Republic of Ireland - Pt 5

Stephen joined us for three days in Dublin, Ireland's largest city, which is divided in two by the River Liffey. It has a huge Anglican cathedral (Christchurch) on the site of Dublin's first little wooden church, dated 1028AD. This former Viking church has Norman, Gothic, Romanesque and Victorian features.

Dublin Castle was built by King John in the 13th century and over the years evolved from a medieval fortress into a English vice-regal court and administrative centre. The first pic below shows one of the rooms in the ornate State Apartments. The second shows the Chapel Royal and Record Tower, the latter being the only standing remains of the medieval castle.

There is only a small section of the original old city walls still standing.

Trinity College (founded in the 16th century) is one of Europe's oldest universities. It has produced many famous alumni, including Jonathan Swift, Oliver Goldsmith, Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett. We took a guided tour (in pouring rain) of the College. The tour included Trinity's Long Room, the main chamber of the Old Library, which houses 200,000 of the College's oldest books. We saw the Book of Kells, one of the most beautifully decorated medieval Christian manuscripts ever produced by Irish monks.  It is on permanent exhibition there. The pics show the west front entrance to Trinity and the Book of Kells sign outside the library.

Near Trinity College is the statue of Molly Malone, irreverently known as the Tart with the Cart.

The Temple Bar area covers a network of cobbled streets filled with cafes, bars, pubs and theatres. We have become very familiar with the traditional Irish pub menu, from eating in many of them. The first pic below shows one of the beautiful stained glass windows in the Victorian style Stag's Head Pub, built in 1770. The other pics show the Temple Bar pub, decorated with hanging pots, and the leprechaun we met in the Temple Bar area.

Irish pubs are known for their craic (meaning "good fun") and Dublin is full of them. In many, traditional Irish live music is played. Stephen found some "trad" musicians playing Irish reels in the Cobblestone Pub (see pic below).

Cow's Lane is a small pedestrian street with designer boutiques and chic coffee bars. The Saturday market there sells Irish design and fashion items. An unusual item for sale there is hand painted guitars (or they will paint your own guitar). There Gail also found the best cake/coffee shop in the whole of Ireland, the Queen of Tarts (so we had to visit twice!). The pics show the handpainted guitars and Gail and Stephen enjoying themselves in the Queen of Tarts.

We completed our tour of Ireland and returned to Belfast, ready for our flight to Germany.

Next update will deal with Germany.