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Published: June 23rd 2008
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Malahide Castle
Malahide Castle is like it was taken out of a fairy tale A long wet weekend in Dublin, Ireland
We have spent three days (four days for Ake since he arrived one day earlier) in Dublin this weekend. In the previous entry on the blog we talked about any weather better than the weather at home is OK when you travel. Well, this time we were not so lucky. But then it's our own fault since we decided to go to Ireland. To say the least we had a rainy vacation. But it wasn't too bad. We had our raincoats with us and were prepared to spend time indoors in museums and other places if necessary. So we survived this trip too.
Ake was able to take more days off from work then Emma this time so Ake went to Dublin one day before Emma. On this day Ake went to a place called Malahide. Malahide is just outside Dublin and is known for its picturesque
Castle. The castle is smaller than you might expect but what it lacks in size it instead has in character. It looks just like castles look like in fairy tales. Today parts of the castle can be visited on a tour and the rooms shown
The Spire
In central Dublin you find this spire. We are not sure what it symbolises but since you can see it from everywhere it is a great help when you are lost retains the original furniture. Unfortunately photography was not permitted inside the castle so we can't put any photos of the interior on the blog.
Ake also went to see a statue of the musician
Phil Lynott before Emma arrived in Dublin. Ake thought it was safe to see that statue because Emma is not a big fan of Phil Lynott's old band Thin Lizzy. Strictly Ake isn't a Lizzy-fan either. But at least he has heard a few of their songs like "The Boys Are Back in Town" and "Whiskey in the Jar".
When Emma finally arrived we went to one of the most popular tourist sights in town,
Trinity College. The main reason hoards of tourists visit Trinity College every day is to see the
Book of Kells, which is displayed in a museum on the premises of the College. We understand that the Book of Kells is a magnificent piece of literature, or rather art. But we couldn't see the point in paying €8 just to get a glimpse of the book. Instead we walked around the college area and looked and the buildings, which were well worth looking at, and then we left.
After we had seen the
Statue on O'Connell Street
This statue is of the nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell Trinity College we walked around the town for a few hours. Dublin is a pleasant town for walking, at least when the weather permits it. We walked through various areas in the centre of Dublin to see what the town looks like. In this time Emma managed to squeeze in some shopping. Well, to be honest Emma was just as much into shopping as she was into "seeing what the town looks like".
We ended the walk in town in St Stephen's Green, a nice park just south of the city center. When doing that we saw something a bit rare - Dubliners
not wearing umbrellas. It had actually been nice weather for a few hours and the Dubliners took this opportunity of worshipping the sun. You know, it is so common to see Dubliners with an umbrella that for a while we actually thought that evolution had ensured that umbrellas were part of the Irish physiology. You know like the right hand had developed an umbrella shaped growth to adapt the Irish to the climate. But when the sun had been out we could clearly see that the umbrellas is not like a fifth limb or something. They
Fleet Street
Hmmm... thought that one was in London... How embarrassing... are detachable.
On the second day (third day for Ake) in Dublin we visited
Dublin Castle. We walked around there for a while and looked at the various buildings that together are known as Dublin Castle. To be honest, only small sections of the castle actually looked like a castle. When it started to rain too much we went into the
Chester Beatty Library just behind the Castle. It is museum based on a collection of rare and expensive books collected by Chester Beatty. It was a nice museum and good way to avoid the rain for a while.
One of the most memorable things we saw in Dublin was
St Michan's Church. The church itself was nice. According to legend the organ in the church was used by George Frideric Handel when he composed the oratorio Messiah. But other than that the church in itself is nice but just another church. The big attraction in this particular church is the burial vaults below the church. In the crypt lie several hundreds of coffins, most of them at least a century old. Some of the coffins are in a good condition but many of them have disintegrated over the years and are now
An Emma Favourite
This shop has "Emma" written all over it showing their contents to anyone who is willing to see it. We have a bit of morbid personalities so seeing dead bodies is to us a great way to spend a Saturday morning. What makes the vault really interesting is the fact that the climate in these vaults is such that bodies are preserved unusually well. The bodies are actually dried out and mummified. One body in the crypt has been carbon dated to be about 700 years old. You can still today see many features of that body such as nails, hair and clothes. An interesting thing about these old mummified bodies is that you also get a glimpse into ancient burial traditions. The coffins in those days were "one-size-fits-all". And if you by chance didn't fit the coffin you were made to fit. I.e. they simply chopped off your feet if you were too tall...
In the morning on the last day when we were in Dublin it wasn't raining for a change. Therefore we decided to run a few kilometres before breakfast. The lack of rain was good but instead we had to fight a heavy wind. But that wasn't a problem. It just added to
Statue of Phil Lynott
The old Dubliner Phil Lynott is honoured with a statue in Dublin. But why is he holding a bass guitar and not a bottle of whiskey? the fun of running.
After our run we had breakfast and after that the rain started again. So for the better part of the last day we stayed indoors.
In the afternoon on the last day the rain stopped again and then we went to the National Museum. In the museum we saw the exhibitions on Irish Silver Craftsmanship, Irish Scientific Equipment and Irish Furniture. It was a nice way to end our visit in Dublin.
Next time we go to Ireland we hope it rains less. No, we actually hope it doesn't rain at all. Trust us, we had our share of rain on this trip.
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