Hop On Hop Off....Dublin here we come!

I woke up well rested after a full nights sleep. Plus for the first time I had a heater at the end of my bed to keep my toes nice and toasty. Woohoo! Poor mom on the other hand stayed warm and slept without covers. We were up and around by 8am and waited the additional 30 minutes upstairs. Around 8:25am we made our way downstairs for breakfast.

Marie had our pancakes already prepared. They were arranged beautifully on the plate with a side dish of fresh fruit. The plate had been lightly sprinkled with powdered sugar. What a treat! Can you believe all this deliciousness and no picture??? Us either! We had a nice conversation with Marie about her family during breakfast then headed up to the room to gather our things before heading out.

Off to Dublin for the day and maybe 2 depending on how much we could see in one day. Marie wanted to make sure we were taken care of for directions into Dublin. She had a wonderful route of parking in Phoenix Park close to the Zoo for free and catching the Hop On Hop Off Bus. What a great idea since the ticket was good for 2 full days.

Here are a few pics of the gardens in Phoenix Park.

We followed Marie’s hand drawn map and made it to our destination within 30-40 minutes and parked our car. A bit of a laugh…we were trying to read the bus route map for our first hop on. Needless to say we walked the opposite direction up the street quite a ways, then back the other direction several times and were finally able to flag the bus down. The rules in the park state that no bus companies are able to mark their stops with a sign like all their other stops. So this stop is after the first lamp post across from the Wellington Monument. Woohoo…we were finally on our way to touring the sites of Dublin.

Wellington Monument

Our first stop was Trinity College for a tour of the campus and viewing the Book of Kells. We had quite the tour guide. He led us through campus pointing out historical facts and uprisings. It was a college that was in the beginning primarily male, but finally allowed females in. Funny story about the President of the college…he said it would be over his dead body that women would enter the college. Well no joke…not too long after his death the first woman entered as a student.

 

The guide ended our tour just outside a building under a tree….he mentioned that the Book of Kells had originally been kept in Scotland but because of Viking raids had been sent to a monastery in Kells, Ireland. Somehow it must have been stolen and placed in the ground. A farmer found it, returned it to Ireland and thankfully the ground had kept it well preserved. The book was later taken from the Roman Catholic Church and given to the Trinity College where it now resides. A note about The Old Library…the books are not filed using normal library filing, but by book dimensions. Talk about a difficult way of finding a book.

Our tour group before heading into the library.

Here we were, about to go into the library to see the Book of Kells. It was a rare occasion to not have long lines and be waiting, just to get in the library doors for viewing. It was our lucky day. We were able to hand off our tickets and go right in. What an awesome text depicting the four gospels of the New Testament. Bummer no photography allowed....but understandable to keep such a relic in good condition.

Just outside the library.

Off from Trinity College we hopped on the bus and jumped off to tour the Christ Church Cathedral. It was a very upscale cathedral with beautifully tiled floors and great niches along the nave and sides of the basillica. Below we were able to view the crypt, where some were buried. There were also treasured relics kept out of photography view. It was an amazing structure to behold. Here a few of the many pictures I took here.

Outside View

The arch connecting the two part of the church.

Just inside the doors.

Ornate tile.

Basillica...look at those gothic arches.

Beautiful stained glass windows. This is one of many.

The Crypt

Gorgeous door leading down into the crypt.

Afterwards we hopped back on the bus for a quick jaunt down to the St. Patrick's Cathedral. Here we saw more vivid colors in stained glass windows, memorials for soldiers and battles fought, flags posted and even knights head gear in the choir area. There were also special areas up by the nave for prayer. Both cathedrals were beautiful but different. An interesting fact that we learned during the bus tours….no cathedral within Dublin was Catholic. Below are various pictures inside the cathedral.

Momma peaking around the entrance to St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Love these rich colorful pics. Sooo very beautiful.

Back on the bus....are you seeing a trend here? Well get ready cause its a common occurance during this and the following day...hehe! Well that bus hop got us back to our car. It was around 4:15pm and we began the journey back to Trim. Quite a full day of siteseeing in Dublin.

Here are some pics while on the bus around Dublin. If some of these pictures are fuzzy...please forgive me, we were on a moving bus ya know.

Some of the beautiful colored buildings and hanging flower baskets.

The Spire...that was supposed to be done for celebrating 2000 wasn't completed until 2003.

OH MY...can you imagine driving in this traffice? No way!

Mom had located a spot for dinner out of Rick Steve's book. So we headed to Castle Arch Hotel for an early dinner.

I started with a Thai spring roll...

Mom started with BBQ wings.

Entrees....

I chose the beef stew with mashed potatoes.

Do we think this is enough potatoes??? HAHA

Mom chose the roast turkey and ham with mashed potatoes and veggies.

Once again we shared a dessert...this time perfiteroles with chocolate sauce.

Our choice for dinner was alright but by no means at the top of our lists. We returned to the B&B around 7pm. In an effort to try and rearrange our packing and consolidate. We were quickly greeted by Marie's Jack Russel Terrier "Susie" that had 3 week old pups. Marie seeing us in the midst of things came to join us outside. We were enjoying giving little Susie attention as much as she was receiving it I believe.

Mom asked if it would be ok to see the puppies and off we went through the hedge to her daughter's back yard. We were greeted by her 2 grandsons that were eager to show off the 6 pups. Such cute little things!

The grandsons began telling us about the hot air balloons that were going to be released at Trim Castle and they were hoping to see them. Sure enough a few minutes passed and we could see the balloons come into view.

It was such a nice evening chatting with Marie. She told us that her grandsons attended a Irish School where they primarily speak Gaelic and are allowed English as a minor subject. Quite a neat concept to bring them back to their roots. Kids tend to be quite the sponges at younger ages so that makes sense. Marie also mentioned that her dad was Irish and mom was Welsh. She had lived in the UK for quite a long time and then moved to Trim in 1981 with her husband and 4 kids.  

We ended our chat and headed up to our room for baths, pjs, journaling and just before bed a little skype time with Dad. We let him know that the following night we would be in bed early due to an early arrival at the airport on Sept 1st. Wow this trip is coming quickly to an end and too quick! Off to bed...

End of day 10, August 30th....just one more full day of Ireland and back home. Hope you've continued to enjoy our adventures.  

That's it for now!

~Curls~