The Good and the Bad of Dublin

I'm just back from a long weekend in Dublin. A fine weekend was had and plenty of pints of the black stuff were consumed - even though the state of the pound means the Euro, the currency now used in Ireland's fair city, is almost on parity with Sterling. Which means a pint of Guinness is five Euros upwards...

They say you get what you pay for in life. Cheap flights from Edinburgh to Dublin - £53 return - was decent enough value even though the flight takes little more than an hour. It's also true to say when I booked cheap accommodation in the heart of Dublin I wasn't expecting The Ritz. And it's something of an understatement to say I certainly didn't get it.

The Clifton Court Hotel is situated on the banks of the River Liffey. And that's about all it has going for it. The rooms are tiny, the walls paper thin - we could hear the couple in the next room's very lively sexual activities - and the stairs leading to the fourth floor are narrow and not for the claustrophobic. The bathroom we had was about the size of a small linen cupboard - and had the constant smell of dampness. All this we could just about put up with - we were only there for a boozy weekend in any case - but what wasn't acceptable was the potential of people's lives being put at risk as happened in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The fire alarm went off at 12.15am for a few seconds before stopping. A false alarm, we thought - until it went off again two minutes later. This time for considerably longer. We threw our clothes on, grabbed our passports and wallets and headed down to reception in a state of fear although not quite panic. The reception was on the first floor and those guests who thought it prudent to make their way down the perilously steep stairway were greeted by a nonchalant young fella behind the desk asking what we were doing. As the fire alarm was still blaring away we rather assumed the building was alight. 'No, no' the fella on duty told us, 'it's only the alarm. It'll be someone smoking in their room - there is no fire'

'How do you know that?' I asked incredulously.

'I don't know for sure but my colleague is away to check the room concerned'

Meanwhile about two dozen startled and frightened guests were looking down from the stairway not sure what to make of it all. 'Is there a fire?' someone asked. 'Apparently they're not sure' I replied somewhat sarcastically.

It transpired there was no fire and it had been a guest allegedly smoking hash in his room - and had compounded the offence by using an air freshener to try and alleviate the smell. But there was no apology from the staff, no organisation and, frighteningly, no proper fire drill procedure that I could see. One couple felt so alarmed they immediately checked out although they also cited the fact their room was so damp it was like sleeping in a fish tank. It could have been a scene straight out Fawlty Towers, the famous BBC sitcom of the 1970s.

The other side of the Dublin coin was the excellent Gallagher's Boxty House in the city's Temple Bar area. The Boxty House serves the best Full Irish Breakfast in Dublin by far! The food was sublime, the service excellent, the staff friendly and efficient. Next time I'm in Dublin it'll be the first place I head for.

If you haven't been to Dublin, I can highly recommend it. I've been there three times now and the city is quite magnificent. Gallagher's Boxty House is a maginifcent traditional Irish pub and serves high quality traditional Irish fare. Sadly, the same can't be said of the Clifton Court Hotel.

I hope I'm not proved right but that establishment could well be a tragedy waiting to happen...

Ah, The Germans...

I know it's become something of a cliche. But whenever and wherever you go on holiday there are a certain type of people who tend to irritate just that wee bit more than others. I refer, of course, to the Germans.

German efficiency has become a cliche itself but it is an inescapable fact of life. I remember a couple of years ago while holidaying in Gran Canaria. A fantastic time as you would expect, weather brilliant as you would expect - and the queue to the restaurant for dinner headed by the Germans as you would expect. Dinner was served between 5.30pm and 8.00pm but that didn't stop our friends from the Fatherland claiming their place to be served first from around 5.00pm. The rest of us were still lying on the beach when the Germans were forming a naturally orderly queue. Then again, they had been out on the beach from 7.00am having placed their beach towels in strategically advantageous positions some two hours earlier...

My weekend in Krakow had a familiar feeling when my attempt to secure the tastiest looking croissant was thwarted when Hans and his pals read my intentions and headed me off at the tea and coffee table. And as for getting a table by the window? Already taken. I half expected Basil Fawlty to enter the restaurant doing his funny walk. Even if he was suffering from concussion during the funniest of the Fawlty Towers episodes, Meester Fawlty may have had a point.

Without wishing to attach the same label to all Germans, there's an arrogance to some natives of that nation which is a tad disconcerting. During the moving guided tour of Auschwitz, the thought crossed my mind on what our charming young Polish guide thought of the German tourists to the site. Equality and diversity are important things these days and the European Union as its name implies is united as one (well, apart from the French...)

As Basil Fawlty said 'We're all friends together now...'