Dublin: Trinity College & Kayaking

Today was our day to take a break from tour buses and venture out on foot. We started with a visit to see the illustrated manuscripts of the Book of Kells at the old library of Trinity College here in Dublin.

The Book of Kells is an intricately decorated, book telling the story of the life of Jesus Christ, written in Latin, on vellum around the year 800 AD. The book is surprisingly small (about 13 x 10 inches), but includes nearly 700 pages (in four volumes now). It is thought that the writing was done by only three scribes.

We learned the story of how it was written in a monastery on Iona in Scotland, and carried across the sea to Ireland to protect it from Viking raiders. Later, it was moved from place to place to keep it safe from destruction by the British (Protestant) kings and their armies. Finally, sometime in the 1660s it was given to Trinity College.

As we were leaving Trinity, we ran into Julie Rose! We knew she was going to be in the country around the time we were, but what a coincidence to be in the same place at the same time. We arranged to meet her and her traveling friend, Mary, for dinner later.

After the college visit, we got into kayaks on the River Liffey with a guide and about ten others. Mostly we saw the underside of bridges, which were handy for sheltering from the rain, but we also had to keep moving (it was a lovely sunny day before and after our river excursion!).

As we go about our day, we keep walking past The Spire and The Dublin Portal—great landmarks. The portal is an interesting idea—we can wave at people in Philadelphia, Brazil and elsewhere (and they wave back!). Check it out at www.portals.orgRead more