Dublin

Where are all the red heads? 02/08

We love a good walking tour, and it is usually the first thing we try and do when we arrive in a city. They take you to most of the usual spots but also give you good inside knowledge on what to see and do with the rest of your time. We have never struck a bad one unlike, say, a professor of history at university who can be as boring as they want.

Helena did not disappoint and kept us entertained for a few hours as we took in some of the sights of Dublin. Helena started with a 5-minute history of Ireland which she ended by noting that the Irish loved rebelling but were never particularly good at it. And, after their last great rebellion in 1916, they painted all their red postboxes green to celebrate. Fini! 

We went by the Dublin Castle, which was an interesting hodge-podge of styles from the 12th century onwards and is still used for offices and a convention centre. Directly behind it was a fascinating little garden, Dublin Garden, which was named by the Vikings in the 9th Century when they cruised up the river looking for a place to stay (no doubt driven out of Scandinavia by the property prices). They found a freshwater pond which is now the site of the garden and gave it the name Dyflin (‘black pool’) which in Irish translates to Dubh Linn or Dublin.

 It was a beautiful little place, though it was decorated with a weird piece of modern art that was a 3D printed statue of David - of David and Goliath fame - that looked suspiciously like Crocodile Dundee. Strange. 

Right next to the Dublin Garden was the Charles Beatty collection of rare manuscripts from the world’s great religions. It included the earliest extant copy of a papyrus with sections from the book of revelations from the 2nd century AD. This might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it was magnificently curated.

Christine has been looking around forlornly for her fellow red-haired, pale skin, and blue-eyed brethren with little success. Hopefully we will find more in the country-side! She is also a little tired of being mistaken for a local and asked for directions.

Love a Good Library! 03/08

A more relaxed day. We walked through some of the wide, main streets and admired the architecture before relaxing a bit in St Stephens Park. We checked out a few more hotel lobbies and then Christine suggested we visit the National Library. This came as a bit of a shock, knowing her fondness for libraries, but there was a WB Yeats exhibition on, one of my favourite poets, and Christine had surprised me.  

We finished the day off with a tour of Trinity College, looking at the amazing Long Room at the library (where I have asked Christine to spread some of my ashes) and the Book of  Kells, which is a sumptuously decorated bible from the 8th century, and one of their national treasures.

Mel Gibson and Burial Mounds 04/08

Today we went on a tour of the Boyne Valley west of Dublin in County Mead. The driver was from the area and was full of interesting tidbits. The highlights of the day included a tour of Trim Castle, where Mel Gibson filmed the movie Braveheart (that’s right, not filmed in Scotland, better tax breaks in Ireland!) and then a trip to the Loughcrew Cairns, which are monumental 5,000 year old burial mounds atop four hills. Twice a year on the solstices the sun aligns with the tombs and the ritual carvings towards the centre of the mounds are made visible. Incredible. Tomorrow we hire our car and begin our road trip around Ireland!

The wind was so intense we thought we would have to rope ourselves together.  We both touched the stone of destiny to see if in fact we were of royal blood.............nope.