Day 14: Thursday (6/20/2013)

Today we slept in a bit before heading out into beautiful Irish sunshine!

We started by wandering through temple bar district to Trinity College.  We didn't opt for the tour, but instead ambled through the grounds on our own.  Very pretty, although I'm still partial to the U of WA being the prettiest college I've seen.

The Long Room at Trinity
College.

From there we did the stand-in-line thing to view the Book of Kells, and associated museum.  The museum was pretty good--I learned a lot about medieval book making, and saw several less-famous manuscripts.  Interesting in particular: how inks/vellum were manufatured, and what the monks did when they made mistakes (which they often did).

The Book of Kells itself, well, was a book.  We only got to see 4 pages total.  A bit anti-climactic, but I guess I can say I've seen it now.

From there we went upstairs into the Long Room--the library proper.  This had several other artifacts of interest, including Ireland's oldest known harp (15th century).  Apparently it had been preserved in a bog, and has been restored to playable condition.

After exiting the library exhibits, we moved on to walk down Grafton Street, the open-air pedestrian mall that spans down to St. Stephen's Green.  This sort of promenade is common all over Europe, and as usual it was a lot of fun to walk down.  Also as usual, Mary got herself some gelato.

We next wandered into St. Stephen's green.  This is essentially Central Park for Dublin, and it is a very green and pretty area.  Lots of young people out and about enjoying the sunlight.  In general, Dublin seems younger than other cities I've been in--perhaps because of the college nearby?

From there, we decided to check out #29 Georgian House, a 18th century middle-class (or so they claim) house maintained as if it were being lived in during those times.  Walking over there, we passed through yet another large, green park, Merrion Square.

The house itself was worth the trip.  Free of charge, self-guided tour, interesting video to start explaining how the house and staff functioned.  In short, I think I would have hated life back then--no showers, lots of stairs, and good-quality light being the mark of wealth.

From the house, we decided to see O'Connell bridge and street.  We walked back up north, crossed the river, and started heading up the street.  From there we hung a left and wandered down the Market promenade--very similar to Grafton street, right down to the chain stores on the avenue.

After that, we were bushed from walking non-stop since 9am.  We headed back to the room to take a break before dinner.

Dinner and drinks with my buddy Jeff Caseldon at the Winding Stair (see my review here), followed by drinks over in Temple Bar.  Great night.