Last Full Day in Dublin

Greetings on this lovely wet and gloomy Monday. I've been having some Disqus issues so have taken that down temporarily. Hopefully you can comment using the Blogger commenting platform. We shall see won't we? 

These photos are from Sunday, Aug. 28 - our last full day in Dublin.  They are in no particular order as I take photos with my camera and with my phone which can get confusing when I try to organize my photos on my laptop with any precision. I'm just going to have to suck it up and buy a camera with wifi capability. Has anyone had any experience with one of those and/or knows a good brand?

Carrying on...Annie and I had another amazing breakfast at Ariel House - I had yogurt, homemade granola & fruit followed by oatmeal & coffee. That should keep me going for quite some time! (in more ways than one!) Sorry, colonoscopy still on my mind.

 First stop was to return to Trinity College and see the Long Room and the Book of Kells. I LOVED, ADORED, BONDED WITH this section of the library (called the Long Room) -I felt like I was in a Harry Potter movie!

Built between 1712 and 1732, the Long Room at Trinity College's Old Library holds the collection's 200,000 oldest books

WOW!  The medieval illustrated Book of Kells has been at the Trinity College library since the 1600's to protect it from Cromwell.

We did a bit more hopping on and off a tour bus - hopping off at the famous Dublin jail called Kilmainham Gaol - now a museum. Unfortunately the next available time for a tour was hours away so we hopped back on the next bus and got off near the National Museum. We grabbed some lunch and did some window shopping, then headed into the museum.

One of the not so nice sections of Dublin as seen from the bus...

Near (hey - I was bored!) Kilmainham Gaol Museum:

And what do you do when you are waiting for a bus?  Selfie time!

I am limiting my museum photos to three (see how nice I am)?

The swirls and spirals on this priceless bracelet are very inspiring (future tattoo?)

The next two pieces (not sure if they are buckles or were in early Christian churches as some sort of ornament, but both depict Jesus on the Cross with the added interest of Roman soldiers stabbing in the sides with their spears. Medieval clergy felt the best way to keep control of the population was by fear of what would happen to them in the afterlife if they sinned during their mortal life.

Fun times!

The Celts were masters of intricate designs of jewelry and religious icons.

Here we are at Ha'penny Bridge - selfie time :)

This bridge is suffering from the addition of many locks and graffiti: made me wonder who Lee Walker is and why he is a "gross __________"?  Actually "gross" is spelled "grass" which is quite puzzling. Perhaps that's an insult in some other country!?

Hey - you're a grass!! Do you feel insulted?

Two views of the Dublin Spire - also known as the Monument of Light. The spire was built as part of a project to spruce up O'Connell St.

Look up.....look WAY up.....!

And of course the requisite bridge photos :) 

We had a tough time finding a place to eat - every place was stacked full of people but eventually we landed at the noisy Slattery pub where I had some nachos (I've had better). But that's ok; after eating we went on a ghost tour!! It was great but I didn't get too many photos as it was getting dark. Then we cabbed it back to Ariel House and prepared to leave the next morning for the Aran Island of Inis Mor!  *Also spelled Inishmore, Arainn Mhor

More of Dublin

Saturday, Aug. 27 was a mild and mostly sunny day. Over all we had pretty good weather considering it kind of rains a lot in this very green country! There is a canal to cross in Dublin as well as a river - the picture below shows a scenic part of the canal.

A little further down the street was Merrion Square, where the Oscar Wilde memorial is. And, strangely, this throne :)  Annie's feet reach to the ground (almost?) whereas mine.....

......don't!

I have no explanation for the next photo - should be one of those "caption this" photos.....what can you come up with?

This cute guy gave us an interesting and humorous tour of Trinity College. While listening to his posh accent and even posher buildings I was really wishing I'd studied harder in highschool :) We'll be back again tomorrow to see the Book of Kells!

The campanile at Trinity College. I could have sworn I straightened this photo; it's really not leaning to the right :) but I guess I was.

The little architectural gem really caught my eye - the Olympia Theatre - very art nouveau.

We also had a tour of the castle and royal chapel - very beautiful.

This person seems to be throwing their hands up in the air in disgust - NOT MORE TOURISTS OMG!

Lots and lots of tourists...oh, there's me!

and me again!

Some parts of the castle were how you'd imagine a castle to be, while other sections were built much more recently in the Georgian style of many of the larger homes in Dublin.

Spirals everywhere!

Some of the city streets were closed off to cars and filled with buskers.

This angel caught my eye :)

So did these guys - door handles! Don't they look like they are inviting you in? After bowing..."please to come in!"

You could have a lot of fun with this one right?  It did become a favourite of mine.....

I like taking food photos - they beat anything I could make at home. Plus they help me to tell when one day has ended amongst my thousands of photos....yummy chicken wings (I need the protein you know)...

Lunch was a frittata at a cafe called The Queen of Tarts.  I wonder if she knows the Galway Hooker?

Another mirror selfie! Really, I'm trying to figure out what priceless object would fit in my purse! Hah!

That's enough for today - I don't want to wear out your eyes too soon! In the real world I'm going to see The Beatles movie/documentary called  Eight Days a Week tonight. And I played volleyball for a couple of hours this afternoon though I was on a really sucky team and barely broke a sweat. Then I bought a bunch of clear liquids to drink all day tomorrow and then I have the lovely scope on Thursday :) I'm hoping for lots of drugs and a nice afternoon nap! And hopefully a weight loss of a few pounds! HAH!