Exploring Dublin - Part II

After Christ Church Cathedral we walked to the nearby Dublin Castle, which began as a defensive fortification in the 1200s and is now a government complex used for official State events. Very little of the original castle still remains (just one of the medieval towers), with the majority of the current complex “only” dating back to the 18th century.

We took the official tour, which was nice as the guide talked a lot about the history of Ireland and Dublin. The tour also included a visit to the base of the medieval tower, which is below the current ground level.

For our next stop we headed to Kilmainham Gaol, which is the prison where the rebels from the 1916 Easter Rising were executed. One of our cab drivers had recommended it because the guided tour provides a nice history of the Irish fight for independence from the British.

Due to our tight schedule, we decided to take a cab as the jail is a bit outside the city center. And after the driver dropped us off, we followed his instructions to the entrance. We noticed something was a bit strange, though, as the jail looked more like a construction site than a tourist attraction.

As it turns out, the cab driver had dropped us off at the real jail – I guess he thought we were picking up a buddy from the drunk tank. Fortunately, the policeman who broke the news was able to direct us to the historical jail, which was only a couple of blocks away.

We got in line for the tour but were almost immediately told that the next available one did not begin for an hour. As such, we decided to cut our losses and move on to the next stop on the itinerary: Trinity College.

After walking around the Trinity campus for a bit, we went inside the Old Library to see the Book of Kells – a Gospel book created by Celtic monks around the 9th century that contains the four Gospels of the New Testament. It is considered one of Ireland’s National treasures, and after seeing it in person I would have to agree. The level of detail was very impressive and it was hard to believe that it has been around for over a millennium.

The following is a picture of one of the more famous pages, which I found online since pictures were not permitted.

The ticket for the Book of Kells visit includes access to the Long Hall of the Old Library as well. The hall definitely lives up to its name, as it is nearly 200 feet long and supposedly constitutes the largest “single-chamber” library in the world. I guess I’ll just have to take their word for it

We spent the remaining daylight walking around the area and some nearby parks – Merrion Square Park and St. Stephen’s Green – which were on the way back to the hotel. We passed a lot of colorful doors along the way.

For dinner we found a place near the hotel called Davy Byrnes. I chose some sort of meat and potatoes concoction (big surprise in Ireland, I know), which turned out to be one of my favorite meals in a long time. I didn’t expect the food to be one of the highlights of the visit, but so far so good. It might not look like haute cuisine, but it tasted pretty good to me...