June 28

It is great to be in the heart of it all, but the noises and lights of the city don’t stop!  Andrew, of course, can sleep through anything as once his hearing aides are out, he can’t hear anything!  Cheryl likes it dark and quiet, but when you are tired you can pretty well sleep through everything, once you are asleep.  She did have to close the curtains just a bit to shut out some of the bright lights, but couldn’t close them completely as the night air wafting in was cool and wonderful.  We updated the couple of blogs that we were behind on.  Sorry, but some nights we were just too tired to type, especially those big city walking days.  A large gull almost made it in our room but landed on the ledge right outside.  We are assuming it might have made it in had we had the door opened, but it was raining when we woke up so we kept the upper windows open and left the door closed.  

Well, those big city walking days wrecked havoc on Cheryl’s feet.  We actually did about 65 miles hiking city streets in a 5 day period with only one off day in the middle.  She developed some random blisters.  The ones that popped were actually fine but one blister, or rather one INSIDE of another was especially problematic as the inner one wasn’t easily popped.  AND it was located in a very weird spot between the toes and pads of her left foot.  So the first stop (after checking out and reloading the car with our luggage), some relief.  Just up the street from the hotel was a North Face store.  We knew we’d be heading to the pharmacy for some blister bandages but wanted to look into getting her insoles replaces (for some reason, one side had slipped and no longer secure in there) or maybe even buy new shoes!  She absolutely loves her Keen sandals and they’ve been the best walking shoes ever but the grit from the city also gets under foot and can be a little irritating as well.  The wonderful store clerk (Thank you, Maeve!) told us what we needed from the pharmacy to handle the current problem blister/s and what we should try for future issues.  She also said that she really couldn’t help as their store was the smaller store of two in the city and they didn’t deal with wider insoles or shoes.  We love that honesty.  They had another store some 10 minutes walk away so we headed in that direction, with a quick stop at the pharmacy to buy what she recommended.  The other store was much bigger and actually carried the brand of shoe Cheryl has (Merrill) so we could get a new insole that fit more securely and didn’t have to actually buy another pair of shoes (Thanks, Ian!).  We stopped at an Irish pub for lunch, and had vegetable soup--it was green and pureed, nothing to chew on at all, but very tasty. We also shared our first official Irish meal, corned beef and cabbage, complete with mash (mashed potatoes!).  Side note:  We’ve been perusing menus and all the fish and chip platters feature mashed peas!  

Cheryl applied her “plasters” (aka bandages) and wow, immediate relief from that blister!

 

After lunch, we walked towards Guinness Brewery, stopping to see St. Patrick’s Cathedral along the way, as well as taking in the city.  Every city has its own personal vibe and Dublin is no different.  

St. James Gate Brewery is a brewery that was founded in 1759 by one Arthur Guinness.  The main product is Guinness Draught and it was quite a place, very busy but we didn’t have to wait but a few minutes in line to get our tickets.  It was a self-guided tour so we could walk and read and watch as we learned about making that special dark beer called Guinness.  We also learned how to actually pour a Guinness--there is a special way to do it! and then got a pint to drink.  We opted to drink it on the 7th floor which offered a 360 degree view of Dublin!

We headed to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells.  

On the way we gawked at St. Audoen’s Church which was built in 1190 and is the oldest surviving parish church in Dublin and is still used as a place of worship.  We didn’t get to go in but apparently the floor is partially paved with medieval grave slabs.  That would have been really neat to see.

We wanted to stop in and see The Christ Church Cathedral but they charged admission.  I don’t have a problem with churches doing this as it has to be quite a burden to upkeep some of these relics but we’d be passing Euros left and right if we paid for everything we’d see and want to go in.  We just admired it from the outside and moved on.

We found the Dublin Castle, of which most of it dates to the 18th century.  A castle has stood on this very site since the days of King John!  It officially opened in 1204 and has been damaged by flooded, and damaged by fire several times, and ultimately all was transformed into a Georgian palace from its original medieval fortress beginnings.  The great Record Tower is the only left from its medieval days.

And finally we are at Trinity College; it was actually founded in 1592 by Elizabeth I and is one of the seven “ancient” universities of Britain and Ireland and is Ireland’s oldest university.  It is a beautiful campus and has such an interesting history but what we wanted to see was the Book of Kells.  The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together.  It was believed to be created in a Columban monastery in 800 AD.  That is pretty old! It is on permanent loan to the college. The illustrations and ornamentation of the Book were absolutely amazing.  

As part of the tour we were directed to the Long Room.  We didn't know what to expect but a LONG room filled with volumes and volumes and volumes of old books was not what we expected.  The room measures approximately 213 feet long and was built between 1712 and 1732.  It houses 200,000 of the college Library’s oldest books.  This room was a very cool place, and it smelled great, of books! There is also a harp on display that is believed to be the oldest harp in existence in the world!

We headed back towards our car, walking through the lobby of the Clarence Hotel which happens to be owned by Bono and friends, and then ultimately stopping at a small shop for an afternoon tea and scones.  Well, actually, Andrew had coffee and Cheryl had a carbonated orange juice, but the toasted scones with blueberry preserves and clotted cream were very tasty!

We drove southwest towards Blarney as the castle is on our list for tomorrow.  We found a campsite only a few kilometers away and to luck got the tent up before it started to rain.  

Nighty night.