We got up and out to the train station for Dublin the next morning, Rachel squeezing the three of us into her teeny Peugot. (I thought it was a two-seater until I looked closely at the back seat!) I was reminded of two butterflys in a press. Not that I would ever compare Connor to a butterfly. I called "shotgun!" immediately on seeing how tight the fit was. Rachel kindly made sure we were on the right train (Dublin, not Belfast thank you - that's for the next day).
We spend just this day in Dublin, walking all over the town center. The first thing we did was
walk to Trinity College (where ex-president Martin Sheen is studying) to see the Book Of Kells. The college campus is an oasis from the chaos of downtown Dublin because it's surrounded by the college buildings, with only one or two entrances, and everything faces inward.
Not to put too fine a point on it - Kells was underwhelming. What was interesting - and jarring - is how the whole exhibit is organized. We stood outside the building that housed it in a nice summer sun, by a very green lawn with "Keep off" signs :). The line was quick and we were soon inside. Straight into the gift shop! Tickets there, then into an entrance hall that explains the details behind the book and its illustrators. Then, you go into a dimly lit room to see the open book itself (it's turned to a different page every few months - imagine having the title of "Official Kells Pager Turner") and a couple of others. It's a very old book, in excellent condition, with the finest illuminations of any surviving medieval book. That said, of course they're drab in comparison with today's colors. It is interesting, however, on consistent the text is; it could have been typeset by a machine rather than created by hand.
We spend just this day in Dublin, walking all over the town center. The first thing we did was
walk to Trinity College (where ex-president Martin Sheen is studying) to see the Book Of Kells. The college campus is an oasis from the chaos of downtown Dublin because it's surrounded by the college buildings, with only one or two entrances, and everything faces inward.Not to put too fine a point on it - Kells was underwhelming. What was interesting - and jarring - is how the whole exhibit is organized. We stood outside the building that housed it in a nice summer sun, by a very green lawn with "Keep off" signs :). The line was quick and we were soon inside. Straight into the gift shop! Tickets there, then into an entrance hall that explains the details behind the book and its illustrators. Then, you go into a dimly lit room to see the open book itself (it's turned to a different page every few months - imagine having the title of "Official Kells Pager Turner") and a couple of others. It's a very old book, in excellent condition, with the finest illuminations of any surviving medieval book. That said, of course they're drab in comparison with today's colors. It is interesting, however, on consistent the text is; it could have been typeset by a machine rather than created by hand.
From there you go into what for me was the more interesting place, the Long Room. The Long 
Room is the old library, straight out of something from Harry Potter. Long and relatively narrow, it's two storeys of books on either side of a long corridor. It just oozes old. It smells it too, of old musty dusty books. When we walked through, several workers were carefully replacing books that had been worked on or otherwise restored, carrying them up a tall book-ladder one or two at a time, with gloved hands. To my surprise, I leaved these books can be checked out with a reader's card; the only caveat is that they must be read only in the nearby reading room.
Room is the old library, straight out of something from Harry Potter. Long and relatively narrow, it's two storeys of books on either side of a long corridor. It just oozes old. It smells it too, of old musty dusty books. When we walked through, several workers were carefully replacing books that had been worked on or otherwise restored, carrying them up a tall book-ladder one or two at a time, with gloved hands. To my surprise, I leaved these books can be checked out with a reader's card; the only caveat is that they must be read only in the nearby reading room. The surreal part of this experience occurrs at the far end of the room, where you walk down a wide stairway...and leap forward 200 years into the very modern gift shop, only feet (rather, meters) from where you first walked in. The gift shop is directly underneath the Long Room.
We left Trinity and walked west to the Temple Bar district of pubs and shops in a cobblestone, auto-free area of several blocks. It was relatively calm at noon on a Thursday, but the district 
has a reputation for rowdy "stag" and "hen" parties. On a recommendation from a woman Sharon talked to in a Dingle pub, we searched out Burduck's, apparently the oldest chips shop in the city. There's no place to eat in the shop so we carried the huge brown-paper wrapped packages to a city park right next to Christ Church cathedral. We'd hardly sat down when we were accosted for some of our food by a homeless guy, who turned abusive when I refused. And for all that, the fish was really oily and the chips (fries to us Yankees) soggy! If he had only timed it a little better we would have gladly given them to him :).
has a reputation for rowdy "stag" and "hen" parties. On a recommendation from a woman Sharon talked to in a Dingle pub, we searched out Burduck's, apparently the oldest chips shop in the city. There's no place to eat in the shop so we carried the huge brown-paper wrapped packages to a city park right next to Christ Church cathedral. We'd hardly sat down when we were accosted for some of our food by a homeless guy, who turned abusive when I refused. And for all that, the fish was really oily and the chips (fries to us Yankees) soggy! If he had only timed it a little better we would have gladly given them to him :).
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