Dublin for The Time Travellers: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

Michael Scott's 1953 bus station: the first serious modernist building in Ireland, Portland stone and bronze mullions with a mosaic ceiling that still stops commuters.

A pint in the pub that claims 1198, where Robert Emmet planned his rising and the United Irishmen met; the courtyard and the low back rooms are the oldest.

A narrow room near the Georgian squares with Italian cooking on Irish produce, a short wine list, and a counter if the tables are gone.

The Normans' 1172 cathedral on the Viking town's hill, the longest medieval crypt in Ireland below, with the mummified cat and rat still in their case.

Two hours with a history graduate from the Vikings to the Rising, ending by the castle; the guides argue with each other, which is the point.

A long bright room by the Setanta Centre with an open kitchen and wood-fired cooking, the kind of modern interior Dublin rarely gets right.

Calatrava's harp at the docks, and his lower James Joyce span upriver; walk between them along the north quays to see how the city turned to face the water.

Take the DART out to the restored sea baths and the jetty, then the granite-and-glass library on the hill that the town fought over and now loves.

A bare-brick, tiled room with a counter facing the pass, Spanish in its cooking and Dublin in its welcome.

Benson and Forsyth's Portland-stone extension, a tall slot of light cut between two Georgian streets, and the newer courtyard that knits the whole gallery back together.

The viceroys' throne room and St Patrick's Hall, where presidents are inaugurated, over the Norman tower and the Viking wall; the self-guided route is fine.

Sourdough and a filled roll at the counter of the bakery that reset the city's standard, before the airport bus from the quays.