Dublin Day 2

We probably should have ended our day much earlier tonight, but our evening dinner and drinks at Baraza and nightcap drinks in our hotel lobby were SO good…so it’s late and we have to get up early for breakfast and meeting our Inroads Ireland guide, Hugh.

There was some discussion before ordering breakfast today about the meaning of black and white pudding, and once it was confirmed that black pudding has blood in it, it was out of the running as a breakfast choice. 😂 😂 We stuck to what was most familiar today. Maybe one of us will get braver as the trip continues. 🤷‍♀️

The highlight of today was Trinity College. It was founded in 1592, and our guide, Jerry, shared how the college came into possession of The Book of Kells (800 A.D.) - perhaps the most representative piece of Celtic and Irish art, an ornately decorated, very unique copy of the New Testament of the Bible. Its pages, or as they are called, folios are made from vellum. Vellum is made from the skin of calves, sheep or less frequently, goat kids, but in the case of the Book of Kells, calfskin was predominantly used. Completing all the folios of the Book of Kells required the skins of more than 185 calves. 😮

We were able to see one out of the four parts of the book and then we spent time in the amazing Long Room library. 📚 200,000 books!!

Our guide was a wealth of information and did a great job, but the heat and humidity got the better of us by time we ended the tour at the castle.

Awesome parts to our day:

1. Relaxing morning over breakfast
2. Adrianne and Haley finding the road with all the umbrellas overhead
3. The Long Room library
4. Finding a lunch place where it was cool (Porterhouse Temple Bar)
5. Haley finding a spot for dinner across the river at a place called Baraza
6. Temple Bar streets in the evening

Tough Part:

1. Humidity and warm temperatures - Adrianne said it looked like someone had doused my face with water I was sweating so bad. We all made makeshift paper fans to cool off.

Tomorrow we start our tour around the southern part of Ireland.Read more