Dublin is the highest town in New Hampshire's Monadnock region, and the village stretches along the shore of Dublin Lake with Mount Monadnock looming on its southern side. At roughly 460 metres, it is cool even in summer, and the air has a freshness you notice getting off the bike. The lake is deep and clear, and it has been a summer haunt for painters and writers since the late nineteenth century; the Dublin Art Colony drew artists such as Abbott Thayer, and Mark Twain spent a summer here in 1905 and 1906 and described the view of the mountain with predictable enthusiasm.
The town is also the home of Yankee Magazine and The Old Farmer's Almanac, both published here, which is a nice bit of local colour for a place with a population of fewer than two thousand. The village itself is compact: a few old inns, a small library, a town hall and a handful of fine white houses. There is no great bustle, which is part of the point.
Riding in and out is easy and rewarding. Route 101 runs through the village on its way between Keene and Peterborough, and it can be busy with commuter and truck traffic, but turn onto the side roads towards Harrisville, Nelson or Marlborough and the whole mood changes. Harrisville, four or five kilometres away, is an almost perfectly preserved mill village of red brick built beside a pond, and is worth a slow pass. The road to the base of Monadnock from Dublin Lake is short and twisty, with a couple of nice climbs among the white pines. In places the surface has been roughed by frost, so keep an eye on the tar.
Nature is mostly forest, ponds and low granite hills, with the huge bare dome always visible somewhere. Autumn colour can be superb in early October, and in the evening the smell of woodsmoke rises from the valley houses. Spring brings mud and mayflies, summer brings the cool lake, and winter brings snow.
For fuel, note that Dublin is small. Peterborough, about ten kilometres east, and Keene, eighteen kilometres west, are the sensible places to fill up. The village has a few places for coffee and a bite, and the lake has a public beach for a plunge if the day is hot.