Tag Archives: The Marker Hotel

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Paul Simon or bust… Our Dublin getaway! Part three

The first time we visited Dublin, Bill and I stayed at the Marker Hotel, which is a very nice business class accommodation located near Ireland’s Facebook offices.  The Marker Hotel was, at that time, Trip Advisor’s number one pick for hotels in Dublin.  I don’t think that’s why I booked it, though.  I think it’s because the Merrion Hotel was full during the time we wanted to visit.  When I travel without the dogs, I like to stay in nice hotels.

Super nice digs!

Bill and I liked the Marker Hotel fine, but the location wasn’t ideal for us.  It’s very close to the Liffey River, kind of away from all the pubs and sights.  The Merrion Hotel, by contrast, is right in the thick of things, off Merrion Square and close to St. Stephen’s Green.  It’s directly next to a street lined with restaurants and it’s also not far from the RDS Arena, which is where Paul Simon would be performing.  The Marker Hotel’s location is a bit more residential and not as convenient to non business related activities.

The Merrion Hotel is also just plain more to my liking.  It’s more of a traditional hotel, with more of a classic feel than the Marker Hotel’s ultra sleek modern vibe.  Both hotels are expensive.  Both hotels are very nice and offer excellent service and good food.  But my preference is for the Merrion, which our cab driver assured us is the best hotel in Dublin.  I believe him.  For readers who are wondering which one they’d like better– if you’re going to splurge, that is– I’d say choose the Marker Hotel if you like modern decor and want to be close to the river and/or Facebook.  Choose the Merrion Hotel if you like a more traditional decor with character and lavish service.  Either way, you really can’t go wrong.  They are both beautiful hotels.

If your preference is more for “interesting”, I’d recommend checking out the Charleville Lodge, which is run by a hilarious guy who is very active on Facebook.  I have not stayed at the Charleville Lodge myself, but I have a feeling I would enjoy it… if only I weren’t so posh.  The guy who runs the Charleville Lodge also runs the White Moose Cafe, which was all over the news a few months ago after the owner exposed a blogger.  Hmmm…  I guess that’s another reason I decided not to book there.  Seriously, if you like cheeky humor and don’t mind some ribbing, you might want to check it out.  Maybe we’ll stay there next time we go to Dublin, but only if I’ve given up writing by that time.

So, anyway, back to the Merrion Hotel.  I had prepaid for the room, but they took an imprint of Bill’s credit card for “incidentals”.  We knew there would be incidentals, too.  The Merrion Hotel has two restaurants, a pub, and a cocktail bar, as well as a beautifully equipped spa.  I never made it to a spa treatment, but I did try out the beautiful pool and took note of the well-maintained exercise room, which, of course, I didn’t use.

We were assigned room 333, which was a standard room on the “garden” wings.  The garden wings are relatively newly built wings to the original hotel, which originally consisted of four Victorian era townhouses.  While the newer rooms lack the character of the original rooms, they are still extremely well appointed and comfortable and even come with free chocolate and water.  Below are some pictures.

They gave us free Fuji water, which we never got around to drinking, and three chocolate bars, which we brought home with us.  Chocolate is definitely a plus.

The bed.  Not sure what that stripe down the picture is.  Maybe my iPhone malfunctioned.

A tray of amenities.  If you need dry cleaning or laundry done, they have you covered.  

A huge marble bathroom with a nice shower and tub.  It also had a scale in it, which I carefully avoided.  The shower was nice, although I preferred the one at Wald Hotel in Stuttgart!

Water by Oscar Wilde!  He’s everywhere in Dublin!

 

Our room also had a French balcony, free Internet, a mini bar, and a TV with lots of channels on it.  Every night, a housekeeper brought us ice and kept us stocked with water.  We only got turn down service on the night of Paul Simon’s concert because the other nights, we were already in for the evening when it was time for turn down service.

We were pretty tired on our first night in Dublin, so we decided to eat at the hotel.  They have a pub in the basement called The Cellar Bar (which I had originally misunderstood as “Salad Bar”).  It’s a really cool place, with lots of brick rooms.  Thursday nights, they have live entertainment.  Although we didn’t see the musicians who played for a short while, we did hear them.  It was a nice treat and, unfortunately, the closest I got to live pub music during our visit.  Maybe next time we’ll have better luck and want to stay up later.

Bill peruses the menu.

He had an open faced steak sandwich with mild cheese.

I went with half a chicken smothered with barbecue sauce.  This was a real treat!  While we certainly get chicken in Germany, it’s not usually prepared in this style.  It came with a salad.

A Hop House Lager, made by Guinness.

 

Service at The Cellar Bar was cordial and professional and the food was very good.  I would have liked to have gone there a second time, but we didn’t get the chance.  However, we did have three breakfasts in The Garden Room, which is one of the hotel’s restaurants.  Breakfast is 24 euros if you just want the continental stuff and 29 euros if you opt for a cooked to order breakfast.  If you want steak and eggs, it’s another fourteen euros.  I was a little tempted by steak and eggs, but that seemed too extreme.

On our first morning, we had a nice view of the courtyard garden.

And here’s a view of the continental island, which has the usual fruits, cheeses, breads, juices, and pastries.

Bill had scrambled eggs with smoked salmon.

I went with Eggs Benedict.

The garden is very pretty.

It even has a fountain!

When the maid is cleaning your room, they hang these handy signs.

I liked the uniforms the staff in the Garden Room wore.  They had very nice tailored slacks and vests that appeared to be good quality.  Actually, everyone in the hotel wears very nice uniforms and they vary depending on what part of the hotel the person is working in.  We noticed at least one American working in the Garden Room. She was the chattiest of all the wait staff.  I think I overheard her saying that she was in studying in Dublin.  As a former English major, I couldn’t help but note that Ireland is kind of a paradise for former English majors…  or even well read geeks like my husband.

After breakfast, we learned more about Dublin’s rich musical and literary history.  More on that in my next post!
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Celebrating 14 years in Ireland! Part three

The first taxi in line at the airport made an immediate impression.  On the back window of the cab, there was a Confederate flag.  Next to it, there was a X-wing Fighter Squadron sign.  Not being a fan of Star Wars, I didn’t notice the other sign.  Likewise, Bill didn’t notice the flag, but did see the Star Wars reference.

I posted about seeing the Confederate battle flag on Facebook and quite a few of my American friends were shocked and dismayed.  However, I get the impression that Europeans who admire that flag don’t associate it with racism the way many Americans do.  I have seen that flag displayed in other European countries.  In fact, last year I saw it prominently displayed at an Italian rest stop.  One of my friends, who is himself Italian, explained that some Europeans see the flag as more of a symbol of rebellion than racism.  A Swedish friend agreed.

Along with having interesting decorations on his taxi, our cab driver turned out to be quite a good reader of people.  After welcoming us to Ireland, he quickly realized Bill had been in the military and said, “Happy Veteran’s Day.”  Then he and Bill had an entertaining discussion about the Irish military versus the U.S. military.  The cabbie served three years in the Irish Army and said he’d hated it, although he claimed to be fascinated by all things military.

When Bill started talking, the cab driver pegged Bill as a retired Master Sergeant and was shocked when Bill told him he’d retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.  The driver explained that in the Irish military, there’s a huge, discernible difference between officers and enlisted personnel and it all comes from how they carry themselves.  Apparently, in Ireland, officers are snobs.  Or so he told us, anyway.  It was an eye opener to hear the cab driver’s impressions of American military members, though on the whole, he did seem to be pretty positive.

Naturally, the cab driver, along with many other people we’ve met so far, also had comments about our recent shocking election results.  I don’t remember everything he said, though, because by that point I was exhausted and had a terrible headache.  I do remember him talking about how very safe Dublin is and how much he loves his city, as well as his country.  It was nice to hear.

We soon reached the Marker Hotel, where a man in a top hat opened the cab door for me.  I hadn’t been expecting that level of service, so it took me off guard.  We checked into the hotel, where a smiling lady with an eastern European accent welcomed us and convinced us to upgrade our room to a deluxe.  I’m not sure it was worth the extra money to get the deluxe room, but we were tired and weak from travel.  We also got breakfast included, which at 21,50 euros a person was a bit ridiculous.  For those who are thinking about booking the Marker Hotel, I’ll just say that the buffet breakfast at the hotel is fine, but there is a nearby Starbuck’s if you want a less expensive option for breakfast.  As for the hotel, it offers an enormous buffet with hot and cold items, as well as raw honey of all things.  They actually have a honeycomb on the buffet!

Our deluxe room was nice enough with its view of a big theater and the Bank of Ireland.  It had a marble bathroom and a well appointed minibar, as well as a very comfortable bed and flatscreen TV.  WiFi was completely free and unfettered.  It was fast and reliable.

A few shots of the hotel room…


The bed was a sight for sore eyes!

Nice welcome from the hotel on the TV.

Dinner the first night.  It was just what I needed.

Part of the large breakfast spread.

This is a crappy photo, but it’s a picture of the honeycomb.  You can just take a piece and chew it.  Or you can take some of the raw honey from the bowl below it.  I tried some this morning and it was delicious.

We were too tired and I had too much of a headache to go searching for dinner, so we ordered room service.  While we ate ginger carrot soup, Irish soda bread, and brownies with ice cream, we watched a very interesting British television show about police officers.  I would say it was roughly akin to Cops.  I am fascinated by all things police related.  One thing I noticed was that it seemed like the police on the show were more civil than a lot of American cops seem to be.  But given how ready for bed I was, I didn’t take too much time to think about that too much.

After we ate, Bill and I crashed hard.  We had big plans for Saturday that involved a trip to Kilkenny, where we’d be visiting the Smithwick’s Experience, a tour I prebooked after buying tickets to the Guinness Experience in Dublin.  Kilkenny is about 90 minutes from Dublin by train and the trains to and from there don’t run constantly.  Consequently, we knew we needed to be at the train station in time to catch the 10:15 coach heading south.  That train ride, as well as the tour, turned out to be a lot more fun than we thought it would be.  More on that in part four!

The view from our room.

Bill enjoys the Irish Times.  It came with the room.  He said it was “hilarious”.

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Celebrating 14 years in Ireland! Part one

Bill and I are currently in Ireland, celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary.  This trip has been a long time coming, since Bill has Irish ancestry and last visited Ireland in 1984.  I think I visited Ireland when my father was stationed at Mildenhall Air Force Base in England, but if I did visit, I was much too young to remember it.  I’ve been wanting to see Ireland for a long time, especially since I also have a little Irish blood, though it got to me by way of Scotland (I assume, anyway, having examined genealogical research done by people in my family).

I’m not sure when we decided, once and for all, that this anniversary would be spent in Ireland.  Originally, I was thinking about a trip to Baden-Baden, of all places, because I love spas and Baden-Baden is chock full of them.  For all I know, I decided on Ireland after we bought tickets to the recent whisky/whiskey tasting we attended at The Auld Rogue in Vaihingen.  In any case, we’re here and it’s good.  I tried to make this trip as first class as possible.

Business class on Lufthansa and Swiss Air (as well as Austrian Airlines)

 

As is my habit when I start planning a trip, I turned to Expedia.com for the initial planning.  I do that mainly because on Expedia, I can see prices for multiple airlines at one time and pair them with hotels.  I know everybody has their favorite travel site.  I’ve tried and used Travelocity and I’ve looked at Kayak.com, too.  For some reason, I just happen to prefer Expedia.  I also have a lot of rewards points there that I’m saving for a big splurge sometime.

When Bill and I fly, we usually opt for economy class because it’s often difficult to justify the extra money it costs to fly business class.  For this particular trip, we ended up booking business class seats.  Although business class was a bit more expensive than economy class was, it wasn’t prohibitively so.  I also wanted to try business class so I could write about the experience.

We ended up paying about $840 for two business class tickets from Stuttgart to Dublin.  Our first leg took us from Stuttgart to Munich to Dublin on Lufthansa.  On the way back, we’ll fly Swiss Air to Zurich to Stuttgart.  We have a long layover in Zurich and I looked at possibly taking a train back to Stuttgart.  Unfortunately, I didn’t find one that would get us back home sooner than the plane would.  I guess I will get to write about Zurich’s airport and maybe Swiss Air’s business class lounge.

The Marker Hotel in Dublin 

 

The Marker Hotel is a very contemporary hotel located in the Docklands area of Dublin.  It’s located in the center of town, making it a good place from which to explore.  As it’s turned out, so far we haven’t explored much of Dublin yet, because I bought us tickets to the Smithwick’s Experience in Kilkenny.  Yesterday, we took a train to Kilkenny to use our tickets and that took up the whole day.  Today, we have plans to visit the Guinness brewery for a tour and a connoisseur beer tasting.  Hopefully, we’ll get to see some of Dublin today, because tomorrow, we’re headed to the west coast, where I’ve rented a cottage on the water for five nights.

Nectar of the gods?

The Water’s Edge in Aughris

That is the name of the cottage I’ve rented.  I found it through Booking.com.  It’s located in County Sligo.  I had originally wanted to find us a place in County Donegal, but was unable to find anything that really pulled at the heartstrings.  The Water’s Edge is located steps away from a well regarded beach bar and is literally right on the beach.  I look forward to seeing the area around there because it looks absolutely beautiful!  Best of all, the price was right.  Just 440 euros for five nights.  I haven’t seen the house yet, though, so we’ll see if it was really a bargain.

We will come back to Dublin on Saturday, November 19th and stay a night at the Clayton Hotel, which is right next to the Marker Hotel.  I didn’t know they were so close to each other when I booked.  I was simply looking for an airport hotel.  Now I know to check locations more carefully!  On November 20th, we will fly back to Germany.

Now that I’ve outlined our main plans for this trip, it’s time to write about what’s happened so far.  Stay tuned for part two.

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