I got a taxi to the airport this morning. The taxi driver was particularly interested in art nouveau and art deco. He has been all over the world with his wife photographing things (Napier is too far though). He told me that after the foundation of the Irish State, the Office of Public Works got a group of young architects together and told them to hop off to Europe and get some ideas. He says that there is an art deco block of flats on Townsend street that is nicked from a model he saw in a book of Dutch art deco drawings. He was absolutely fascinating and extremely knowledgeable. I am feeling a warm glow towards taxi drivers and that’s not something that happens very often.
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You should get your star taxi driver to take you up the Howth Road and start him off on the row of Bauhaus(es? – not sure of the plural!) there. Or the German Houses as they are known locally. Or you could just visit some ex-Brussels friends looking forward to seeing you again who live around the corner (and not alas in one of said German Houses – the property bubble hasn’t quite burst hard enough for that).
Confession – I live in New Zealand, am 43 and have only been to Napier once – on a school music trip when I was 16. I remember the fun, but not much about Napier.