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| Pub in Temple Bar Area |
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| Liffey River from Ha Penny Bridge |
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| Bev a Writer's Museum |
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| Entering Trinity College |
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| Dining Hall in Buttery |
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| Cricket Field |
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| Fountain in St. Stephen's Green |
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| Harcourt Street |
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| Neighbor Hotel Entrance on Harcourt Street |
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| Grafton Street Shopping |
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| Interesting, but Now Defunct |
September 28, 2010
Today we departed the lodge at 7:00 AM for our bus ride to the Galway train station to meet the 9:05 AM train to Dublin. It was a raining when we arrived in Galway and we had half an hour to spare before the train left. The train was very modern and we all had seats and tables. The total time to Dublin took 3 hours and we met the Liberty Tours person who bused us to the Schoolhouse Hotel for our three night stay in Dublin. In order to orient us to the city, we bought 2 day tickets for the hop-on, hop-off bus and took that 1-1/2 hour trip. After leaving that tour, we walked to the Temple Bar area of Dublin and strolled through that area for a while in a light rain. We stopped at St. John Gogarty bar and restaurant for some wine and just relaxed while planning our activities for tomorrow. The Shack Restaurant was selected for dinner and we had a relaxing dinner before heading back to the hotel.
September 29, 2010
Our itinerary for today and tomorrow was to see the Book of Keels exhibit at Trinity College, visit the Writer’s Museum and the National Gallery of Ireland, stroll along Grafton Street and buy some remaining family gifts. We caught the Hop-on Hop-off bus at stop #21 for the ride to the Writer’s Museum on Parnell Square where we spent time seeing the many exhibits including the published works, personal effects and portraits of Ireland’s most renowned writers. From the museum, we again caught the bus for a short ride to Trinity College and then a walk to the library that housed the Book of Keels permanent exhibit. The Book of Keels is a lavishly decorated 9th century book of the four gospels created by Irish monks at Iona and Keels. It has been in Dublin since the mid-17th century when it was transported there for safe keeping during the Cromwellian period. The decorations are outstanding and illuminate the manuscript with great detail. The displays were excellent in explaining the meanings of many of the illuminations and the history surround the period when the book was copied. Exiting the exhibit, we walked through the Long Room of the Old Library that is about 65 m in length and houses about 200,000 volumes of the library’s oldest books. We then took a walking tour of the campus and stopped to view the wood paneled dining hall in the Buttery. There is a large green space on campus consisting of College Park that contains cricket pitch and the Rugby Ground for playing rugby. The remainder of the day was spent walking down Grafton Street and visiting several stores. We decided to have dinner at the Schoolhouse Hotel and were not disappointed at the quality of the food. September 30, 2010
Today was out last day in Ireland and we focused on the National Gallery of Ireland and concluded our shopping. Although not very large, the National Gallery had a exhibition on Gabriel Metsu, Rediscovred Master of the Dutch Golden Age. This contained 40 of his finest and most notable works and was a great exhibit. The Gallery’s other paintings span the 14th to the 20th century, including a fairly extensive collection of works by Irish artists. The remainder of the afternoon was spent walking through the streets of Dublin and doing some last minute shopping. Dinner this evening was at Elys in the new Grand Canal Square area that was about a mile walk from our hotel. Tomorrow morning we will be picked up at 7 AM to be transported to the airport for our flight back home.
