Book of Kells, Buses and Beer -- Dublin Day 2 -- 7/28/17

After breakfast, we walked back around the corner to Trinity College to use our online tickets to see the Old Library and the Book of Kells.  The Book of Kells is a beautifully detailed illustrated copy of the four Gospels, created in the 9th century.  Each of the four books are open to two pages under a lighted glass display case, so you get to see 8 pages in all.  I can't even begin to describe how exquisite the designs are.  Of course, they won't let you take pictures, so it is worth a google search to see some examples.
After the exhibit, you are allowed to go upstairs into the Old Library.  We could have spent all day here just soaking it all in.  It is a dream room for people who love libraries and old books.  The best part may have been the old book smell that hit you as you walked into the room.  If only you could bottle that smell...

Here's a close up picture of the stacks.  Students of Trinity College are able to check out these books, which may have pushed some of our kids over the edge into wanting to attend Trinity College some day!  Jack says he will be able to use these books when he is an archaeologist like Indiana Jones.

Here are a few more pictures inside the library.

The Old Library also has on display the oldest harp to survive from Ireland.  They think it dates from the 15th century.  This is the harp that is engraved on Irish coins.  This was especially exciting for Sidney, as she is a harpist.  

After this Library, we headed to Dublin Castle and the Chester Beatty Library.  Here is a picture of Dublin Castle.

We opted out of the fee-based tour of the State Rooms of Dublin Castle, and headed straight to the free Chester Beatty Library.  You couldn't take pictures inside, but it had fascinating exhibits of his personal collection of rare manuscripts, prints, paintings and rare books collected mainly from Asia and the Middle East.  It had some of the earliest surviving copies of the Old Testament prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  It also displayed a copy of Paul's Letter to the Hebrews from around 150 AD.  Chester Beatty was an American mining magnate that spent his later years in Britain and Ireland, was knighted and made an honorary Irish Citizen.  We watched a fascinating short video about his life.  Dan and I remarked that we couldn't believe we had never heard of him before, due to all of his accomplishments.  

We had lunch at a great restaurant in Temple Bar, called Elephant and Castle.

Then, we navigated the local bus system to get a ride out to the Guinness Storehouse to re-learn how beer is made.  We toured the Heineken factory in Amsterdam 4 years ago, but we wanted an Irish perspective.  We had to wait about 15 minutes on the bus, but it was worth the wait for the kids, as they got to ride on the top level of a double-decker bus.

Here are some pics from the Guinness tour.

As you can see from the first picture, the Guinness logo includes a harp, so Sidney got the chance to play another harp.  She was frustrated that she couldn't play an actual song, because the strings were actually fake electronic tones.

Here she is with the real harp from which the logo is modeled.

They had photo opportunities with several former Guinness advertising icons.  Jack wanted a picture with the kangaroo.

The highlight of the tour was the tasting room on the top floor.  It was a round room with glass walls so that you could see a 360 degree view of Dublin, which would have been cool, if the room hadn't been packed wall-to-wall with fellow "tasters".  It was lots of fun, though.  The kids had a choice of several soft drinks to taste.  

We decided to walk back from the Guinness Storehouse, because it wasn't as far as it looked on the map.  We were presented with another opportunity, however.  There were lots of horse-drawn carriages (think Central park in New York) shuttling people back to town.  Of course, the kids wanted to do this, and of course, we told them no.  Well, two of the drivers were on their last run of the day to park their carriage back in Temple Bar, so they offered us a ride multiple times.  We kept walking.  Each time, the fare decreased.  Eventually, it was over half off of the original fare and would have been the same as a return bus fare, so we gave in.  The kids got their carriage ride, but Sidney was more concerned about the welfare of the poor horse.  

We ate a delicious dinner at a local Japanese restaurant, which the kids requested.  Then, we stopped into a Carrolls to look for a few last souvenirs.  Dan found this information about the name Carroll.  

We really enjoyed Dublin and would like to return to Ireland some day to spend some time touring around the countryside.  Dublin was very clean, and the people were very friendly.  It was very manageable for a big city, and didn't seem overwhelming.  It rained a little bit each day, but we never had a steady downpour.  It is not a very long flight from New York (about the same as flying from the East Coast to the West Coast of the USA), so I highly recommend it.  We have an early start in the morning with a flight to Copenhagen.  We can't wait!