Hello from Dublin! We arrived in Dublin late in the evening on day four, so we were ready to hit the ground running the next morning. Day five was full of sites of the city with a local tour guide and some free time to explore on our own.
We started the morning with Shane, our local guide, and we took a drive around the city to see some of the high points. We rode by the Guinness Factory (which you can tour), the site of the 1916 Easter Rising (early fight for Irish independence), and Phoenix Park (the largest park in Dublin- bigger than Central Park). We took time to get off the bus at a few places, but mostly just saw the city at a glance. Our first actual stop of the day though was St. Patricks Cathedral.
St. Patrick's Cathedral was built in Dublin based on the legend of its namesake, Saint Patrick, passing through the area in as early as the 5th Century. According to the legend, on his journey through St. Patrick used a well to baptist and convert Christians in the area. Years later in the 1100's a wooden building was built in this area and was later replaced by the structure that is there today. In the early 1900's Celtic graves were unearthed and what was thought to be the remains of the well that was used by St. Patrick. Today the Cathedral serves much as a museum, even though it still operates as a church. All types of artifacts from Irish and Catholic history have been preserved within the church.
After we left St. Patrick's we had a few minutes of free time so we went to a department store on the same street. They were offering free truffle pops that day, because it was Easter Sunday and it was also an attempt to raise money for cancer patients. I gladly donated some euros and grabbed a delicious truffle. It was amazing!
We then headed off to Trinity College, Ireland's oldest university established by Queen Elizabeth I. The college was not really what we were there to see, rather the infamous Book of Kells and the Irish Declaration of Independence. The Book of Kells is an illuminate manuscript of the Gospels and New Testament written in Latin by monks during the 8th or 9th Centuries. It was breath-taking to see and amazing to think how much time and effort it took to create such detailed work. Sadly, we were not allowed to take pictures of the Book of Kells, but check it out online. After the tour of the book we went into the library to see the Irish Declaration of Independence, as well as old original copies of books by famous authors like Charles Dickens, and the oldest harp in Ireland.
Lunch was calling my name by the time we finally finished all the activities of the morning. So off we headed to an authentic Irish pub. I probably should have been more adventurous in my eating that day, but nothing sounded more appetizing at that moment than a cheeseburger and that is exactly what I got! It was really good, but I think anything would have been by that time of the day!
After lunch we spent the remainder of the day exploring Dublin. We went up and down the main streets popping into local stores and grabbing some souvenirs. The big sight seeing of the afternoon was the National Museum of Ireland. We had heard that they had some bog bodies on display and were eager to check out 2000 year old remains. They did not disappoint. Many of the bodies (dated back to the BC era) had hair, nails, and recognizable features still in tack. It was found that the bog bodies were so well preserved, because of chemicals from the bogs. Bodies were sacrificed into the bog once a year as part of a Pagen tradition. A sacrificial victim would be chosen, "fattened" up and then killed and given to the bog. After the museum, we just took a walking tour of the city and enjoyed a little bit of free time in Dublin.
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| This cross supposedly held a portion of the cross of Christ at one point. |
After a dinner of Bangers and Mash (not my thing) we decided to turn in early for the night, because we had an early wake up time for the next morning. On day six we crossed the Irish Sea and took this adventure to the United Kingdom!
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