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Published: February 2nd 2024
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Our final winter destination for 2024 is the Malaga area of Spain with a side trip to Ireland. We spent 4 days in Dublin on the way to Spain and will return for 12 more days in April, doing a self drive tour of the Island. The over night flight Toronto to Dublin with AC was actually quite enjoyable. We departed on time, was hosted by friendly staff and arrived on schedule. There may be hope yet for our national airline??
With an overnight flight, it’s always a struggle to stay awake until normal bed time in order to adjust to local time zone as quickly as possible. After arriving around 7:00 am, we took the “hop on hop off” bus. It was much better than in other cities as the driver provided some interesting comments through a PA as compared to using ear phones listening to pre-recorded commentary. Dublin has a long documented history going back to the Viking days of the 9th century and the bus tour gave us a good overview of the city and its very interesting and historic past. Near our hotel was St. Patricks Cathedral, one of the oldest protestant churches in Ireland with
The Spire of Dublin
It’s the tallest structure in Dublin, a 120 meters stainless steel needle. t Apparently the locals think it ugly and cost 4 Million Euros to install. numerous iterations beginning in 1220 AD. Some may recognize one of the past leaders of the church, Jonathan Swift, who wrote Gulliver's Travels. In fact, Dublin had a number of well known literary types , i.e. playwrights Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, authors James Joyce (Ulysses) and Bram Stoker (Dracula) to name just a few. A quote of Oscar Wilde’s who fought with demons for most of his life reflects some the Irish humour; “I can resist everything except temptation”.
Next on our “trying to stay awake” agenda was Dublin Castle, once the seat of British government rule in Ireland but now used primarily for ceremonial and social events. Sections of the castle are over 1,000 years old and currently under restoration, however, the newer part which includes numerous rooms and artifacts, were open for viewing. Next to Dublin Castle, the Chester Beatty Library offers a vast collection of works and books from Muslim, China, East Asia and Christian cultures.
We were blessed with moderate temperatures and partially sunny skies on our first day, however, the next day brought 4 degrees C with steady rain. Most of major points of interest in Dublin are condensed geographically, so
The Long Room at the Library of Trinity College
The wooden panels and vaulted ceiling is fitting way to house the extensive collection of centuries old books. we braved the conditions and trotted off to Trinity College. The college was established by Queen Elizabeth 1 in 1592 as a way to strengthen the British Protestant influence and control of the predominately Catholic Irish population. Housed and exhibited at Trinity is The Book of Kells. The book, estimated to be transcribed in 800 AD, included New Testament gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. The members of the Columban monastery painstakingly added elaborate designs and colours that enhanced the books Latin text. Trinity College also housed one of the great libraries in Europe. It is an amazing facility and its shelves contain thousands of books accumulated over the centuries. Certainly worth the visit.
The rainy day concluded with some time at the National Museum of Archeology which was interesting and informative. Then a brisk walk over to Jameson’s Distillery for a slick tour and of course some sampling (our apologies to the Irish but our preference is still Scotch whiskey)
Two more days in Dublin and too much to cover in the same blog so we’ll cover the balance in subsequent publication.
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Meg Shiels
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Ireland
Glad to hear that you enjoyed Dublin. I’m going in May for a 15 day tour of the auld sod, probably my last look at my “home”. We Ararat and end in Dublin and visits through out the south, west, east and north. Looking fwd to it. Enjoy the rest of your trip to Spain etc.