So day 2 begins.
We head out on foot as we decided not to pick up a rental car until we leave tomorrow. After a quick coffee and breakfast sandwich at the local shop downstairs we walked for a bit to Trinity College. This is home to the famous Book of Kells.
The line to get into the old library & the Book of Kells was a long one, we had to queue up outside. At this point you should probably know that it was raining...not a heavy downfall, more of a light sprinkle to mist. From what the locals tell us it has been unseasonably rainy even for them). As we waited outside in the rain I noticed that the Death Star from Star Wars was on display.
Okay it wasn't really the death star, it was a rotating sculpture/artwork outside. If you look at the pictures you will totally see what I mean.
Back to the library & the Kells. Oh my gosh, this was so totally worth it. The library alone reminded me of something you might see in Harry Potter. The smell....I can't describe it, but it even smelled like I imagine it would in the HP movie. I was only disappointed to realize that no book was going to magically float up to put itself away. The Book of Kells was just as amazing. Seeing it in person & seeing how it came to be and the hours, days and months of hand scribing that went into it was just impressive.
From Trinity College we headed on & came across Dublin Castle. We were going to tour it, but we would have had to wait an hour or so until the next tour went on so we just took a lot of pictures and walked on.
In so doing we moved on to see St. Patrick's Cathedral. Holy goodness this place was truly inspiring. I was impressed that something so beautiful & grand could have been built when it was. Upon entering the church I actually felt more peaceful. Each of the rows where one would traditionally find pews were individual wooden chairs. What was cool was that each chair had its own seat cushion that someone had created needlepoint works of art with. Each cushion was different and represented something different. Amazing. The history on display truly makes one sit in awe that society is where it is today. I sat for a bit one one of the chairs and had a moment to take everything in & to say a few words with my mom. She would have loved this Cathedral. After my lil cry I thought it best to wrap up my visit. I needed no souvenir from St. Patricks as I felt it is something that will be in my heart for the remainder of my time.
From St. Patrick's we walked on some more & found ourselves at the Guinness Storeroom. Now I have heard mixed reviews on the place but we decided that you are only in Dublin once if you're lucky so we took the tour. Now it is not a working brewery anymore but thats alright. It explains the history & the steps that go into making the drink. On one of the floors I became a master. Thats right I learned to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. I even have a certificate that says it!
After the Guinness Storeroom we walked along the waterfront & found a good place to finally sit down for a bit of dinner. Following dinner we walked some more and found ourselves at the Temple Bar District...but that my friends is a whole different blog post...
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