Europe's most intimate capital is set in a broad river basin fringed by the majestic sweep of Dublin Bay and the tantalizingly close Wicklow Mountains. It is a vastly entertaining city, with much to offer the pedestrian explorer: pubs, churches, grand buildings and fine museums, elegant parks, and a people who are both boozers and talkers, down-to-earth wheeler-dealers and airy pipe-dreamers. Above all, Dublin is a place whose pulse must be taken over some time, possibly with the aid of a glass of Guinness, apocryphally tasting of the peaty waters of the Liffey.