Today was a beautiful day in Ireland’s capital – about 14 degrees Celsius (57 F) with bright blue clear skies. By 1:30pm, Katherine (my housemate) and I had gone to church, enjoyed breakfast/brunch at KC Peaches, and finished wiping our eyes after watching P.S. I Love You – and the whole day was still ahead of us!

One of our friends had recommended that we visit Howth (rhymes with “oath”), originally a small fishing village and now a lively suburb of Dublin. Howth is easily accessible by car or DART (Dublin’s commuter train) but since it was so nice outside, we essentially had a responsibility to make the most of the good weather. So, we decided to bike:

The trip was incredibly windy (we were along the sea the whole time, so I guess that’s to be expected), but the views along the way were so pretty! Here’s a sampling:

I thought this cemetery was pretty cool, just casually right on the side of the road:

I was also impressed by this wooden carving:

Then we were in Howth – what a CUTE town! Here’s what greeted us as we biked up:

After securing our bikes, we walked along the harbour to the lighthouse:

Of course we had to visit the market:

I even found this awesome – and completely appropriate – purchase:

After a hearty meal of seafood chowder, truffle fries, and Irish coffee at Findlater, we wandered around a bit more before finally getting back on the road. (Truth be told, our butts were a bit sore from the ride up, so we were procrastinating a little bit.)

All in all, it was a pretty good day, made even better by this gorgeous sunset once we got home – #nofilter!

It was a fantastic day trip (about six hours in total) that had everything – exercise, views, culture, and good food; not bad for a Sunday!