Jecca's Walking Tour of Dublin! June 21

 What a wonderful day - 6.2 miles and lots of sites.

 We started by walking to Dublin Castle, which is an administrative building and little remains of the castle. There is only one of the four original towers left. It was built in 1204 and became the Record Tower in 1811 and all the important documents were kept there until the 1990s when they were moved to the National Archives.

Record Tower

  Next - The Chester Beatty Garden which was beautiful and had a moving memorial to Garda who died. Some of it was based on a cut-down tree with the growth rings on a sculpture representing lives cut short.

  From there we walked to St. Patrick's Cathedral which also has a beautiful garden. 

St Patrick's Cathedral

By happenstance, we took a rest on a bench with a quotation from Vaclav Havel about whom Mark wrote his MA dissertation. It was placed there by friends of Havel and the quotation around the table is, "Truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred." So apt.

Barbara at the "Havel" table

Jecca at the "Havel" Table. Tributes to other literary people in the back ground.

  And, from there we walked through St. Stephen's Park to the Museum of Literature which was very thought-provoking. Poetry was everywhere and the museum was beautifully done. One of the sections that most moved us both was the letter that Oscar Wilde wrote to his lover from prison. Both of us want to find copies of it to read.

    We ate in the lovely garden there. Jecca had a salmon/avocado open-faced sandwich and I had a grilled cheese, something I rarely order.

Jec at the Museum of Literature

Beautiful rooms at the Museum of Literature

From the display of banned or "evil" literature

Lunch in Museum Garden 

Lunch in Museum Garden

     One of the museum people recommended we go next to the Seamus Heaney museum which was small and wonderful. We had a very knowledgeable receptionist (Keeva). She and Jecca had a chat about Heaney whose poems Jecca uses. In addition, Jec had seen him around the Harvard campus, but did not have a class with him. She got several collections of poetry, some of which are not available in the U.S. And, I bought one with 100 poems which spans his career. 

At the Heaney Museum

    We stopped at Sweney's Pharmacy (not misspelled) which is preserved by the James Joyce Society as it appears in Joyce's work and is a stop on BloomsDay (June 16). It is a tiny pharmacy and there was one volunteer there when we arrived. Jec bought some lemon soap, also featured by Joyce which is made by one farm in Wicklow. Then, an older gent came in, also a Joyce fan and probably a volunteer. He sang us a song in Irish. As we were leaving the first man asked where we were from and we answered, "Massachusetts." He asked for more detail and we both said, "Nantucket," but then added that she taught in Concord. He said, "Then you must be Jecca!" We almost fell over. A teacher with Jecca had been in earlier and told the man that a woman named Jecca might just be in as she teachers James Joyce. Amazing!

Sweney's - the man who said, "Jecca?"

He serenaded us

     We have been in many bookstores. We see books that are not available in the U.S. including authors like Saroyan. It is impressive. The Irish are clearly readers.

    After the Heaney museum, we walked across the river intending to get a bus to the Guinness Experience, but we realized it was only a mile, so we kept walking. We passed through a sad section with homeless and some even smoking crack. We did find a lovely coffee shop, though, and had another break before going to the Guinness place.

Coffee after a hot walk

    I have to say, I was not expecting much from this tour, but it surprised both of us because it was quite informative and interesting....and a rather Disneyesque experience. It was crowded, but like Disney, they know how to funnel people through. One of the most interesting parts was sitting and watching the clever ads that Guinness has had over the years - very inclusive and creative. We haven't seen them in the U.S. partly because alcohol was not allowed to advertise for many years. 

The HUGE (7 stories?) Guinness Building

   Then, we took a cab back to the shopping and hopping area which was so crowded and youthful. We hand-made dumplings at Little Dumpling which we thought excellent. I ordered wild mushroom ones. MMMM. From there we went to Spilt Milk for delicious ice cream - both of us had nut butter. Then, we walked home and are trying to pack everything efficiently. Jec has bought 7 books, 2 t-shirts and a few other things. My problem is that I am packing my boots and sandals, so will have clothes in my backpack, but I think we are pretty much ready for tomorrow's journey.

At "Little Dumpling"