We started off the day with a good breakfast buffet in the
hotel. So far this has been the highlight as far as our hotel stay is
concerned. Today we agreed that we would go our own way and meet after lunch at
St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Babs and I walked the several blocks to the first
sightseeing bus stop and took it to Trinity College. The college found in the 1600’s has approximately
15,000 students enrolled today.
One of
the colleges claim to fame is the author Oscar Wilde. The long room of Trinity Colleges
library is where the Book of Kells, a
hand written and illustrated copy of the bibles first four gospels reproduced
by Scottish monks in the 19th century, is housed. The library also has 200,000 of the college’s
oldest books which are organized by the size of the book rather than by alphabetical
order or numbering system.
The campus is in the heart of Dublin and is
contained within the perimeter of its buildings. For 10 Euros a person you can
take a tour hosted by an upperclassman who will gladly tell you more about
Trinity College than you might wish to know. One interesting twist at Trinity
College is that underclassmen can’t live on the main campus, only seniors who
have provided exceptional extracurricular activity. Also of note is that none
of the young men wore caps of any kind and the waist of their pants was where
they were designed to be worn. For my two cents, skip the tour; pay the 8 Euro to
see the Book of Kells and the long
room of the library. Again that’s just
my opinion.
Our next stop was to find a place to eat. Where did we end
up, Kentucky Fried Chicken!
After lunch we met Katy, Jason, Jim, and Joan at St. Patrick’s
Cathedral. As everyone knows St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. St.
Patrick’s Day is actually celebrated on the date of his death in celebration of
his life. At any rate, St. Patrick’s Cathedral is large and pretty but not as
beautiful as many other churches that I’ve been in both in the U.S. and Italy
and I didn’t have to pay to get in to see them.
Next and final stop of the day, is the Guinness Storehouse.
This is the visitor’s center for the brewery. They still brew Guinness there
but the visitor’s center is a high tech audio visual presentation that culminates
on the 7th floor of the visitor center where you get a “free” pint
of Guinness which is included in your 16 Euro admission.
My suggestion here is
to either take the elevator and immediately head up to the 7th floor
and get your pint and see the view.
Alternatively, your could just skip the tour and go to any pub and get
two pints for the same price and also meet some interesting people.
Tonight we were tired so we at right at the hotel. Babs and
I had mussels in a heavy cream sauce that was out of this world.
Tomorrow we head toward Wexford and more adventure.
Babs Says:
Refreshing to know that admittance to Trinity College is based solely on
academic ability.
KFC??? Really?
ReplyDeleteAlso that is a great picture of Katy!
ReplyDeleteThe mussels sound fantastic. Ditto on picture of Katy!
ReplyDelete