Walking Dublin June 20

     What a great day we had. About 5.5 miles of walking. 

Christ Church

     Jecca researched a variety of restaurants so we left well prepared.

     The weather was in the 70s and pleasant as there was some cloud cover.

     Our first stop was the outside of Christ Church Cathedral.

    We then crossed the Liffey and had an amazing breakfast at Brother Hubbard. 

Brother Hubbard

River Liffey with HalfPenny Bridge

   Then, we wandered to the Old Post Office Building (gorgeous) which is near the Spire which is on the site where Nelson's Pillar used to stand. When Ireland became independent, that came down. From there we walked to get some photos of the Half Penny Bridge and then made our way to Trinity College.

Old Post Office

Old Post Office

    At Trinity College we had a tour which was excellent. We learned so much. Trinity was built by the English and was for Protestant men. When Trinity finally accepted Catholics, the Catholic Church threatened to excommunicate any Catholic who attended. Women were not accepted to Trinity until 1904.

Center of Trinity. The bell rings erratically. Legend says that if a student is under it and the bell rings, they will fail their classes. If they run out and touch a particular statue in 5 seconds, they may escape that fate.

 The architecture is impressive, but one of the most beautiful buildings was built during the Great Famine by the English. What they spent helping the poor was 1/5 the cost of the building. But, it was beautiful with more Connemara Marble than any other building in the world. But, it also was sobering to think of the imperialism involved.

  After the tour, we went into the Long Room library which is being refurbished. It is incredibly beautiful. All books published in Ireland are stored in the libraries of Trinity. From there, we went into the exhibit about the Book of Kells. Both were amazing. The Long Room is being slowly emptied so that I can be renovated, so you see a lot of empty shelves. It is amazing that the Book of Kells was saved throughout the centuries. 

The Long Room with Gaia suspended

   Next up was yet another delicious meal - this one Middle Eastern, called Tang. Jec had a flatbread filled hummus, cabbage, minced lamb, yogurt. I had a salad of grilled vegetables with beet hummus. 

Delicious food at Tang

   We then walked to our next museum - the Little Museum which is said to give a tour that takes half an hour. The building is a Georgian mansion across from St. Stephen's Park. The building was beautiful and filled with authentic artifacts. The tour, however, was very corny, so we don't give it high marks. We could have learned a lot more if they stuck to just the history.

Tour at Little Musem

 

    Then we walked back to Trinity College where we sat outside and had a rest and liquid.

Cricket clubhouse and green where we had a nice break from walking.

    Afterwards, I succumbed to buying sandals to get my poor toes out of their prison! 

    Dinner was at Kathmandu Kitchen where we both had rather spicy dishes and naan bread, but it was delicious. 

     Home by 9:00. Quite a day. We saw on t.v. that Argentina won the rugby match. There will be thousands of sad Brits in the city tonight (and our hotel) and we are happy we are in for the day.

The fans of England were EVERYWHERE by the thousands