Dublin

Next stop the free museum in the Chester Beatty Library in the grounds of Dublin Castle. As the grounds are extensive it took us a while to find it but when we did it sure was worth it! Chester Beatty was an American mining magnate and collector of paintings and books. The two exhibits were The Art of the Book and another on a Qur'an. The illuminated and illustrated pages were beautiful beyond belief. The 350 page Qur'an had been unbound in order to display certain pages and after the exhibition closes it will be rebound. Worth googling Chester Beatty! We had a much- needed lunch after having walked Dublin for some hours. Unfortunately we couldn't take photos which was a real pity. Next stop the Dublin National Museum of Archaeology. Again this is a free museum and an absolute gem. It has exhibits from prehistoric times and includes a section on Ancient Egypt and, of course, the Vikings. One of the most fascinating exhibits was the two bog bodies that were discovered almost fully preserved in peat bogs. Didn have much time there but we had been before so were selective about what we chose to see.Read more