Dublin - Day 2

Wednesday, 19 September 2012

Mike driving from right side of coach

The clocks moved forward 6 hours, the lights were turned on … it was time to wake up (for some of us).  We had a little breakfast and arrived in Dublin at 7:45 AM.  First we went through immigration; they took a good look at each of us and let us through.  We got our luggage and walked through the “Green Channel” to the Republic of Ireland.



We met our driver/guide Mike outside of customs.  Our luggage was loaded on the coach and we were on our way.  Here the driver is on the right side of the vehicle and drives on the left side of the road; thankfully we’ll leave the driving to Mike! 

The day started with a sightseeing tour of Dublin.  Our first stop was Trinity College (founded 1592) to visit the Old Library.  Here is displayed the Book of Kells; the illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, written by Irish Monks in the 8th century.   It contains the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  The text, illustrations and artwork were extremely detailed.  Upstairs was the Old Library with 200,000 of the libraries oldest books. The Department of Early Printed Books and Special Collections is responsible for Irelands oldest and most valuable books along with all material published in the UK and Ireland; today it has 5 million volumes!

  Book of Kells in Old Library at Trinity College Dublin Long Hall in Old Library The next stop was a tour of the Old Jameson Distillery (founded 1780). It was a walk through the story of John Jameson and Son and how three simple ingredients- water, barley and yeast are used to make Irish whiskey.  The tour ended with a taste testing; 6 volunteers compared 3 whiskeys.  The conclusion was Jameson was clearly the best and one of the samples tasted like turpentine! Irish Wiskey = water + barley + yeast Irish Wiskey "tasted" It was time to get some cash … we stopped along the way at an ATM.  The Republic of Ireland uses the euro (1 euro = about $1.30 USD).   We picked up one of “meet us in Dublin” couples at our hotel and then our local tour guide Kathleen.  She told us lots about Dublin past and present.  Next stop was Phoenix Park—one of the largest city parks in Europe (1,750 acres).  We had lunch at a very quaint café in the park and then had some time to walk around.  The long day was catching up with us.  Mike was trying to keep us awake as long as possible—we got to our hotel around 3:30 PM.  Some of us took a short nap before dinner.  Our remaining travelers arrived at the hotel; we are now together; our group of 28. Tonight we stay in Dublin at the Burlington Hotel