Dublin sightseeing

Trinity University, can't take pictures of the Book of Kells

 So, we took a trip around Dublin and got to go out to Phoenix Park, Guinness, and Jameson and along the river Liffey farther than we would have walked.  We got off first at Trinity College for the Book of Kells, because this was my number one thing I wanted to see.  We took a tour of the college campus

The Sirs John Gray

  provided by a philosophy major, who John grilled at the end of the tour.  I was shocked to find out that the oldest building on campus in which the 4^th year students live in did not have running water until the 1980s and first year students would be employed to bring buckets of water.  What can I say about the Book of Kells?  I can side with a friend who said, open to one page, woo hoo...but I also couldn't believe the 

General Post Office with bullet holes apparent from revolt

  incredible amount of detail around every letter, in every part of the illuminated gospel that we were able to see.  I also didn’t think that I would get John out of the long room that is filled with books and busts of great thinkers where he was drooling.  No photos were allowed in either of these sections, so nothing’s included in the email of these views, but they were awesome. 

             

Sight of St. Patrick's original well

  We got back on the bus and went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, walked down to Christchurch to see both of the major cathedrals of the city.  Look how the addition to Christchurch was supposed to look like the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, I hope that I included a picture of the Bridge of Sighs in one of the Venice posts… I don’t know why you would want something on your church to look like a bridge that

Molly Malone "the Tart with the Cart"

   people were condemned to death walked through, but I will leave that alone.  We walked across the Half Penny Bridge to catch the bus on the other side of the river to take it back to a starting point.  We kept getting distracted by book stores and flea markets, but I have to say that we are finding that everything is very expensive in Ireland.  More expensive than in Spain, Italy, 

Vermeer

Netherlands, and US.  The only truly shocking thing is that the alcohol is more expensive here!!!!  What?!?!?!  It costs more for Irish Whiskey in Ireland than in the US?  What the hell is that about?  Guinness is more expensive 50 ft from the brewery than 5000 miles away from it?  Stupid… and not very green if you ask me… in several different ways. 

Sunset on the River Liffey

We had to get off on O’Connell street to have John pose by the statue of Sir John Gray that is set there by the spire and the General Post Office where the rebels holed up during the 1916 Rebellion.  Another bus to take us to the National Gallery of Ireland.  We are finding that most of the museums in Dublin are 

  free, which is awesome and makes it hard with only 3 days to see everything.  We saw some beautiful paintings including the new Caravaggio that was found recently.  I even found a new artist to like, Van Orpen, who I’ve never heard of before.  We both agreed that this museum was better than the Accademia in Venice, sorry Tintoretto…

Caravaggio

 Back on the bus to the Temple Bar district for some shopping and we attempted to go into the bars down there to have a pint of Guinness, but we couldn’t stand the amazingly loud music in all of them.  I told John that it was a sure sign that we 

were old, but we knew that we couldn’t go on without getting a drink.  We found a bar back toward the hotel with a whole bunch of locals and were able to watch the rugby matches on the televisions.  Much more our style.  Which leads to the beginning of this story in the hotel bar.