Afternoon Tea on a Vintage Bus

You can now do a tour of Dublin city centre on a super pretty vintage Routemaster bus whilst enjoying afternoon tea!! Been wanting to experience this ever since I heard about it and eventually booked it for the Sunday of St Patrick's weekend. 

The bus, named Pauline, is a 1961 bus that used to be a London bus and then an artist's studio. 

The bus picked us up from the CHQ Building. We took in Merrion Square, Fitzwilliam Square, Stephen's Green, St Patricks Cathedral, Christchurch, Guinness Brewery, Phoenix Park and O'Connell Street. 

I had rosé wine tea and we made our way through sandwiches, scones and sweet treats. The sandwiches were egg, cucumber with cream cheese and chive, roast beef with horseradish and tomato paste and a wrap with smoked salmon and lettuce. The scones were super fresh. The little muffin was sour apple. The chocolate cup was totally edible and was filled with a lovely mousse. The madeleine cake was so moist. 

Cucumber sandwich 

Chocolate cup 

Rosé wine inside this cup. 

The crockery was super pretty. 

The roads in Dublin are not in great shape so the ride was a little bumpy. The muffins took a dive on more than one occasion. 

This is run by Vintage Tea Tours. The afternoon tea was delicious. What a brilliant and unique touristy experience!! 

Afternoon Art Tea

To celebrate 11 years of engagement my fiancé and I went for Afternoon Art Tea at the Merrion Hotel (Lr Merrion St, Dublin 2)

Afternoon Art Tea is served in the hotel's beautiful drawing room which has high ceilings, a fab chandelier and v squishy chairs :)

The hotel has a massive private art collection which is the inspiration behind art tea. 

Course one 

Savouries include - chicken and pesto on sunflower bread, smoked salmon and horseradish cream on brown soda bread, cucumber and cream cheese on tomato bread, roast beef on white bread and egg mayo on rolls. 

Mini scones - fruit and plain served with clotted cream, lemon curd and raspberry jam 

Cakes - Battenburg, Lemon bread and Porter cake (You should be able to see the Battenburg inspiration in the first picture on this post!) 

Dessert 

Green apple macaroon

Vanilla biscuit with Orange curd 

Raspberry and Passionfruit tart 

And the paintings that inspired the desserts... 

You can choose as many different teas as you want from the tea menu! I'm afraid I was quite boring and just stuck with the one - The Merrion Tea blend. Fiancé tried the Darjeeling and The Irish Malt. 

Cost is €39 per person or €53 per person with a glass of bubbles! 

Definitely recommend you finish work early (maybe on a Friday?) and do this for a special occasion!! 

As fab as everything was I think the highlight for my fiancé was meeting Gay Byrne in the bathroom...