Thursday was Dublin Day. But, I was up at 6:30 (!), so I headed out for a photowalk on the beach. Unfortunately, the sun was hidden behind the clouds, so no wonderful sunrise. But, I did get a great walk on the beach...just me and a guy doing some beach fishing.
The big deal this day was figuring out how the hell we were going to get our car dropped off in Dublin City Centre without getting lost. Two ladies at the hotel desk helped us out big time by giving us the most direct route they could think of to get us there, and we started out, with me driving, Aunt Margaret navigating and my mom in the back seat hopped up on gravol. (After a few hairy drives, she decided her best seat was behind the driver, slightly drugged.)
Due to good directions, and some Irish luck, we actually made it to the rental place without getting lost, and in one piece. Then, we cabbed it down to our hotel, Jury's Inn Christ Church, which was, of course, right across from Christ Church Cathedral. After dumping the luggage we headed out for a walking tour of the city. We saw Dublin Castle, strolled through the Temple Bar district (which I had to go to mostly because it was the central location of many scenes from a series of books I'd read recently), and then headed over to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells and the Long Library. The Book of Kells/Library was the main thing I wanted to see in Dublin, so when we got there and found that it had closed at noon for the rest of the day, I was totally shocked! WTF? All the tourists were going up to the door and shaking their heads. Gah! But, all was not lost. We didn't have to leave for the ferry until 11:00 the next morning, so Mom and I decided to try it the next day at 9;30, opening time, to see if they were open again.
Then we walked over to Grafton Street to see lots of people shopping, and headed up over to St. Patricks Cathedral and back on to our hotel. Mom and Margaret decided to have a nap while I headed over to Christ Church Cathedral for a quick tour. I even popped the extra money for the audio tour...totally worth it. The best part of the cathedral, besides the ornate mosaic tiles on the floors, and an old dud's heart in an iron cage, was the crypt underneath. It was almost as large as the whole cathedral, and had monuments to various people who were buried there. Fascinating and slightly creepy. I headed back to the hotel to pick up the nappers, and then we headed back to Christ Church for their Evensong service. They have a world-renowned choir, so we didn't want to pass up the chance to see them.
So, what was it like hearing a 22-voice choir in a cathedral with a 14 metre high organ? WOW. As Margaret said, "I think you have to audition for this choir." :) This was definitely the highlight of the day.
After that, we headed over to The Bull and Castle for our last, and best, meal in Ireland. I decided to go traditional and order Guiness Beef Pie, while Mom had rotisserie chicken, and Marg had fish and chips. Mom also sampled one of the pubs 120 craft beers...I don't like beer but this one was good. We topped it off with a chocolate brownie dessert in Bushmill's caramel sauce. We also had good visit with our Slovak waitress...most of the waitresses were from Poland, Slovakia, etc. and this one was a hoot.
The next morning we were up bright and early for breakfast, and then Mom and I hoofed it down to Trinity College. We queued up behind the other early birds and waited for the Book of Kells exhibit to open, while we were misted on...the only time we got rained on during our stay other than a few drops on the car. The exhibit was excellent, describing how the book was made, the dyes used, etc. But, actually seeing the book was fascinating. We got to see the Book of John, the opening pages which are best described as two intricate paintings, and then two pages from the Book of Luke, showing the decorated writing. Mom pointed out you could actually see how the paint was sitting on top of the page.
After the Book of Kells, we were able to walk into the Long Library. If heaven were made for book lovers, it would look like the Long Library. Enough said.
Happy that we had been able to see these two sights, Mom and I headed back to the hotel, checked out with Margaret and hopped into a cab for Dun Laoghaide (Dun Leary) to catch the fast ferry to Holyhead, England (in Wales actually). We left Ireland exhausted but thrilled by all the sites we had seen.
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