Malahide

I took my spiffy new car out for a spin today. This one, not the one above I photographed in front of Malahide castle. Lee Ann saw a house on daft.ie that looked interesting to us, so I drove to Malahide to walk around the neighborhood it was in. I called the agent, but it is not yet ready to be shown.
While I was there, I walked to several other locations where there are houses and apartments for rent, and took some pictures. You can look at all of them here.
Malahide is a small town just North of Dublin. It is picturesque, has good public transport, and is not very far from Dublin center. I would have to drive to work, but it should be possible to that in 20 to 25 minutes.

There are lots of little shops and restaurants. There is a huge park that surrounds Malahide castle. The castle has been expanded over the years, but the core of it is 800 years old. And, it has belonged to the same family for almost the whole time.

On the way home I stopped at the Swords Pavilions shopping center which is very close to Malahide. It's a large mall and very crowded on Saturday afternoons, but it has two very nice grocery stores. The best I have seen yet here in Ireland. One is a Superquinn and the other a Dunnes. I bought Simply Better Luxury Muesli and some strawberries at Dunnes. Waiting in line to pay, so I could go to Superquinn and get the rest there, a woman approached me and told me that I could go to the 10-item-or-less checkout further down and be out much quicker. I wasn't in a big hurry and just looking around at all the hustle and bustle, and so hadn't even noticed that. The Irish are friendly.

Sorry for the blurriness

Speaking of speeding things up. At Superquinn they have these handheld scanner you can checkout with your frequent buyer card. As you shop and put things into your cart, you scan each item. At the checkout, you hand over the scanner, pay, and off you go. No need to take your stuff out of the grocery cart twice.
By the way, to get a grocery cart, you need a one Euro coin. The carts are all chained together, and by inserting a coin, you can release it. At the end, you get your coin back, iff you bring the cart back to it's designated area. In other words, you pay a Euro, if you leave your cart parked at the tree next to your car.
In Switzerland, and most other European countries, there are no grocery baggers. You do that yourself. And, you had better brought a (reusable) bag, otherwise you may have to buy one. This keeps cost down and is good for the environment.
In Ireland, some stores have baggers. They are not high-school kids. I read somewhere that they are volunteers; they are not employed by the store; and you are supposed to tip them. On the other hand, tax drivers do not expect a tip, but gladly take it in these economic harsh times.