Ithaca begins with Bloom and Stephen walking to Bloom's house from the vicinity of the cabman's shelter. The route described in the first paragraph is as direct as possible and about one mile long. A strong walker might cover it in 15 minutes, but given Stephen's condition it must take the two men at least 20 minutes, and probably closer to 30. They start at "normal walking pace," but after reaching Mountjoy Square they proceed "at reduced pace" to Temple Street North. Then they continue "at reduced pace with interruptions of halt," and finally, when they reach St. George's Church, they are moving "at relaxed walking pace." One may infer that Stephen is exhausted, but possibly the conversation has also become more engaging.

Eumaeus ends with Stephen and Bloom leaving the cabman's shelter near Butt Bridge, just west of the Custom House, and moving "towards Gardiner street lower." At this point they are on Beresford Place, a broad semicircular street that loops behind the Custom House from the northeastern quays. The beginning of Ithaca finds them finds them walking north "from Beresford place" along "Lower and Middle Gardiner streets," all the way to "Mountjoy square, west." There they turn left onto "Gardiner's place." At "Temple street, north" they turn right and proceed up to "Hardwicke place," where the church is. They pass through "the circus before George's church" and thence (though the chapter does not delineate this last leg) the short distance to Dorset Street and across it to 7 Eccles Street.

Aside from the focus on the steadily slowing pace of this walk, the one interesting feature of the account in Ithaca is its observation that the two men pass "by an inadvertence as far as the farther corner of Temple street." This is a small matter of crossing from the northeast corner to the southwest corner of the intersection before proceeding up Temple Street. The only reason it can be considered a mistake is that Bloom's house lies on the northeast side of Eccles Street, so crossing the street takes the walkers a minute distance out of their way. The term that Joyce uses for the mistake, "an inadvertence," is one of many cunning deployments of Latinate words in Ithaca.

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