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Despite having now had two night here in Dublin, we haven't seen anything beyond the airport so the plan for today is to take the bus in and wander around.
Before breakfast, I take another go on the hotel computer. Doing some research, it now seems like hostels will be our best option for Scotland, so I book two nights at the Loch Ness Youth Hostel to make sure we have something for the first two days. Like here, our plan there is to rent a car at the airport for the first five days, and then later come back to see the city of Edinburgh.
After taking the hotel shuttle to the airport, we get aboard our first double decker bus (we never rode one in London) and score the front seats on the second level. I am reminded of a Jony Mitchell song in which she says she used to refuse to ride on the second level of the double decker bus “A because there was no driver up on top”.
The trip to the Dublin city centre is relatively quick. The neighbourhoods get denser and the houses older looking the further we get towards the
city centre. We have the GPS on, but we are not quite sure where the city centre is. We pass along a likely looking main street with a high, needle like structure on the boulevard, and end up getting off just after crossing the river.
We haven't really figured out what we want to see in Dublin, but I thought Trinity College might be a place to start so we point the GPS in that direction and head off. We end up not sure which building it is, and then realize that we are standing right in front of the gates !
In side the courtyard, the college is a beautiful set up with wonderfully kept green grounds and interesting architecture. At the old library, they house many old manuscripts including “The Book of Kells” - one of the oldest books in the British Isles. We walk into the book store, from which you can see into the the old library, but as they want 20 Euro to visit it, we settle with browsing though the replica Book of Kells instead.
After Trinity College, we head to another famous landmark, St. Patrick's Cathedral. Near the entrance to
the cathedral is a walkway where there are memorials to numerous Irish writers including Joyce, Yeats, Wilde, Becket, and Swift. As well, Johnathan Swift is buried in the Cathedral. Outside the cathedral, there is a plaque that marks the stop where St. Patrick is said to have performed the first Irish baptisms.
After St. Patrick's, we headed of to find on of Dublins other famous cathedrals, Christ Church. This is our second visit to a Christ Church Cathedral, having visited one with the same name in the New Zealand City of Christ Church.
At Christ Church Cathedral, where was a large fence around the site and they were having a special service on, meaning we could not go in. This was a bit disappointing, but we wandered around the building in any case and took some photographs.
Across the road from the Cathedral, Evy spotted the sign for
Dvblinia, a exhibit on Viking exploration and settlement in Ireland, so we decided to buy tickets and go in.
The display was quite well done, covering all aspects of Viking life. Though the Vikings were invaders, there were also primarily traders and Dublin was a trading centre town
started by them (along with many other Irish coastal cities including Cork).
This exhibit was a good follow up to our trip to the Irish heritage centre took the history forward further and explored how towns and cities functioned in both Viking and medieval times. Benjamin and Joshua both tried on Viking helmets. It turns out they don't have horns, those were not the same time period. We also saw how early coins were made and explored what a Medieval merchants house would have looked like.
Leaving the viking exhibit, we crossed through a 19th century bridge that joins that building with Christ Church Cathedral across the street. This was great as we got to finally see a bit of the Cathedral, which has amazing stainglass windows, as well as seeing a bit of the grounds from inside the fence this time.
As it was now getting late in the afternoon, we followed the river back to the bus stop and took the city double decker bus back to the airport. Looking out the bus windows, there is a distinct look to Dublin with its curved archways and colourful doors. Looking at the pubs with their black
signs with gold writing, it doesn't look quite like any other place we have visited.
Once again, we had our dinner at the airport before taking the shuttle back to our hotel. We figure to make our flight, we have to get up tomorrow about 3:15 am so I both set my watch and arrange for a wake up call from the hotel.
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