We spent a recent short, very long day in Dublin on the front end of a two week tour of the Emerald Isle. Â Fighting jet lag and trying to stay up to get in the time zone, we took a sightseeing tour bus and walked a bit. Â Dublin is a fascinating, busy city. Â Ireland has approximately 8 million inhabitants (people, probably more sheep) and 4.2 million of them live in Dublin. Â Which makes the country side that much more attractive, no? Â I guess you would call O’Connell Street the hub of Dublin’s downtown. Â The monument below is in honor of Daniel O’Connell, The Liberator. Â http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/people/daniel.htm
Trinity College, Â a well know institution of higher learning in Dublin, Â houses the Book of Kells, a 9th century gospel manuscript. Â http://www.tcd.ie/Library/bookofkells/Â Below is a pretty lawn near the library housing the Book of Kells.
We visited Christ Church Cathedral, founded in 1028 AD. Â http://www.christchurchdublin.ie/Visitors.htm. Â Below is the altar area of the Cathedral.
In Christ Church Place, a common area, I found this rather strange sculpture, Millennium child.
The River Liffey runs through the center of Dublin. Â A rather uninspired photo of same.
We finished the day with dinner at J.W. Sweetman’s pub where I had a delicious dish of traditional Irish Stew, then walked back to our hotel. Â We had, earlier in the day, an introduction to the graciousness of the Irish. Â Walking trying to find the sightseeing bus stop, we were stopped on the sidewalk looking at a map. Â Two older ladies (probably younger than I) were crossing the street, and one of them inquired of me, “Are you alright?” Â I replied, “I’m alright, just lost.” Â Whereupon the lady replied, “You are not lost any longer,” and proceeded to tell us how to get where we wanted. Â We continued to marvel throughout our trip about how friendly and gracious the Irish people are.
We did not see much of Dublin during our one tired day there, but hope to return to spend some time there.
The next post we will be in Belfast and Northern Ireland. Â Stay tuned.
