We awoke the morning of our day in Dublin with purpose. We had to get moving to hop the bus into town and absorb as much Dublinity as possible before the day was over or our feet gave out, whichever came first. Turns out it was the foot thing.
We took the city bus from our B&B to the downtown area. I use the term B&B loosely, as they wanted to charge an extra 5 euro for a continental breakfast. Needless to say, we did not partake. Instead we went down to the small grocery down the street and picked up some pastries and granola bars. A much better, and cheaper, choice.
The bus ride took about 20 minutes or so, and as we departed the bus we were surrounded by city. Our first stop for the day was Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. The Old Library at Trinity College is the home to many illuminated manuscripts, or biblical texts heavily decorated by the monks of Ireland in the eighth and ninth centuries. The Book of Kells, however, is the crown jewel among them. Outside the special display room that houses the book is an exhibit about illuminated manuscripts. It gave the history of the Book of Kells and a few other famous manuscripts, even talking about the materials used to make the vibrant colors in the illustrations. Then you pass through a doorway into a darkened room with a glass case. Inside are two volumes of the four-volume set. One is open to some beautiful illustrations and one is open to text pages. When you consider the age of these works, they are in amazing condition. I suppose that's just one indication of the importance of them. We left the room and were directed upstairs to the Old Library. It is beautiful. There are display cases running down the middle aisle full of important and interesting old books and papers. The sides have cases with artifacts like the oldest harp in Ireland that has been used as a model for the national symbol. Yes, this museum nerd was very, very happy. Not to mention the amazing books on giant shelves. Unfortunately photos were not allowed. After we had our fill, we headed to the gift shop. I spent a considerable amount of time in there, big shock.
We left the walls of Trinity College and went back on the street. We inadvertently walked through Dublin Castle on our way to Christchurch Cathedral. Our primary purpose in going to Christchurch Cathedral was to see the tomb of Strongbow, the namesake of one of our favorite ciders. He was also an important Irish chieftain. The cathedral was beautiful, and there were archaeological excavations going on outside the walls. In one of the small niche chapels there was an empty cage hanging on the wall. There was a sign near it describing it as the resting place of the heart of St. Laurence O'Toole, the patron saint of Dublin. Then there was another sign talking about the fact that the heart recently had been stolen. Yes, someone stole a mummified heart from a cage on a cathedral wall. I like to think that it was the minions of a rival cathedral who took it, just like relics were stolen in the Middle Ages. Makes it seem more historical and less mean and creepy.
We walked down into the crypt, which had a display of some of the old communion implements and such. There was also a case with The Cat and the Rat. When they restored their organ a while ago, they found this mummified cat and rat in the pipes. The cat had chased the rat and they both met their ultimate, musical fates. Also on display down there were costumes from The Tudors. Pretty cool. And then, as we walked away, we looked up and saw two pigeons, um, enjoying each other's company on the roof of the cathedral. Inappropriate.
As we left the cathedral a string group was rehearsing for a concert that night and it sounded lovely. We took one more look at the nave of the cathedral to see the leaning wall (one wall is just a bit out of perpendicular and it's pretty trippy) and headed out the door into the sun.
I knew that Handel's Messiah had first been performed in Dublin, and as we walked down the street we stumbled upon a marker on the wall of a hotel letting us know that this was the site of the first performance of Handel's Messiah. I was BEYOND excited. Mama and I saw Handel's monument in Westminster Abbey when we were in London five years before, and this was icing on that cake.
Our last big stop and tour for the day was the Guinness Storehouse. You all know that I love Guinness, so it might come as a shock to say that I almost wish we had spent our time doing a different activity. The Storehouse is, well, disappointing. This, of course, is coming from a museum nerd. It was like pretty much any brewery tour, with a bit more audio/visual element. The bar at the top where you get your free pint was pretty cool because you could see the entire city, and the advertising area was pretty cool. In hindsight, I think our tiredness contributed to our impression of the Storehouse, and I wonder if we might have enjoyed it more if had been the first thing we did that day.
At this point we were footsore and hungry, so we decided to go over to the Temple Bar area and find a place to sit, eat, and have a pint. And what did we find? Gogarty's! We felt we had to eat there as it shared a name with our good friends. Nice environment, passable food, interesting mix of music. But the sitting down part was awesome.
We did not have any real agenda after dinner, so we wandered around a bit taking in as many more sites and sights as we could. We saw the statue of Molly Malone, the Tart with the Cart, selling her cockles and mussels alive, alive-o. We found some markers in the sidewalk with quotes from Ulysses, we crossed the Ha'Penny Bridge. We stood under the majestic columns of the General Post Office, the site of the standoff that led to Irish independence in 1921. The bullet marks are still visible.
After that, we caught our bus back to the B&B. Our feet were screaming, but it was a great day. It whet our appetites for our next trip to Dublin, because there's so much more to see!
Coming up next: Will they make their early, crack of dawn flight to Italy? Will they survive the bus ride through Milan? Will the Baxter eat cheese? Stay tuned!
For more information on the Book of Kells, check out http://www.tcd.ie/Library/bookofkells/book-of-kells/
For more on Christchurch Cathedral, see http://www.christchurchdublin.ie/
For more on the Guinness Storehouse, http://www.guinness-storehouse.com/en/Index.aspx
*Bloomsday is the name for June 16 in Dublin. It commemorates James Joyce's novel Ulysses, which follows a day in the life of protagonist Leopold Bloom. The day was June 16, 1904.
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