought this would put an end to any fire super quickly). The tour guide did his best, but it was his second day on the job, and he didn't know any more than the guidebooks. The Castle was overpriced by approximtely 4.50 Euros.
From there, I went to a famous library on the premises, the Chester Beatty Library (there are several libraries on Dublin's tourist circuit, along with a writers' museum) which features -- for free -- a nice selection of artwork from Asia, the Middle East, and the West presented in parallel in the galleries for easy comparison. In keeping with the exhibitions, they also have a nice cafe which serves excellent middle eastern food. I ordered a simple panini which came with a lovely salad of spices, grains and olives. Needless to say, this cafe is totally ignored by Michelin.
I managed to find Butler's Chocolates, a place Michelin praised highly for its Irish whiskey truffles. (It wasn't easy, because Michelin's map omits many streets, as does the free tourist map I obtained at the airport.) I didn't think much of the Irish whiskey truffles, but the hot chocolate was delicious and thick. The value for money seemed quite high (at least for take-away), in fact it was such a large cup and the chocolate so rich I couldn't finish it.
I was very pleased with this find, until I continued my wanderings and realized that Michelin had identified only one of the half-dozen or more Butler's Chocolates establishments in the city. Your cup need never run dry in Dublin.* At first I was annotating my map with their locations, but ultimately gave up because there were so many of them.
With even greater difficulty, because I was trying to follow Michelin's totally inadequate walking tour directions, I found the Iveagh Gardens, looked unsuccessfully for an alleged "maze" that Michelin claims is located within the garden, and napped for a while. It was a relaxing place, with a few fields and fountains.
I woke up in plenty of time for my concert -- Bach Concertos played by the Irish Baroque Orchestra in the national orchestra hall. Despite the guidebook's totally unfounded complaints about the acoustics, the music was gorgeous. For the record, however, I would like to lodge one minor complaint about the proceedings. I was approximately 1 minute late to the concert (a sudden downpour had induced me to purchase a rainjacket), and I was not permitted to enter the concert hall -- even when I promised not to try to get to my seat but only to stand quietly at the entrance. After a relatively pleasant 20-minute wait (like Lincoln Center, they show the concert on flat-screen TVs for latecomers), I went in. At intermission, a man and a young girl came in and sat down near me. The girl might have been 7-9 years old, and she could not for the life of her sit still. Despite her dad's efforts to keep her quiet (and her own efforts to comply), she kept whispering to her father, playing with the velcro on her shoes, and banging her feet around. If they were really serious about not disturbing concertgoers, they would weed out not only the latecomers, but also all persons under the age of 25.
FN* This is true also of beer and whiskey, of course, not just chocolate.
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